Need help with temps and smoldering

[TomatoLover]

Still quite the newbie and learning how to operate the beast in the basement. Our sweep told me to burn between 550-650 according to stove top thermometer..


What happens if we burn outside that range? It's not easy to keep it in that 100 degree range for long -- maybe 2 hours max, then it starts dropping. If I step outside to look at the chimney, anything over 400 is smokeless, so I am assuming a clean burn, but perhaps I am wrong. Why is the range 550-650 so important, and am I creating a creosote disaster if I burn below that temp?


Here is the beast:

 

[begreen]

Once the wood gases are burned off you are burning charcoal. The risk of creosote build up is minimal after that point. Temps will gradually taper downward until either the stove gets reloaded or the fire goes out.

 

[Fsappo]

Without too much going into detail, I would burn smaller hotter fires when home, leave the lower fires for overnight and check the chimney once a month or any time you suspect there may be stuff in there.

 

[TomatoLover]

Once the wood gases are burned off you are burning charcoal. The risk of creosote build up is minimal after that point. Temps will gradually taper downward until either the stove gets reloaded or the fire goes out.

Thanks for the response. That helps. But to make sure I understand, burning at 400 on the way down is OK, but I should not attempt to hold a steady burn at 400 on the way up? In other words, our target range truly is 550-650?

Sorry to be so dense...the truth is, I am terrified of this dragon and doing something wrong. It's so old and I cannot find any information on the manufacturer on line, so there's no manual to tell me what to do. A neighbor told me the stove looks like a Fisher knock-off, and it has the same dimensions as a Papa Bear. I've read that manual posted here on Hearth.com, which states to burn between 400-450. Our sweep is coming back December 8, earliest he can get here, and I'm trying to not burn the house down before he arrives.

 

[TomatoLover]

Without too much going into detail, I would burn smaller hotter fires when home, leave the lower fires for overnight and check the chimney once a month or any time you suspect there may be stuff in there.

Thanks for the reply. What is an appropriate "hot" fire for this stove? Is that in the 550-650 range?

 

[Fsappo]

I try to answer in a way that reflects what I would do if it was me burning in my own home. Assuming your chimney was lined, I would try to keep the stove in the 5-600 range and try not to let it spend too much time over 700. So if I was home, Id open the air up a little and throw one or two logs in every couple of hours. For overnights I would just not have the goal of choking it down for an overnight burn, because Ive seen a handful of small fires take a "clean" chimney and give it enough creosote for a chimney fire. I would just load it half full at night , set the air for a medium burn and let the stove run out when it did.

If it came to be that I needed 8-12 hour burns, I would re prioritize and save for a different stove

 

[TomatoLover]

I try to answer in a way that reflects what I would do if it was me burning in my own home. Assuming your chimney was lined, I would try to keep the stove in the 5-600 range and try not to let it spend too much time over 700. So if I was home, Id open the air up a little and throw one or two logs in every couple of hours. For overnights I would just not have the goal of choking it down for an overnight burn, because Ive seen a handful of small fires take a "clean" chimney and give it enough creosote for a chimney fire. I would just load it half full at night , set the air for a medium burn and let the stove run out when it did.

If it came to be that I needed 8-12 hour burns, I would re prioritize and save for a different stove

Thank you! Very helpful. I work from home and my office is 10 feet from the stove, so I babysit it and am constantly checking the stove top temp to keep it in that range. I just wasn't sure if that was the correct range based on other things I have heard and read. With no manual for this dragon, and being new to wood stoves, I'm really afraid of doing something wrong. For overnights, we will only need about 6 hours because of our work schedules. We've been experimenting with different overnight logs, and at least we'll have hot coals to restart in the AM. For ridiculously cold nights, hubby will be getting up to feed it.

Right now we're trying to figure out what our heating needs are as we've not yet spent a winter in this house. We will be replacing this dragon in the basement and adding a wood stove upstairs as well, but we first want to see how the heat travels and how the real winter temps affect the different rooms, etc. So realistically, we just need to get through one season and then we will have a better idea of our heating needs (the house has passive solar as well, and we are going full solar, with the panels on the roof of the house, which will affect house temps we're told).

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it.

 

[KDMANN]

On a side note...I was wondering how the heat powered fans work. I see your using one. Whats your opinion of it? Does it move a lot of air?

 

[TomatoLover]

On a side note...I was wondering how the heat powered fans work. I see your using one. Whats your opinion of it? Does it move a lot of air?

