Greetings all!
I am calling on your expertise for what I hope will be the last time. This will be a long winded post, so I'll wait while you get some coffee.
Ok. In a nutshell, I have an Avalon Rainier, it's brand new, just installed about 6 weeks ago, been burning a little over 4 weeks when it's cold at night here in CT. I, for some reason, can't seem to get efficient burns out of my stove, and I haven't the faintest idea why. I realize this process isn't rocket science, but I'm starting to feel like I need to study thermodynamics in order to get this right.
My observations:
I start my fires by piling a few broken up bits of a pallet onto some newspaper, or a lightning nugget and lighting it up. Once it has caught sufficiently, I put usually 2 small splits on top to get going. At this point I let it go until it burns down to coals, stove usually manages to get up to 250-300 during this time.
Once down to coals I'll usually rake the coals up front and put 3 or 4 splits on top, close the door and put the air on high. Once the logs have all caught with bright orange flames, and the wood has begun to char, I pull the air out a little bit so not all the heat is flying right up the chimney. If I leave it like that the flames will dance happily, and it will warm to about 400-450 degrees. This is about as warm as I can get stove stove without a full load. If I leave the air open all the way, it won't top 350 degrees. By pulling the air down, it slowly warms to about 450, maybe 500 tops and hovers around there until the fire dies down and it goes to coals, where the stove begins to cool, slowly, over a period. For 3-4 splits I might get 3 hours useful burn/heat time out of it. That feels like it's about right, right? One thing I definitely can NOT do is cut the air all the way down, the fire goes out and it smokes to high heaven.
Ok, now here's the big one. If I stuff the stove to the gills, and let the air go on high, the stove burns with fury, the entire box full of brilliant flame, the stove will warm at full air until about 450. At this point if I pull the air down to about half, the temp will shoot up to 550, approaching 600 in about 15-20 minutes. So far, so good, right? I will usually them try to slowly pull the air down a little more, secondary will kick off. Sometimes I can get the temp a little above 600. Feels like it's rumbling along at this point. So here's the part I can't work out.
If I cut the air all the way down, it looks like it works beautifully. Secondary flames bust fourth and engulf almost all of the open space in the stove. The flame on the actual wood diminishes, but doesn't die out. Everything seems like it's proper. the stove will even warm to about 650 for a brief period. Things look great and I'll leave it to it's work and walk away. If I check it again 20 minutes later, the stove's cooled to about 550, the secondary has disappeared, the flames on the logs are still small, and a check on the chimney shows thick smoke billowing out and into the heavens. This forces me to let the air up about half way until the stove catches back up, and them pull it back down to maybe an inch from all the way down in order to maintain smoke-free burning. However, as the wood supply diminishes, and the stove cools, I am constantly having to adjust the air and allow more and more in in order to keep all my fuel from going up in smoke, literally.
I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I've loaded the stove up to the brim at midnight, got it rolling, cut the air down as far as I can to where the stove will maintain flame, and goto bed. Next morning (7am) there are no coals, and the stove is stone cold.
The wood I am using is VERY dry, there is no noticeable sizzling when it burns, and popping/crackling is to a minimum. I have oak that was cut down 1.5 years ago, and some cedar/beech that was cut down probably 2 years ago. Both were split in the early spring and left to sit on pallets covered from the rain all summer. So I don't think it's the wood.
I noticed that the installer had to oval the liner a bit to fit it into the chimney (see attached photo). SWMBO tells me he said that this happens all the time and won't affect burning, but I'm including a photo here anyway just to be certain. I didn't know if ovaled liners perhaps restrict draft.
Is something wrong with my burn process? am I cutting air down too soon? I don't see how this stove could overfire if the air is left on high, it never seems to get much above 450 even with a full load of wood, perhaps I am just not leaving it long enough, but this is after 20 minutes or so.
I have (had) about 3 cords of wood ready to go for this season, I've put a nasty dent in it already trying to learn how the stove works and how to burn it properly, and it hasn't even gotten cold yet! I'm just afraid that my inefficient burning is going to leave us cold and at the mercy of the oilman before the end of the season.
Alright, I've nearly exhausted the character count for this post. I know this was long but I wanted to include as much detail as I could think to include so that hopefully someone could pinpoint my problem. I guess that's it. I really want to get this working properly because man, when she's rolling and heat is just radiating off it, it's really, really nice.
If you are still reading, thanks for hanging in there, and sorry for the long-winded-noob-whineyness.
I am calling on your expertise for what I hope will be the last time. This will be a long winded post, so I'll wait while you get some coffee.
