Insert not heating room or house

[Bulldogmoose]

I think that time factor is something to look at then. With a new appliance that you are still figuring out how to use I understand that leaving it unattended is not comfortable. With my fresstanding stove, I get a good fire going when I get home from work, load it up again before bed, and my aging dog needs to go out early enough in the morning that its also a good time to reload the stove (or maybe the dog is just cold) and finally I do a full load before I go to work.

I'm comfortable with my operation and not worried about the stove doing its thing when no one is home. Also the size of the loads I adjust so I can reload when I want to, not having to wait or try to reload on active flames.

If I only ran my stove fore three/four hours a night I would just start getting the temps I wanted and then it would be done.

I don't mind running it while I'm not home the prob is when i go to work.. If I load it
Up before bed at 11 I can wake up at around 5.. There are some coals in the stove to get a fire goin again but it's cooled down a lot.. Then I load it back up before work and I won't get home for like 9 hours or so and there's really nothing left so I'm pretty much starting over again

 

[Bulldogmoose]

This is a good point, takes a good 24 hours of constantly running my stove for the house to be comfortable.

How do u run it 24 hrs if u work?

 

[weatherguy]

How do u run it 24 hrs if u work?

I get 10-12 hour burns but mines a little bigger than yours. It's going to take you a while to learn how to run the stove efficiently, I'm not familiar with your stove so I don't know what burn times you can expect to get optimally.

 

[Bulldogmoose]

I get 10-12 hour burns but mines a little bigger than yours. It's going to take you a while to learn how to run the stove efficiently, I'm not familiar with your stove so I don't know what burn times you can expect to get optimally.

There's only a 7 hr burn time at maximum efficiency w my insert

 

[Sully]

The door on my insert is always way hotter than any other spot I can check. It will be 650 on the door trim and 450 on too, with blower running in low.

 

[Andy S.]

We are not home enough to get stoce burning 24 hrs a day and when we r both times it's been 50 degrees or so and house was able to get toasty then but cold weather has been difficult to get past 60

I'm new to woodburning but may be able to add some perspective from my pellet burning in a horribly insulated and very drafty weekend house I have. The house is 1500 ft2 with the stove located on the first floor and most of the living done on the 2nd floor. I bought it with a useless old heat pump. I tried to use the stove as the sole source of heat but quickly learned that it would take me all weekend to get the house comfortable... just in time to leave for home. I ended up buying a couple of infrared space heaters for upstairs. Running together I can get the upstairs to 70* relatively quickly. Once that happens the stove is a beast at maintaining. In short, the stove takes forever to get me comfortable from a cold start but it fully capable of maintaining comfort with very little help. I'd get your place to temperature with your main source of heat and then see what your insert can do.

 

[Charles1981]

Even with semi-wet/wet wood if that stove is reading 500 it should be heating the main room regardless.

I agree you have to be losing that heat in massive quantities somewhere and likely it is just going straight up the chimney due to a poor installation.

1. Is your masonry chimney on the interior of your house or on the exterior? If it is exterior did they insulate the stainless liner? If not that is a problem as well. You can get away without an insulated liner if your masonry chimney is in the middle or more central to your home, but if it is sitting on the outside of your home you should have it insulated.

2. Fiberglass not appropriate. You should have Roxul stuffed at the bottom with a block off and Roxul stuffed at the top under the capped off portion WITH an insulated liner.

3. What is the radius of comfort for the insert? At 1-2 feet you should want to feel like you should move away from the stove because it is too hot especially when it is reading 500 (~110-115F). At 2-4 feet it should be 90-95F....and honestly in the stove room you should be able to be 10-12 feet away and still register a temperature of at least 85-86. If this situation isn't occurring that heat is most likely getting pumped straight up the chimney or your house has serious draft issues.

My opinion at least. I've burned plenty of not great wood. Regardless, with wet wood it will struggle to burn and the heat output will be less, but if your stove is 500 it should be outputting heat regardless just not nearly as efficiently and risking excessive creosote. Poorly seasoned wood sucks, but not this bad. At the least your stove room should be WARM.

 

[Bulldogmoose]

Even with semi-wet/wet wood if that stove is reading 500 it should be heating the main room regardless.

I agree you have to be losing that heat in massive quantities somewhere and likely it is just going straight up the chimney due to a poor installation.

1. Is your masonry chimney on the interior of your house or on the exterior? If it is exterior did they insulate the stainless liner? If not that is a problem as well. You can get away without an insulated liner if your masonry chimney is in the middle or more central to your home, but if it is sitting on the outside of your home you should have it insulated.

