Arrow wood stove not putting out much heat

[mickri]

This is the second winter that I have been using my Arrow 1800A wood stove. It is a horrible design. It has a metal box where the wood burns inside an outer metal box. It doesn't radiate heat. The only way to get heat out of it is to have the fan running blowing air through the space between the inner and outer boxes. And the heat that does come out is luke warm at best. In looking at the inner box there are fire bricks (wrong term??) lining the sides of the inner box about half way up the sides. I am thinking about removing them so that the bottom half the inner metal box where the coals sit can get hotter. Any potential problem with that? I also think that I need a new rheostat for the fan. There is virtually no difference in the air flow from high to low on the fan speed. It runs at high speed. I think that this pushes the air too fast for the air to get heated.

And wood doesn't burn very good. The combustion air comes through the floor of the inner box. When the floor gets covered with ash, even a thin layer, wood doesn't burn. It tends to smolder and smoke. Open the door and it blazes away. The Fischer stove in my previous house had the air vents in the door. I could male similar vents for this stove.

Looking for suggestions on how to get this stove to put out more heat.

 

[bholler]

This is the second winter that I have been using my Arrow 1800A wood stove. It is a horrible design. It has a metal box where the wood burns inside an outer metal box. It doesn't radiate heat. The only way to get heat out of it is to have the fan running blowing air through the space between the inner and outer boxes. And the heat that does come out is luke warm at best. In looking at the inner box there are fire bricks (wrong term??) lining the sides of the inner box about half way up the sides. I am thinking about removing them so that the bottom half the inner metal box where the coals sit can get hotter. Any potential problem with that? I also think that I need a new rheostat for the fan. There is virtually no difference in the air flow from high to low on the fan speed. It runs at high speed. I think that this pushes the air too fast for the air to get heated.

And wood doesn't burn very good. The combustion air comes through the floor of the inner box. When the floor gets covered with ash, even a thin layer, wood doesn't burn. It tends to smolder and smoke. Open the door and it blazes away. The Fischer stove in my previous house had the air vents in the door. I could male similar vents for this stove.

Looking for suggestions on how to get this stove to put out more heat.

Some pics would help. But if air is coming from underneath are you sure it's a woodstove not a coal stove?

 

[mickri]

According to the manual for the stove it can be used with wood or coal. I only use wood in the stove. No source for coal where I live. I am also thinking about making a divider so that some of the vent holes are always open.

 

[stoveliker]

Can I ask what the moisture content is of the wood as measured on a freshly split surface?

Also, lukewarm air on high flow speeds.might still be delivering more BTUs to your home than hotter air at low speeds.

Do you have a flue thermometer? If.so, what does it read when you burn?

No smoke when you open the door?

 

[mickri]

Don't know the moisture content. Don't have a way to measure it. There is virtually no humidity where I live most of the year and the summer time temperatures routinely exceed 100*. Last summer I had 115 to 122 with 1% humidity for about 3 weeks straight. I burn mostly oak with cut up construction lumber for kindling to get the oak started. What I am burning now I cut and stacked last spring.

Typically little to no smoke when I open the door. If there is smoke in the firebox when I open the door it quickly goes up the flue pipe. Not out the door. Don't have a flue thermometer.

 

[bholler]

Don't know the moisture content. Don't have a way to measure it. There is virtually no humidity where I live most of the year and the summer time temperatures routinely exceed 100*. Last summer I had 115 to 122 with 1% humidity for about 3 weeks straight. I burn mostly oak with cut up construction lumber for kindling to get the oak started. What I am burning now I cut and stacked last spring.

Typically little to no smoke when I open the door. If there is smoke in the firebox when I open the door it quickly goes up the flue pipe. Not out the door. Don't have a flue thermometer.

Sounds like wet wood in a stove much more suited for coal than wood.

 

[stoveliker]

That was my thought. But now I'm not sure about the wet wood with that climate - but it depends on how long the wood has been drying. It could be that it's dry in one full season in that weather...

 

[mickri]

My house has lots of issues with trying to heat it in the winter and cool it in the summer. It was built as a vacation house by Lake Nacimiento in the 1970's. Minimal insulation in the walls and no insulation in the roof. The roof is 2x6 t&g fir. No roof rafters. There is also a loft with drafty windows that sucks the heat from downstairs. Will be replacing most of the windows this year. The only heat in the house when I bought it was a small electric wall heater in the hall. And the wood stove. The wood stove sits in a poorly built fireplace. Even though there is a cap at the top of the chimney I am sure that a lot of warm air escapes out the chimney. Don't know how tight I should seal up the top of the chimney. The only cooling was a small wall AC. Looked into adding forced air heat with AC. Couldn't do it because of no place to run the ducting. My only option was a mini split in the living room/kitchen. It mostly heats the loft. Will cool the downstairs to low 80's in the summertime. That's not too bad when it is 115 outside. The house is all electric which can get expensive with PG&E's outrageous electrical costs.

The winter heating season runs from early December to mid March. The coldest time is usually from Xmas to mid January when the temperature will drop into the high 20's at night and low 50's during the day. Currently I have high 30's at night and low 60's in the afternoon. The warmest I can get the living room is mid to high 60's. As I write this it is 44 outside and 54 in the living room. I don't have any heat running and haven't fired up the wood stove yet. Going to be working outside today so no need to heat the house.

