Wood stove newbie needs help with Scandia 308

[Brad.R]

We moved into a house with a Scandia 308 stove in our finished basement. I am a complete wood stove novice. i've never owned one before or lived anywhere with a wood burning stove. That said, I have a few questions that i'm hoping you guys can help me with. Please forgive my total ignorance and thanks in advance!

There is a knob on the left side of the stove, near the top that when I turn, sounds like it's opening something in the stove. if I turn it the other way it closes something with a "clank". I have no idea what it is or what it's supposed to do. See I told you I was new a this.

There is also a little round hole on the back left at the bottom that has a metal flap that can be slid to open and close the hole. I assume this is an air inlet? How do I know if I should have this open or closed?

There is also a handle on the stovepipe. I assume this is a flue. When should this be opened and closed? For that matter how can I tell if it IS open or closed? The handle is a sort of oblong metal coil. Does the shape and position of the handle also indicate the position of the flap in the stovepipe?

The few times i've tried to use the stove so far have resulted in The Great American Smokeout where my basement has filled with thick smoke because of a backdraft. Admittedly this is probably because I don't know what i'm doing, and probably have the flue/inlet/whatever set wrong. The one time I managed to get it to work, I had to sit in front of it with the wife's hairdryer, blowing air into the stove for about 15 minutes before trying to light the fire.

If anyone could help me figure out how to set the stove for initially starting off a fire that would be great. We'd love to use the stove but at this point we're sick of filling up the basement with smoke.

 

[begreen]

Hi Brad, welcome. The Scandia is probably not the best stove for a beginner. It's a Taiwan knockoff of a Vermont Castings stove and not of the same quality. If you know a bit about stoves, it can be modified and tinkered with to make it into a passable wood burner. But that is assuming the fundamentals are in good shape, no cracks, and all parts present and not warped.

The knob you are turning sounds like the stove bypass. Open the top lid and work the control. Do you see a big damper flap towards the back of the stove moving? That is so that you can start the stove with the damper open to the flue and then, once the stove is getting hot, close the damper to reroute the flue gases through the secondary chamber. My guess is that the smokeout is because you are trying to start the stove with the bypass closed, it needs to be open to start.

There are doc for the original Vermont Castings stove here. The operation for the Scandia should be similar. Download the owner's manual (it's in two parts).

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Vermont_Castings_Older_Stove_Models/

There can also be other factors that may be affecting how the stove burns. Have you had the chimney checked and cleaned? If it's plugged with creosote, you don't want to be burning at all. Read up the manual and get back to us with questions. But don't assume this setup ever worked well. If it does, great. But some basements have other issues that compound the problems for wood burning.