I have a drolet escape 1800 insert. It is not a masonry chimney. I have a magnetic thermometer on about 12 inches up on the pipe and it seems that no matter what I do I can't get it to read above 200-250. I'm new to wood heat life any help would be greatly appreciated. It does put out good heat and keeps the living room nice and warm and the rest of the house fairly warm..
Can't seem to get a hot fire
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Welcome to the forum Mike.
In most cases and especially with new wood burners, we find that it is the fault of the wood. You are not alone and we feel your disappointment. However, you can turn this into something good by knowing that you need to get next year's wood as soon as you possibly can. Do not believe wood sellers either as their wood will not be properly dried. So get it quickly and stack it off the ground and in a windy spot. You will like the results. If you live in an area that gets lots of rain, be sure to cover the top of the wood stack but leave the rest of it open.
Good luck.
In most cases and especially with new wood burners, we find that it is the fault of the wood. You are not alone and we feel your disappointment. However, you can turn this into something good by knowing that you need to get next year's wood as soon as you possibly can. Do not believe wood sellers either as their wood will not be properly dried. So get it quickly and stack it off the ground and in a windy spot. You will like the results. If you live in an area that gets lots of rain, be sure to cover the top of the wood stack but leave the rest of it open.
Good luck.
Hi, I'm new myself, burned a cord so far and was pretty disappointed with the amount of heat I was getting. So I asked around and everybody I talked to said it was most likely my wood. I had it delivered and took the guys word for it, I won't do that again. To test it out I bought a few prepackaged bundles and burned those and sure enough got good heat. I picked up another half cord yesterday and was lucky enough to find it well seasoned, I checked a bunch if pieces and they had about a 15 percent moisture content, that's about ten percent dryer than the first cord I bought. What a difference. Now I can't wait for the season to be over do I can start spending my wood budget o. Stocking up the space I
have to fill up.
have to fill up.
It's triple wall pipe. The stove outlet is 6 in and I have a adapter the convert it to my 8 in pipe. The adapter is single wall. We picked up a moisture tester and it is reading around 10% or less on my wood (oak). The glass has stayed really clean except for the bottom corners. Thanks
The wood is split really small. The guy could've had a endless supply of toothpicks on some of these pieces. Don't know if this will make a difference. I do have almost 2 cords split and stacked for next year it's water oak
For stove pipes that have double wall or more you need to use a probe type pipe thermometer. I've never heard of triple wall stove pipe but there's lots of things I've never heard of. Are you getting good flames from your burns or more smoldering? And can you get a bed of hot coals going with some dry scrap wood or small branches? It helps.
Yea I get great flames and a really nice bed of coals. The stove has the air tubes at the top for the secondary burn which does really good also. I don't know if that could be messing with the thermometer. My wife is just worrying the crap out of me about creosote build up and a chimney fire
USMC80
Minister of Fire
10% is lower than I'd expect to get. Test is on a fresh split or cut the split in half and give it good jab into the wood. But if your secondaries are active with good coals it sounds like your wood is burning good. The first year your on a big learning curve and I worried about creosote too but I don't get much if any in my pipes but I do get soot.
If your magnetic thermometer is not on single wall pipe the reading will not be accurate. May be better to use the thermometer on your stove top.
Also you are running 6" into 8" triple wall that is air cooled? That could be a reason for low stack temps but I'll let other, more knowledgeable folks chime in on that.
Also you are running 6" into 8" triple wall that is air cooled? That could be a reason for low stack temps but I'll let other, more knowledgeable folks chime in on that.
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The problem is that he's getting low stack temps and is worried about a creosote build up.
About the same 200-250. I got it going a few minutes ago and got the temp on the pipe up to about 400 but the door was not shut tight. I shut the door and the temp started dropping and all the vents are open
A better way of saying that is he (and you) think he's getting low stack temps. We really don't know whether he is getting low stack temps. Of all sciences, the stove top thermometer science and stack thermometer science are the least precise.
Something sounds off to me. Your stove pipe will be far lower than your stove top. If your stove is 50% efficient you are keeping half of the heat in the stove. Which means that a 500 degree stove top will make your stove pipe 250 degree. However your stove is 75%+ efficient so with a stove pipe temp of 200~250 your stove should be 800~1000.
Since your secondaries are working and your glass is clean I would guess that everything it ok and you are still learning about burning in a new stove. Look at the top of your chimney/stove pipe when your stove is burning, do you see smoke. You should see very little smoke except on startup and reloads.
Since your secondaries are working and your glass is clean I would guess that everything it ok and you are still learning about burning in a new stove. Look at the top of your chimney/stove pipe when your stove is burning, do you see smoke. You should see very little smoke except on startup and reloads.
Is the stove drawing or not? Is the glass clean or dirty? Is the house warm?
Has it ever occurred to anyone that the stack temp is just fine and the problem is accurately measuring it with some janky thermometer?
Maybe everything is going great. I don't know I'm just winging it and thankful that I don't have those $300-400 power bills right now. I normally have very little smoke. I just remember my grand dads old stove, smoking like a train and would run you out of the house. Thanks
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