Anyone in Alabama?

[Smock2015]

I'm new to burning and in the south. Seems strange but it gets cold here too and it's cheaper in my eyes than electric. Would just like to know if anyone else is from down south or has any helpful tips or anything for this region

 

[stevea621j]

Well, I am in Georgia. I have always used my wood fireplace quite a bit but this is the first year with a wood insert. I have found that even with our relatively mild temperatures, it has made the house so much more comfortable. We have a heat pump and it never really gives you a warm, comfortable feeling house. It is more like it is blowing lukewarm air around all the time. Since I am new to this also I don't really have any tips since I am still learning. I am sure the guys up north would laugh at me going outside in flip flops and a t-shirt to bring in wood to stoke the fire when it is 60 outside, but I am enjoying it.

 

[Smock2015]

I feel the same way if its 60 or lower I'm making a fire. I've only had my stove for about a month but I'm trying to run it as much as I can to try and "figure it out" before it gets below freezing.. I have a freestanding stove not an insert but it seems like a good bed of coals is key to get the bigger loads to lite off. What size firebox does your insert have?

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm new to burning and in the south. Would just like to know if anyone else is from down south or has any helpful tips or anything for this region

The main thing to know if that you need truly dry wood for the newer 're-burn stoves' to work well; Your wood should be split and stacked in the wind for a couple of years, particularly Oak. In a mild climate you may have to burn smaller loads and let them burn down before reloading, so you don't cook yourself out. You can put your stove make and model in your signature, then people with similar stoves can offer good advice.

 

[stevea621j]

I have a Napoleon 1402 insert with a 2.25 cu ft firebox. It can really put out a lot of heat. I have a mixture of pine and hardwoods to burn so I will usually start a fire initially with some pine because it gets going pretty easy and quick. Then I will use the hardwoods. My wood is not the greatest since most of it was cut and split last spring so I am sure it will be a lot easier once I can burn some well seasoned wood.

 

[Smock2015]

I checked some of my wood yesterday its between 24-28% on the mm. So not ideal but I guess it could be worse.... I have access to alot of pine from when they did a clearing on 75 acres 2 years ago.. Big piles a lot of branches and little stuff but there's alot of 12-15' log lenth logs they left behind. It's all up off the ground besides what branches are on the bottom of the pile. Would that be considered a decent find? Should I cut it up and burn it once dried? Always heard don't burn pine but the more and more I read on here it seems to be OK with the new stoves as long as you don't over load the stove or to mix in with wet wood? Would this be ok? Safe?

 

[Smock2015]

Not necessarily wet wood but something between say 25-30%

 

[Woody Stover]

I checked some of my wood yesterday its between 24-28% on the mm..... I have access to alot of pine from when they did a clearing on 75 acres 2 years ago.. Would this be ok? Safe?

That moisture is "not ideal," as you said. It won't put out as much heat but being as you have lower heat requirements, you may get by OK this winter. Check your flue every few weeks to make sure you're not getting a dangerous buildup of creosote, and brush as necessary. But definitely get ahead on your split/stacked wood supply so that it has time to dry. Pine will be fine once it's dry, which should happen over one summer there if the wood was dead when cut.

 

[Woody Stover]

Yeah, sounds like that Pine should be dry by next fall if you get it stacked soon...

 

[Smock2015]

Thanks for the advice. It's safe to say I'll be doing to CSS this weekend. Another question. If I have a good bed of coals 2-3 splits of the 25% hickory on about how long would be a sufficient ignition time. Sometimes I feel I'm impatient n want to open the door a little to get it going so its not super smokey but am I just wasting heat? On a good bed of active coals its takes between 15-25 minutes to get good ignition is that about right? Sound I throw in some kindling when I reload to help with that?

 

[BigFir]

Leave the door open until you have ignition. You want to get the stove up to temp before backing it off. All that smoke equals chimney issues!

