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Stax

Stax

Minister of Fire
Dec 22, 2010
941
Southeastern PA
After burning on and off for about a month and half now...I have some observations of the new girl.

1. Observation of burning cycles: I start with small splits, door cracked and then add some more splits to further establish fire. Once it's pretty engaged, I close the door but leave air control wide open. Once I reach 400, I'll pull the air control 1/4 out. I'll do another pull 8-10 minutes later, and then a 3rd and final one 8-10 minutes after that. However, up until the 3rd pull my wood is burning rather rapidly and my burn times don't seem the 5-6 hours after that. I'm guessing 2 hours of wood to charcoal and then coals after that. If I shorten the pull times, my stove likes to get in the 500-600 range especially if Ash wood is near top of firebox. What is yours like, especially if you're a Declaration owner?

2. Due to heat output and size of house, my burn cycles aren't continuous. There will be hours of just coals because we don't need the excessive heat. After a modest sized burn, our tstat can get to 80 in a single level rancher. Do low temps in the box after a clean burn (coals) produce more creosote? If so, I'll need to clean more frequent than most. Does cycling the stove from 200-600 degreess several times a day cause warping, cracking etc?
 
Stax said:
After burning on and off for about a month and half now...I have some observations of the new girl.

1. Observation of burning cycles: I start with small splits, door cracked and then add some more splits to further establish fire. Once it's pretty engaged, I close the door but leave air control wide open. Once I reach 400, I'll pull the air control 1/4 out. I'll do another pull 8-10 minutes later, and then a 3rd and final one 8-10 minutes after that. However, up until the 3rd pull my wood is burning rather rapidly and my burn times don't seem the 5-6 hours after that. I'm guessing 2 hours of wood to charcoal and then coals after that. If I shorten the pull times, my stove likes to get in the 500-600 range especially if Ash wood is near top of firebox. What is yours like, especially if you're a Declaration owner? I am not an owner of the Lopi but I will try and give a bit of guidance. First off I doubt you need to wait until your stove hits 400 before begining the closing of the primary. I would try and do it a bit sooner maybe at 300 or 350. This may extend your burn times, while still giving you a clean burn. I am assuming the stove top is the 400 mark you are speaking of. I would also, if I were you, consider getting a stove pipe thermo. If you have single wall a simple magnetic or if you have double wall a probe. I find my probe thermo (I have double wall) is a much better monitor of what the fire is doing, than the stove top temp is. Both in conjunction are like having a spedo and a tach in a vehicle. They both give you info on what is going on. To me a tach is to a stove pipe thermo. A tach tells you the RPM of the engine and a pipe thermo tells you how the heat output of the fire. Just like with a car you can be hitting a redline in first gear, with no speed to show for it, but an engine really working hard. With a stove you could be really burning hard, with no heat to put out into the home, but a ton of BTUs going up the pipe.


2. Due to heat output and size of house, my burn cycles aren't continuous. There will be hours of just coals because we don't need the excessive heat. After a modest sized burn, our tstat can get to 80 in a single level rancher. Do low temps in the box after a clean burn (coals) produce more creosote? If you have a clean burn, and are at the coal stage, complete coal stage, the gasses that create creosote are already burned off and now you are burning the carbon. At this point you are not creating creosote. If so, I'll need to clean more frequent than most. This is a good thing to do anyway at least until you get some more time under your belt with the stove, and you really know what is going on in there. IMHO. Does cycling the stove from 200-600 degreess several times a day cause warping, cracking etc? This one I will leave to the other experts here, especially those who own this stove.
Click to expand...


Any other questions, fire away. The group here will help in anyway they can.
 
Stax said:
After burning on and off for about a month and half now...I have some observations of the new girl.

