It's there a proper way to turn it on for the season?

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NYCPrincess

Member
Oct 13, 2014
60
Westbury, ny
this is the second year I have my wood stove. the first year I had to go through priming it before we could use it consistently abd at high temperatures. is that the case moving forward every year? how do you start your stove?
 
No. That was to cure the stove cement.
Let her rip. You will get a bit of smell.
 
If you were doing break-in burns on a brand new stove last year to gently finish cure the exterior surface coating of the stove, you should be good to let it rip for the rest of its service life.

Were your priming burns for some other purpose?
 
I clean my blower before I run the stove. A lot of dust settles in there during the off season and it stinks on the first fire. I find it smells less if I clean the blower and run the fan for a minute or so before I start the first fire.
 
Crank it high and let her fly. I always get that burning dust smell in both my LP furnace and my wood furnace. I absolutely hate that smell.
 
A small first of the season fire is normally specified for cast iron stoves. I do this now out of habit to drive out moisture from the stove and firebrick. The T6's firebrick is now going on season 8 with no cracks so maybe I'm doing something right.

NY Princess, your Shelburne is cast iron. If the stove has sat for a long time, like over the summer, I would do one or two little fires first per the manual before a full temp full wood load fire.
 
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A small first of the season fire is normally specified for cast iron stoves. I do this now out of habit to drive out moisture from the stove and firebrick. Firebrick is now going on season 8 with no cracks so maybe I'm doing something right.
What constitutes a small fire? How hot, how long?
 
I think most of us build up our heating demand. Small fires when the season is first starting and big fires when the demand is needed. It's just natural depending on heat needed. A small fire to me would be a couple chunks. A big fire would be the whole firebox full.
 
What constitutes a small fire? How hot, how long?
Basically a kindling fire with 2 or 3, 2" splits. Let them burn out and the stove cool down. Or just follow your Shelburne manual's breakin fire recommendation.
 
Thank you everyone. We did run it last night no more than 2 logs at a time. This morning another 2. when this one goes out, we will let it cool down. It never ran very hot. Just enough to take the nip of the air. It was yum.
 
Sounds good. You should be ready to go for the rest of the season.
 
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