Fireview: Over-confidence got me...

[akennyd]

Been burning our Fireview for just a little over a week now mainly at night and everything has been going great! Getting more and more used to the settings on the stove and getting the amount of heat we need out of it. We didn't burn for the last two nights because a warm front had come through but that moved out last night being replaced by a cool front. Great! Going to have a fire tonight!

So... I light the stove, making sure the damper is wide open, cat in bypass, and check for draft before hand. Kindling is lit and all seems to be going as expected. Then I mess up...I move into the kitchen and start talking to my wife about my sons homework and get totally distracted. A few minutes go by and all of a sudden it hits me that the stove really ought to be cranking by now and should have been damped down before now. I rush out of the kitchen to find the stove in exactly the opposite condition!! The kindling fire has gone out and the firebox is full of grey smoke and it's beginning to pour out of the stove and into the room...:^( I quickly open the front and back house doors and set up a fan to blow the smoke outside and then get some newspaper lit in the stove to get some heat going back up the chimney and hopefully a positive draft. It works but there's still smoke in the house. My wife's asking "What happened, what happened?" But she has really been understanding about the whole deal, thank the Lord she has been enjoying the warmer than normal house temps!!

Learned a lot today! Going to be use more newspaper when starting a fire to hopefully establish a quicker, hotter draft. But...more importantly...I will pay much more attention when lighting the stove. I need to type that a hundred times...I will pay much more attention when lighting the stove. :^) I take full responsibility for this foul up...

Still love the Fireview I'm sitting here now enjoying looking at a fire in it and enjoying the heat and the fact my heatpumps on the old part of the house haven't run over the time I've been using it!!

Kenny {

 

[Kenster]

Ah, don't beat yourself up so much. We've all been there. I'm hoping to have my first fire tomorrow night. My usual rule is no fire unless the overnight low is 40 or lower. But then, we don't have the central heat on either. In fact, we've not had the heat pumps on for heat in over three years. Only free, scrounged wood heats this house.

By the way, I love that stump carving. Did you do that yourself? My wife collects crosses. I may give something like that a shot. What model of Stihl is that? I have an MS390.

 

[soupy1957]

Based on your description, it sounded to me like you hadn't established a good draft, even though you thought you had.

I've had at least one experience of the stove filling with smoke and starting to leak out of places on the stove I had no idea it would.
In MY case, it was a "draft" issue.

-Soupy1957

 

[akennyd]

Soupy-yes, had a draft to start with, flames died on me and then I had smoke coming from places on the stove I would have never imagined, it was probably coming out of my ears too...:^) I don't think overall I have any issues...everything just fell into place for this to happen, mostly my negligence.

Kenster-yes I did the carving...looks better in the pic than in person :^)...Stihl ms390 w/20" bar...love the saw so far, I've had it for a little over a year.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

A good lesson learned Kenny. I'm betting you won't make that same mistake twice!

This seems to be a common problem, yet, I admit that I have never experienced it. Not really sure why though. Maybe it is because I've worked with enough wood stoves and fires over the years and I was taught right from the beginning. Just don't know. But it does seem easy to fix the problem with some newspapers burning hot for a minute or two.



Kenny, if this happens again, light a couple of candles to get rid of the smoke and smell.

 

[akennyd]

Dennis-I never would have thought this would have happened. I've had excellent draft so far. You are certainly correct, I just didn't establish a hot quick fire. You can bet the world I will from now on I grew up around woodstoves but my parents never had one. It was the only heat my grandparents had until they couldn't keep up feeding the stove. My dad talked about getting one when I was little but he never did, I had always hoped they would but it never happened...

I was running around the house spraying glade and doing whatever I could to get rid of the smoke. :^) All the while waiting for the wife to come unglued about the smoke :^) She didn't but was concerned something was wrong with the stove. I knew exactly what was happening...thanks to reading and learning from this forum.

Kenny{

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm just happy it all turned out well. Sounds like your wife is pretty satisfied with the stove and is not filled with fear. That is great because too many are fearful. Fearful to a point is good, but....

 

[thewoodlands]

Kenny we have a Lopi Liberty installed in the basement with an outside chimney, yesterday we didn't burn all day (cold chimney) so last night before starting the fire and putting in the kindling I opened the by-pass then took the old hair dryer stuck it up the opened by-pass then turned it on for one minute to get the draft going.


Then I put the kindling in and started to burn, takes off great without any smoke and woke up this morning with the upstairs temp at 73.



zap

 

[ChillyGator]

I suggest SUPERCEDARS.......just saying.

 

[Todd]

Been there, done that. Sometimes it's hard not to get distracted especially with kids in the house.

