Feeling my way with the F3 cb...

[begreen]

You can start shutting down the air, in increments as soon as the wood is fully engaged in flame, even if the stove top is only 300F. Close the air down until the flames start to get lazy and stop. Then let the fire regain strength and turn down again until the flames start to get lazy and stop. Repeat if necessary. How far and how quickly you can turn down the flame will depend on the wood being burned.

 

[fatwood]

Hi fatwood,thanks for sharing your experience of the f3.

I am still very much in a pretty steep learning curve.. largely becase it felt like a new stove all over again after all the installation issues of late 2013 were finally all fixed just a few months ago. Then, to compound matters, I got a stack of oak, a lot of which was too high MC and had trouble for a while before I realised it was the wood and not the stove (thanks to help from folks here) .. More recently I have been trying to burn splits that are just too thick - boy, this stove didn't like them!.. So I am still very much still feeling my way 13 months later!

What I do notice with this stove is that, after reloading, I really do need to take the stove top temp up to 550 minimum, or even 600 (unless it's very windy out) before staring to close down the air, in order to get an even burn on both sides of the stove. If I shut down too soon, the burn seems to die on the rear left side of the box, but have vigorous secondaries on the right. Odd. Because of this I am finding that I need that extra heat I get by not having a full ash pan.

Consequently, I rarely see slow, rolling type secondaries, rather they always seems to be the full on flames from the tubes.. I wish I could get a lazy rolling fire...more relaxing to look at and better on the days I don't need a lot of heat.... so that's my trade off I guess...

Aye...still learning!

Wow. I wish I'd picked a different username after giving it more thought... haha! I had some oak too that was a still a little damp this year. I re-split the largest pieces, and am able to mix it in fine now. The truth is, that no matter what happens with your stove, you will officially be obsessed with every detail. I'll go weeks burning as close to 24/7 as I can on autopilot, but always come back around to focusing on every detail of my stove at some point.
Every single fire is different. Sooo many variables with outside temp, weather, wood etc. Sounds like you know enough about your own unique situation to make your way. Everyone is still learning ! Enjoy your stove, and all the amazing Islay scotch! Cheers.

 

[FionaD]

Thanks BeGreen... I do recall you explaining this somewhere on the forum before.

Sometimes this approach works for me, but usually it feels like flying blind, because when I turn the air down a little (less than half way) there is no change in the rapidity of the flames... For there to be any noticeable change I need to turn down almost all the way. Then the fire either dies and I need to turn up again or it moves into pretty hyper secondaries shooting from the tubes. Often there are only secondaries on the right side of the stove... If this happens I need to open the air again for a while and turn back down after a while.

I rarely see slow flames ever... the only time I might is when the secondaries are done and the cycle is moving toward the coals stage, at that point I might get some small, slow flames for a while, but I don't think they're secondaries. The lack of slow looking secondaries might be because there's no space for them in he fire box after I've loaded up full of course!

I do think there is something wrong somewhere tho... I have someone coming round on Thursday to take a look.