Ok. In a nutshell, I have an Avalon Rainier, it's brand new, just installed about 6 weeks ago, been burning a little over 4 weeks when it's cold at night here in CT. I, for some reason, can't seem to get efficient burns out of my stove, and I haven't the faintest idea why. I realize this process isn't rocket science, but I'm starting to feel like I need to study thermodynamics in order to get this right.
My observations:
I start my fires by piling a few broken up bits of a pallet onto some newspaper, or a lightning nugget and lighting it up. Once it has caught sufficiently, I put usually 2 small splits on top to get going. At this point I let it go until it burns down to coals, stove usually manages to get up to 250-300 during this time.
Once down to coals I'll usually rake the coals up front and put 3 or 4 splits on top, close the door and put the air on high. Once the logs have all caught with bright orange flames, and the wood has begun to char, I pull the air out a little bit so not all the heat is flying right up the chimney. If I leave it like that the flames will dance happily, and it will warm to about 400-450 degrees. This is about as warm as I can get stove stove without a full load. If I leave the air open all the way, it won't top 350 degrees. By pulling the air down, it slowly warms to about 450, maybe 500 tops and hovers around there until the fire dies down and it goes to coals, where the stove begins to cool, slowly, over a period. For 3-4 splits I might get 3 hours useful burn/heat time out of it. That feels like it's about right, right? One thing I definitely can NOT do is cut the air all the way down, the fire goes out and it smokes to high heaven.
Ok, now here's the big one. If I stuff the stove to the gills, and let the air go on high, the stove burns with fury, the entire box full of brilliant flame, the stove will warm at full air until about 450. At this point if I pull the air down to about half, the temp will shoot up to 550, approaching 600 in about 15-20 minutes. So far, so good, right? I will usually them try to slowly pull the air down a little more, secondary will kick off. Sometimes I can get the temp a little above 600. Feels like it's rumbling along at this point. So here's the part I can't work out.
If I cut the air all the way down, it looks like it works beautifully. Secondary flames bust fourth and engulf almost all of the open space in the stove. The flame on the actual wood diminishes, but doesn't die out. Everything seems like it's proper. the stove will even warm to about 650 for a brief period. Things look great and I'll leave it to it's work and walk away. If I check it again 20 minutes later, the stove's cooled to about 550, the secondary has disappeared, the flames on the logs are still small, and a check on the chimney shows thick smoke billowing out and into the heavens. This forces me to let the air up about half way until the stove catches back up, and them pull it back down to maybe an inch from all the way down in order to maintain smoke-free burning. However, as the wood supply diminishes, and the stove cools, I am constantly having to adjust the air and allow more and more in in order to keep all my fuel from going up in smoke, literally.
I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I've loaded the stove up to the brim at midnight, got it rolling, cut the air down as far as I can to where the stove will maintain flame, and goto bed. Next morning (7am) there are no coals, and the stove is stone cold.
The wood I am using is VERY dry, there is no noticeable sizzling when it burns, and popping/crackling is to a minimum. I have oak that was cut down 1.5 years ago, and some cedar/beech that was cut down probably 2 years ago. Both were split in the early spring and left to sit on pallets covered from the rain all summer. So I don't think it's the wood.
I noticed that the installer had to oval the liner a bit to fit it into the chimney (see attached photo). SWMBO tells me he said that this happens all the time and won't affect burning, but I'm including a photo here anyway just to be certain. I didn't know if ovaled liners perhaps restrict draft.
Is something wrong with my burn process? am I cutting air down too soon? I don't see how this stove could overfire if the air is left on high, it never seems to get much above 450 even with a full load of wood, perhaps I am just not leaving it long enough, but this is after 20 minutes or so.
I have (had) about 3 cords of wood ready to go for this season, I've put a nasty dent in it already trying to learn how the stove works and how to burn it properly, and it hasn't even gotten cold yet! I'm just afraid that my inefficient burning is going to leave us cold and at the mercy of the oilman before the end of the season.
Alright, I've nearly exhausted the character count for this post. I know this was long but I wanted to include as much detail as I could think to include so that hopefully someone could pinpoint my problem. I guess that's it. I really want to get this working properly because man, when she's rolling and heat is just radiating off it, it's really, really nice.
If you are still reading, thanks for hanging in there, and sorry for the long-winded-noob-whineyness.
![[Hearth.com] Alright, clearly I am doing something wrong. Hopefully we can figure out what.](/talk/data/attachments/12/12049-47787285caaa88983113e2494c9ef2d6.jpg?hash=HBdBU3_1IC)