 

[Danno77]

I thought you were gonna have a similar story to what I have from yesterday. I came home for lunch (about noon), loaded it up, opened it wide to get it going. then forgot to shut it down before I left. Came home at maybe 4 or so and the house smelled smokey, but not like normal smokey. Just like hot metal or a hint of that smell you get with a new stove. then it dawned on me what that smell was and I ran downstairs to the stove looked everything over really well. Stove appears to be fine, chimney appears to be fine. I was probably lucky. I don't KNOW that I overfired it, but I'm pretty sure it happened. Not sure how hot it got, as I wasn't there, but it burned that whole load in about 2/3 the time it should have taken if closed down a little.

I'm just gonna keep my eye on everything for a while. I think it's probably all safe in terms of a fire risk in the house. The nice thing about my setup is that it's a hearth stove with the stove sitting mostly inside the fireplace and then a pipe chimney inside of a perfectly good clay chimney. This means basically if the stove failed it would fail within the confines of a good fireplace. If the chimney fails then I have the second chimney to contain the fire. Let's hope none of that ever happens.

Just saying, be careful. I'm not new to this, maybe I got to comfortable, too. I need to get my webcam setup running again so I can check on it many times during the day.

 

[Uper]

I guess I'm fortunate with the draft issues because there always seems to be one. What I fear is over-firing the thing. That's what I stick around and pay attention to. Glad it worked out and the wife was understanding.

P.S. I love the cross too! You may have given me an idea for a maple I have to take down out by the road. I've been thinkng of trying my hand at a little chainsaw carving, but wasn't sure what to carve.

 

[oldspark]

If I could make one that looks good my daughter would love a cross for Christmas.

 

[Flatbedford]

Sounds like you were burning in warmer weather. It is harder to establish a draft when the inside and out side temps are close. Once it gets colder (does it really get that cold in NC? ) you will likely not have to worry about that happening again.

 

[WES999]

As the other poster suggested, get some fire starters, Super seaders, Walmart etc.
I put some twisted up newspaper on the bottom and 2 small pieces of fire starters somewhere in the middle.
Preheat the flue for maybe 30 sec with propane torch, then light paper and fire starters.
Works like a charm, fast heat up and almost never goes out. :lol:

 

[Bobbin]

That's happened to me, too! More than a few times, actually (I tend to "forget" every 3 yrs./so). It's all part of the learhing curve, my friend.

Ditto, poor Danno's heart-thumping "discovery". I was hanging laundry shortly after touching off the Fireview some years ago. A neighbor pulled into the dooryard, we yapped about pretty much nothing for too long. I discovered the stovetop thermometer in the 700 range (beginning of danger range on the Woodstocks), squealed in alarm but decided to "just watch" for a bit. And it was OK, I let it start to die back before closing her down (most everything had been consumed, wastefully!). But now I set the kitchen timer if I suspect I may be "shanghaied" by something else.

Nearly 20 yrs. after installation we have yet to burn the house down. You live and you learn. And then you laugh about all the stupid -hit you've done in the years in between.

 

[akennyd]

Bobbin-I think the timer idea is a good one, think I'll give it a try. Like you, I was expecting a fire from hades but found just the opposite! Funny how we repeat our mistakes sometimes, usually I'm right in the middle of making one again when I remember....duh!

FBF-It was a little warmer, dropping throught the 50's going down to the low 40's. It does get cold here from time to time but nothing like y'all have I'm sure. It's beautiful down here right now, low 70's to upper 60's during the day and low 40's to upper 30's at night. I now realize I was just being a little too laid-back, so to speak, with my fire starting.

Danno (and Bobbin)-Forgetting the stove with an unchecked fire is my biggest fear right now. Glad things didn't go any worse for you than they did. Certainly going to start trying the timer thing...

Anyway, started a fire late in the evening yesterday...used plenty of newspaper on the top and bottom (a hybrid starter fire?) of my kindling and small split or two...after checking for draft (as I always do)...lit the fire first from the top to help keep a draft and then at the bottom to try and make sure things kicked off well...that went really well and I'll keep doing it that way!!

Thanks to all for the comments on the cross! If I can cut one out, anybody can do it!! Best of luck to those who are trying their hand at one!!

Kenny{
Jesus is LORD!

 

[nate379]

Hard to imagine it's so warm in places when it's 3* here right now. Last year same day it was well below zero.

I have not had to light a new fire in my stove for close to 2 months. I do need to shut it down soon to empty out the ashes though.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nate, that is just one more benefit from living further north. lol

 

[Danno77]

I like the timer idea. I have a countdown timer on my watch, I'll just set that for like 10 minutes every time I load the stove and open it up.

 

[oldspark]

The wife uses a kitchen timer when I am gone, after seeing about 800 stove top on 2 pieces of crappy elm and a couple of pieces of 2 inch oak I think I should be using it.