Fireview overfire?

[Todd]

Tony,
What kind of stove top temps are you achieving and what air settings are you running at? 2300 sq ft is probably a bit over the limit for the Fireview but I can easily heat 2000 sq ft with mine no problem when the outside temps are >20. When it gets colder and windy the Keystone helps out.

Todd:

I am getting 550 F Peak temps on stovetop and 450 F front on the cast iron trim for a couple hours. I am burning Beech and Red Oak seasoned 2.5 years. Air setting is .75 initially and if I am around increased to 2-3 when the stovetop drops below 400 F.

The house has tons of huge double hung windows (I replaced 1/2 of them last year and it helped). I had more insulation blown into the attic last Summer. The stove is in a 22x22 ft room with cathedral ceiling, the overhead fan does not help even when reversed. It just makes the house drafty. House is 2x6 construction so the insulation is thick.I think it's just a BTU thing.

How warm is your house in the stove-room and in the furthest room when outside temp is 20F max? Maybe I don't want to know.
When it's 30 F out I can get to 70 F in the stoveroom and 62 in the furthest room. When it's 20F out it's 65 in the stove room and upper 50's in the furthest room unless I burn the stove really hard, then maybe 2 degree improvement.

I consistantly get stove top temps over 600 without barely trying burning Oak and Locust. You should be able to maintain temps over 500 for at least 3 hours or more. This morning at 0800 I reloaded and engaged at #1.25 and stove top climbed to 650, then turned it down to .75 and the time is now 1030 with a stove top of 560. Maybe your turning it down too soon? Maybe let it burn a little hotter with more air til it gets up over 600 then reduce the air down to .75? There sure seems to be a big difference in heat output between 550 and 650.

The cathedral ceilings and windows could be robbing a lot of your heat as well. I just have standard 8' ceilings, my Fireview is in the finished basement. It is usually 80 in the stove room and 75 directly upstairs in the living room and the furthest bedroom is usually 4-6 degrees cooler. This when the outside temps are in the 20's. If the temps are warmer out I turn down the stove for a longer 12 hour burn and try and maintain those same temps.

 

[fire_man]

Tony,
What kind of stove top temps are you achieving and what air settings are you running at? 2300 sq ft is probably a bit over the limit for the Fireview but I can easily heat 2000 sq ft with mine no problem when the outside temps are >20. When it gets colder and windy the Keystone helps out.

Todd:

I am getting 550 F Peak temps on stovetop and 450 F front on the cast iron trim for a couple hours. I am burning Beech and Red Oak seasoned 2.5 years. Air setting is .75 initially and if I am around increased to 2-3 when the stovetop drops below 400 F.

The house has tons of huge double hung windows (I replaced 1/2 of them last year and it helped). I had more insulation blown into the attic last Summer. The stove is in a 22x22 ft room with cathedral ceiling, the overhead fan does not help even when reversed. It just makes the house drafty. House is 2x6 construction so the insulation is thick.I think it's just a BTU thing.

How warm is your house in the stove-room and in the furthest room when outside temp is 20F max? Maybe I don't want to know.
When it's 30 F out I can get to 70 F in the stoveroom and 62 in the furthest room. When it's 20F out it's 65 in the stove room and upper 50's in the furthest room unless I burn the stove really hard, then maybe 2 degree improvement.

I consistantly get stove top temps over 600 without barely trying burning Oak and Locust. You should be able to maintain temps over 500 for at least 3 hours or more. This morning at 0800 I reloaded and engaged at #1.25 and stove top climbed to 650, then turned it down to .75 and the time is now 1030 with a stove top of 560. Maybe your turning it down too soon? Maybe let it burn a little hotter with more air til it gets up over 600 then reduce the air down to .75? There sure seems to be a big difference in heat output between 550 and 650.

The cathedral ceilings and windows could be robbing a lot of your heat as well. I just have standard 8' ceilings, my Fireview is in the finished basement. It is usually 80 in the stove room and 75 directly upstairs in the living room and the furthest bedroom is usually 4-6 degrees cooler. This when the outside temps are in the 20's. If the temps are warmer out I turn down the stove for a longer 12 hour burn and try and maintain those same temps.

