Well, insurance company finally came through and got the auxiliary wood added onto my policy so I'm good to go!
Chimney is about 25' tall, 6x10 clay, about 48deg outside. Douglas fir, around 15% moisture.
Tried a top down fire in a clean stove with 2 bigger chunks on the bottom EW (8" round split in half), some smaller pieces on top NS (2" square), kindling on top of that and homemade fire starter on top of it all. Probably only had wood about 2/3 of the way to the top and nowhere near full on the sides.
Started it up with door cracked for about 10min, kindling burned nice, eventually caught on the 2" pieces. Didn't get any backpuffing of smoke into the house. Shut the door with air control all the way open.
Got lazy flames (I think?), got to about 375 stove top and the bigger chunks were just sort of turning into coals on the surface at certain spots. Tried adding a few more smaller chunks (4") on top, let them catch and it's running at about 475 right now with air all the way open.
When I turn down the air, flames die right down so have just left it open all the way (from what I've read I'm not supposed to turn it down and smolder it or I'm making creosote)
What's going on? Probably stupid but I sort of thought I'd be able to start the fire with air control all the way open, dry wood would catch, get a beauty inferno in the box and slowly start reducing the air to get some secondary burn.
Thanks for any replies, going to be reading more to see if I can figure it from what's already been posted.
Chimney is about 25' tall, 6x10 clay, about 48deg outside. Douglas fir, around 15% moisture.
Tried a top down fire in a clean stove with 2 bigger chunks on the bottom EW (8" round split in half), some smaller pieces on top NS (2" square), kindling on top of that and homemade fire starter on top of it all. Probably only had wood about 2/3 of the way to the top and nowhere near full on the sides.
Started it up with door cracked for about 10min, kindling burned nice, eventually caught on the 2" pieces. Didn't get any backpuffing of smoke into the house. Shut the door with air control all the way open.
Got lazy flames (I think?), got to about 375 stove top and the bigger chunks were just sort of turning into coals on the surface at certain spots. Tried adding a few more smaller chunks (4") on top, let them catch and it's running at about 475 right now with air all the way open.
When I turn down the air, flames die right down so have just left it open all the way (from what I've read I'm not supposed to turn it down and smolder it or I'm making creosote)
What's going on? Probably stupid but I sort of thought I'd be able to start the fire with air control all the way open, dry wood would catch, get a beauty inferno in the box and slowly start reducing the air to get some secondary burn.
Thanks for any replies, going to be reading more to see if I can figure it from what's already been posted.