As your fire burns, do you leave your stove's door open for awhile?

[billjustbill]

I have a Lopi "Freedom Bay" fireplace insert. It's been good and I clean the blower fins and lub the bearings. Here in North Central Texas, West of Ft. Worth, the coldest temps of this Winter's roller coaster temps have been in the lower 20's and mid teens when strong Northers hit.

There comes a time, as I burn with 2yr. seasoned Red Oak and some Mesquite, that the max 180 cfm of the blower air doesn't seem to be enough to keep a late 1950's ranch style home comfortable when in the teens and we've been gone for a several hours. With two splits on a bed of coals, with the door closed and dampered, my temp gauge shows 300* on the insert's steel face-frame beside the airtight door. Floor temp is about 65* and a second temp gauge shows the hot blower air coming out is about 200*. So, my question is about getting some of those flames to put more radiant heat out of the firebox and into the living area.

Do you ever leave your stove door wide open for any length of time after the fire is nice and even and the flames are steady? Besides the issue of a popping spark now and then, would more "good air" be sucked out and lost as it goes up the 6" flu liner than an open door's heat dump into the room?

 

[jetsam]

Not me. If I wanted to do that, I'd just drill a 6" hole in the wall. Same effect and you don't have to put wood in it!

 

[begreen]

300º is pretty low temp. That firebox will hold a lot more fuel. Take it up to 500º and you should be plenty warm for hours, with the stove door closed.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I just had a thread on this, apparently more heat is sucked out of the room via the chimney than is radiated out into the room. I'll leave my door open sometimes if im sitting here next to the stove and i want that open fireplace feel for awhile. If it feels good do it, but yeah a lot of your heat is leaving the room. Good news is you can always make more for free.

 

[Sprinter]

Besides the issue of a popping spark now and then, would more "good air" be sucked out and lost as it goes up the 6" flu liner than an open door's heat dump into the room?

The quick answer is "yes". With the door open, you may as well just have an open fireplace. It may feel nice close up, but in the long run, you're sucking large amounts of outside air in through the house. Not what you want. That's why these stoves are designed the way they are. When the stove is operated as designed, the air draw is much less, usually less than a bathroom fan. Even better is if you have a so-called OAK (outside air kit) to feed combustion air directly from the outside through a duct without any air being drawn through the house.

If your insert is properly sized for your house and assuming it's operated properly, it should heat your space without measures like that. It sounds like you're not getting the stove hot enough either, but that's hard to know from this end.

 

[RobbieB]

The only time my door is open (and only a crack at that, maybe am eighth inch) is when I'm starting a fire or just for a minute after I load a fresh split or sawdust log. I run it at 4-500 F stovetop and it burns nice and clean and makes plenty of heat.

 

[blacktail]

300° isn't even warmed up.

 

[cahaak]

You need to load the insert up much more - fill it nearly full with wood. Run it with the air open (not the door) until you get to 500-600 on temps and everything is charred. Then shut the air down nearly all the way until you just have secondaries burning. It should burn that way for some time and put out a great deal of heat. The unit should never really be run with the door open except at maybe at the start for a little bit just to get it going from a cold box.

 

[Woody Stover]

Take it up to 500º and you should be plenty warm for hours, with the stove door closed.

Or maybe not, with Texas insulation and air-sealing. My brother was at his MIL's in TX last month at what he described as her "Swiss cheese abode," and said it was in the 40s..inside.

 

[bob95065]

My Lopi a Freedom will get the house so hot it's unbearable. You need to put more wood in there