Fire view 3rd burn with combuster at end

[sappy]

I burned for the 3rd time this am with around 8 1 to 1.5 inch kindling lots of paper and around 4 or 5 2 plus inch splits. It drafts well so shut down to around 1 and a half to 2 after about fifteen min. This time there was never really any smoke outside even without combuster. Around an houur later it got up to around 220 or so stove top. I had just some wood left and engaged the combuster. Unfortunately I was down to big coal soon after as my wood ran out. Question is how do I know if my combuster in limited time, worked? There was no red glow anywhere but stove temp did go down some and although hard to tell but seems like stove temp went up a little faster and no smoke outside still. Right now with stove out stove temp over 270. And do I leave the combuster in engage now until I make the next fire.
In general does all this make sense to the folks having this stove?
Thanks in advance,
Pat( aka Sappy)

 

[sappy]

I meant to say stove temp went up a litltLe faster and stove piped seemed to go down then. Sorry

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sappy, that is a long time to get the stove up to 200 especially with that many splits. If we put that much in the stove we'd have the stove top probably 450 by that time or maybe even higher. Perhaps you dialed the draft down a bit soon but you have to be the judge by what the fire is doing. We engage the combuster when stove top gets to 250 but with the steel cats you can do it sooner.

It is possible for the cat to be working and not see much or any red. No smoke; no worries. When you get that stove cooking around 400 or so then you'll definitely see the red cat. You will also love it when you get the first dancing flames. It might look like the pits of Hell at first but you'll enjoy it.

Once you engage the cat, leave it alone until you reload the stove. At the end of the fire there is not a whole lot of smoke to burn but this will still send the heat through the top of the stove for your benefit. If you disengage the cat, the heat goes straight up the chimney and not through the top of the stove so you won't get the benefit of all the heat. So, just set the cat and don't change a thing unless for some odd reason the stove temperature goes down. I've had that happen once or twice during early season when we just put in a couple small splits.

btw, we've had two fires so far this season and both times I had 3 small splits and a few sticks of kindling. The stove top temperature peaked around 450 both times but I did add 3 more splits each time after the initial splits burned down. Now we have some ashes back in the stove so things will go even better then next time.

 

[sappy]

Hey Dennis, I did shut the draft down to around 1.5 within ten min or so as it was going quite well. Still have a phobia about this double wall pipe being just 6 inches from the wall I guess. I should say that the 4 plus 2inch splits or so I used don't even equal 1 moderate piece however.
The room with that being said 12by 22 where stove is on gambrel end went from 69 this morning to almost 80 now just on what little bit I did put in.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sappy, it sounds like you did well. There is a short learning curve that you will be able to experiment with when it gets colder. Sometime if you are having a problem, don't be afraid to send me an email at the time and if I'm available I'll answer you right away. Together we can get it figured out.

 

[leeave96]

I think you need to get your fire going, let the stove top get to 200 or 250 degrees without the cat. Open up the damper to get the fire going. As the flames begin to fill the firebox and heat go up the chimney, begin to damper down a bit - from 4 to 3 to 2. This will retain more heat in the stove while keeping things under control. Once you hit 250 degrees, engage the cat, let it light off and damper down to your taste. 1 to 1.5 depending on how much flame you want to see or heat output. Once the cat gets going, you can damper down lower than 1 and still have good heat output.

Let that stove rip!

Bill

 

[sappy]

Bill, I did let the stove get just under 250. I should mention this is a new stove that I am seasoning. First fire was around 120 stovetop, next around 170 this 3rd around 270 finally after engaged. I think the biggest issue is I needed to put some bigger splits in toward the end and I would have reconized a qicker heat return. Also never seasoned one of these but it seems pretty healthy what I have done as each time the temp has gradually been a litlle more.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yes sappy, I think you are doing things right and you will see a big difference when you put in more wood.