Saw my father in law light up his 6 year old Jotul Kennebec last night....

[midwestcoast]

Maybe there was a bed of warm coals under the ash in his stove, stove wasn't stone cold & once flames started pulling some draft those coals came to life. Maybe he made his kindling out of some scrap lumber hanging around the place... Or "seasoned" it in kerosene...
Did you ask him what his secret was to fast start-ups? Could be things aren't as they appear.

13' chimney won't help you, but sounds like you're doing pretty good anyway.

 

[woodgeek]

FIL is pulling your leg--and soaking his wood in kero.

 

[joefrompa]

Guys,

FIL was entertaining several guests, me included, and had just gotten home (I was there before him). He distractedly made a fire on a stone-cold stove with no coal bed....hell, he put like 6 pieces of newspaper down, walked away for a few minutes, and then came back with the kindling. That newspaper wasn't lighting up.

Yes, I did express to him how well it lit up. He was kinda like "really? [My son] says he doesn't like how it lights up." (BIL who has an insert too)

I've seen a few wood stoves in action - ain't never seen one with blasting secondaries and the entire firebox ENGULFED in flames like this. I was sitting 6 feet away the entire time.

Yes, it could've been the perfect combination of kindling and such, but he (and his wife, who's pretty harsh on everything) was totally like "Yeah, that's just normal. Nothing special about that." about it.

No leg pulling in this situation

 

[havermeyer]

I know of someone else who can start raging fires with green wood. His name is Chuck Norris... and he doesn't need matches either. After a long hard stare at the logs, they burst into flames.

 

[snowtime]

Might be your fil has an air leak. I wonder when he last changed the door or glass gaskets. He might just be use to it and the blower is keeping the stove from getting to hot. Just a thought. 15 min is how long it would take to get my glass hot but never the stove but then I am looking at starting the big splits not trying to see how fast I could get hot. If I wanted to get hot fast I would have to waste extra kindling and thats not worth it. I do think your chimney is a little short. Could try just a single wall extension for a test. Sometimes its a lot of little things not anything big.

 

[mainstation]

I have no input on your question.....but I have to ask: How does one go about getting their father in law to supply all their wood?

+1
Well played grasshopper.

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm with Dennis . . . ash is a great wood . . . but to truly excel it really needs more than 3 months of seasoning.

I also should mention that I have two acres of wood and to be quite honest if I got all my firewood from this two acre lot I would soon have a totally denuded lot. Two acres of woods is not a lot of acreage to be pulling wood.