The temps are dropping again around my neck of the woods and I am having a chance to fire the Englander 30-NCH again. I'm still on the learning curve and have a few questions.
When firing the stove from a cold start, given the stove is steel plate vs. soapstone, do you just let the stove rip until you get a 500 degree stove top and then begin to damper down from there? Reason I ask is that there ain't nothing to crack like soapstone from getting to hot to quick and the sooner you get the secondaries going, the less smoke out the chimney and creosote build-up and of course, heat gets into the room quicker too? So do you let the stove rip, damper wide open, until you get to 500 degrees or go slower than that?
How much ash do you leave in the bottom of your stove? How high to you let it get before you begin emptying?
We are enjoying the stove. I lit it off last night with N/S splits on the bottom to get things going and then E/W on top of them for a nice fireplace look burn.
Thanks!
Bill
When firing the stove from a cold start, given the stove is steel plate vs. soapstone, do you just let the stove rip until you get a 500 degree stove top and then begin to damper down from there? Reason I ask is that there ain't nothing to crack like soapstone from getting to hot to quick and the sooner you get the secondaries going, the less smoke out the chimney and creosote build-up and of course, heat gets into the room quicker too? So do you let the stove rip, damper wide open, until you get to 500 degrees or go slower than that?
How much ash do you leave in the bottom of your stove? How high to you let it get before you begin emptying?
We are enjoying the stove. I lit it off last night with N/S splits on the bottom to get things going and then E/W on top of them for a nice fireplace look burn.
Thanks!
Bill