I just started renting a cabin in Vermont for the ski season and the cabin is equipped with a wood stove for its primary heat source. I believe this stove to be relatively old (certainly not new) and i'm having trouble with controlling the fire in the stove. It seems like it is burning through wood very rapidly, no chance of me keeping any size fire going through the night in this thing. This stove does not have a damper control on the stove pipe as I've seen before. However on the side of the stove it does have some sort of control which consists of a knob that this "T" shaped key or lever plugs into (then locks into place) and it allows you to turn the knob side to side and also pull it in and out. The door to the stove operates with this same type of knob. Is there any chance the knob on the side of the stove is some kind of damper that i'm failing to operate properly? It seems like no matter what the position of this knob is, smoke still goes up the chimney, and the fire still roars...once I get it going that is. It usually takes a while to start one. When the fire is out I've tried sticking my head in the stove and shining a light upwards while operating the control to see if I can see a plate of some kind turning or moving back and forth but I cant see anything. There is some sort of steel plate with holes in it welded to the top of the fire box that I cannot see past.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
