First Burn-in Fire Yesterday

[Trooper]

Hi Folks,

I purchased my first-ever wood burning appliance last June, a Napoleon 1402 insert. Have been waiting to get 'er burned in ever since.

With outdoor temps in the mid-50s I gave it a shot yesterday morning. I think it was a success overall, but I noticed that once the fire was going well enough to close the door, I had to open it every ~10 minutes as it looked like the fire was going to go out. The damper was all the way open and my wood is Arizona dry (about 10%). Once the door was opened for a 30 seconds the fire picked right back up again.

About an hour in I threw a pretty hefty oak split in the box, and from that point on I had no issue with a dying flame. She roared up to about 500 degrees, acc. to the Condor on top of the stove. Pics below...any thoughts on my observations would be welcome.

Cheers,
Troop

 

[begreen]

That looks like a nice setting for the 1402. Mid-50's is still a bit warm for good draft. If the air needed to be open all the way, it sounds like either a short chimney or the wood was not dry at its core. With the hefty oak piece, were you able to incrementally reduce the air supply quite a bit?

 

[Trooper]

begreen, my chimney is about 16 feet, and the wood was split over 4 years ago. Once the oak quickly ignited I was able to dial the air down.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

You could have had poor draft at the time or you didn't have enough fire power in your start up fire.... 50 degrees is boarder line for achieving good draft......gl

 

[begreen]

Sounds good. Perhaps it just needed to get a good bed of coals and draft established. Nappy's seem to like a strong draft. For mild weather burning try using smaller 2-3" splits for the startup fire.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

My fire power recipe is..... Newspaper rolled up on bottom , topped with an array of fat wood sticks that I re split many times, topped with nice skinny kindling, (many here have different opinions on how thick or thin their kindling is, I like mine thin) topped with small splits, then topped with medium splits..... Allowing air and space between all while still touching at certain points. This has never failed me.....1 match and its go time......15-25 minutes later the bigger splits go in..... Gl

 

[Grisu]

Do you have a liner and is it insulated? I am wondering whether your chimney was "eating" the heat of your start-up fire and only once it was warm enough you could reduce the air.

 

[Trooper]

Do you have a liner and is it insulated?

Grisu - I have a stainless steel liner, but it is not insulated.

 

[Grisu]

My fire power recipe is..... Newspaper rolled up on bottom , topped with an array of fat wood sticks that I re split many times, topped with nice skinny kindling, (many here have different opinions on how thick or thin their kindling is, I like mine thin) topped with small splits, then topped with medium splits..... Allowing air and space between all while still touching at certain points. This has never failed me.....1 match and its go time......15-25 minutes later the bigger splits go in..... Gl

Yep, I also had more luck with the bottom-up approach than top-down. I put two medium size splits in, one on each side of the firebox (N-S). ~6 sheets of balled up newspaper in between, some smaller than larger kindling on top using the splits on the sides as support and a few criss-crossed longer pieces or uglies to get rid off those. About 5 minutes with the door open, another 5 min before I can start reducing the air.

 

[Trooper]

My fire power recipe is..... Newspaper rolled up on bottom , topped with an array of fat wood sticks that I re split many times

Gl - Do you still find you need newspaper when using fatwood? I tried fatwood alone yesterday and ended up using a little newspaper.

 

[Grisu]

Grisu - I have a stainless steel liner, but it is not insulated.

Maybe that is what is happening then. You lose some heat to the masonry during your start-up and that reduces your draft. If you don't have that problem when you just relight some coals I would really say that is what is going on. You probably only need to have a longer starting up period after a cold start then. Once you have a warm flue things should work fine.

Btw. Really great looking setup. Congrats!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Gl - Do you still find you need newspaper when using fatwood? I tried fatwood alone yesterday and ended up using a little newspaper.

Gl meant good luck...yes the news paper ignites the fatwood, if you try to ignite the fatwood, it may take 6-7 matches, with the newspaper it only takes 1, the fat wood has a 10 minute burn time (about)
This way it's 1 match and off to the races....

 

[Trooper]

Gl meant good luck...yes the news paper ignites the fatwood, if you try to ignite the fatwood, it may take 6-7 matches, with the newspaper it only takes 1, the fat wood has a 10 minute burn time (about)
This way it's 1 match and off to the races....

Thanks Ram. That's been my experience as well.

 

[begreen]

Tunnel of Love® starting: 1/4 supercedar in-between 2 small (2-3") splits loaded N/S, a couple inches apart, with some kindling criss-crossed on top. That's all we need to get going. The SuperCedar ignites easily and keeps burning for about 5-10 minutes.

 

[Trooper]

Maybe that is what is happening then. You lose some heat to the masonry during your start-up and that reduces your draft. If you don't have that problem when you just relight some coals I would really say that is what is going on. You probably only need to have a longer starting up period after a cold start then. Once you have a warm flue things should work fine.

Btw. Really great looking setup. Congrats!

Thanks Grisu. I believe part of my results were due to borderline outdoor temps. However, I had heard that when doing burn-in fires, you should pick days that are not too cold, because the windows need to be open for venting the paint smell. Needless to say I had quite a 'sweat lodge' going by afternoon

 

[begreen]

Sounds like you are doing fine Trooper. With lots of dry wood and a good stove you are going to be a happy camper this winter.

 

[bag of hammers]

That is a nice looking stove (and hearth)....

 

[oldspark]

Yea small splits and a less dense wood to get the chimney as hot as quick as you can should get you where you want to be.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Yes that's a nice install, looks great, enjoy it....