Hi folks, 2nd year burning here and I'm perplexed. This might be normal, so bear with me. Last year I had less than seasoned wood. Fires were hard to start and got smokey and smouldery very easily. Lots of black glass meant I was cleaning it every few days. This year, I have good, well seasoned wood. Fires start well and burn clean and other than a slight haze that develops, I'm not needing to clean my glass much at all.
However, my fires, even when babied as much as possible, wont burn more than 3-4 hours before needing fed. Last year, I would routinely be able to conjure up a good flame after waking up in the morning or coming home from work(~8hrs). This year, I have nothing left but a room temperature bed of ashes. The wood is burning completely, I have no coals or chunks left over, but it's just burning a lot more quickly than I'd hoped.
I'd like to think I'm pretty good at loading up the firebox just about as tightly as I possibly can, and I turn down the primary all the way once I get ignition of the new load. Is my wood just that dry that it's burning that fast? Is the firebox on the C450 just that small that it can't sustain a 7-8 hour burn cleanly?
I love the stove, it performs great when I'm there to baby it and keep it fed, but it seems like after about 3 hours my wood load is reduced to big chunks of glowing coal that continue to release heat, while my stove top temps gradually decrease over the next few hours. It's still releasing heat, but my margin of truly useful heating is only maybe 3-4 hours on a full load.
Any thoughts? Or is this normal? At this rate, I'm considering waiting til this burn season is done and calling in a stove shop to see if I can't replace this insert with one that has a larger firebox. I'd like to rely on my wood burning as a primary source of heat, which I can only do now provided I'm home to dial the air in and add more wood throughout the burn cycle.
Thanks much in advance!
AJM
However, my fires, even when babied as much as possible, wont burn more than 3-4 hours before needing fed. Last year, I would routinely be able to conjure up a good flame after waking up in the morning or coming home from work(~8hrs). This year, I have nothing left but a room temperature bed of ashes. The wood is burning completely, I have no coals or chunks left over, but it's just burning a lot more quickly than I'd hoped.
I'd like to think I'm pretty good at loading up the firebox just about as tightly as I possibly can, and I turn down the primary all the way once I get ignition of the new load. Is my wood just that dry that it's burning that fast? Is the firebox on the C450 just that small that it can't sustain a 7-8 hour burn cleanly?
I love the stove, it performs great when I'm there to baby it and keep it fed, but it seems like after about 3 hours my wood load is reduced to big chunks of glowing coal that continue to release heat, while my stove top temps gradually decrease over the next few hours. It's still releasing heat, but my margin of truly useful heating is only maybe 3-4 hours on a full load.
Any thoughts? Or is this normal? At this rate, I'm considering waiting til this burn season is done and calling in a stove shop to see if I can't replace this insert with one that has a larger firebox. I'd like to rely on my wood burning as a primary source of heat, which I can only do now provided I'm home to dial the air in and add more wood throughout the burn cycle.
Thanks much in advance!
AJM