Lopi Declaration/FX33 Tips & Tricks

[flyingpig]

I've got the Declaration as my first stove/insert earlier this year when we moved from FL to NC. I didn't have chance to use it that much last winter because I didn't have a well seasoned woods at hand.

From my short experience...if I can get it going, it'll heat well...almost kick us out of the living room where the insert is installed. But most of the time, I have a hard time try to maintain the fire. It'll likely to get smolder if I close the door. I have a 28ft chimney with 6" Magnaflex 316 liner kit so I don't think that I have a draft issue. May be it's because of the not-qualified wood, but it leave me worry why I couldn't get the fire going. I didn't have much chance to experiment the overnight burn also. I think max I've got so far is about 4-5 hours, with a black glass door in the morning.

Now it's getting cooler, I've got a reasonably seasoned oak waiting (may be about a year+... I haven't check the moisture level yet). So before we hit the burning season, I'd like to consult with our experienced owner here about how to make it "right".

We live in mid-Atlantic, so I don't expect that we'll need a full blast from the insert to keep us warm. My house is a 2 story colonial with about 2400 sq.ft. that we're fixing the insulation issue at the moment so the inside temperature should not be as fluctuated as last year.

Several of points I'd like to learn are...

- I don't plan to fill it full during the day time because I want to have a shorter burning cycle to limit the peak temperature. What is the minimum amount of wood enough to get the secondary burn going..may be for just an hour?

- How well does it perform when you run it with partial throttle? How far can you turn it down w/o smolder or blacken the glass door? The instruction of the insert gave me an impression that the primary control rod is very sensitive (of the full pulling length 2" -> Over night = fully out or 1/32, medium burn = 1/32~3/16, high burn = 3/16~fully in). How bad is it in the real world?

- How the blower fan impact the burn rate?

- Any tips on over night burn? Will turning the fan off help keeping the stove cruise longer?

- Chimney cleaning tips: I've found that I have a pretty good amount of creosote looking from the stove up. Those green woods last winter seems to leave its trail well. I've just got the Sooteater delivered to me last week but haven't tried it yet. Do I need to remove baffle first before cleaning from the bottom up?

Sorry for lots of newbie's questions and thank you in advance for any information you may have. Hope to hear from our 20+ Declaration owners soon!!

Cheers.....Som

 

[budman]

Dry wood has everything to do with good burn time's.

 

[flyingpig]

Not a popular topic - NEXT!!

 

[budman]

Som,How did you do last winter with the stove any better with the wood and better burn times.

 

[raybonz]

Burning dry wood will make all the difference.. You'll be lucky if 1 yr. oak will ready.. Perhaps if you mix in some dry wood from pallets it will help..

Good Luck

Ray

 

[flyingpig]

Thank you for checking in. I was not too bad. About half of the time (when I'm home) that I heat my entire house with the insert. Wood was much better than first year, but I'm sure still not perfect compare with the two years + oaks. Regarding overnight burn, I've got it up to 6+ hours, which is not too bad for my truly first year of burning. Oh..I almost had over fire couple of times when I close down the air intake too late.

Now I have about 2 cords sitting in back yard. Nothing bone dry but it should not be too bad. We are working on redo the whole yard so I may have more place to store wood and allow them to sit longer.

Can't wait for burning season again. But for now - lets make sure we finish the hurricane season first !!

Cheers.......Som

 

[maverick06]

I have the same fireplace, granted the chimney will effect a lot, but here is my input:
1) The first load of wood in the fireplace, when its cold, will go through pretty fast without putting out as much heat (it takes a while for the fireplace to warm up). With good wood, it probably takes 45 min to an hour to actually get up to temperature. If you have not modified the snap disk, it might take an hour and half to 2 hours to turn the blower on. So just load it up and try it, but probably a full load, maybe 2/3 high in the firebox will be a "short and good fire" once the fire goes outyou still have a lot of heat that will get blown into the room.
2) Overnight I have the air control almost all the way out. The glass is black. The control rod is sensitive, but its not hard to operate. Starting the control will be in, then I slowly pull it farther and farther out. The location is dependent on the quality of the wood and how good your draft is (temperature difference between inside and outside, chimney specs, how hard the fire is going all effect this). so you just have to get used to it
3) the blower fan is mandatory if you want to get heat out of this stove. Without the fan on you get very little heat out, with the fan its great! I am not sure if it impacts burn rate, and it doesnt matter, you need it. The fan doesnt turn on for a long time after you start the fire. I bypassed the snap disk, if you are competant, i suggest you bypass it or replace it. I have not had a difference in creosote levels since I did this.
4) overnight burns, get the fireplace going, let that load turn to coals, instantly reload. Then as it gets going, slowly pull the air control out until its about 1/8" or so from full out (1/8 - 1/4" for me, again it will be different for you). go to bed
5)cleaning - I do it top down. Pull out the bypass, clean away. I setup a fan that blows air up as I am clenaing, so the light stuff gets blown up and the heavy stuff falls back. I like this, probably excessive. I have pulled the baffell before, its a HUGE pain in the butt to remove and put back in. when i pulled it, there was just about nothing up there. I wont ever pull it again. There are long brushes you can buy to clean it out if you want. I use an air compressor and vaccuum to clean it out (blow into one side, suck from the other.

6) I buy "green wood" in the spring, stack it and burn it that fall/winter.
7) you will get the glass black, it will stay black. unless you burn really hard, it will stay that way.

you may expirance difference results from me, so I dont blame me if you get hosed up from my advice. However, with the exception of the snap disk, everything i said is in the manual. The snap disk is something for those who know what they are doing. i would suggest at least a year of use before you screw around with it.