Todd:

When you say yours is a 2000 sq ft house, is that the total of the finished basement and first floor? If the basement includes the 2000 sq ft and is mostly underground your warmer house temps make sense to me. We are heating a 2300 sq ft colonial with stove on first floor. Your stove may be in an area that would stay at 55F year round with no heat.

As far as your getting 600 F easily and over 500 for over 3 hours, WOW. I don't think I come close to that. I just loaded up and engaged at setting of 1.0 and will monitor it today to get exact temps for a later post. I get lot's of flames (definitely not only secondaries) in the firebox at 1.0 so am reluctant to go much higher. Do you get heavy non-secondary flames at 1.25?

 

[leeave96]

Tony,
What kind of stove top temps are you achieving and what air settings are you running at? 2300 sq ft is probably a bit over the limit for the Fireview but I can easily heat 2000 sq ft with mine no problem when the outside temps are >20. When it gets colder and windy the Keystone helps out.

Todd:

I am getting 550 F Peak temps on stovetop and 450 F front on the cast iron trim for a couple hours. I am burning Beech and Red Oak seasoned 2.5 years. Air setting is .75 initially and if I am around increased to 2-3 when the stovetop drops below 400 F.

The house has tons of huge double hung windows (I replaced 1/2 of them last year and it helped). I had more insulation blown into the attic last Summer. The stove is in a 22x22 ft room with cathedral ceiling, the overhead fan does not help even when reversed. It just makes the house drafty. House is 2x6 construction so the insulation is thick.I think it's just a BTU thing.

How warm is your house in the stove-room and in the furthest room when outside temp is 20F max? Maybe I don't want to know.
When it's 30 F out I can get to 70 F in the stoveroom and 62 in the furthest room. When it's 20F out it's 65 in the stove room and upper 50's in the furthest room unless I burn the stove really hard, then maybe 2 degree improvement.

I consistantly get stove top temps over 600 without barely trying burning Oak and Locust. You should be able to maintain temps over 500 for at least 3 hours or more. This morning at 0800 I reloaded and engaged at #1.25 and stove top climbed to 650, then turned it down to .75 and the time is now 1030 with a stove top of 560. Maybe your turning it down too soon? Maybe let it burn a little hotter with more air til it gets up over 600 then reduce the air down to .75? There sure seems to be a big difference in heat output between 550 and 650.

The cathedral ceilings and windows could be robbing a lot of your heat as well. I just have standard 8' ceilings, my Fireview is in the finished basement. It is usually 80 in the stove room and 75 directly upstairs in the living room and the furthest bedroom is usually 4-6 degrees cooler. This when the outside temps are in the 20's. If the temps are warmer out I turn down the stove for a longer 12 hour burn and try and maintain those same temps.

Todd:

When you say yours is a 2000 sq ft house, is that the total of the finished basement and first floor? If the basement includes the 2000 sq ft and is mostly underground your warmer house temps make sense to me. We are heating a 2300 sq ft colonial with stove on first floor. Your stove may be in an area that would stay at 55F year round with no heat.

As far as your getting 600 F easily and over 500 for over 3 hours, WOW. I don't think I come close to that. I just loaded up and engaged at setting of 1.0 and will monitor it today to get exact temps for a later post. I get lot's of flames (definitely not only secondaries) in the firebox at 1.0 so am reluctant to go much higher. Do you get heavy non-secondary flames at 1.25?

I had trouble getting my Keystone stove tops to exceed 500 degrees. I knew I had good wood and for a time had to open the draft to 2 to 2-1/2 to get the stove kicking. When I relined my chimney, the stove became a completely different animal. Not I am hitting 600 plus temps, crusing over 500 degrees for several hours and the stove is a heating machine. My stove problem was not with the wood, the stove output - but draft! I am getting the 600 degree temps and 500 plus with the damper at between .75 to 1.25

How's your chimney?

Good luck,
Bill

 

[fire_man]

Tony,
What kind of stove top temps are you achieving and what air settings are you running at? 2300 sq ft is probably a bit over the limit for the Fireview but I can easily heat 2000 sq ft with mine no problem when the outside temps are >20. When it gets colder and windy the Keystone helps out.

Todd:

I am getting 550 F Peak temps on stovetop and 450 F front on the cast iron trim for a couple hours. I am burning Beech and Red Oak seasoned 2.5 years. Air setting is .75 initially and if I am around increased to 2-3 when the stovetop drops below 400 F.

