Maintaining a constant stove temp

[hydestone]

As indicated by my firestarter status I am a novice when it comes to wood burning stoves. I am firing a Jotul 602 and have been playing around with the air control on the front door and the inline exhaust damper on the exhaust pipe in an attempt to maintain a relatively constant temperature. My wife thinks I am crazy because I am up every five minutes making minor adjustments to the dampers trying to hit the orange sweet spot on my new magnetic thermometer. I figure I am getting better because yesterday I barely left the hearth and was making adjustments every one minute. Anyway, my questions is...would you tend to set the exhaust damper and make adjustments to the air intake on front? Right now I have the exhaust damper 50% open and am adjusting the front only. Any thoughts?

 

[begreen]

Because of the small firebox, the 602 tends to burn in cycles of about 2 hrs. The phases of the cycle are warming up and charring the wood, burning hot and then slowing decreasing to embers at which point you start all over again. With my old 602 I would burn it with the exhaust damper open and air intake at about 50% for about 15 minutes, then close the stove pipe damper down all the way and regulate the stove with just the air intake. We have good draft, your experience may vary depending on the draft on your stove.

 

[elkimmeg]

You are changing too much. Try it this way, leave the dampeer open and use the inlet air adjustments
Once you learn them, then start working the damper Doing both without a history of what had worked will take you longer to figure out what is the right combination. I would start the fire both full open get it going decent, add larger splits 10 minutes till they catch. Then lower the inake 50% watch the thermo. After 550 lower it to 1/4 watch for a while and if the temp keeps climbing reduce it to 1/8. If it keeps climbing then reduce the damper 50%. It will take a while to learn the process. On the weekends I do not load the box I get it to where I want and add a few splits as the temp and fire receeds If enough hot coals are available, I may not make any adjustments only the wood feed

 

[hydestone]

Thanks for the tips, I will give them both a shot this weekend. I will tinker around with it this weekend to get a feel for how she burns.

I should probably burn the same type of wood for a while until I figure the stove out. I have a mix of hardwoods for this season and will sort through it as needed.

 

[elkimmeg]

30 years wood stove burning experience and still tinkering with 2 stoves Still learning

 

[precaud]

Because of the small firebox, the 602 tends to burn in cycles of about 2 hrs.

I burned a 602 for 15 years (still own it) and loved it. I never got a 2 hour burn out of it... more like 75-90 minutes... but here in the high desert we don't have hardwoods to burn... sigh.

BeGreen, I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I'd love to hear a comparison between your experience with the 602 and your F3 CB, heat output and efficiency-wise. Thanks!