New guy from PA, with comments and questions

Hello from PA. Been lurking and studying for awhile previous to purchasing a new stove. This sight was a great help.
I have a 24x28 cabin in Tioga county PA. 10ft walls, open floor plan with loft.
For years heated it with a 1970's airtight Wonder Warm woodstove. It was a good stove, threw out a ton of heat.
But was a creosote machine, plus had a 8" to 6" pipe reduction.

Just installed this summer a Lopi Republic 1750. Straight up double wall 6" stainless, about 18' exposed before it hits the roof output, about 22' of draft straight up.
Just had my first 5 day burn, stove does not heat up the cabin anywhere near as fast as the old stove. The old stove would bring the inside temp from 30 to 70 in 4 hours, this stove took about 5 hours to get to 65, then it stayed in the mid-high 60's for about a 20 hours until the bones of the cabin warmed up. Burning 2y/o maple and oak. Measured dryness of 12-15%. Once I got the cabin up to temp a single spit or two feeding the fire all day long on hot coals kept the place 72 degrees with outside temps from 33-45F.

I loaded 5 big maple pieces the first night on hot coals with a 400+ stove temp. Got a good burn, closed the air down to 3/5 closed and let it heat. Within a hour my primaries and secondaries exploded with flame, temp began climbing over 700! Shut off the air, kicked on the fan, and went to bed. 2 hours later flames were gone, and the wood was just burning as hot coals, had to open the air the burn down the rest of the logs.

I've learned the 10 hour burn time is a fantasy, but my question is how do I keep from having to wake up and feed more air into it in the middle of the night?
If I just let it burn with no air feed it cools down and I get creosote on the glass. But if its going to overheat with a full load and any little air coming in I must shut it all the way down.Burn less wood so it doesn't get as hot and I can keep feeding air in?
A big goal of getting this stove was to be able to sleep thru the night, that seems to be a fantasy. Cabin has decent insulation, but is up on piers and leaks a fair amount of air. Plus I am off grid, and when snow covers my solar panels I won't be able to run the fan all night.

Another question is when heating a very cold cabin, and some days we arrive its 7-10F inside, I assume I can burn it hotter as I'm drawing in colder air which will keep it from overheating. Is this accurate?

Pleased with the wood usage. It's a very different heat, it was weird how the inside temperature didn't vary near as much as with the old stove. The loft used to get real hot, now the heat seems even thru out. Hoping when it is 7 degrees and the wind is blowing I can keep the place warm.

Thanks.

Ludlow said:

Curious. How long is the single wall connector? Same as the old setup?

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Single wall is the roof mount piece. Extends down thru the tin about a foot, and maybe 3 foot above roof line. It does have a second wall at 8” the whole length. Also my entire length is 22’.
I’ve apparently got a lot to learn. The manual says small intense fires are advantageous. That’s why I was adding small amounts all day keeping the temp at 450 or so. So you’re saying a full load, then letting it burn down is better? I was doing that but was getting deep coals, was using the small loads to burn the coals down during the day so I can fit more at night. That maple really makes alot of coals.
Also appears that I’m loading wrong in the middle of the night by adding wood while it’s running hot. I’ll keep reading here until I figure this out. Also explains why she took off so quick as I added the big night load when the stove was already 450.
So I should not be looking for big burns on the secondarys? Just a lazy fire with occasional light offs at 450-500 degrees?

jetsam said:

When you have a stove full of coals, my favorite is to rake them forward, throw some small to tiny pine splits on top, and burn it hot. Burns the coals down pretty fast.

Lay in some pine for next year... you can burn that stuff as hot as you want and not end up with a coal problem, even if it has only seasoned for 1 year (unlike maple).

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That's what I was doing this weekend, had good coals from my overnite burn, kept raking them forward, and added one or 2 small pieces of maple at a time to keep heat at 400-450 and kept the place warm and burnt down the coals to ash. Had about 3-4" hot coals in the AM, by evening doing this was down to ash and just enough coals to start my overnite burn. Was confused as one poster said to stop doing this, and just build a full fire back up and let it burn out. That was what I would figure I would have to do in a deep freeze, but at 40-45 outside this seemed to work. Is this the wrong way to proceed? Even at those temps I had no smoke.

begreen said:

If you load it full, N/S loaded and drop the air control in increments like I posted earlier it will get a lot hotter. Don't be surprised to see 650+ on the stove top. Secondary burn is what creates the real heat.

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Understood, sorta figured out by the 3rd nite that I need to start my overnite fire a hour before I crash. Its a tough balance between to much and too little air. And had never heard of the wood burning the gases that quick when freshly loaded, that's exactly what I did wrong, too hot a coal bed, to much new wood and too much air. Amazing how little the manual went into these issues.