1. Observation of burning cycles: I start with small splits, door cracked and then add some more splits to further establish fire. Once it's pretty engaged, I close the door but leave air control wide open. Once I reach 400, I'll pull the air control 1/4 out. I'll do another pull 8-10 minutes later, and then a 3rd and final one 8-10 minutes after that. However, up until the 3rd pull my wood is burning rather rapidly and my burn times don't seem the 5-6 hours after that. I'm guessing 2 hours of wood to charcoal and then coals after that. If I shorten the pull times, my stove likes to get in the 500-600 range especially if Ash wood is near top of firebox. What is yours like, especially if you're a Declaration owner?
Click to expand...

The Heritage works the same way. I decrease the air in stages to bring it up to temp. The Encore works like a Pre-EPA stove, where as I give it full air to bring it up to temp, engage cat, and then cut the air back in stages to lock in the temp or to burn at a lower temp. Vigilant is full air until you hit 550+ degrees and then you close the damper and adjust the air controls accordingly.

2. Due to heat output and size of house, my burn cycles aren't continuous. There will be hours of just coals because we don't need the excessive heat. After a modest sized burn, our tstat can get to 80 in a single level rancher. Do low temps in the box after a clean burn (coals) produce more creosote? If so, I'll need to clean more frequent than most. Does cycling the stove from 200-600 degreess several times a day cause warping, cracking etc?
Click to expand...

No, the end of a burn cycle does not cause creosote. Cycling up and down will not cause warping. I will let the Heritage sit at 250-300 for several hours on mild days, rake the coals, add some splits and get it back up to 550+ degrees.
 
I think cycling up and down probably does fatigue the metal more than burning at a constant temperature would because the steel expands and contracts creating forces on the joints. I am not saying you'e going to wear out your stove unless you seriously overfire it many times, but theoretically it must make a difference.
 
I don't have thermometers as I have an insert but so I use all visual gages to monitor the fire. After reload I leave the primary open to get a good strong draft up the chimney and to ignite the fresh wood. Also to bring the stove box back up to a decent temp. Then I close about 50% to engage the secondaries. This sometimes requires some adjusting depending on the size and type of wood. My insert experiences several cycles of heat and cool every day and the only warping i've ever seen was when I piled a bunch of wood in and left the primary open for an hour (i forgot) it got real hot. Closing the primary only caused it to get hotter so I opened the door when everything was glowing red and stuck in a cold piece of wood from outside then closed it all up again. I was burning real clean. After a long cool down I inspected the inside of the box and noticed that one of the metal flanges seemed bent but it could have always been that way.
 
As for the cycling up and down with the temperatures, I highly doubt you will ever notice a difference with the temperatures quoted. Stoves will still last many, many years and it is very common at this time of the year to have this cycling. We put wood in our stove last evening around 9:00 and have not put in any since. Tonight I'll start another fire and will not be a bit concerned about the up and down temperature. The stove is built to take it.
 
If any of you insert guys are out there reading, at what temp do you start closing your primary?
 
Just got a Condar stove top thermometer so I definitely do not have a lot of experience with it yet. I have been doing pretty well with closing the air on a nice bed of coals around 400-425 and then pretty much all the way to closed maybe 5 mins after. Usually cruises at 525-550 and get a good secondary burn for maybe 20-30 mins. Unfortunately my firebox is small (1.3 cu ft) so I usually get around a 2 hr burn cycle with seasoned cherry this way.
 
Stax said:
If any of you insert guys are out there reading, at what temp do you start closing your primary?
Click to expand...
I start my stove and almost immediately close the. doors. As soon as that small fire is just taking hold and stable I close primary about 1/4 way (your temp gauge still has not moved off cold yet) then at about 200f I will pull it about 1/2 way closed.(it's hotter in the box than that gauge is reading right now) you should see the fire start to burn a little faster at this point if you have good dry wood. My next move is at about 400-450 3/4 way closed. After that you can decide if you want to close more or not depending on how hot you want to run it.

Even though we have the same stove our drafts may be different so what works for me may not work for you.

Good luck!
Bub
 
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