The house has tons of huge double hung windows (I replaced 1/2 of them last year and it helped). I had more insulation blown into the attic last Summer. The stove is in a 22x22 ft room with cathedral ceiling, the overhead fan does not help even when reversed. It just makes the house drafty. House is 2x6 construction so the insulation is thick.I think it's just a BTU thing.

How warm is your house in the stove-room and in the furthest room when outside temp is 20F max? Maybe I don't want to know.
When it's 30 F out I can get to 70 F in the stoveroom and 62 in the furthest room. When it's 20F out it's 65 in the stove room and upper 50's in the furthest room unless I burn the stove really hard, then maybe 2 degree improvement.

I consistantly get stove top temps over 600 without barely trying burning Oak and Locust. You should be able to maintain temps over 500 for at least 3 hours or more. This morning at 0800 I reloaded and engaged at #1.25 and stove top climbed to 650, then turned it down to .75 and the time is now 1030 with a stove top of 560. Maybe your turning it down too soon? Maybe let it burn a little hotter with more air til it gets up over 600 then reduce the air down to .75? There sure seems to be a big difference in heat output between 550 and 650.

The cathedral ceilings and windows could be robbing a lot of your heat as well. I just have standard 8' ceilings, my Fireview is in the finished basement. It is usually 80 in the stove room and 75 directly upstairs in the living room and the furthest bedroom is usually 4-6 degrees cooler. This when the outside temps are in the 20's. If the temps are warmer out I turn down the stove for a longer 12 hour burn and try and maintain those same temps.

Todd:

When you say yours is a 2000 sq ft house, is that the total of the finished basement and first floor? If the basement includes the 2000 sq ft and is mostly underground your warmer house temps make sense to me. We are heating a 2300 sq ft colonial with stove on first floor. Your stove may be in an area that would stay at 55F year round with no heat.

As far as your getting 600 F easily and over 500 for over 3 hours, WOW. I don't think I come close to that. I just loaded up and engaged at setting of 1.0 and will monitor it today to get exact temps for a later post. I get lot's of flames (definitely not only secondaries) in the firebox at 1.0 so am reluctant to go much higher. Do you get heavy non-secondary flames at 1.25?

I had trouble getting my Keystone stove tops to exceed 500 degrees. I knew I had good wood and for a time had to open the draft to 2 to 2-1/2 to get the stove kicking. When I relined my chimney, the stove became a completely different animal. Not I am hitting 600 plus temps, crusing over 500 degrees for several hours and the stove is a heating machine. My stove problem was not with the wood, the stove output - but draft! I am getting the 600 degree temps and 500 plus with the damper at between .75 to 1.25

How's your chimney?

Good luck,
Bill

Bill:

Liner is 6" stainless in an exterior uninsulated chimney. I reached over 700 F stovetop other years when I burned purely beech and kept the draft below 0.5 with no flames in firebox. I actually called Woodstock for fear of over-firing. Now I burn on a higher draft setting to get flames in the firebox but don't get over 550F stovetop.

I don't seem to be getting the same really high stove temps (550F vs 600F) and really long >500F burns (2.5 hrs vs 3 hrs) but I'm in the ballpark as others with this stove. I still think it's a lack of BTU's for my size and insulation quality of house. I'll post today's actual stove temps vs. burn times later.

 

[Todd]

It sounds like your just not pushing your stove to it's full potential but even if you do it still may not be enough with the size and style of your house. However, I think you should be able to do a little better than it sounds.

I get plenty of flame and red hot coals at anything over #1 and this is where I usually engage the cat and let the temp rise before turning it down. I have also seen those 700 stove top temps with a smouldering fire. This is mostly due to smoke overload on the cat where the top will be hot but the rest of the stove is relatively cooler. I have found it best to engage with good air around #1 or a smidge above and let the heat build, then turn it down when you hit desired heat output. More flames in the box equals more overall heat output but you also suffer with shorter burn times. Don't worry about flames in the box, they won't damage the cat unless you see a straight stream sucking in through the screen. I would think the air setting would have to be around #2 or higher for this to happen.

My basement has a walkout and is exposed on one side. I have 1" foam isulation on concrete block walls. House is 2x4 construction, a pretty open ranch style with an open stairwell and I get good heat circulation.

