I have an old VC Defiant from the late 70's early 80's. I have 8 inch single wall stovepipe. From the top of the stove it goes up 8 inches into an elbow into another 8 inch into a masonry chimney. The chimney is made with 10 X 10 clay flues the chimney extends 35 feet above when the stove connects. It seems like I have a good draft you can feel it when you put your hand in the stove and when I put a lit cigar even 6 inches from the outside of the front doors you can see it pulling the smoke in and up. I dont know if thats a viable test but it showed me I have draft. My problem when I go to start a fire I to get it going I have used cedar firestarters, fatwood both with newspaper and kinling. The fire gets going good then when I put some wood on it seems to get going good. I am using seasoned hardwoods bought a cord. Well after 15 20 minutes the flames smolder out. What I have left is glowing chared wood and the temp begins to drop. This occurs both with the doors open like a fireplace and with the doors closed in vertical burn. So I dont think it as air issue because with the doors open it is getting plenty of air? When I close the doors the flames increase, but only for a short time. Then they fade out. Usually after this goes on for sometime I get frustrated and put in a enviro-log or a duraflame to get it going with the doors open just to keep the flames then I slowly add wood. After some time maybe 1-3 hours I finally get it hot enough to sustain a fire. 350 - 400 gridle temp using a laser temp reader. Once I cant get the stove over 350- 380 I just load it up and wait the temp drops and then it comes up to again 375 or so then I put into secondary burn and it drop a bit in temp maybe to 330. It will heat for several hours.But again can not get the temp higher 500 - 600. What am I doing wrong or any suggestions.
can't get a fire going
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this same situation occurs when in the morning the stove is arond 150 and there are just hot coals and I try to start it up again. I figured by then with the stove going for a few hours that the chimney should be warm for a better draft, and it should restart fast, but no it goes through the above scenario.
Sounds like green/wet wood. Does it sizzle? Could also be insufficient cinder bed or you are adding big splits to early. Try using smaller wood for the first hour or longer and get your temps up before going horizontal.
I agree that it sounds like wet wood. Buy a bundle of the packaged stuff at a Home Depot or a gas station or whatever. If that burns well you know the problem is the wood and not the stove.
Well, closing the doors and the flame goes up, plus the duraflame burning suggests to me the draft is just fine. Since you can't get any heat out of the fire and you just can;t get the wood to catch - unseasoned wood. If you don't have a moisture meter, there are some tests you can try. How does it sound clunking two pieces together? nice ring or dull thump? Does the bark peel away easily? Are the ends gray and cracked?
Can you get a few splits of wood you know for certain is seasoned and see how they work.
Can you get a few splits of wood you know for certain is seasoned and see how they work.
I agree with the other posters. If you have coals and fire, plus draft, dry wood should catch pretty easy.
Doors wide open will not burn as well as the door cracked open just a half inch or so (unlatched, but nearly closed).
Get dry test wood.
Doors wide open will not burn as well as the door cracked open just a half inch or so (unlatched, but nearly closed).
Get dry test wood.
I just put some dry wood on our coal bed and had flames within seconds. Yes, I agree, with everything you wrote, that wood may be seasoned, but seasoned for a very short time. You didn't say what type of wood it is nor how or how long it was seasoned.
If you were just told it was seasoned by the supplier, then it is practically meaningless as we've found that very few people really know what seasoned wood is! For instance, we had a fellow who sells firewood every year come to a place near us and was cutting tree tops and selling it as seasoned wood. In his words, those trees were cut 2 years ago, so that wood has seasoned for 2 years. Wrong! All one had to do was to get a handful of sawdust or even just look at the cut ends of the logs he was cutting to see it definitely was not seasoned. This btw, was red and white oak. I suggested to him to let it season for at least until fall of 2009....and he just scoffed at the idea. So, he'll have some unhappy customers for sure. Those people will think they have seasoned wood and many will simply stop burning wood because it is just too difficult and they can't get enough heat. On and on the story goes...
If you were just told it was seasoned by the supplier, then it is practically meaningless as we've found that very few people really know what seasoned wood is! For instance, we had a fellow who sells firewood every year come to a place near us and was cutting tree tops and selling it as seasoned wood. In his words, those trees were cut 2 years ago, so that wood has seasoned for 2 years. Wrong! All one had to do was to get a handful of sawdust or even just look at the cut ends of the logs he was cutting to see it definitely was not seasoned. This btw, was red and white oak. I suggested to him to let it season for at least until fall of 2009....and he just scoffed at the idea. So, he'll have some unhappy customers for sure. Those people will think they have seasoned wood and many will simply stop burning wood because it is just too difficult and they can't get enough heat. On and on the story goes...
I dont have a moisture meter but the ends have cracking and the bark is falling off, but no grey. I will try to buy some at homedepot and try see if I get better results. Maybe I am trying to put to big pieces in to quick. I am also going to try making the splits smaller.
kwikrp said:
Right after you split the wood, press a freshly exposed surface to your cheek. If it feels cool and damp, the wood is still not dry. You can also tell sometimes by banging together a couple medium sized splits. If they have a clear sound like wooden claves then it is probably dry. If they thud or thunk when banged together, then it may still be wet inside.
probably your wood. Happened to me, all my wood was standing dead or fairly new falls. Still to wet to burn sometimes. When it smolders you will know because it really smells!
Just as a side note, my stove specifically says not to burn duraflame (etc) logs in it. Dunno the reason.
My theory on buying "seasoned wood" is that if I buy it in March, it's probably *actually* seasoned by the time I need it November. (I hope)
My theory on buying "seasoned wood" is that if I buy it in March, it's probably *actually* seasoned by the time I need it November. (I hope)
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