my progress report

[mike8937]

i finished my break in fires friday, so i am still learning. i have yet to load more then a half full fire box and after 8 hours i am left with a very nice bed of coals and a stove still over 300 degrees. most of the time the stove is running between 450 and 550. i am burning so little wood compared to what i am use to and our house is way warmer especially on the second floor. we used to push our old stove and fire place pretty hard just to take the chill out of our bedrooms upstairs, when it got real cold we had to turn on the electric heat. so far i feel like we are barely using any wood and the whole house is being heated rather nicely. the secondary flames are incredible, i would like to know how to trigger them and keep them dancing longer then a few minutes. the only thing that im not fond of is how long it takes to warm this stove up, its a PIA. what made me realize how awesome this stove is was having soft butter in the morning. this stove has made my life easier by reducing the amount of work im required to do and by lowering my electric bills. i am beyond satisfied with my purchase. thanks woodstock!

 

[begreen]

Sounds great Mike. It's so nice when it all comes together. Can you add your Woodstock to your signature?

 

[Waulie]

Congrats, Mike. You will get way more secondaries that last a lot longer with a bigger load. You will also learn the timing on the draft setings to dial it in how you want it. Just keep it up!

I don't find it takes that long to get it up to temp from a cold start. Frankly, I've really only done that twice with my stove as it hasn't gone cold since the break in fires. I have cold-started my dads a couple times though. I had his up to temp in about 20 to 25 minutes. If you're not already, try notching the draft back in stages while the stove is warming up. Just keep good, active flames. The less the draft is open, the more heat is staying in the stove.

Edit: That's up to cat temp at 250.

 

[3fordasho]

I don't find it takes that long to get it up to temp from a cold start. Frankly, I've really only done that twice with my stove as it hasn't gone cold since the break in fires. I have cold-started my dads a couple times though. I had his up to temp in about 20 to 25 minutes. If you're not already, try notching the draft back in stages while the stove is warming up. Just keep good, active flames. The less the draft is open, the more heat is staying in the stove.

Edit: That's up to cat temp at 250.

I'm also finding the PH warms up quicker than the fireview it replaced. The longer smoke path in the PH (bypass opened or closed) is the reason. The key is having the draft cut back from full open so the heat is not going right up the flue.. as long as there is active flames in the box the draft is not cut back to far.

One thing I really like about the bypass mode on the PH is the flue temps don't seem to be able to skyrocket like they can on the fireview. With the bypass open on the fireview the flames/smoke dump right from the back of the firebox to the flue, you can get 1000F+ flue temps in less than a minute if you have the air open too far and forget for a few moments. Have not experienced the same issue with the PH, a welcome design/safety feature as one is less likely to touch off a chimney fire by having the bypass open and leaving the air too far open.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good post Tim. Most of the time when someone has a problem taking too long to heat their stove it is because they try to do it with the draft full open. It sounds good but just doesn't work well with any stove I've ever run. Get the fire dancing nicely with the draft full open and then cut, usually to about half open. That will cause the stove to heat up much quicker and less heat loss up the chimney.