F3500 burning really well but..

[tjdressel]

We had our F3500 installed the week before Christmas, which was great because the first night we could burn it, it was -42C with windchill down to -50C. Burning seasoned pine, in the 7% - 13% range. At those temperatures it could make the house about 21C, nice and toasty!

It's warmed up to about -16C at night now, and quite frankly, even with the cat on, large fat non split round logs, air fully closed, it's pouring off too much heat. I'm filling the box that way, say 4-5 large pieces. I'm doing this to get long burns, which right now I can get at least 8 hours, not uncommon to get 10.


Short of opening a window, any suggestions to burn it even lower and slower? Would loading fewer pieces of wood make much of a difference? Assuming that might not burn all night though.

Tim

 

[Prometeo]

We had our F3500 installed the week before Christmas, which was great because the first night we could burn it, it was -42C with windchill down to -50C. Burning seasoned pine, in the 7% - 13% range. At those temperatures it could make the house about 21C, nice and toasty!

It's warmed up to about -16C at night now, and quite frankly, even with the cat on, large fat non split round logs, air fully closed, it's pouring off too much heat. I'm filling the box that way, say 4-5 large pieces. I'm doing this to get long burns, which right now I can get at least 8 hours, not uncommon to get 10.


Short of opening a window, any suggestions to burn it even lower and slower? Would loading fewer pieces of wood make much of a difference? Assuming that might not burn all night though.

Tim

put a video how it burns normally, could someone suggest reducing draft if it is the case

 

[farmwithjunk]

Have you tried racking the coals forward and loading N to S? I have the F5200 which is about the same and loading this way slows the burn way down and makes much less heat. Since the air comes in the front and then up to the cat up front it only burns the tip of the logs.

I have a bolt and washer sitting in the slot for the draft control to block a little more air when its way down.

 

[arro222]

We had our F3500 installed the week before Christmas, which was great because the first night we could burn it, it was -42C with windchill down to -50C. Burning seasoned pine, in the 7% - 13% range. At those temperatures it could make the house about 21C, nice and toasty!

It's warmed up to about -16C at night now, and quite frankly, even with the cat on, large fat non split round logs, air fully closed, it's pouring off too much heat. I'm filling the box that way, say 4-5 large pieces. I'm doing this to get long burns, which right now I can get at least 8 hours, not uncommon to get 10.


Short of opening a window, any suggestions to burn it even lower and slower? Would loading fewer pieces of wood make much of a difference? Assuming that might not burn all night though.

Tim

Considering this stove myself.
Brochure states up to 24 hr burns. Your burns are not any longer than my Quad 5700 tube but pine burns almost twice as fast as the red oak I'm using so your times with pine I should consider exemplary.
Have you tried using a stove pipe damper to slow your stove up?
Pine burns really hot.
If you don't mine me asking, what did this stove cost?

 

[tjdressel]

Following up on this thread for those interested.

Short answer is I was simply feeding too much wood, that was burning too well. It also took us a while to get past the fact that this stove doesn't need big visible flame to producing insane amounts of heat.

This fall we also changed our wood, favoring larger unsplit logs which has made a big difference. I can drop in an 8" diameter log onto a good coal bed at 10pm parallel to the door and at 7am there are still enough coal to start again.

Now during the day we'll throw on 1 smaller split piece of wood every 3-5 hours set as low as it will go and it keeps the house nice and toasty. Hasn't been that cold yet though.

Also, over the summer we installed the secondary air feed through the back/bottom directly outside. Our house is a newer build, 8 years old, and we were having problems with The house being too air tight. This seems to have made a huge difference, especially when lighting it from cold.

The last change we've implemented, we picked up one of those small handheld propane torches to light the fire. If you are not using one of these, you are wasting time on getting your fire going. I'd say I spend 2 minutes laying out the initial kindling and wood, sometimes using a bit of paper that came in the mail but not always, hit it with the torch for maybe 30 seconds, close the door to (but not closed) and let it build heat for 15 minutes, by then I can close the door, often it's already hot enough to engage the cat.

Couldn't be happier with it, looking forward to having the slow winter in coming creep up on us in luxurious heat!

Cheers,

 

[moresnow]

Nice description of the learning curve involved with many stoves/manufacturers today.