New Insert-Problem

A block off plate is an advantage, but won't explain the total inability to heat. I think the more experienced folk around here are going to ask about the moisture condition of your wood. If the fire's energy is spent trying to drive moisture out of your wood it will not heat your room.

...Maybe get your hands on a bundle of expensive store-bought kiln-dried yuppy firewood and give it a try and see what happens?

There are perfectionists who will insist the only way is with a blockoff plate. So long as the chimney is sealed airtight around the liner at the top, blockoff plate is "extra".

Draft and air supply are primarily the things that make a hot fire. Wood quality, dry and seasoned hardwood is best, but any wood properly seasoned will burn hotly.

My insert, owner modified, doesn't get as hot with air going through it at mach 3. Burns hotter and better once the fire is established and I cut the air back and pull the lever to send gasses and smoke down and back instead of straight up and out.

Keep after it.

Learning curve. Get dry wood, have a few fires and put a few pieces by the insert...no close enough to burn, just to dry, a few days later see if those give off more heat. The pieces you dry try for a bunch of little ones rather than a few large...

My beast was awakened with an insulated liner and block off plate...of course my top plate was leaking so that did not help.

Can you tell us what kind of draft you're getting?

Knew you'd get it. My chimney goes from the living room, through the second floor one bedroom apartment, and the bedroom of the two bedroom in the peak of the house. I'd guess about 40 ft total. When I burn the insert for days, the chimney gets nice and warm in the two apartments because I don't have a block off plate. But the top plate absolutely has to be tight, or you lose the draft fast.

Actually thought about finding the thimbles... once upon a time these old houses were lousy with woodstoves stuck in thimbles on every floor. I know they're there. If not for the dust, dirt, spiders, and cobwebs... make a nice hot air heating system. Not great if the liner ever suffered a bed failure though. So I dropped that bad idea.

Yep. Sometimes hard to "see" what someone is trying to describe over the board. Calls for assumptions, and we all know the results of assumption...

Sometimes makes an "ass" of "u" and "me".

I try to not take things too seriously, and try to explain my suggestions within conditions assumed.

There's instructions, and there's experience. Have to read instructions in order to get experience enough to decide when instructions don't apply.

As always. Dealing with fire in a building, do try to be careful and pay attention to details.

Even with a tight top plate, with the heat freely going up the masonry will transfer the heat out into the outdoors. Lower block off plate may not entirely stop this, but will cut this issue way down, and the heat that was going up & being transferred through the masonry. It sure doesn't hurt, but may very well help. Are you blower a fan on the insert?

Mine has two blower motors on it, and they run when I turn the switch on the wall beside the unit on. I like the heat passed on to the rest of the house, and frankly don't miss it...

The insert, when burning a good load of wood, well fueled and closed up on bypass mode, will drive me out of my 1,500 sq ft apartment.

Haven't used it in a week now.

Wood boiler in the basement is closer to the woodpile, and heats the entire house and domestic hot water.

Might use the insert to reduce demand during REALLY cold weather to let the wood/coal heat the rest of the house with less load. We'll see how it all goes. Otherwise it's a good tool for the between times, when it's really too warm for a fire in the boiler.

Coal goes out when it's more than 45/50 degrees, and wood seems to work best when it's below 15/20 degrees. Nothing seems to compare to coal, but I have some coal and alot of wood right now. Come time to make arrangements for next winter, I might just buy a few tons of coal and not bother with wood. Keep a couple cord on hand for emergencies and between seasons.

rm said:

It takes awhile for the blower to turn on- the air is hot but you can hold your hand directly in front of it.

Click to expand...

FWIW and after only a week of experience burning 24/7: If your blower is set to start automatically, I've found I get much better results if I keep it turned off until the insert has been up to temperature for a while and then turning it on. If I leave it set to auto-start, it kicks in way too early and cools the insert down. When that happens it can take some time to get the burn going properly again and sometimes needs some poking around. I don't know about your insert, but mine really needs the big bed of coals to work well. I've learned to build the first fire from a cold-start very loose and let it burn hot and relatively quickly using kindling and alternating layers of small splits oriented north-south and east-west. When this initial 'sacrificial' load burns down, the insert is at a good temperature and I spread the coal bed a bit, making an air channel, then I add some medium splits and get those going really well before adding some larger pieces. At that point when the insert is nice and hot, the blower can be engaged and the stove keeps burning without dropping the temperature much - if at all. Factor into this process the air control setting(s) - I can't really make suggestions here as I am still running into problems at times - but I can tell you when I turn down past half-way too quickly I start having problems.

This might not be helpful, but building the fire and getting up to temperature has been my biggest challenge despite good draft and the luxury of well-aged locust.

Best regards,
DP