First fire, and one question. . .

RnG17 said:

Got everything up and running, let the flue get up too about 400 and started closing things down after about 45 min or so. Flue temp stays at about 250. In the fire box I see no smoke, red hot coals and wood is burning. If I crack the door it really gets rolling again and flue temp goes up, heres what I'm confused about the air damper is all the way open. Just wondering if I would get a diff. stove pipe thermometer if it would read different, also do you guys see a problem with this? Now if I had smoke in the fire box and the glass would smoke up I could see but zero smoke in the fire box but still can't get the temp over 300 with the door shut?

I'm used to deer camps wood insert, load it up and shut the door with a bit of air and not even caring about the temp, am I looking into things too much because its the first fire?

Thanks guys!

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RnG17 said:

Thanks guys. I know my wood is dry, last time I tested it, it was around 9-12%, about a month ago. That should eliminate the usual suspect . . . I think my short burns are due to my split size. I split small due to the fact of splitting the wood in February and I also read smaller splits are better for EPA stoves, so I might not be loading the stove enough to achieve the higher temps, things did get better, I did get the stove top up to 550, I am using a magnetic stat, I think I might buy a probe style and drill a hole to read 'actual' flue temps. I think we have a winner . . . not in the split size . . . but rather in the fact that you said you didn't load the stove enough . . . quite honestly most folks think they control the stove with the air (like older pre-EPA stoves), but in fact how you control the stove and heat output is with the fuel load -- how much you load it up, what you put in it for fuel (high BTU vs. low BTU wood species) and the size of the splits (small splits = fast, intense fire vs. larger splits = slower, more moderate fire -- both have their places.) What I would personally recommend trying is to get the fire going and then on the coals put in a decent load of wood, bring things up to temp and then slowly cut back on the air in quarter "mark" increments every 5-10 minutes . . . in other words once up to temp start closing the air a quarter mark at a time and then seeing what happens . . . I suspect what you will like what you see . . . but if the fire starts to suffocate open up the air again and let it "percolate" at that stage for a bit . . . and then try turning it down again. As for the thermo . . . if you don't have a double wall pipe I would save your money and stick with the magnetic thermo . . . but that's just me.

As far as smoke out the chimney I see about 6ft of smoke and then it disappears. I know I'm not supposed to see any smoke, but that is my condition at this point, it was my first time with the stove, should get better this weekend once I learn the tricks. I do think I'm shutting the air down too fast. Once the stove is up and running you should only see a bit of smoke when you reload . . . unless your wood is in fact unseasoned . . . or the stove isn't getting enough oxygen to burn properly. Again, try loading up the stove a bit more, bring the stove up to temp and then start to slowly cut back on the air and see what happens. There is a bit of an art to getting the hang of running a stove . . . we've all been where you are . . . you can read about what to do . . . but at the end of the day when it's cold out it really boils down to learning how to run your stove and seeing what works and what doesn't work.

Another issue I had today was the wife called me at work today and said the CO monitor was beeping. The ones we sell at work and have installed in the house read as low as 5ppm and alarm at 15ppm, she said it was 19ppm, so I told her to open the air up all the way and open the bypass damper to get the chimney hotter thinking it might have been back drafting? Not sure yet what was going on, she opened a window in the basement where the stove is and things were ok. There was just coals in the stove that she said were red but they didn't appear to be really hot, so I'll have to do some good burning this weekend and do some test. Really puts a nervous thought it you mind. Hmmm . . . bypass damper . . . are you talking about the air control on the stove, flue damper that some folks install in their stove pipe or does your stove have a bypass device as well . . . in any case, it sounds as though you may not have an especially strong draft if the stove is in fact what caused the CO detector to alarm . . . your wife did the right thing by the way . . . question -- when you start the fire do you have a hard time with the draft?

Anyone have any CO issues in the past, was pretty pumped on this stove, but now nervous as all get out!!

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