 

[fire_man]

Todd:

I agree, seems like I should be able to do a little better from the stove. But I have good seasoned wood, new cat, good 6" flue and height, what is left?? Only thing is to insulate the flue.

Does that 2000 sq ft of yours include your basement?

 

[leeave96]

[/quote]Liner is 6" stainless in an exterior uninsulated chimney. I reached over 700 F stovetop other years when I burned purely beech and kept the draft below 0.5 with no flames in firebox. I actually called Woodstock for fear of over-firing. Now I burn on a higher draft setting to get flames in the firebox but don't get over 550F stovetop.

I don't seem to be getting the same really high stove temps (550F vs 600F) and really long >500F burns (2.5 hrs vs 3 hrs) but I'm in the ballpark as others with this stove. I still think it's a lack of BTU's for my size and insulation quality of house. I'll post today's actual stove temps vs. burn times later.[/quote]

I can see getting a 700 deg stove top with no flames in the fire box as the cat is chewing on a lot of smoke. For heat output, you need flames in the firebox so the whole stove is outputing heat vs mainly the stove top on a smoldering burn. How tall is your chimney? Is your liner insulated? Both could effect your draft.

On the other hand, lack of insulation can make it a challenge to heat a house. My house is drafty as a barn. If I were not going to do an insulation/doors/windows make-over, I may have bought a larger stove. Presently, I can get my living room, with not much effort, to 80 degrees and keep it there. I think that once I correct my insulation deal, I can let the Keystone cruise at lower temperatures, keep more heat in the house and burn less wood.

I think you've got a great stove in the Fireview, but you might just need to open the damper up a bit for some flame driven heat vs cat/stove top heat. BTW, the presence of flames will generate much total stove heat, but in doing so burn a good bit of smoke taking some of the load off the cat. This will allow you to crank the heat without overfiring the stove top via cat burning all the smoke.

Good luck,
Bill

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Tony, I think you already know but we get to 650 pretty easy and yes, that is with flame in the firebox.....and the draft set at .75 or 1 maximum. Sometimes I am amazed at how fast we can get the stove to those temperatures too. A couple mornings ago the stove was quite cool but in very little time we were over 600 stove top.

btw, I can also say it is the wood. For instance, I just came inside and the stove needed wood. I could not wait the 10 minutes to turn the cat on! I had to turn the cat on in less than 5 minutes as all the wood was charred really good and the flue temperature was at 500 degrees. Under 5 minutes for sure and I'm guessing 3 minutes maximum. The wood was all white ash.

 

[Todd]

Another thing about your wood is that Beech is a very dense wood, I have never burned it but if it's like the Locust I burn you need more air to get it going than the Oak I burn. Sometimes if I engage Locust at a lower setting like .75 it will stall the cat and not lite off even after 15-30 minutes in bypass, so I learned to just burn that stuff at #1 or higher.

 

[fire_man]

Dennis, Todd:

I am beginning to wonder about how well seasoned this wood actually is. It took me exactly 1 hour to go from a stovetop of 300 to 500 with almost pure beech, draft at 1.0. The cat was not stalled, it started to climbed very quickly and was visibly bright within 10 minutes, it just took an hour to finally hit 500F and that was the max temp I saw. Funny how it tends to stop at exactly 500F very often even with another thermometer. A couple years ago I was getting to 700F much quicker with beech. I just replaced the cat and the wood has been seasoning for over 2 years, top covered the second year. We live in a shady area surrounded by trees, I wonder if that has slowed the seasoning process.

 

[Todd]

Could very well be the wood. Maybe try engaging at 1.25-1.5 and see if it lites off a little quicker? Was there a good amount of flame when you engaged at #1 or did it drop off? Maybe you have to burn in the bypass mode a little longer as well? Try and find a setting where there is good flame after engaging and let her go for a good 15-20 minutes or so before turning it down. Different woods can act funny sometimes.

 

[jdinspector]

Kenny: I'm jealous of your Fireview's ability to heat your house. I've been struggling lately to keep warm. I did well over the Christmas holidays when I was home and could burn the stove hotter (increasing the draft as the coals burned down). But since I'm back to work we can barely hit 70F and its warmer out. I really need the bigger Frankenstove but was bummed to hear they are not offering a buyback program. 55,000 BTU is not enough for cold New England winters in a 2300 sq. ft. house, even when burning Red Oak.

