Thought I would introduce myself to this gifted group of wood burning gurus and see if there's something I can do to improve my current wood burning experience. I live in NE Iowa and have a detached workshop that is roughly 24x28' with roof insulation and a ridge vent(90% blocked off in the winter months) , a large double car garage door and "porous" exterior walls(built "on a budget" by a previous owner back in the late 60's) that do allow for drafts when it's really windy outside. May spring for the "foaming of the wall cavities" contractor later this year if anyone has had any experience with the pros and cons of this process. In a separate topic, I'd also like the group's opinion of a catalytic damper add on I picked up at an auction for a dollar. It retailed for like $200 when it was new...but I digress.
History: I bought the stove out of a swap sheet ad locally and this poor stove was in someone's basement with 2 90 degree bends in the flue and more creosote in the pipes than you could ever imagine. It took myself and 3 co-workers(all of whom were state caliber wrestlers in high school) to get this beast up some rickety basement steps and out the carport door after the owner had to remove the door so the stove would slide out there. Paid $250 for it about 8 years ago after realizing that my 220V Dayton under bench 5kw electric heater combined with a 30k btu propane wall heater weren't going to tackle the winter temps below about 20 F. Ended up spending more on the flue and chimney pipe than I did the stove itself. My co-workers were rewarded with gift certificates to their local pub for a 3 acre tenderloin and a couple of beers.......the least I could do for them!! I ditched the propane gig and kept the Dayton, as it works well for $3/day in electricity when the weather isn't bone chillingly cold.
The flue is pretty much straight up and draws really well from what I can tell. As you can see from the photos, I've got limited space to install the stove, but it is a safe distance from the combustibles now that I've rearranged the shop to get wood elsewhere in the shop. I used single wall blackpipe up to the square box that attaches to the roof deck and then everything from there up is the triple wall stainless pipe right up to the chimney cap. This stove uses an 8" flue. Currently no damper except for the air control slides on each side of the stove. I burn a lot of free 2x4" end cuts from a pallet manufacturer here in Blackhawk Co. as well as a lot of free firewood I scrounge up during the warm months; mostly silver maple, ash, and oak/birch when I can find it free. Last year I swapped a guy two pickup truck loads of glued together oak panel rejects from a local cabinet maker for some rough cut walnut I had bought at an auction for like $10, so I have a wonderful mix of dry wood for this season. The "stash" is stored off to the east side of the shop with a shade tree storage bin made of a "lean-to" sort of roof consisting of the corrugated fiberglass roof material, oak pallets on the ground and open air drafting to aid in the drying process. The 4 section bin is roughly 4'x24' and about 6' tall. No clue as to how any cords of wood this has capacity for. The post winter and pre winter flue cleanings with the rod brushes from the top down have yielded only the slightest of black carbon deposits and nothing sticky that I can see. I installed a large industrial grade thermometer I picked up at a yard sale for a couple dollars and have one of the Magnetic cheapo gauges on the flue to compare temps. both gauges go up to about 800F.
If anyone has tips on extricating the ash from this stove while keeping some sort of heating going on, I'd be grateful for that. The Definace has no trap door for ashes and coals, so I've pretty much been letting things die down to under 100F, then using a home made "blade rake", a tin trough to guide the ash over the box lip and across the front flange into a galvanized 5 gallon trash can with a handle lock for the lid to choke off air to the burning coals. I'd also like to know if there's a blower motor upgrade for this stove(likely an aftermarket blower since this company has been out of business for 30 years now) that will push the hot air a bit further into the heart of the shop space.
Again, thanks to the moderators for allowing me in and TIA for any wisdom you folks can lay on me!!
DM&FS
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