how does the air get in?

[tiber]

So I have been running the crap out of the defiant 1910 here and we are up almost $210 on the oil bill (how much THEY OWE US). But the other day my wife went to light it off and couldn't get it going. Then I noticed she had let the ash pan fill and had about another inch of ash in there. I cleaned it out an it still didn't want to light off, so I shop vaccummed everything I could find in there to clear it. This worked,but where does the air actually get into the firebox?

 

[maxed_out]

I'm pretty sure air enters at the lower back of the stove, passes thru the stove (prewarmed) and ultimately comes out the channels above the fire doors to produce the "air wash". I know on my old one just like yours I had to go to some trouble to make sure the baffles above the door had enough space to allow combustion air to enter.

As my stove got older the refractory started going which really affected the draft. I replaced the refractory and burned it last year (just fine). This summer we switched over to the isle royale.

I also recall sometimes the cat would partially fill with fly ash which affected the burn on the cat.