figuring out my new t5

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paddler

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Nov 29, 2010
16
Northeast Minnesota
well, my wife and i are now the proud owners of an alderlea t5. we have only been running it for the last couple of days. we have heated with non-epa stoves for years and i am finding that these newer style stoves handle very differently. last night, i had a nice bed of coals and loaded it all up with wood, waited a few minutes then turned the air down as low as it would go. last night was fairly warm for us (probably around -10) so i closed the air down all the way. i woke up at midnight and it was about 90 degrees! Is there a way of having an all night burn w/o loading the stove all the way? it seems that even with the air turned down all the way, its still getting more draft than it should? i think i read that a pipe damper is a poor idea for these newer stoves.

this stove makes some HEAT, a very comfortable heat i might add. so far we love it, i just have to get it figured out better. thanks for any suggestions. appreciate it!
 
Congratulations. You will get the hang of it soon. Burn down the coal bed further before adding the overnight load. Otherwise the fresh wood is superheated and releases a lot of wood gas suddenly. The secondary combustion kicks in to burn all this wood gas and voila, lots of heat. In an old airtight, this would be heading up the flue as smoke.

Try this method instead. Rake the coals to the front of the stove and open up the air. Let it run like that for 30-60minutes. Then move the remaining coals to the middle of the stove and load it up for the night. Let the charge catch fire, then turn down until the flames get lazy, let it burn for another 5-10 minutes like that, then close the air control completely.

How tall is the flue on the stove?
 
thanks. thats good advice. sounds similar to what i did, but i will try letting the coals burn down furthur tonight. the manual says that if the fire gets smokey, then open the air more. so thats what i did, but by the time i was able to turn the air all the way down, the fire was ripping pretty good.

the stove runs straight up and out of a two story house. i would imagine that the top of the chimney is about 25 or 30 ft above the stove.
 
Keep us posted. If it's 30 ft you might want to add a damper on the pipe to reduce draft a bit.
 
Right on BeGreen, you werent kidding! i did exactly like you said and it worked like a million bucks. i woke up in the middle of the night and the house was the exact temp it was when i went to bed. this morning there was plenty of coals to get a new fire with.

im still thinking about a damper but im gonna leave it be for now. i think im just used to the way that the old stove burned, seems like you see a lot more flames with these EPA stoves.
 
I had problems with too much draft and controlling my T5 - was considering a flue damper. Using some advice I learned here, I put some foil tape over my primary air intake and it helped significantly.

Another thing I would suggest for your T5 that I've found very helpful is a flue gas probe thermometer. When I'm burning low/slow, it helps me to stay above 400 and minimize creosote build-up...at least I hope so, haven't cleaned the pipe yet since I started burning in October.

Thanks (again) BG, I learned something new from reading this thread - I'm going to try the technique you described for an overnight reload - tonight.
 
Good to hear it's working well for you. It takes a season of burning under all sorts of conditions with all sorts of wood to really get used to a stove. I think your plan to get used to it is a good one. Save the damper or air control mod question for another day. If you change too much at once you can end up chasing your tail.
 
BeGreen said:
Good to hear it's working well for you. It takes a season of burning under all sorts of conditions with all sorts of wood to really get used to a stove. I think your plan to get used to it is a good one. Save the damper or air control mod question for another day. If you change too much at once you can end up chasing your tail.
Click to expand...

I agree, unless he has obvious strong draft issues, at which point he could start with a piece of foil tape which is easily pulled off. For me it made sense to do it right away so I had more control over the fire.
 
Yes, when draft is too strong then it may need to be controlled either on the intake side or on the output side. But it's good to first understand whether this is an issue at all. For many it is not.
 
whats a good way of telling if you have too much draft? i was just guessing. it seems that reducing the air all the way does not bring the fire down as far as i thought it would. the flames still move about pretty actively, but, maybe thats fine?? it seems to hold a burn for a long time and the coals last till morning. i was also thinking about it from a safety perspective, that currently, i dont have much of a way of dampering my fire way down if i needed too. thanks again BG. your the alderlea master!
 
paddler said:
whats a good way of telling if you have too much draft? i was just guessing. it seems that reducing the air all the way does not bring the fire down as far as i thought it would. the flames still move about pretty actively, but, maybe thats fine?? it seems to hold a burn for a long time and the coals last till morning. i was also thinking about it from a safety perspective, that currently, i dont have much of a way of dampering my fire way down if i needed too. thanks again BG. your the alderlea master!
Click to expand...

A good way to know if you have too much draft is if you can or can not control the rising temperature of the flue and stove. Best way to quantify temperature is by a thermometer(s) and/or experience. I chose thermometers since I didn't have the experience when I started. Or you can skip the thermometers and wait until the base of your pipe is glowing red. BG is right that you should gain more experience with your stove before you make any drastic changes. My point is that a little foil tape is not a drastic change and as far as I know won't cause any harm as long as you don't starve it of air too much. I only close it down all the way now when it's flaming too strong and the flue and/or stovetop is getting hotter than I'm comfortable with.
 
MinnesotaGuy said:
I only close it down all the way now when it's flaming too strong and the flue and/or stovetop is getting hotter than I'm comfortable with.
Click to expand...

And that is where it gets confusing for new burners. Often they are a bit timid with the stove and frequently run a new stove too cool. Then a few months later we get reports of concerns about black glass or creosote and find out that these folks are chilling themselves out of the better parts of their stove. So run it as is for now, put a thermometer at least on the stove top. You can move it to the stack when you want to if it's not double wall, for comparing temps. But right now get used to the stove and enjoy the warmth.
 
I have a T6 and had issues with the stove running up to 800 or so. It was like I could not turn it down. However, when I open the door the draft isn't pulling very hard. When I was looking at the primary air control I noticed that when it was at the lowest setting there was still an opening for minimal flow of air to enter the stove.

I talked to another person that has a T6 and he modified the air flow adjustment so it would block off more air flow. He said the secondaries are still shooting flames out the baffle holes but the main flame off the wood isn't burning so fast. Basically the same result as the foil trick. I am thinking I will probably try it. Even when it is running hot and in my opinion burning to fast the stove still gives me good heat and good burn times. With the right wood I have had hot coals sitting in ash after 30 hours. Just needed to add small scrap wood and crack the door.

I am just trying to get more even heat over a period of time. With all this being said, yep, I would buy this stove again. One door, one control lever. Plus the fact my electric bill was $17 last month and I have used 6% propane over a 10month period.

Congrats on the T5. They are great stoves.
 
flhpi said:
I have a T6 and had issues with the stove running up to 800 or so. It was like I could not turn it down. However, when I open the door the draft isn't pulling very hard. When I was looking at the primary air control I noticed that when it was at the lowest setting there was still an opening for minimal flow of air to enter the stove.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if you checked the ash trap door and dollar bill test the door gasket for leaks? And is 800 with or without a blower?
 
Madison,

I have checked the ash chute and have stopped using it. It is fully covered by a nice layer of ash. I did the dollar bill test and tightened up the door but it still seems to have run pretty strong. Between 800 and 850 with no blower running. I have since placed a small 9in fan behind the stove aimed upward and it has helped with the heat distribution.
 
A PE blower would knock that temp down 100-150F, right away. Still, those temps are on the high side. Where are you measuring them? Can you describe the flue system on the stove including height?
 
BeGreen said:
A PE blower would knock that temp down 100-150F, right away. Still, those temps are on the high side. Where are you measuring them? Can you describe the flue system on the stove including height?
Click to expand...

I added the OEM fan the second yr, and was glad i did as it really helps with the BTU output.

Obviously you also have some good wood.
 
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