Do i always have to have a roaring fire?

[thewoodlands]

Where do you get Anti Creosote Spray from ??

I bought it from the same shop we bought the Lopi Liberty from. (Local Hearth Shop)



zap

 

[Chrism]

Northwind are you referring to your isle royale?

 

[northwinds]

Northwind are you referring to your isle royale?

Yes, I rarely burn the insert.

 

[HotCoals]

For a long slow burn..go cat and don't look back!

 

[Chrism]

Northwind when u get the IR up to temp and load her up for the night , the air control infront... slide left open all the way slide right closed all the way on average what position is it in for a over night burn ??

 

[northwinds]

Northwind when u get the IR up to temp and load her up for the night , the air control infront... slide left open all the way slide right closed all the way on average what position is it in for a over night burn ??

It depends on the weather and how much wood is in the stove. For warmer weather and smaller loads, I might leave it open 20-30% if that's what it takes
to stabilize temps. For cold temps and big loads, I might close leave it open only 10%. My goal is to slide it as far as I can to the right while maintaining
temps in the 550 to 650 range. I usually move the primary air to the right in 2 or 3 stages. Half open at 550, 25% open at 625, 10% open at 650. Those
are just examples. You will have to play around with your primary air to see what works for you.

 

[cptoneleg]

Wow. I love this place, but sometimes I think a few get a little carried away. Burning wood has so many variables. There are consistencies of course, but you really have to figure out your situation. Even scientific studies have to be considered in light of the controlled situation, which we may not have at home. I have successfully burned wood for 40 years, and in about everything you can burn wood in, and I just don't think it can all be boiled down to some of the simplistic statements that get made here sometimes. Just sayin.

You got it Chief, real Rocket Scientest, at least I got my rocket fuel just right :lol:

 

[stoveguy2esw]

guys (and gals ) biggest thing is to char effectively when loading for a long burn, as stated the biggest part of emmissions (and the stuff which is bad in a flue) is during the first phase of the fire when temps are low and moisture is high, allow ample time to heat the flue and the firebox to a good burn temp , then back her down for the long burn.

in shoulder seasons smaller splits and short hot fires are the best , a little more work but well worth it as you get just the heat you want without "bogging down" the stove with an ugly fire. woodburning is as much an art as anything you will do, it takes a little "T&E" a little deveoped "feel' but gawd its fun to do! just be safe and keep an eye on your equipment, new burners , look at your flue on a regular basis until you grasp the subtlties of burning. and above all else remember "DONT KNOW MEANS DONT KNOW!" ask questions on the hearth, the gang is fantastic at coaching , heck ive learned a ton in here and i do this for a living! if ya dont ask , you dont learn

 

[oldspark]

Wow. I love this place, but sometimes I think a few get a little carried away. Burning wood has so many variables. There are consistencies of course, but you really have to figure out your situation. Even scientific studies have to be considered in light of the controlled situation, which we may not have at home. I have successfully burned wood for 40 years, and in about everything you can burn wood in, and I just don't think it can all be boiled down to some of the simplistic statements that get made here sometimes. Just sayin.

Best post I have read in a while.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Stove guy worded it in a way that a new wood stove owner can understand, I get it . And one more thing when you guys load a stove for the night do u fill it as much as you can? And what do you look for as far as air control , do u turn it down to where it almost goes out then open it up a crack to give it enough air to see a faint bluish flame or do you keep the rolling orange flame goin ??

chris, it depends on the stove, some "like" the low and slow (cat stoves are a great example as teh cat burns the stuff that kinda fire makes, in a non-cat you lok for secondaries, usually when you are low burning they kinda pop and disappear then come back but never truly extinguish. FWIW i always follow a simple process with either typwe stove , i never damp a stove back until i feel radient heat from a foot away on the sides (not hrough glass as it passes glass easily , when you have radience off a firebox, you have a warm flue and firebox, thats the biggest key as once heated a good chimney will hold that heat even after the stove is backed down considerably. the key though , is heating the flue and box up first.

 

[Chrism]

Hey north thanks ! That helps me out to be in the b allpark I'm sure. But ill tell you only had a couple fires in it and we are lucky to have this stove its an animal !!

 

[tfdchief]

guys (and gals ) biggest thing is to char effectively when loading for a long burn, as stated the biggest part of emmissions (and the stuff which is bad in a flue) is during the first phase of the fire when temps are low and moisture is high, allow ample time to heat the flue and the firebox to a good burn temp , then back her down for the long burn.

in shoulder seasons smaller splits and short hot fires are the best , a little more work but well worth it as you get just the heat you want without "bogging down" the stove with an ugly fire. woodburning is as much an art as anything you will do, it takes a little "T&E" a little deveoped "feel' but gawd its fun to do! just be safe and keep an eye on your equipment, new burners , look at your flue on a regular basis until you grasp the subtlties of burning. and above all else remember "DONT KNOW MEANS DONT KNOW!" ask questions on the hearth, the gang is fantastic at coaching , heck ive learned a ton in here and i do this for a living! if ya dont ask , you dont learn

Great info. Great advise!

 

[Loco Gringo]

When I bought my EPA stove second hand earlier this yr it had some shiny residue in the fire box. Reading advice here in an effort to keep any evil glazed creosote to a minimum I decided to buy a bottle, 2 actually, of Anti Creosote Spray. Ive been using it for 2 weeks now and my box is full of dried up, grayish pieces of crumbled up ash which I assume is the result of using a few sprays a day. Cheap insurance if you ask me.

