I know this subject has be beat to death but I have read the recommended posts, learned a few things, and still have some questions.
We have a very well insulated home and the Harman is in the walkout basement where we spend a lot of time. Because of the good insulation and the fact that we keep the wood stove going nearly constantly at time we have to keep it dampered down. Wife worries about creosote in the flue even though we get it cleaned regularly. After the first year we hardly had anything in the pipe so have gone 2 years between cleanings sometimes and still very little to clean. The pipe goes from the stove up to the ceiling (standard 8 ft ceiling height) as single wall and continues straight up as insulated pipe about 30 feet farther. The draft is very good.
Recently I was told that the wood lasts just as long with the draft 1/2 open and blazing fire (flue temp about 450f?) as it does with a small fire (pipe temp about half that). Wife said she did some tests and it was true although I seriously doubt it. In any case the room temp was close to 80 and too hot for me.
The flue pipe gauge is a Rutland and is about 28" up the single wall pipe. Just read some posts about the difference between stove top temp and pipe temp and distance up the pipe, etc. I suppose a partial solution is to move the gauge down the pipe.
One issue we do have is the glass door getting dirty sometimes and it is hard to clean. The high fires will minimize that I think.
Other posts seemed to indicate 250 - 300 pipe temps were ok.
How do we have a low fire and keep the glass clean? Do low fires make the wood last longer? Are the low temps a problem with pipe build up or otherwise?
We have a very well insulated home and the Harman is in the walkout basement where we spend a lot of time. Because of the good insulation and the fact that we keep the wood stove going nearly constantly at time we have to keep it dampered down. Wife worries about creosote in the flue even though we get it cleaned regularly. After the first year we hardly had anything in the pipe so have gone 2 years between cleanings sometimes and still very little to clean. The pipe goes from the stove up to the ceiling (standard 8 ft ceiling height) as single wall and continues straight up as insulated pipe about 30 feet farther. The draft is very good.
Recently I was told that the wood lasts just as long with the draft 1/2 open and blazing fire (flue temp about 450f?) as it does with a small fire (pipe temp about half that). Wife said she did some tests and it was true although I seriously doubt it. In any case the room temp was close to 80 and too hot for me.
The flue pipe gauge is a Rutland and is about 28" up the single wall pipe. Just read some posts about the difference between stove top temp and pipe temp and distance up the pipe, etc. I suppose a partial solution is to move the gauge down the pipe.
One issue we do have is the glass door getting dirty sometimes and it is hard to clean. The high fires will minimize that I think.
Other posts seemed to indicate 250 - 300 pipe temps were ok.
How do we have a low fire and keep the glass clean? Do low fires make the wood last longer? Are the low temps a problem with pipe build up or otherwise?