2. Fiberglass not appropriate. You should have Roxul stuffed at the bottom with a block off and Roxul stuffed at the top under the capped off portion WITH an insulated liner.

3. What is the radius of comfort for the insert? At 1-2 feet you should want to feel like you should move away from the stove because it is too hot especially when it is reading 500 (~110-115F). At 2-4 feet it should be 90-95F....and honestly in the stove room you should be able to be 10-12 feet away and still register a temperature of at least 85-86. If this situation isn't occurring that heat is most likely getting pumped straight up the chimney or your house has serious draft issues.

My opinion at least. I've burned plenty of not great wood. Regardless, with wet wood it will struggle to burn and the heat output will be less, but if your stove is 500 it should be outputting heat regardless just not nearly as efficiently and risking excessive creosote. Poorly seasoned wood sucks, but not this bad. At the least your stove room should be WARM.

The him net is exterior.. The chimney liner is. Not Insulated. My chimney guy said that it helps more for creosote build up then heat addition. .. We are going to Install a damper block off plate with the roxul insulation . We r running the stove right now and the thermometer on the door is reading 325 right now it's burning and venting nicely but how do I get it hotter?

 

[Dix]

The him net is exterior.. The chimney liner is. Not Insulated. My chimney guy said that it helps more for creosote build up then heat addition. .. We are going to Install a damper block off plate with the roxul insulation . We r running the stove right now and the thermometer on the door is reading 325 right now it's burning and venting nicely but how do I get it hotter?

How big of fire do you have in the insert? 3, 4, 5 splits?? Is it blazing? Have the secondaries kicked in? How are your air control (s) set? My PE (insert) cruises at 700F - 750F on the upper right corner of the front. Interior masonry chimney pretty much centrally located in the house. Heats 1400 SF with ease.

I also agree with the wood / seasoned issue.

Take a pic and let us see what's going on if you can.

Welcome to the forums!!

 

[Bulldogmoose]

How big of fire do you have in the insert? 3, 4, 5 splits?? Is it blazing? Have the secondaries kicked in? How are your air control (s) set? My PE (insert) cruises at 700F - 750F on the upper right corner of the front. Interior masonry chimney pretty much centrally located in the house. Heats 1400 SF with ease.

I also agree with the wood / seasoned issue.

Take a pic and let us see what's going on if you can.

Welcome to the forums!!

What do u mean by splits and secondaries sorry I'm not to familiar with the lingo.. Fire is going pretty well right now have it at around 375 and rising .. It's burning pretty quickly with the damper fully open

 

[Charles1981]

Not sure 375 is less than impressive though for stove temperature. If it cruises for a few hours above 500 that is one thing. If it only cruises at 350-400 and struggles to reach that temperature that could be a wood problem.

 

[Bulldogmoose]

400 and climbing

 

[Bulldogmoose]

Unfortunately all I have is a stovepipe thermometer and I don't know where else to put it to get a good reading .. I'm sitting about 20 inches away and the stove is Hott as hell ... Do I throw the damper down a little bit or do I continue to let it burn like crazy

 

[Dix]

The pieces of firewood are splits.

The secondaries are the dancing flames that come when you have a good fire going and shut down the air intake (s) to get the most heat out of the loaded firewood.

Pic of my PE. Note the dancing flames up top. This is secondaries starting to be in action. Also note the air control (bottom the the stove, it's the lever) is more than 1/2 way shut down (I was working on a coal bed with this fire), hence engaging the secondaries.

Also note the thermometer position over the door.

I'm not familiar with the controls on the Jotul, but the basics have to be similar.

 

[Bulldogmoose]

The pieces of firewood are splits.

The secondaries are the dancing flames that come when you have a good fire going and shut down the air intake (s) to get the most heat out of the loaded firewood.

Pic of my PE. Note the dancing flames up top. This is secondaries starting to be in action. Also note the air control (bottom the the stove, it's the lever) is more than 1/2 way shut down (I was working on a coal bed with this fire), hence engaging the secondaries.

Also note the thermometer position over the door.

I'm not familiar with the controls on the Jotul, but the basics have to be similar.

View attachment 118341

Should I try positioning the thermometer somewhere else.. I just reached 500 degrees .. I've used more small split pieces when should I add bigger pieces/ lower damper

 

[Dix]

Should I try positioning the thermometer somewhere else.. I just reached 500 degrees .. I've used more small split pieces when should I add bigger pieces/ lower damper

If your at 500F, I'd shut the air down 1/2 way and see what happens. You might hear some pinging and such from the stove, as the temp will go up.

