Fireview break-in fires

[Slow1]

Ok, yes I'm getting itchy to start up my stove

So I figured that tomorrow I may have my chance to do the first burn and now I'm wondering what exactly is a "small" fire for the first couple fires? Is there a particular temperature that I should stay below or length of time that I should keep from burning it? Burning kindling and small bits I'm sure I could actually build up quite a hot little fire pretty quickly so... any suggestions here?

How have you other fireview owners handled this and did anyone go too far (i.e. too hot or whatever) and have something bad happen like cracks etc?

 

[Todd]

1st fire kindling only and let it burn out and cool off, 2nd fire kindling and a couple small splits about 200-300 degrees, 3rd fire do same as 2nd but add a few more splits and shoot for 400. You should be good to go after that. Might as well get your kindling fire out of the way tonight.

 

[rickw]

I didn't follow the recommendations, just started a very small fire and kept temps low for a couple of hours; then gradually let it get hotter. Quite a lot of moisture came out of the stone. The break-in fire was in the winter and I wanted to get it over with (minimize time with windows open). Nothing bad happened to mine, but if you do it now you can leave the windows open and do the couple of small fires that are recommended.

The thing is, the stove paint stinks until its baked out. It will visibly smoke (some). You will want to have the windows open. Also be sure (once the stove itself has been fired) to run at high air and no cat (bypass on) for a little while - you'll want to bake out the new stovepipe near the stove and running without the cat engaged will blow some flame right out the pipe. Just a few minutes should do it, don't leave it running like that!

Good Luck. You're going to love your new stove.

 

[Slow1]

Well... I took the advice to go ahead and get that first kindling only fire done tonight. My wife voted against it, but the kids were all for it so she (for once) was overruled, heh. Not that this fire really put out any meaningful heat. A little bit of odor once it was flaming, but not too bad. You can see how little fuel I put in there - it is a pile of very dry punky chunks and a few sticks that I have had in the basement all year, not more than a large handful. Used a tiny piece of a SC to get it started (I hate using paper you know).

So - overall I'm pretty impressed with how easily it got going. I didn't have an impressive draft to begin with (it is 70*ish in and out and raining afterall) so shortly after lighting the firebox was filled with smoke, but it cleared after a few minutes and the pieces were flaming up brightly. As expected, the flue pipe warmed up quick and started to smell a bit (no visible smoke, guess I didn't get it hot enough for that - only up to about 260f via IR) and the stone peaked at about 160 near the top back of the stove. The door was the hottest part of the actual stove with the metal measuring 250+. The flame was over for the most part about 45 minutes after ignition as I didn't feed it. Now sitting almost 2 hrs post ignition and the stove top is about same temp across it and measuring 115f range, sides a bit warmer than that, no coals visible. I'm impressed that it appears everything I fed it burned up - I had expected only the center of the pile to burn and leave the edges (ala the stereotype campfire in the woods with burnt ends laying around ashes and partial coals).

So here are the pictures - If I can manage to get the house cooled down tonight and the kids complaining about being cold in the morning maybe I'll get another go at it tomorrow, heh.

 

[Diabel]

Slow1,

I can almost feel you excitement & the eagerness to get the new stove going!! Especially after a not so good experience with the VC. I will be following your posts closely as you describe your new experiences with the fireview...

 

[Todd]

Looks nice. I like the two little fire bugs watching the fire. I'm currently doing the same thing just to get the summer moisture out. The weather tomorrow may call for a small fire as well.

 

[Slow1]

"fire bugs" - indeed they are. This morning the first thing they did was ask me to get another fire going. Oh it is nice to have them on my side, heh. They are disappointed that I won't get a big fire going to "warm their feet." Once the fire started to die down my youngest really started to complain too. Just to make them happy (yeah right) I did do my second fire this morning.

Took some notes since I'm really curious about how this stove behaves. Again, just a small pile of kindling lit off and allowed to burn out, running with the air full open.