 

[Smock2015]

My stove top temp can be at about 300 I'll put 3-4 splits in and leave the door open until there's ignition then I have to close the door real slow whereas to not cut the air off to quick but once it's going it seems to take forever for my stove to heat up. I'll have secondaries going with air wide open. It seems as if my wood burns up before the stove get up to about 400. At that point I can turn it down a little bit and get good secondaries for a little bit stove gets up to about 450 turn down a little more stove runs at about 425-450 for about and hour then comes back down to about 300. It seems like I need to get my stove to 450 or so before I start to shut down to that it climbs to at least 500 but by the time it gets there's there's not much left in the box. What am I doing wrong. Not enough wood. I know its not dry enough but its hickory seems like it would burn hot enough to get stove up and burn for more than an hour... Do I need to load sooner? More wood? What's the best stove top temp to start turning it down or does it just depend on load size and secondaries? Any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[saskwoodburner]

Well, I am in Georgia. I have always used my wood fireplace quite a bit but this is the first year with a wood insert. I have found that even with our relatively mild temperatures, it has made the house so much more comfortable. We have a heat pump and it never really gives you a warm, comfortable feeling house. It is more like it is blowing lukewarm air around all the time. Since I am new to this also I don't really have any tips since I am still learning. I am sure the guys up north would laugh at me going outside in flip flops and a t-shirt to bring in wood to stoke the fire when it is 60 outside, but I am enjoying it.

How cold does it get in Georgia during the course of a normal winter?

 

[Simonkenton]

I lived in central Georgia for many years. Typical January day, high of 45 and low of 30. Of course, now and then it did dip down to 12 or 15 degrees.
I had a big log house and a 1988 Vermont Castings Resolute, I ran that thing just about every day between Thanksgiving and March.

 

[saskwoodburner]

That's some sweet winter weather.

 

[Simonkenton]

Yeah, the problem is, it is 98 degrees in August. Sometimes, it is 103. I had to bail out, moved up to the North Carolina mountains, hardly ever hits 90 here.
By the way I have been to your province, rode through Moose Jaw on a Canada Pacific freight train.

 

[Woody Stover]

My stove top temp can be at about 300 I'll put 3-4 splits in and leave the door open until there's ignition then I have to close the door real slow whereas to not cut the air off to quick but once it's going it seems to take forever for my stove to heat up. I'll have secondaries going with air wide open. It seems as if my wood burns up before the stove get up to about 400. At that point I can turn it down a little bit and get good secondaries for a little bit stove gets up to about 450 turn down a little more stove runs at about 425-450 for about and hour then comes back down to about 300. It seems like I need to get my stove to 450 or so before I start to shut down to that it climbs to at least 500 but by the time it gets there's there's not much left in the box. What am I doing wrong. Not enough wood. I know its not dry enough but its hickory seems like it would burn hot enough to get stove up and burn for more than an hour... Do I need to load sooner? More wood? What's the best stove top temp to start turning it down or does it just depend on load size and secondaries? Any advice is greatly appreciated

Sounds like it may be a combination of those things you mentioned. Wet wood and outside temps that aren't real cold may be contributing to a draft that's not real strong. What is your chimney setup, and how tall is your stack from stove top to the top of the chimney? With the mild weather we've been having, I have been loading once a day and starting a top-down fire. A top-down start is clean-burning, and seems to heat up the stove re-burn guts faster. I load full; Once the stove is cranking out heat and I've got the air cut back, I want that to continue as long as possible. With a full load, more of the load may have a chance to dry out and the stove should burn better on less air for longer. But if that will overheat your place, you'll have to burn partial loads.

