First off, great forum. I've been burning a small steel stove in our workshop for about 3 years now and I've lingered on this site for a few years and think you all have great information to share.
This year I was able to buy a house with a masonry fireplace that had never been burnt in. The house was built in '58 and had gas plumbed into the fireplace but was never hooked up. Since I own a landscape company and come across free wood quite often I thought I'd try an insert. I love wood heat and it has worked great in our workshop so I figured it couldn't hurt. I bought the insert off craigslist from a great family in Michigan. It was 4 years old and well taken care of. I have it installed with a 6" liner all the way to the top of the chimney, which is about 12' from the top of the insert. I have a mix of wood, all well seasoned for two or three years. I've been burning pretty steady for the last month or so, aside for a warm week or few days here and there. The clydesdale has been extremely predictable until last night. I've only been loading half loads since its not too cold and I always let the insert run with just coals for quite a while. I have a Rutland magnetic thermometer on the top front of the insert right between the two blower outlets. I typically run from 300 to 425 with the air choked way down for longer burns. Last night was no different. I had a fire down to coals, thermometer reading about 275 and I load with the same "mish mash" of wood, about 4 decent size splits. Fire takes off great, I choke it down to almost the lowest setting and it kicks off the secondaries perfectly. Humming along real well until the room starts to feel much hotter than normal. The Clydesdale is usually very even with heating. I check the Rutland and its hitting 475 and climbing. Within 30 minutes its cruising at 525 with hardly any flame aside from some really nice secondary burning. I freaked a little because it much hotter than it ever had been and it had a load of wood in it barely even burnt. I had the fans on high and it stayed right at 525 for about 2 hours. I'm guessing it was just the particular wood I picked but really I have no idea. The door seal passed all tests and the draft isn't too bad being that the chimney is fairly short. Any suggestions? Do you think I was in the danger zone for temps?
This year I was able to buy a house with a masonry fireplace that had never been burnt in. The house was built in '58 and had gas plumbed into the fireplace but was never hooked up. Since I own a landscape company and come across free wood quite often I thought I'd try an insert. I love wood heat and it has worked great in our workshop so I figured it couldn't hurt. I bought the insert off craigslist from a great family in Michigan. It was 4 years old and well taken care of. I have it installed with a 6" liner all the way to the top of the chimney, which is about 12' from the top of the insert. I have a mix of wood, all well seasoned for two or three years. I've been burning pretty steady for the last month or so, aside for a warm week or few days here and there. The clydesdale has been extremely predictable until last night. I've only been loading half loads since its not too cold and I always let the insert run with just coals for quite a while. I have a Rutland magnetic thermometer on the top front of the insert right between the two blower outlets. I typically run from 300 to 425 with the air choked way down for longer burns. Last night was no different. I had a fire down to coals, thermometer reading about 275 and I load with the same "mish mash" of wood, about 4 decent size splits. Fire takes off great, I choke it down to almost the lowest setting and it kicks off the secondaries perfectly. Humming along real well until the room starts to feel much hotter than normal. The Clydesdale is usually very even with heating. I check the Rutland and its hitting 475 and climbing. Within 30 minutes its cruising at 525 with hardly any flame aside from some really nice secondary burning. I freaked a little because it much hotter than it ever had been and it had a load of wood in it barely even burnt. I had the fans on high and it stayed right at 525 for about 2 hours. I'm guessing it was just the particular wood I picked but really I have no idea. The door seal passed all tests and the draft isn't too bad being that the chimney is fairly short. Any suggestions? Do you think I was in the danger zone for temps?
