Is this normal?

meathead said:

just going by my f600, 400-425 is right on the cusp of running clean with that thing. We have temps that are probably similar to yours where I am...and this time of year with temps in the 40s to low 50s I frequently see my stove slow down into the 400 - 450 range with good secondary still kicking and no smoke out of the chimney. That being said, I load pretty big splits, and it still kicks over 500 for a little while with every stove load. Plus, if at any given time I open the air up, it will take off into higher temps. When things get down into the 10s, 20s, 30s, the stove will run over 500 all day and kick over 600 or 650 every load.

I'd say first and foremost check your chimney and see if you have any buildup. Then when you have some time around the house, load up like you usually do and let the stove settle into where you have had it cruising. When it is cruising where you normally have it, go outside and see what's coming out the chimney - you shouldn't see much more than heat waves (no smoke).

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Well said. Same withmy f-600. One thing to keep in mind is that some of us are using different placments of thermometers and such. I use a magnetic coil stove top thermometer and I place it in the middle, on the top of the "top loader" door. My temps are usually between 400-500 without smoke, although I do have some chimney cap discoloration that comes and goes, sometimes it is darker than other times, sometimes there is none there. It really depends on how and what your burning.

One more thing to think about. On my CAT stove the thermometer is directly above the flames with only a 1/4" pice of iron between the flames and the thermometer. On the CB stoves you have more metal between the two but once the secondary starts burning you will read a higher temp than I will on mine because my secondary happens in the rear of the stove. Make sense? Sorry if I'm confusing you.

Im not sure if you decided to re-check wood supply for a more accurate moisture reading bandit, but I did some playing around last night with some of my younger splits and thought i'd share how it turned out.

1. I took some wood with a moisture content of 28-33% and split it in half so that the thickest portion was only 3" thick

2. Lit a fire to bring stove up to temp and got a real hot 1"-1.5" thick coal bed established (stove top temp obviously cooled a bit to around 250-300).

3. packed in 5 pieces so that they were NOT tight and that air/fire could easily move between the pieces.

4. Left the primary air WIDE open for a good 45-60 minutes bringing the stop top to about 480 (this will take long as the wood isnt truly dry).

5. Once the stove temp was 480, I began tuning the primary air back in 1/4 increments waiting about 5 minutes between adjustments to make sure the fire would hold.

6. I ended up leaving the primary at juuussst about 70% of the way shut (didnt want to snuff my work out) and left the fire.

It took more time, patience, and a watchful eye to make sure things didnt dry up to soon and run away on me, but it worked. I think if you experiment a little with the wood you have you'll still find a way to blast some heat from the Oslo.

Just figured i'd share this and see if yo cant get any results.

Smokey Foot said:

Running it cool and using a lot of newspaper to start these fires every day during the shoulder season will clog the chimney cap with black soot fly ash and coat the inside of the chimney too. This combined with not fully seasoned wood and a clogging cap causes problems.

When I first got my Oslo I used the top down method with five bows of newspaper during the shoulder. Even though my wood was 12% moisture and pine which burns hotter, I still got a clogging cap and coated fly ash chimney in six weeks. That was with a average stove temp of over 500 degrees.

I will not use newspaper after that. I now use fatwood or kerosene soaked kindling on a top down. Hardly any smoke on startup and the stove glass stays very clean.

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Kerosene soaked is never a good idea, i dont care who else does it here. I personally have never had the problems you stated with newspaper nor heard of that as an issue.

Besides Kerosene soaked kindling being unsafe, it also voids virtually every warranty out there

Smokey Foot said:

I guess I should clarify the kerosene kindling as it might sound like I soak the whole mess and let her rip. I use one finger sized stick that is lightly soaked on regular dry kindling.
As for excessive fly ash from newspaper causing problems clogging things up especially on a cat stove that is a known fact.

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I was going with the fact that you own an oslo.
Glad to hear your not dumping a half gallon of your start up kindling!

Pagey said:

I think it would be wise to check your chimney for buildup. I have a discolored spot on about the last 1/3 of the final 3' run of my exposed Class A on the north facing side. This discoloration, I assume, has to do with heat and prevailing wind direction. I check for creosote buildup routinely, and I sweep routinely (pretty much monthly during burning season), and I've never had any excessive creosote problems.

So your discoloration COULD be unrelated to actual creosote buildup, but to be safe and to gain knowledge, you definitely need to check it.

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I have the same condition and assumed the same cause as you did. I burn dry wood, but sometimes I get a discoloration on one side of the top of the chimney. I also check for interior buildup monthly and, whether or not it is really necessary, I run a brush up the tee-out because it takes little effort. I do get some buildup on the cap, but I expect to since it is the coldest surface in my heating system.