I'm with you on that one. Looking back, I may have gone with the Hearthstone Mansfield or Equinox. But, as I described in a thread some time ago, I was really turned off by some responses that I got from Hearthstone's people. Nevertheless, I really like the cat on the Fireview. A "frankenstove" may be in my future.

 

[jdinspector]

With all of the discussion about "light off", wouldn't it be neat if there were some sort of reflector built in that you could see the cat glowing? Getting down on the floor to look up into the stove is a pain (and I'm not that old yet!). Reminds me of the book, Do black patent leather shoes really reflect up?

 

[fire_man]

Could very well be the wood. Maybe try engaging at 1.25-1.5 and see if it lites off a little quicker? Was there a good amount of flame when you engaged at #1 or did it drop off? Maybe you have to burn in the bypass mode a little longer as well? Try and find a setting where there is good flame after engaging and let her go for a good 15-20 minutes or so before turning it down. Different woods can act funny sometimes.

I engaged the last load at 1.0 and had major flame activity both before and after engagement.If I bypassed the cat for 20 minutes I think the wood would have turned instantly to ashes. The load was mostly spalted beech, and the secondaries quit after 1.5 hrs. Stovetop temp of 500F also lasted 1.5 hrs. Two hrs after engagement I am down to 450 stovetop. After 2 hrs I opened the draft to 2.0 to get the coals to burn down. Next load I will try pure Red Oak - I wonder if that beech was past its prime and mixing with oak gave me 1/2 a lousy load of wood.

 

[Todd]

Could very well be the wood. Maybe try engaging at 1.25-1.5 and see if it lites off a little quicker? Was there a good amount of flame when you engaged at #1 or did it drop off? Maybe you have to burn in the bypass mode a little longer as well? Try and find a setting where there is good flame after engaging and let her go for a good 15-20 minutes or so before turning it down. Different woods can act funny sometimes.

I engaged the last load at 1.0 and had major flame activity both before and after engagement.If I bypassed the cat for 20 minutes I think the wood would have turned instantly to ashes. The load was mostly spalted beech, and the secondaries quit after 1.5 hrs. Stovetop temp of 500F also lasted 1.5 hrs. Two hrs after engagement I am down to 450 stovetop. After 2 hrs I opened the draft to 2.0 to get the coals to burn down. Next load I will try pure Red Oak - I wonder if that beech was past its prime and mixing with oak gave me 1/2 a lousy load of wood.

If that Beech was punky, I think you may have found a problem. Let us know how that full load of Oak burns. You should easily be over 450 for more than 2 hours.

 

[Todd]

With all of the discussion about "light off", wouldn't it be neat if there were some sort of reflector built in that you could see the cat glowing? Getting down on the floor to look up into the stove is a pain (and I'm not that old yet!). Reminds me of the book, Do black patent leather shoes really reflect up?

Ha, I use to do that, guess i'm too old now. I just watch the temps. I think the new stove will have a view of the cat like the Keystone does?

 

[fire_man]

Could very well be the wood. Maybe try engaging at 1.25-1.5 and see if it lites off a little quicker? Was there a good amount of flame when you engaged at #1 or did it drop off? Maybe you have to burn in the bypass mode a little longer as well? Try and find a setting where there is good flame after engaging and let her go for a good 15-20 minutes or so before turning it down. Different woods can act funny sometimes.

I engaged the last load at 1.0 and had major flame activity both before and after engagement.If I bypassed the cat for 20 minutes I think the wood would have turned instantly to ashes. The load was mostly spalted beech, and the secondaries quit after 1.5 hrs. Stovetop temp of 500F also lasted 1.5 hrs. Two hrs after engagement I am down to 450 stovetop. After 2 hrs I opened the draft to 2.0 to get the coals to burn down. Next load I will try pure Red Oak - I wonder if that beech was past its prime and mixing with oak gave me 1/2 a lousy load of wood.

If that Beech was punky, I think you may have found a problem. Let us know how that full load of Oak burns. You should easily be over 450 for more than 2 hours.

