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aries339

Member
Dec 22, 2010
37
Chicago Area
Greetings everyone -

I've lurked a little here while doing research but I finally got my stove put in, so I figured I'd better join the forums!

I got a Morso 1440, which is a small convection stove. I wish I could have gone bigger, but we have a small house and not much room. This one had the lowest wall-to-stove clearances I could find. Anyway, we'll see how this goes and maybe once I get the hang of it I'll get a bigger stove with an added heat shield to keep the clearances low.

I think I'm doing well... wood seems to burn really well (just using mixed hardwoods for now), and the stove always lights right up - don't seem to have any problems with draft. I THINK I'm getting good secondary combustion - there's a lot of flame at the top of the firebox.

Anyway... Just wanted to introduce myself and my stove. My whole extended family is from Connecticut and they all use wood heat in some form. I've admired it for years, but I'm still a newbie so go easy on me!

~Ty
 
Welcome and we go easy on everbody :cheese: sounds like all is well with the wood burner, enjoy the heat!
 
Welcome to the forum, it sounds like you are burning right. Enjoiy
 
Welcome to the forums! Are you using the stove 24/7, nights/weekends, etc.? One piece of advice: start putting away wood as soon as possible - get at least 2 years ahead on your wood supply if you possibly can. You'll never regret it and you'll have that same ability of the fire lighting right away every time (or close to it!). Cheers and best of luck!
 
NH_Wood said:
Welcome to the forums! Are you using the stove 24/7, nights/weekends, etc.? One piece of advice: start putting away wood as soon as possible - get at least 2 years ahead on your wood supply if you possibly can. You'll never regret it and you'll have that same ability of the fire lighting right away every time (or close to it!). Cheers and best of luck!

Not yet... Just using it while I'm around for now. Once I get the hang of the refueling timing I might run it longer but I'm really not willing to wake up every 90 minutes to refuel... :p

Thanks for the wood advice, but for the time being I'm sticking with kiln-dried wood delivered to my house. I live in a comparatively urban area and it just isn't practical for me to chop and split my own wood.

My big thing right now is I have to get a flue thermometer so I can tell when I'm properly firing. I plan to pick one up today...

Thanks!
 
Hi Ty,

Welcome!

I'll be following your posts as I'm interested in how your stove works out.
It was one of my top choices, but was more than I could spend this round.

I really don't like winter...being cold... however, since installing my stove, and beginning to learn and understand how to run it, I've found myself wishing it would get colder so I can put more wood in it and give it a good run.

I've also learned that the heat coming from the stove is nothing like the heat coming from my old gas heater.
I know heat is heat, but I'm actually warm now!

It is very nice to enjoy 75-80 degree temps with no worries about "having to pay for it".

I am having a couple problems though, I'm finding that I sit by the stove longer than I should, as it is really hard to leave such a pleasant place, and, I keep scrounging way more wood than I need, as it is just too hard to pass it by...a money in the bank feeling I guess.

Got any pictures of your setup?

Rob
 
aries339 said:
NH_Wood said:
Welcome to the forums! Are you using the stove 24/7, nights/weekends, etc.? One piece of advice: start putting away wood as soon as possible - get at least 2 years ahead on your wood supply if you possibly can. You'll never regret it and you'll have that same ability of the fire lighting right away every time (or close to it!). Cheers and best of luck!

Not yet... Just using it while I'm around for now. Once I get the hang of the refueling timing I might run it longer but I'm really not willing to wake up every 90 minutes to refuel... :p

Thanks for the wood advice, but for the time being I'm sticking with kiln-dried wood delivered to my house. I live in a comparatively urban area and it just isn't practical for me to chop and split my own wood.

My big thing right now is I have to get a flue thermometer so I can tell when I'm properly firing. I plan to pick one up today...

Thanks!

Now granted that isn't a huge stove, but you don't need to load every 90 minutes. If you are only burning kiln dried wood, well that may explain the fast burn times. Is this kiln dried lumber, or kiln dried cord wood ?
 
Now granted that isn’t a huge stove, but you don’t need to load every 90 minutes. If you are only burning kiln dried wood, well that may explain the fast burn times. Is this kiln dried lumber, or kiln dried cord wood ?

Cord wood. So am I understanding correctly that wood can actually be *too* dry?

Thanks!
 
aries339 said:
Now granted that isn’t a huge stove, but you don’t need to load every 90 minutes. If you are only burning kiln dried wood, well that may explain the fast burn times. Is this kiln dried lumber, or kiln dried cord wood ?

Cord wood. So am I understanding correctly that wood can actually be *too* dry?

Thanks!

No not too dry. but dimensional kiln dried lumber is usually pine, It burns super fast and super hot. Do you know what species of wood it is ?
 
