Am I doing something wrong

[joelda]

I just purchased a house with an Avalon Rainier insert and this is my first year of wood burning so suffice to say I have lots of questions. It is installed with a starter pipe in the existing fireplace chimney with a block-off plate. I had it cleaned when I bought the house, but think (I know i got ripped off) stove shop guy was here for 20 minutes cleaned the chimney from the bottom and didn't remove the stove to clean he block-off plate and charged me $350. A LOT of black stuff came out though, probably more than a gallon. The chimney draws just fine - perhaps too good. I never have any smoke or smell, just heat rays coming out of the top. Like so many others, I too am suffering form a green wood delivery this year. However, it may not be as green as I thought because I after resplitting them to smaller splits and putting them in the gargage they burn just fine, I am also supplementing with Envi 8's. My question is about burn time. I can pack the stove as full as I can get it, open the air for about 20 minutes then turn it all the way down have temperature of ~400 and 2.5 - 3 hrs later I have coals with temperature of about 275-300. This seems short to me? People getting 6-8 hrs - this is a dream to me right now. Are the splits to small? I am splitting what I got in half. Does the chimney draw too much? Next year I am planning on relining with a flexible SS liner. Would this help? There is not much else I can do. The air is all the way shut down, there are small flames with temps between 400-500 and that slowing creeps down to 275 in three hours with nothing left but coals. BTW I have blower. Does this affect burn times? Without it, it doesn't seem to heat the room. ANy help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Joel

 

[drdoct]

Are you doing something wrong? Kinda depends I guess. Post some pictures of your stove packed out so we can see the splits and how you are packing. Don't know about the sweeping but I think that's a little outrageous. Seems like I post this in every post but with dry wood you'll be back up to speed. Go ahead and buy your wood for next year so you don't get caught in this problem again. Then in July buy a load of certified green wood cheaply for 2010. It'll be an investment, but one that will pay off once you start burning the good stuff. In the old days you burned green to extend your burn at the expense of a little heat. Now if you burn green then you have to burn it hard to get any heat out of it resulting in shorter burn times. When you burn nice and dry it's like a light bulb comes on. It really is that big a difference in these epa stoves.

 

[Cearbhaill]

I had it cleaned when I bought the house, but think (I know i got ripped off) stove shop guy was here for 20 minutes cleaned the chimney from the bottom and didn't remove the stove to clean he block-off plate and charged me $350.

He didn't even go on the roof at all?
I would be complaining long and hard about that- BBB included.
I get an excellent cleaning done for $85.

 

[Wet1]

My guess is your wood is probably split down to small. Try packing the stove with larger splits and pack the voids with some smaller splits... you should see these times go up.

 

[DAKSY]

Sounds like you're getting too much air into the burn box...
Your burns should be longer...
Have you checked your door gaskets?
They may be shot - OR missing...
If they're still there, are they springy & pliable or are they hard as a rock?
Maybe you can adjust the door latch to get a better gasket seal?
If not, there are ways to see if your gaskets are tight...
Search this forum for the dollar bill trick...