Dry wood = amazing results.

Super dry wood used last fall resulted in about two quarts of very fine "dust" all winter in my whole pipe system of about 25 ft..........actually it was probably half that.

It is about 90 degrees outside today (to reach 95) so I decided to do the complete pipe/stove cleanup I was supposed to do in early spring.

I see no way you could have chimney fire with this type of fine dust I have found all winter with only 2 cleanings including this one.

To make things even better, I only had to empty my stove ashes 4 times all winter..........and the ash found was fine as flour...........not one black chunk..............all powder white.

I tried to clean my cap screen and it looked new with no glaze at all.........after 3 months of burning since last cleaning.

To sum it all up............try to get one season ahead...........let it dry for a whole year or more and you will be amazed at the results.

To be honest, I did not even need to clean my pipe or screen and it had been 3 months since the last cleaning.

One last comment, I did also use a new method of burning all last season I have talked about a lot on this forum and it involves hardly ever dampering your stove and using only one larger split at a time to keep from having to do so.

It works like a charm for me.........I truly believe this also helped because I never slow that smoke down by dampering.

Robbie

I learned this method by accident..........my stove burped a couple times in the night because I had dampered too much too soon.

I decided to try opening the damper all the time, let that thing breath.

Since then, I have white fluffy ash.........light as flour and no smelly wood chunks left in my stove because of dry wood.

I compress the ashes in the morning and start again...I empty half as much ash since using dry wood and not dampering.....the temps never get below 70 or so in my house and thats at the end of a nights burn.

The dry wood is a must for this method.......just get a few hot oak coals and add one nice split of oak every few hours.......no dampering and no worries of overfire.......once you get the heat coming out via blower........you just wait until the split is 99% gone and add another.

The key here is one larger split........very dry. Add to coals and it will be flaming before you get the door shut.

You will be surprised how well a steady 300 to 400 degrees and higher will heat your house with a good blower.

1850 sq ft and the average temp inside all winter is about 76 easily, upstairs and down..........if the temps outside are 20s to 30s.

Sit back and watch the temps rise but not to worry because one split never gets my temps up too high.........it tops out plenty hot and then stays steady as it gets into the hard wood.

Dry wood is the answer here........stove operation is secondary....but I will never damper again unless I goof and load too much dry wood.

Robbie