Ashley wood stove

[cnchsr]

We just purchased a used Ashley wood stove and we have never used one before. It didn't come with instructions so we have a mess...

1-Every time you open the door the house gets filled with smoke
2- It goes out during the night
3- we are not sure how to work on the smog control stuff on it so we think we are doing something wrong4
4-we have to leave the door to the ash pan open to try to get the fire burning

Some days I can get this thing to go but I don't know what i did to make it work and then some days I can't get it to do much more than smoke us out.
Please help! I know the heater would work great if we knew what we were doing

 

[eruji]

i just wanted to let you know your not alone. I just recently went through this process, im still learning. Ive built about 7 fires and everytime i build one it gets easier.

I know that people here will probly give you a very technical diagnosis but for me i had to learn a few things:

1. i kept trying to build small fires just to see if it would work. what was happening is i wasnt warming up the chimeney enough to get a draft going. I kept trying different combinations of opening windows and doors and could only smoke out the house.

2. i needed to figure out how to use a wood stove. This is my first wood burning stove (a Hearthstone III catalytic). I ordered the manual and talked to neighbors and figured out what all the controls do. Once i understood how the bypass for the catalytic combustor worked and the airflow thing i started getting better draft.

3. I had the same problems as you where one day the fire would start and i would hardly have any smoke in the house and others when it seemed impossible to start and smoke filled the house where i could not enjoy the fire. (the fire i had 2 days ago did this, i figured out that the bypass damper had worked its way shut so it was not getting good airflow) after i opened it i could get the fire raging with no smoke when i opened the door.

i still cant get the fire to last all night, its always out in the morning, im sure i will figure the correct settings for the airflow and this will help.

also i need to check the combustor this weekend, probly just need to order one anyway since the stove was built in the 80's and im not sure if it has ever had a new combuster put in.

if you got it working before then i would imagine its just lack of experience that is the problem. im sure the helpfull people here will help you minmize the learning curve.

good luck

 

[annette]

eruji's advice sounds very good to me, perhaps others have their own experiences with these problems to add. Do you have a manual for the stove yet? As eruji said, getting it and learning your controls will do a lot to fix the problems you listed. Some of the smoking problems could also be from burning the stove in relatively warm weather.

Unfortunately, a lot of stoves have pretty short burn times. Does your stove have a catalyst? They are supposed to get longer burns, once one figures out how to work them properly. If not, you may have to accept that you'll have only coals in the morning, or not even that. Burn times given by manufacturers are very optimistic.

I hope you're having more success. Let us know, and if you need more specific advice, please give the model number of your stove and a link to info on it, if you can.

 

[elkimmeg]

Draft is the engine to a wood stove obtain a good draft and it runs properly.
So the first place it start is your draft system. Please explain how your wood stove is vented
Inorder to usnderstand and be able to help you, We need more info.
Lenght of your chimney l stove flue collar size, connector pipe size Number of elbows. Location of the stove basement ect location of your chimney? if masonry size of your flue total verticle length of the chimney. Pictures posted would help explain your setup as well

your description of smoking out your house and not substaining a fire are clasic examples of poor draft
BTw how old is that Ashley

 

[DavidV]

additionally, if fyou have a catalytic stove, what is the condition of the catalysts? Bad or clogged cats will choke our your fire.