Will do. I filled it up with oak at 11pm tonight, won't be around to time it's burn. But I'll burn another full load of Oak again and report back. It sure would make sense if it was that beech - a lot if the beech around here is half rotted even while the tree is still standing alive. Thanks for all the ideas.

 

[akennyd]

Kenny: I'm jealous of your Fireview's ability to heat your house. I've been struggling lately to keep warm. I did well over the Christmas holidays when I was home and could burn the stove hotter (increasing the draft as the coals burned down). But since I'm back to work we can barely hit 70F and its warmer out. I really need the bigger Frankenstove but was bummed to hear they are not offering a buyback program. 55,000 BTU is not enough for cold New England winters in a 2300 sq. ft. house, even when burning Red Oak.

Tony, I'm sure your temps are much colder than our's down here in NC but we have had one of the coldest winters in this area in years and it just hasn't seemed that way to me because of the Fireview...we are just that much warmer inside. It's supposed to be in the low 20's tonight and that's pretty cool for around here.

We have not moved into the new master bedroom yet and that room is farther in straight line distance from the stove and really stays much cooler than our current master that is upstairs in the old part of the house. (The heatpump for the new addition still runs on a regular basis...the old heatpumps never run now as long as the stove is putting out decent heat) The stove does a great job of keeping the old part of the house warm (that's where the stove is located) but it's just hard to get the heat to "stretch" over to the new part. We have a cathedral ceiling in the living room where the stove is located and a lot of the stove's heat goes up there rather than into the new part of the house which has standard 8' ceilings. So I still have my challenges getting my heat spread out. I have a small fan running right now blowing cool air out of the new part at the stove...that seems to help some but it's hard to know how much it is really helping...really hate that it is burning electricity too. I mentioned the idea of a small wood stove in the new master but the wife didn't think too much of that idea, I thought it was a great idea... :lol:

God is good!!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Tony, I'll be interested in the difference between the oak and beech. But as Todd stated, some punk in the beech certainly is suspect.

 

[fire_man]

Well, to report back:

Its been too warm to waste my cherished Red Oak for daytime burns so I could record stove temps, but I loaded up last night with pure oak at 11:30 pm and at 4 am the room was still at 70 degrees with outside temps in the mid 20's. This is a good achievement, the house had been struggling to maintain a temperature in the mid 60's with 1/2 oak 1/2 beech and that was with even higher outdoor temps.

It seems with my house and the Fireview, I need really good BTU wood if I have any chance of staying warm when the outside temp is below 30F. I can stay warm, but I have to burn the stove hard and use dense wood. Beech is good stuff, but unfortunately much of it around here is diseased and of poor quality.

Next weekend is supposed to be cold, and hopefully I will be able to load with oak and monitor the daytime stove top temp to see if I can get those really high stove top temps for so many hours that Todd and Dennis spoke of. All I need is Dennis quality wood,and a smaller, better insulated house and then we would always be warm. Or maybe I need the Frankenstove??

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Tony, you should still be able to get that stove well over 600 even without the red oak. I can do it with ash, elm, cherry, maple and even with popple. Most woods should get you there but it will depend upon which wood you use for how long the stove will stay that hot.

 

[fire_man]

Dennis:

Last year towards the end of the burning season I had trouble preventing the stovetop from exceeding 700F with beech. Even adding air to get a flame going did not always work, the stove liked to peg past 700 once the cat was engaged. This year is completely different. We have gotten to 600 or so maybe twice, but 550 is usually peak. I have spalted Beech, Oak and Maple, all seasoned 2.5 years. I am simply not getting the >600 stovetop temps others report, not sure why. Same flue, new Cat, adjusted bypass for tightness and have nearly 3 year old wood that sounds dry as a bone when dropped.

I am now trying Todd's idea to really heat up the stove before bypassing. I have got to guess it's something with the wood. I have absolutely awful land for drying my wood, shaded, poor wind exposure, very damp climate. Two Summers ago did not even count towards seasoning, I think that Summer re-hydrated the wood!.

 

[Todd]

Tony,
How's your chimney cap look? Could it be clogged some reducing your draft?

 

[leeave96]

Tony,
How's your chimney cap look? Could it be clogged some reducing your draft?

I would agree with Todd - your draft might be compromised, especially if you are using the same wood as last year.

Bill

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good luck Tony. You might have some snow coming your way.