Have you been running this with the damper/air wide open all of this time???

 

[Bulldogmoose]

If your at 500F, I'd shut the air down 1/2 way and see what happens. You might hear some pinging and such from the stove, as the temp will go up.

Have you been running this with the damper/air wide open all of this time???

No I haven't jut don't know much about how to work w damper so don't know when to open close it etc.. When should I add wood/ bigger pcs

 

[dmmoss51]

Getting the secondaries firing is important as it is going to harvest more energy out of the wood. These are burning the smoke which is otherwise carrying energy up the chimney that could otherwise be heating your room... plus more smoke going up chimney = more creosote.

 

[Grisu]

Try it this way:

See that you have a good bed of hot coals and a warm stove before loading it for the night. Rake all the coals to the front of the firebox. Put as many splits as you can fit in maybe leaving only a 1 inch gap to the burn tubes in the top. Let the wood catch fire and start a good burn, then close door. Leave the air all the way open until the wood is fully engulfed then start to stepwise close the air, maybe a quarter every 5 min. Look at the fire, close until the flames become "lazy". Then wait a few minutes, then close again some and so on. When the air is completely closed you should have nice secondary flames in the top of the firebox and the stove top should read 500 F to 700 F for most stoves.

In the morning put on a bunch of smaller splits in filling half to 2/3 of the firebox. Get a good fire going for maybe 10 minutes then start to stepwise close the air as above. Leave the air open maybe 10% to 20% (but not all the way once you have a good fire) to get a quick hot fire going; that should get the stove and the house back up fast. Once that fire dies down fill the stove up again similar to what I described for an overnight burn and let it cruise during the day. I manage to do a quick, hot fire in the morning (~2 h), two fill-ups during the day (~6 h each) and one overnight burn (~10 h) with nice dry hardwood.

If you leave the air open all/most of the time you let a lot of the heat escape up the chimney.

 

[Bulldogmoose]

Try it this way:

See that you have a good bed of hot coals and a warm stove before loading it for the night. Rake all the coals to the front of the firebox. Put as many splits as you can fit in maybe leaving only a 1 inch gap to the burn tubes in the top. Let the wood catch fire and start a good burn, then close door. Leave the air all the way open until the wood is fully engulfed then start to stepwise close the air, maybe a quarter every 5 min. Look at the fire, close until the flames become "lazy". Then wait a few minutes, then close again some and so on. When the air is completely closed you should have nice secondary flames in the top of the firebox and the stove top should read 500 F to 700 F for most stoves.

In the morning put on a bunch of smaller splits in filling half to 2/3 of the firebox. Get a good fire going for maybe 10 minutes then start to stepwise close the air as above. Leave the air open maybe 10% to 20% (but not all the way once you have a good fire) to get a quick hot fire going; that should get the stove and the house back up fast. Once that fire dies down fill the stove up again similar to what I described for an overnight burn and let it cruise during the day. I manage to do a quick, hot fire in the morning (~2 h), two fill-ups during the day (~6 h each) and one overnight burn (~10 h) with nice dry hardwood.

If you leave the air open all/most of the time you let a lot of the heat escape up the chimney.

Thanks a lot man I appreciate u helpin me out with this... Stoves at around 500 and temp inside room is only around 62

 

[Charles1981]

Do you have cathedral ceilings? Ceiling Fans? How far away from the stove can you be and not feel comfortably warm anymore?

 

[Bulldogmoose]

Do you have cathedral ceilings? Ceiling Fans? How far away from the stove can you be and not feel comfortably warm anymore?

No my ceilings are around 7 ft.. No ceiling fans and once you're about 5 feet or so you can't feel it anymore

 

[Grisu]

Does not make sense. I am starting to question your thermometer. Is the blower running?

I would suggest to remove the surround tomorrow when the stove is cold and run it a day or two without it to see where the heat is going. You can then also place the thermometer on the stovetop and get more accurate readings.

 

[Charles1981]

Something ain't right and that heat has to be going somewhere and its clear it isn't going into your room. But I have no suggestions and am at a loss. Those more knowledgeable will hopefully have some good input.

 

[Dix]

No I haven't jut don't know much about how to work w damper so don't know when to open close it etc.. When should I add wood/ bigger pcs

Have you been running this stove with the air control/damper all the way open all the time?? *I'm asking again*

Read your owners manual for what the air controls are, it should be in there.

If you are not controlling the air with a decent fire, you are losing mega heat up the chimney. I betcha that's where it's going.