In our situation, it is working quite well. There is a noticeable difference without the Eco-fan; the heat seems to linger in the room with the stove and does not move as well without the fan. Our stove heats 2300 sq. ft. from the basement, with the bedrooms 50 feet away and up a flight of open stairs. The heat, therefore, has to travel 25 feet across the lower level, up a flight of open switch back stairs, then down a long hallway to the bedrooms. The fan on top of the stove really gets the air movement going.

 

[ridemgis]

Still quite the newbie and learning how to operate the beast in the basement. Our sweep told me to burn between 550-650 according to stove top thermometer..


What happens if we burn outside that range? It's not easy to keep it in that 100 degree range for long -- maybe 2 hours max, then it starts dropping. If I step outside to look at the chimney, anything over 400 is smokeless, so I am assuming a clean burn, but perhaps I am wrong. Why is the range 550-650 so important, and am I creating a creosote disaster if I burn below that temp?


Here is the beast:

View attachment 142707

Being a newbie to wood burning, albeit with a modern EPA secondary burn stove, I'm not quite in the same situation as you, but a Gardus SootEater (http://www.sooteater.com/chimney) is a quick and easy tool to clean the chimney without the hair greying experience of heading up on to the roof. It's almost trivial to give the chimney a quick sweep on a Saturday morning while you get you get some confidence in your wood burning skills.
As I understand it the two big worries are chimney fires and shortening the life of your stove with frequent over fires. One is a safety issue, the other more economic. A regular sweep of the flue will at least let you sleep at night without worrying too much about whether or not your fires are hot enough or the wood is dry enough.

My two cents.
PJ

 

[TomatoLover]

Being a newbie to wood burning, albeit with a modern EPA secondary burn stove, I'm not quite in the same situation as you, but a Gardus SootEater (http://www.sooteater.com/chimney) is a quick and easy tool to clean the chimney without the hair greying experience of heading up on to the roof. It's almost trivial to give the chimney a quick sweep on a Saturday morning while you get you get some confidence in your wood burning skills.
As I understand it the two big worries are chimney fires and shortening the life of your stove with frequent over fires. One is a safety issue, the other more economic. A regular sweep of the flue will at least let you sleep at night without worrying too much about whether or not your fires are hot enough or the wood is dry enough.

My two cents.
PJ

Thanks! You are right -- the big worry is the chimney fire, and the related but lesser worry is running the stove too hot (not for economic reasons but for safety reasons -- this stove is out of here in the spring). I will definitely sleep better if I know there is not a pile of creosote waiting to ignite in the chimney. And my husband is thrilled with the idea of buying a new toy for his drill. Now we just have to figure out how to access the stove pipe and chimney, since the beast is tucked back into the firebox. Such a steep learning curve for the two of us, both of whom have spent 40+ years heating homes with natural gas.

 

[Osagebndr]

Last year was my first year and worried about chimney fires and I had moisture problems with wood etc. I learned a lot from the people on this site, just keep asking and learning y'all will make it thru. I burn atleast one hot fire a day in the old buck stove I have( still waiting on the summit to be installed) and it seems to workout pretty good and at nite I damp the stove down to get all the burn time I can out of it. Waking up to a bed of hot coals is nice and makes the fire starting easy in the morning. You just have to experiment a little and it'll all come out in the wash

 

[Hiram357]

question about stove temps (still new at this whole wood stove thing)... when you say the 500 to 700 range are you talking about the stove temp or the pipe themp? The thermometer I got for the flue pipe from the stove shop shows 300 to 450 to be the safe operating temps. The book I found for my stove (VC Resolute 1980) says the top of the stove should be around 500, I assume these temp ranges vary from stove to stove, i've been operating my stove for about a week now with the pipe temps ranging in that 300 to 405 mark. That's with dry wood and a smokeless chimney, is that good?

 

[Osagebndr]

Sounds good to me. Check your chimney once a month also and clean as needed

 

[Hiram357]

So when I check my chimney, and see it's still attached to the house, then what? It's an external brick chimney with a cleanout on the bottom. Do I climb up there and look down? What's a good method of "checking" ? Can I attach Brillo pads to santa so he cleans it on the way down?? :D

 

[Osagebndr]

Up on the roof top with old st. Nick Seriously tho from the roof if possible . Do u have a liner or square tile chimney and what size is it. That will let you know what size and shape of brush you need to clean the flu .

 

[Hiram357]

its a square tile, 6x6 think. I just had a guy come out and clean it, he used a big drain snake looking brush from the bottom. Figured the first round would be best done by a pro instead of my amateur hour shenanigans.

 

[Osagebndr]

Good idea . Might check out soot eater so you can do the same. Is post a link but not sure how to do that. They are at soot eater . com if your interested