Woodstock Fireview FV201

[John B]

Hi All,

Looking for some advice. Last year I moved into a house with a Woodstock Fireview FV201 stove. The stove is connected to an approx' 25' masonry chimney (8x8 terra cotta I believe) via a single wall pipe w/ 2 90 degree elbows.

When we moved in, I ordered a new cat from Woodstock and installed it. Otherwise the stove appeared to be in fine shape. Coming from burning a VC Encore in our last home for 10 years, this stove definitely had a learning curve which has just turned into frustration on our part.

With the VC, we could keep loading splits into the stove all day to keep the stovetop temp up around 600-650 and get the house really toasty warm. At night, we could load it up and let it burn everything as we slept, and left with enough coals to restart and all ashes in the bin.

With the FV, the only way to keep it from coaling up is to fill it, burn it down completely, and then fill it again. But even then, I eventually have to pull out a bed of hot coals which seems like a waste. Otherwise I have a long period where the heat output is low while the coals burn down.

The other issue is that I get a ton of Creosote from the FV in the upper 5' of my chimney, where it exits the house. So much so that I have to clean it monthly or it gets restricted. I know the cat is working and wood is dry enough per a moisture meter. My chimney has a lot of draft, and when it is very cold we have a damper we can close a bit to keep the heat from going up out of the chimney. I am wondering if the damper is the issue, but if I leave it open my burn times are definitely shorter. Though about lining this chimney but it may be difficult due to how it was built.

One thing I can say is the stove is way undersized to the house, and to remedy that I lined a chimney on the other side of the house that has a fireplace and installed a Kuma Sequoia insert. So now I am left wondering what to do with this FV. I have been thinking of replacing with this a Woodstock Absolute Steel Hybrid or another Encore. But if anyone has any suggestions on how to get the FV setup better I'd live to hear it. I know these are supposed to be great stoves and I'd really like to avoid spending money that wont fix my issues.

Thanks and sorry for the long post!
John

 

[fire_man]

How big is your house and what is your climate like?

I had a similar experience with heavy coaling with the FV and it turned out to be unseasoned wood. I got on the 3 year plan and the coaling stopped. If the stove is too small for the house and you keep stuffing it full before it completes the burn cycle you also get heavy coaling - but that does not sound like your problem. If you are shovelling out hot coals than either your wood is not seasoned or the stove is undersized.

If you open up the draft after the flames stop you will burn the coal bed down faster.

 

[John B]

Thanks. I'm in NY State, about 1 hour north of the NYC. House is 3000SF.

I definitely dont season my wood 3 years so that could be part of the issue. That being said, if that is what this stove requires then a replacement might be in order. My VC Encore didnt require that much seasoning of the wood to burn clean and efficiently.

 

[fire_man]

Three years of seasoning is necessary for Oak but other wood types dry quicker like soft maple. 3000SF is way too big for that stove in your area. I used to live an hour North of NYC so I am very familiar with that climate.

 

[John B]

Yeah I agree, now the Sequoia will help with that so maybe I’ll have a better experience with the FV this year.

 

[Woody Stover]

I know they made several changes to the Fireview 205 but I don't know how much better a heater it is than the 201.
You can burn down the coals while generating some heat by raking the coals forward, putting a couple of small splits of soft Maple or other dry, flamey wood on top and opening the air slightly to keep some flame in the box.
Seems like you like cat stoves, so in your situation I might get a Woodstock AS or IS to kick butt on that 3000 sq.ft. unless the Sequoia is able to take up all the slack. They would have quite a bit more output than a Fireview.

 

[edyit]

the only way to keep it from coaling up is to fill it, burn it down completely, and then fill it again

you've just described how run just about any stove, stoves with reburn technology, be it catalyst or secondary air tubes burn "best" in cycles like that, instead of throwing a log or two into the ole smoke dragon every now and then, it sounds more like an undersized stove than anything, 3000 square feet is decent sized