 

[moresnow]

"high of 45 and low of 30" I WANT TO LIVE THERE! Haaaa. Darn comfy winter. I have similiar trouble with maintaining a hot cruising stove temp with any outdoor temps warmer than 35ish. Likely I have something incorrect in my setup. Buuut, it really runs easy and much more consistantly when good and cold. My answer is smaller splits. Night and day difference. Now re-splitting by hand (rather interesting task) as I go until it gets truly cold. Our mild weather has been a issue with a couple guys in my part of the country. Drawback is the burn time with small splits. Rather short! Good luck.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

Once your wood is dry your reloads will go much easier. This morning my stove top was 200 degrees with a decent amount of coals still glowing. I stirred around the coals and flattened them out and then shut the door enough so there was about a 1 inch opening. After all the coals were orange I did a full reload. Around 3 splits of two year old white pine and 3 splits of two year old maple/beech. I closed the door and left the air full open, this was at 5AM. By 5:15, the air was half closed and the stove top was around 500. At 5:25 the air was closed to 7/8th and the stove top was cruising slightly over 700 with nice blue secondaries rolling.

 

[Smock2015]

Sounds like it may be a combination of those things you mentioned. Wet wood and outside temps that aren't real cold may be contributing to a draft that's not real strong. What is your chimney setup, and how tall is your stack from stove top to the top of the chimney? With the mild weather we've been having, I have been loading once a day and starting a top-down fire. A top-down start is clean-burning, and seems to heat up the stove re-burn guts faster. I load full; Once the stove is cranking out heat and I've got the air cut back, I want that to continue as long as possible. With a full load, more of the load may have a chance to dry out and the stove should burn better on less air for longer. But if that will overheat your place, you'll have to burn partial loads.

I have 15ft from stove top to chimney cap. It goes out of the stove 2' then a 45° with 1ft to miss a rafter then another 45° then up another 2 ft to ceiling box then duravent class A triple wall the rest of the way. It clears the peak and anything around it by 5 ft.. It drafts well have never had smoke come into the house. But I have noticed it does seem to do better when its colder outside. Tried putting a pic but said it was to big to upload

 

[Smock2015]

Here's one picture

 

[Woody Stover]

That looks like it should provide adequate draft for your stove. Like moresnow says, some smaller splits might help especially if you have only big ones in your stacks now. Big splits gas slower, especially if the wood isn't real dry. I use a lot of medium or smaller splits, 5" or less. But I have a cat stove so it's easy to cut the air low to control the burn rate. Once you have dry wood, medium and big splits will help you extend burn times with your tube stove.

 

[Smock2015]

Most of my splits are 3-5 inches but I've been splitting them down to more so 2-3

 

[Jearley35purdue]

My stove top temp can be at about 300 I'll put 3-4 splits in and leave the door open until there's ignition then I have to close the door real slow whereas to not cut the air off to quick but once it's going it seems to take forever for my stove to heat up. I'll have secondaries going with air wide open. It seems as if my wood burns up before the stove get up to about 400. At that point I can turn it down a little bit and get good secondaries for a little bit stove gets up to about 450 turn down a little more stove runs at about 425-450 for about and hour then comes back down to about 300. It seems like I need to get my stove to 450 or so before I start to shut down to that it climbs to at least 500 but by the time it gets there's there's not much left in the box. What am I doing wrong. Not enough wood. I know its not dry enough but its hickory seems like it would burn hot enough to get stove up and burn for more than an hour... Do I need to load sooner? More wood? What's the best stove top temp to start turning it down or does it just depend on load size and secondaries? Any advice is greatly appreciated

I have the exact same stove and the exact same problems my first year of operation. I'm now in the second year and things are dramatically different . 100% suspect it's your wood. last year I had marginal wood like you. 25%ish. Some good some bad, but I got ahead. This year is a huge difference. Stove climbs to temp very fast and secondaries last several hours. My sequence Is I put a full load in and it rises to about 450 and then I slowly start turning an from wide open to #4, then #2 , # low in about 5-10 min increments. My target peak temp is 500-550. It holds there for a couple hours with full secondaries, then goes to a coaling stage at 350-400f for next 4-6 hrs. After 8-10 hrs my fan starts cycling on and ff. I can reload without kindling up to about 12 hrs. I'm telling you it's your wood man, you sound just like me last year.