Can't get a good fire going, help???

[rkofler]

Been burning for over a month now with pretty good success. Suddenly the last few days have been terrible. Close the door, fire dies down. Hardly any secondaries. I know, I know, sounds like the wood. Same wood I've been burning though. What else could have changed? The weather has been pretty warm, 50's today, maybe draft? Anything I should be checking? As soon as the rain stops I plan to check my cap. Thanks for any advice.

 

[pen]

I think you know already most everything we could suggest. If this wood was near the bottom of the stack, it is possible that it isn't as seasoned as stuff that may have been near the top (if that is the case). Also, if you switched to more "rounds" and less "split wood" the rounds won't season as quickly.

Also, 50 degree temps will seriously take a toll on the draft, especially noticable if there is buildup in the cap. If you climb up to clean the cap, might as well take the brush and rods with you and do a cleaning just to get a baseline.

Let us know how you make out.

pen

 

[dafattkidd]

I had a harder time getting a good fire going today because it was so warm.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

warm weather burning is difficult sometimes, but rather than just chalking it up to that take a look at the flue soonest if you can see it from the ground take a couple oomed digital pic's to examine it from ground level, if it looks ugly shut the stove down and hop up there for a better look. with sluggish flue movement less air is moving through the firebox reducing efficiency in combustion, can lead to a loaded flue in a hurry if you arent careful, make sure you check it out from the roof before it gets cold again so you can crank it up without worrying about residue from these bad fires being in the flue

 

[rkofler]

Thanks for the feedback. Much better tonight, guess I will chalk it up to the weather. Never thought I would be wishing for it to get colder! At least I know I'm not alone. Still plan on checking my cap this weekend.

 

[pen]

Thanks for the feedback. Much better tonight, guess I will chalk it up to the weather. Never thought I would be wishing for it to get colder! At least I know I'm not alone. Still plan on checking my cap this weekend.

Excellent! Never hurts to check, especially with a new unit as that will start giving you something to compare to in the future.

pen

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Thanks for the feedback. Much better tonight, guess I will chalk it up to the weather. Never thought I would be wishing for it to get colder! At least I know I'm not alone. Still plan on checking my cap this weekend.

Not only the cap! Check the chimney too. If this is out of the same wood stack, I'd first suspect the chimney is partially clogged and needs cleaning ASAP.

 

[Wood Duck]

Today was warm (35+) and a front plus some squalls moved thru. I have been burning all winter with no problems and cleaned the chimney just a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday the stove worked fine. Today i let the stove and flue cool off while I was working out in the yard, then in the late afternoon I put in a small load of what I think was nice, dry wood onto the remaining coals and I could barely get the fire to burn. At first I thought the coals were less hot than I had first thought. Maybe they were, but the wood on the coals was glowing and smoking in a couple of minutes and I had flame in a few minutes more, so the coals didn't seem to be the problem. After 30 minutes with the door open it was still struggling to burn consistently. It would flare up for a while then die back. I decided something must be clogged but after checking the flue and the OAK intake I found both clean. Finally aftermore than an hour of poor burn the fire finally started to burn as expected. All I can figure is that the strong wind from an odd direction and changes in atmospheric pressure combined with a cool flue to create poor draft for a while. Now that things are hot the stove is burning great as usual.

My point is that maybe the weather was the cause of your difficulty getting a good fire burning.

 

[Kaptain]

It's funny this came up. Been burning great all year and now the past two days I've run some issues myself. I can only blame it on a weak draft. These warmer temps and gusty winds aren't helping things.

 

[HotCoals]

Yep..winds and pressure playing games here some.