I'm going to somewhat echo ckarotka's post re:learning the stove. I'm on a RE-learning curve this year.
These past 4 years have been a bit of a struggle to keep my stove from becoming a Nasa rocket blast. Discovered there was quite a large broken weld in the back of the stove.
Finally got it fixed this summer through a barter deal, and redid the stove room to boot. Redid the door and glass gaskets as well.
Now that the outside temps have gotten colder, the stove seems to have come alive and hit it's stride. Although I've done this a few other times in the past couple weeks, yesterday was a bit of a test.
We went for a daylong visit about 1.5 hrs. from home. I had a nice bed of coals (not too big, not too small ;-) ), put in 4 splits and got them going with the flue temp around 300, and the stove about 400. Closed the door well, kicked the air down to almost closed (no 2ndary), and we left for the day about 10:30. When we got home at 7:30, the stove was about 250 (still hot to the touch), the blower was doing it's on/off thing like it does near the end of a burn cycle. The house temp had dropped to about 63, outside temp was about 27 with a wind chill of "pretty darned cold" (didn't check that), and the stove still had enough coals to add a few splits and get the fire cranked up in just a minute or so.
I'm happier than a .....well, let's just say that if we'd done that last year, the stove would have gone ballistic, and we would have returned to a house temp in the upper 50's.
Sooooo, I stayed up til about midnite last night, and did a similar setup with the stove. Woke this morning about 6:30, and the house was still at 68, with upper 20's outside and a wind chill around 16.
I'm still having a small problem controlling the fire, but it's MUCH better than it has ever been. The thermometer on the stove hasn't gone past 700-725. In past years, it's pegged at over 800, and although it never started ANY glowing, that was WAY too hot for this small ranch house .
Some here were saying I should just get a new stove, and I agree, but it's not in the cards right now. The stove needs to get me through this year and next, then the new one is going in. If I can swing it before that, I will. Hell, I'd do it today if I could.
Just thought I'd share this newest episode in my ongoing saga. Thanks for watching, and sharing your thoughts. There's probably more, but my fingers are getting tired.
These past 4 years have been a bit of a struggle to keep my stove from becoming a Nasa rocket blast. Discovered there was quite a large broken weld in the back of the stove.
Finally got it fixed this summer through a barter deal, and redid the stove room to boot. Redid the door and glass gaskets as well.
Now that the outside temps have gotten colder, the stove seems to have come alive and hit it's stride. Although I've done this a few other times in the past couple weeks, yesterday was a bit of a test.
We went for a daylong visit about 1.5 hrs. from home. I had a nice bed of coals (not too big, not too small ;-) ), put in 4 splits and got them going with the flue temp around 300, and the stove about 400. Closed the door well, kicked the air down to almost closed (no 2ndary), and we left for the day about 10:30. When we got home at 7:30, the stove was about 250 (still hot to the touch), the blower was doing it's on/off thing like it does near the end of a burn cycle. The house temp had dropped to about 63, outside temp was about 27 with a wind chill of "pretty darned cold" (didn't check that), and the stove still had enough coals to add a few splits and get the fire cranked up in just a minute or so.
I'm happier than a .....well, let's just say that if we'd done that last year, the stove would have gone ballistic, and we would have returned to a house temp in the upper 50's.
Sooooo, I stayed up til about midnite last night, and did a similar setup with the stove. Woke this morning about 6:30, and the house was still at 68, with upper 20's outside and a wind chill around 16.
I'm still having a small problem controlling the fire, but it's MUCH better than it has ever been. The thermometer on the stove hasn't gone past 700-725. In past years, it's pegged at over 800, and although it never started ANY glowing, that was WAY too hot for this small ranch house .
Some here were saying I should just get a new stove, and I agree, but it's not in the cards right now. The stove needs to get me through this year and next, then the new one is going in. If I can swing it before that, I will. Hell, I'd do it today if I could.
Just thought I'd share this newest episode in my ongoing saga. Thanks for watching, and sharing your thoughts. There's probably more, but my fingers are getting tired.