Other than checking the moisture in the wood any other ideas about getting more heat out of the wood stove?

 

[stoveliker]

A block off plate where the stove pipe enters the chimney.

Is the chimney masonry? If on an outside wall, insulate behind it with rockwool (not fiberglass).

Wet wood (higher than 20 pct) uses a large part of the energy to boil water up the chimney.

 

[bholler]

My house has lots of issues with trying to heat it in the winter and cool it in the summer. It was built as a vacation house by Lake Nacimiento in the 1970's. Minimal insulation in the walls and no insulation in the roof. The roof is 2x6 t&g fir. No roof rafters. There is also a loft with drafty windows that sucks the heat from downstairs. Will be replacing most of the windows this year. The only heat in the house when I bought it was a small electric wall heater in the hall. And the wood stove. The wood stove sits in a poorly built fireplace. Even though there is a cap at the top of the chimney I am sure that a lot of warm air escapes out the chimney. Don't know how tight I should seal up the top of the chimney. The only cooling was a small wall AC. Looked into adding forced air heat with AC. Couldn't do it because of no place to run the ducting. My only option was a mini split in the living room/kitchen. It mostly heats the loft. Will cool the downstairs to low 80's in the summertime. That's not too bad when it is 115 outside. The house is all electric which can get expensive with PG&E's outrageous electrical costs.

The winter heating season runs from early December to mid March. The coldest time is usually from Xmas to mid January when the temperature will drop into the high 20's at night and low 50's during the day. Currently I have high 30's at night and low 60's in the afternoon. The warmest I can get the living room is mid to high 60's. As I write this it is 44 outside and 54 in the living room. I don't have any heat running and haven't fired up the wood stove yet. Going to be working outside today so no need to heat the house.

Other than checking the moisture in the wood any other ideas about getting more heat out of the wood stove?

Is there a stainless liner in the chimney or does it just vent into the old fireplace?

 

[mickri]

I ran a 6" single wall flue pipe centered inside the chimney and out the top for a couple of feet. The stove manual spec'd 12' of flue pipe to draw properly and that is what I installed. I made a cap to cover the top of the chimney that the flue pipe goes through. It is not a tight fit to the chimney. I could seal it up. There is a spark arrester cap on the top of the flue pipe.

The outside of the chimney is rock with I believe a clay chimney flue inside dimensions of around 13" by 15".

 

[stoveliker]

Single wall flue pipe can't be run in a chimney. It should be a stainless steel liner.

A block off plate ay the bottom will keep heat in the home, and insulation behind the stove as well.

 

[mickri]

This afternoon's project was to clean the ash out of the stove. Since I was doing that I decided to take out what I had thought were fire bricks lining the walls of the fire box. Turns out what I thought were fire bricks were actually 3/8" thick cast iron plates. There was a gap behind the plates that was filled with hardened ash and there was ash caked onto the sides of the plates. There was also ash caked onto the walls of the fire box. I think the ash was acting like insulation keeping the wall of the firebox from getting hot. The gap I think is meant to provide air to the fire box when ash covers the floor of the fire box. Will have to see about that.

Removing the ash made a big difference in the temperature of the air coming out of the stove. The air is now warm like what would come out of a heater vent. And the heat was consistent from the bottom to the top of the vent on the stove. Before it was cooler at the bottom of the vent and got a little warmer towards the top of the vent.

Making progress.

 

[mickri]

Cleaning out all of the caked on ash off of the cast iron plates made a big difference in the heat produced by the stove. Still have the same issues with how wood burns. I think this stove was designed for a slower burn rate. And some of the wood that I burn may not be the best. All in all the stove now keeps my little house warm enough for me. The heat even makes its way back to my bedroom. That didn't happen in the past.

 

[begreen]

If the wood is iffy, keep an eye on creosote buildup in the flue system.

 

[fbelec]

also will be worth putting in some insulation in the whole house so that the wood lasts longer and the air conditioning will work. that air cond is working way to hard

 

[mickri]

My house was built as a summer/weekend vacation place in the 1970's. There is no attic to speak of to put insulation in. Only a small space on each side of the loft. I do plan to put insulation in that space. It won't help much. The house has high vaulted open beam ceilings. So no place to insulate without filling in the space between the beams. This was done in the great room with R19 insulation. The 2x4 walls have minimal R13 insulation.

During the hottest summer months there is a 40 to 50 degree temperature difference from the daytime highs of 100 plus to a nighttime low of around 60. The house cools off every day. I only run the A/C during the afternoon and evening and have it set for at 80 degrees. Once the sun sets the house cools off. I turn off the A/C and open up the windows. The windows in the loft create a draft that sucks the hot air out of the house bringing in cool air from the downstairs windows.

Winter heating is more of a problem. Even with the loft windows closed there is still a draft that makes it hard to heat the downstairs during the winter. The heat from the mini split all goes into the loft. Doesn't heat the down stairs at all. Since I cleaned all of the caked on ash off of the cast iron plates the wood stove puts out more heat and will keep the downstairs in the mid 60's.

I am getting things worked out.