No not too dry. but dimensional kiln dried lumber is usually pine, It burns super fast and super hot. Do you know what species of wood it is ?

I knew when I bought it but now I've forgotten... It's mixed in any case, I know there's some cherry and oak in there... *shrug*
 
You will find that there can be a wide range of output in both time and heat (as in BTU per same size split) depending on the species you are burning. Just an FYI.
 
aries339, welcome...there is a ton of info on this forum and a lot of very knowlegable people! I find it amazing that everyone has the same vigor for heating with wood...it's a lot of fun. Anyway, good luck!
 
Welcome to the forum aries339.

Your wood should burn extremely well but just be careful you don't get the stove and flue too hot. The thermometers will help you a lot. But I shudder thinking about loading wood every 90 minutes. Perhaps you do not wait for the complete burn cycle but just keep adding to keep the stove full. If so, you do need to learn the whole cycle and leave that door shut longer. Good luck.
 
Welcome to The Hearth.
 
Hi Ty,

Welcome to the forum! I sounds like you have matters in hand.

Now it's time for your hazing... not! :)

48rob said:
I really don't like winter...being cold... however, since installing my stove, and beginning to learn and understand how to run it, I've found myself wishing it would get colder so I can put more wood in it and give it a good run.

Rob

Rob, you have hit one one of my primary reasons for getting stove. I hate Winters gloom, and it seems a stove would give me something cheery to concentrate on.

Happy Holidaze all!
 
Hello Ty,

I recently purchased a Morso 1440 too. Won't be installing mine for a few days. Like you I have a small room and tight clearances. As you use the stove please keep us updated on the CONVECTION heat experience you are having. There appear to be stove owners with opinions that RADIANT heat is the preferred method, when room size and clearance is no problem. My Morso dealer tells me I'm going to be surprised how well this little stove will heat and how comfortable CONVECTION heat is.

Good luck.

- Arnold Z.
 
joecool85 said:
Any updates on how you like this stove? I'm thinking about getting one for my living room as the clearances are just perfect and I could put it in the corner away from everything else without loosing too much floor space.

Yes, I am VERY interested in how you're enjoying the Convection heating and how much of a pain such a small firebox is. I've got a Morso on my list of wants, but I'd like to see how you're enjoying it.

Thanks!
 
oldspark said:
Welcome and we go easy on everbody :cheese: sounds like all is well with the wood burner, enjoy the heat!

Watch out- I think I heard a fox saying something like this outside the henhouse :)

Welcome to the forum, enjoy the heat.
 
Hi again everyone - I'm sorry I missed the follow-up questions recently.

I'm enjoying the Morso 1440, but I wish I had gotten a slightly bigger stove. The small logs you need to use are an inconvenience 'cause you have to get them cut special, like less than 10 inches.

When it really gets cooking, my stovetop thermometer reads about 580-620 degrees and it gets really nice rolling secondary flames filling the top of the firebox. But even when I close the air almost all the way shut, I can't get a full load of mixed hardwood to burn longer than 3 hours. I can usually just barely get it started again after 4 hours. Certainly not an overnight burn, or even a one-reload-per-night burn. I'm going to pay the extra for a load of 100% oak next time. I have really strong draft, but I can't restrict it any further because I'm already approaching the temperature limit of the stove.

As for the convection effect... It needs to be really hot to notice it. Once the stove has been running at full tilt for an hour or so, you can put your hand over the convection channels in the sides and feel a SLIGHT breeze. The trick with convection, though, is that the greatest effect is when you have some sort of other air movement which keeps cooler air flowing around the stove so that the cool air enters the bottom, is heated, and flows out the top. I have a ceiling fan in the room with the stove which helps, but the area immediately surrounding the stove is still very warm compared the rest of the room/house.

I'm planning to put in two "wall pass through" fans (can't remember what they're really called) in order to keep air moving through the rest of the house. I'll put them near, but well above the stove, so that hopefully it will draw air past and over the stove, as well as through the convection channels.

I kinda wish we had some more winter so I can try out the fans... oh well!

~Ty
 
Welcome aries....these folks here are responsible for all of my knowledge about burning...being a newbie I have learned so much in so little time and have all of them to thank...If it wasn't for this website....I would have told my husband to stick the wood stove you know where.....and now my friend....your addiction to Hearth.com beginzzzzz...... :coolgrin: :lol:
 
aries339 said:
I'm planning to put in two "wall pass through" fans (can't remember what they're really called) in order to keep air moving through the rest of the house. I'll put them near, but well above the stove, so that hopefully it will draw air past and over the stove, as well as through the convection channels.

I kinda wish we had some more winter so I can try out the fans... oh well!

~Ty

I hear you on the small splits Ty, that would drive me nuts too.