Loco, curious about this poduct. Do you apply directly to fire bricks and all? Is the product supposed to help keep the liner clean as well?

 

[Battenkiller]

Wood burning is about as inexact a science as you will find because of all the variables

Oh, I'd think that meteorology is the most inexact science out there. Doesn't stop scientists from trying to predict the weather, though, or folks from believing that they actually can.

On a scale that matters to most of us, what goes on inside that box is fairly easy to predict. Yes, there are chaotic events happening continually in there, but it the end, gravity brings all the fuel down to the bottom (usually, anyway) and it gets burned while releasing a lot of heat. Contrast that with what happened along the Atlantic coast this season. If my stove ever behaved that unpredictably, I'd be outside cutting it up with a torch the next morning. :lol:


Mike, as always, thanks for the excellent analysis and clear explanation. Your expert contributions are much appreciated by all here.

 

[Chrism]

Hey you guys talk about a quick hot fire for the chill in the air. I thought its bad for a cast stove or metal stove n the chimney to start a quick fire, I thought a slow warm up was the best ???

 

[Battenkiller]

When I bought my EPA stove second hand earlier this yr it had some shiny residue in the fire box. Reading advice here in an effort to keep any evil glazed creosote to a minimum I decided to buy a bottle, 2 actually, of Anti Creosote Spray. Ive been using it for 2 weeks now and my box is full of dried up, grayish pieces of crumbled up ash which I assume is the result of using a few sprays a day. Cheap insurance if you ask me.

When I bought my stove it was covered inside with creo glaze. The guy I bought it from never used it as a proper wood stove, only with the doors opened up like a fireplace. He used some of the driest wood I've ever had, (I got about a cord of it with the stove) 3+ year-old rock maple and red oak. Yet he still got lots of creosote buildup.

I was a bit concerned because I've always been told that these VC stoves can be creosote factories. Well, first hot fire I got going in that thing and every last speck of creo was gone. I have never seen any since then, either, no matter what the MC of the wood is. But probably the very best place to find creosote is inside the stove because you will burn it all away once the stove gets running good and hot. No lost fuel like there would be if it condensed 20' up the stack, and no accumulated hazard up there waiting for the right combo of air and spark to set it off.

 

[Battenkiller]

Hey you guys talk about a quick hot fire for the chill in the air. I thought its bad for a cast stove or metal stove n the chimney to start a quick fire, I thought a slow warm up was the best ???

That might be a problem if you loaded it to the gills with small splits of bone-dry softwood and opened the air all the way, but in a normal startup type fire with a medium load and proper air I don't think you'll even get the temp to raise that rapidly, particularly with all the insulation that is inside most EPA stoves. Rapid cooling is much more of an issue, like spilling a gallon of cold water on your cast stove top when you're filling your stove top water pot. :bug:

 

[BrowningBAR]

Hey you guys talk about a quick hot fire for the chill in the air. I thought its bad for a cast stove or metal stove n the chimney to start a quick fire, I thought a slow warm up was the best ???

I'm not sure where you are getting that.

 

[Battenkiller]

Something some may be talking about is in stoves with hard firebrick inside. The first burn of the season should, perhaps, be a slow-rising fire to drive out any moisture that made its way into the porous material over the summer. I've never owned a stove with any kind of brick inside. Been burning cast stoves for over 20 years now, and I am not one who is patient for a stove to heat up slowly. My stove goes from room temp to 650º inside of 20 minutes. I wouldn't even know how to stop it from doing that, with dry wood and half air it is up there before I can finish my first cuppa. Never had a crack anywhere, even on my Taiwanese box stove that I routinely punished severely in spite of its supposedly inferior castings.

 

[begreen]

Consider yourself one of the lucky ones. The problem with castings is that 10 can be fine and the 11th poor. A good company would has a system in place to test for and reject any marginal casting. That is costly and often lacking with cheap stoves. It is the lack of quality control that was Scandia's problem.

Cast iron is pretty tough stuff. I never give a thought to quick heating up our Jotul and it is sitting in a cool greenhouse. Same for when had Jotuls in the house. I would do a small break in fire at the beginning of the season and that was it. Craig has given a good comparison in the auto industry where exhaust manifolds are daily taken up from zero degrees to many hundreds in a matter of minute.

 

[Chrism]

I'm sorry I think I might have been referring to what Battenkiller touched on I read a while ago about the first burn of the season. A friend of mine gave me some oak pallet racks ??? I'm guessin that would be good for the shoulder season instead of using the good wood (oak,maple) etc.

 

[Battenkiller]

It is the lack of quality control that was Scandia's problem.

That and maybe just a touch of patent infringement. :lol:

BTW good point about the exhaust manifolds.

 

[Battenkiller]

A friend of mine gave me some oak pallet racks ??? I'm guessin that would be good for the shoulder season instead of using the good wood (oak,maple) etc.

Yes, try those and see if the problem disappears.

 

[begreen]

Use the pallet wood judiciously. It normally is drier can ignite quickly in a free-breathing stove like the IR. It's fine for smaller fires, broken up for kindling and mixed in with semi-seasoned wood.

 

[Chrism]

I was just gonna use it to warm up the cast to take the chill out of the air, not to make a rip roarin fire just warm the Isle Royale up to 200 to 250 degrees