7:25 Light - 70* all around
7:35 - 76 top, 70 rt side, 230 pipe
7:42 - 85 t, 75 s, 245p
8:00 - 115 t, 110 s, 177p - fire down to coals with a couple small flames
8:15 - 135t, 140s, 150p
8:45 - 140t, 150s, 113p - a few coals still showing life
9:15 - 130t, 152s, 102p - ashes dark
9:30 - 115t, 145s, 95p , inside of stove (back stone) registers 210f (opened door and reached in to measure)

Clearly not enough to generate real heat, but interesting none the less to see how the heat apparently travels through the sides of the stove and really holds.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Slow1, the reason it didn't get hotter is because you had the draft full open. Not much heat to the stove that way as it goes up the chimney. Once you start putting in some splits and after the fire gets going good, close that draft part way and the stove will heat up nicely.

As for the setting on the draft, it might be anywhere from .25, or .50 to 1 but probably not over 1. It will all depend upon the wood and how much wood you put in.


Your next fire should include 2 or 3 splits. After that, you should be good to go.

Good luck.

 

[Flatbedford]

We've only done two small fires in our Fireview so far. Those were back in May. The weather man says there will be some cool nights next week, so maybe I'll go for #3. I can't wait to really crank mine up.

 

[Slow1]

We've only done two small fires in our Fireview so far. Those were back in May. The weather man says there will be some cool nights next week, so maybe I'll go for #3. I can't wait to really crank mine up.

So what did you do for your first two fires? How hot and how long did you burn it for?

Weather here looks to be warm again - back to high 70's tomorrow and I don't see it falling much in the 10 day forecast so my wood pile has a reprieve at least. Thank goodness since I certainly don't have enough wood budgeted to start burning much before mid October. But perhaps I can count that my initial "stove cement drying" burns are done so I can move on to the hotter paint curing burns with my next fire.

But darn, once I start to scratch the itch to burn it sure is hard to stop! I need a CL score to give me some wood to split and keep me entertained.

 

[Flatbedford]

Both were kindling and a couple splits. I got it up to about 300 stove top temp for an hour or two. Even with those little fires, the stove was still warm, for hours. There is a post here about it, but I can't find it yet.

 

[Todd]

Had a fire last night at about 8pm, started with a pile of kindling on top of 2 small plits, let it burn for 1 hour then threw on 3 splits of Boxelder, waited 10 minutes engaged the cat. The temp climbed up to 500 and held there for a good hour and gradually dropped off. The stove is still warm just over 100 stove top now and it's 1120. Not bad for some junk Boxelder.

 

[Slow1]

I think I was too conservative with these two fires. Fun and pretty to watch, but perhaps not enough fire to really do much breaking in. Too much "small" in the small fire. Will have to look forward to the next cool spell to do the next one and actually put a couple real splits in there and plan to dial back the air a bit.

 

[North of 60]

There's nothing wrong with trying to take care of that big rock you have got there. You are giving it the very best chance of curing and removing excess moisture before you are really gonna pour the coals to it so to speak when winter comes. ;-P

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We've only done two small fires in our Fireview so far. Those were back in May. The weather man says there will be some cool nights next week, so maybe I'll go for #3. I can't wait to really crank mine up.

So what did you do for your first two fires? How hot and how long did you burn it for?

Weather here looks to be warm again - back to high 70's tomorrow and I don't see it falling much in the 10 day forecast so my wood pile has a reprieve at least. Thank goodness since I certainly don't have enough wood budgeted to start burning much before mid October. But perhaps I can count that my initial "stove cement drying" burns are done so I can move on to the hotter paint curing burns with my next fire.

But darn, once I start to scratch the itch to burn it sure is hard to stop! I need a CL score to give me some wood to split and keep me entertained.

Slow1, here is how we did our burn in:

1. Start fire with a few sticks of kindling. Just let it burn until it goes out.

2. Start another fire using kindling but add a couple of small splits. Let it burn until it goes out.

3. Start another fire using kindling and add 3 or 4 splits. Let it burn until it goes out.

4. Enjoy whatever fire you want to build now as it is good to go.

Each time between the burn-ins, we let the stove cool completely.

Hope this helps.