Before cutting any holes for these fans, I would try an experiment or two with an ordinary house fan. Warm air often circulates better when you work with mother nature. Often, that means blowing the air from the cooler part of the house towards the stove. Next fall, when the stove is heating the house, take the table fan and place it on the floor in the cooler area, pointing towards the stove room, and run it on low speed. It helps to have a portable thermometer when trying this so that you can measure the effect. Many of us have seen a 5 degree increase in temp in as little as 30 minutes. It also has the added benefit of cooling the stove room so that you can run the stove hotter without baking yourself out of the room.

This really works and is worth a try. If you can post a picture or two of the house and floor plan we may be able to help more with fan placement.
 
aries339 said:
When it really gets cooking, my stovetop thermometer reads about 580-620 degrees and it gets really nice rolling secondary flames filling the top of the firebox. But even when I close the air almost all the way shut, I can't get a full load of mixed hardwood to burn longer than 3 hours. I can usually just barely get it started again after 4 hours. Certainly not an overnight burn, or even a one-reload-per-night burn. I'm going to pay the extra for a load of 100% oak next time. I have really strong draft, but I can't restrict it any further because I'm already approaching the temperature limit of the stove.

~Ty

BEWARE! Aries, I completely understand your desire to burn oak as it is one of the very best firewoods available. However, unless you are cutting your own, do not plan on that wood being seasoned properly. Wood sellers simply can't let their wood sit for 2-3 years and that is what oak needs is the 2-3 years and that is after it has been split. Wood sellers typically split just before they bring you the wood. So you may want to rethink that idea of buying 100% oak for a while. At least until you get 2-3 years ahead on your wood supply.

I'll also give a thumbs up to what BeGreen stated about the fan. It really works.
 
BeGreen said:
I hear you on the small splits Ty, that would drive me nuts too.

Before cutting any holes for these fans, I would try an experiment or two with an ordinary house fan. Warm air often circulates better when you work with mother nature. Often, that means blowing the air from the cooler part of the house towards the stove. Next fall, when the stove is heating the house, take the table fan and place it on the floor in the cooler area, pointing towards the stove room, and run it on low speed. It helps to have a portable thermometer when trying this so that you can measure the effect. Many of us have seen a 5 degree increase in temp in as little as 30 minutes. It also has the added benefit of cooling the stove room so that you can run the stove hotter without baking yourself out of the room.

This really works and is worth a try. If you can post a picture or two of the house and floor plan we may be able to help more with fan placement.

+ 1

Also, emphasize putting the fan on the floor, not up near the ceiling. The colder air is down near the floor. A fan near the ceiling just makes the air up near the ceiling in the colder room warmer and does very little for the temp down where you are.

You also might want to look into putting a ceiling fan above the stove to drive all that hot air down into the room.
 
aries339 said:
Hi again everyone - I'm sorry I missed the follow-up questions recently.

I'm enjoying the Morso 1440, but I wish I had gotten a slightly bigger stove. The small logs you need to use are an inconvenience 'cause you have to get them cut special, like less than 10 inches.

When it really gets cooking, my stovetop thermometer reads about 580-620 degrees and it gets really nice rolling secondary flames filling the top of the firebox. But even when I close the air almost all the way shut, I can't get a full load of mixed hardwood to burn longer than 3 hours. I can usually just barely get it started again after 4 hours. Certainly not an overnight burn, or even a one-reload-per-night burn. I'm going to pay the extra for a load of 100% oak next time. I have really strong draft, but I can't restrict it any further because I'm already approaching the temperature limit of the stove.

~Ty

I also have a very small stove, although I guess not as small as yours since mine takes 14-15-inch splits. But the short burn cycle is definitely a pain, no matter how small the space you're trying to heat with it. Mine is soapstone, which also has very close clearances, but does give a more even heat and not a much longer "burn time" but definitely a longer heating time. In other words, it doesn't (and shouldn't) get anywhere near as hot as yours (450 is about max for mine), but the soapstone stores up the heat and radiates it out for much longer. I don't get an overnight burn, not even close, but I usually do have enough coals in the AM to start a fire from if I use small bits of splitting debris or twig-size kindling.

Do check on the moisture content of your kiln-dried wood. I get some occasionally from a local lumberyard that dries it only to the standard 20 percent MC (moisture content), and it's fabulous. But drier than that can cause a number of problems-- overfiring your stove, inefficient too-fast burns, etc. But I sure can't specify what kind of wood they bring. It's "mixed hardwoods," and you have to take whatever they were cutting. Sometimes that includes really hot-burning black birch and beech, and sometimes it's heavy on lighter woods like red maple and ash, so it's a bit of a crapshoot and I usually only resort to it for shoulder seasons.
 
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