Fisher insert dyeing off

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George A

New Member
Jun 25, 2016
33
Maryland
Once i get the beast up and running and she's a blazing, i will shut everything down and leave the draft knobs on both doors about one turn open to allow air to keep the fire going but she tends to die off and smolder after about 30 minutes.. Any clues? Do draft knobs need to be opened a considerable amount more ?
 
One of the things I first learned from this site is that the chimney is what drives the stove.
What chimney type and sized you have and which stove?
 
What is the moisture content of your wood?
 
Good questions above and being an insert I wonder if you have a full liner or not. Is this stove new to you?

As far as the burn, the fire needs the amount of air it needs to burn brisk and clean. How open the air controls need to be will change some day to day depending on how cold it is outside (draft) and the quality of the wood (moisture mainly).

Give the fire the air it wants and avoid smoldering. You can make a lot of creosote in a surprisingly short period of time.
 
Chimney is 11x11 with clay liner
Has been cleaned
Stove is a Fisher insert.
Yes it's stove is new to me so it will be a learning curve for all day burns. More or less looking for feedback and tips
Appreciate the help fellas
 
Chimney drafts phenomenally well. Wood is dry. Been in wood shed for a year or so. I usually go thru about 5-6 cords a year. I'm thinking it has to do with the draft knobs on door. I can leave one door fully open while she's cranking and I won't get a hint of smoke. She gets hot. Can't stand to close
This stove is quite a bit hotter than my old Country Comfort as it will burn off a pot of water in a day vs the old one which took about 3 days to burn off a kettle
I haven't bought oil in over 15 years, been only heating with wood so I'm used to running stoves, there's just something about the capability of a Fisher and the looks that made me want to run her
 
I guess the simple answer is if your stove top temp is dropping then give it more air. As outside temps drop and draft gets stronger you most likely won't have to keep them so open. If you don't have a way of measuring stove temp I'd get something so you know what's going on.

For a conventional non-secondary wood burner your wood is prob pretty good though one year may not be good enough for a newer stove. Hoping you have a true positive connection from insert to the clay liner and not just a pc of pipe shoved up the stack.

Just because it drafts with the door open doesn't mean it's drafting OK when running the insert as it meant to be used. So if you don't have a real connection to the clay I'd correct that since it's affects performance not to mention that its dangerous and illegal.
 
Your Insert needs to be direct connected to a liner much smaller than your current flue diameter.

The 8 inch outlet on Insert is 50.24 square inches. Anything larger than that allows exhaust gasses to expand, cooling them. You have 121 square inches and the Insert will work very good all the way down to 28 ! You need to waste far too much heat into that large of a flue area killing the efficiency as well. You probably need to leave your exhaust damper wide open to create enough draft to keep it going.

You need to keep the inside flue exhaust temperature above 250* f. to the top. **(when smoke is present, to prevent condensing water vapor in flue allowing smoke particles to stick, forming creosote)** With doors open, you're doing that and wasting tons of wood and heat up the chimney. The more efficient the stove, the less heat loss you have up the chimney, so closing the flue damper in your case slows the flue gas velocity, which in turn slows the incoming air coming into the stove. Things cool down, and you loose the draft that is needed to make the Insert go. Start with the basics, rising gasses hotter than outdoor air rise in the flue causing a low pressure area in the Insert. This allows atmospheric air pressure to PUSH oxygen into the intakes filling the void created by chimney draft. Hence the term, the chimney is the engine that drives the stove.

If you're Insert is not direct connected, any leaks around the front cover opening or any leaks into chimney like clean out doors allow cool air to leak into the chimney cooling it and slowing the draft further. ALL the air moving into chimney MUST go through the firebox through the air inlets, NOT around the Insert. It's a chimney problem, not the Insert.

One turn open is usually normal for cold temps, 1/2 turn is about a normal setting for medium heat.
 
I should add, your chimney will only draft well with enough heat to keep that large of an area over 250*. An open fireplace will do that, and allow almost all the heat out as well. The larger the chimney, the more capacity it has, but the more wasted heat it needs to create the same draft the smaller flue creates. So a smaller chimney diameter needing less heat drafts much better with little heat. So just because you feel a chimney drafts well since a ton of heat goes up it, doesn't mean it creates draft with a little heat which is what you want.
 
Once you get the flue temp what it needs to be you will have no problem burning 24/7 with a good pile of coals toward the rear in the morning. You then remove the fine ash each day at the front where it burns down near the intakes and rake coals with some ash ahead. Always leaving an inch of ash on the bottom. This will prevent needing to let the fire die to remove ash. Burning hard you may find too many coals that takes up firebox space, so you need to open the air to burn them down sometimes. During warm days cracking the intakes will allow the coal pile to restart your fire late afternoon with just kindling. Of course wood species has a lot to do with the length of burns, but most hard woods will do that.
If you get a liner, make sure it is insulated to retain more heat, requiring even less wasted heat up the flue. Then you can add a baffle plate inside for more efficiency. If it doesn't have a blower, look into one or fabricate your own to remove much more heat from the insert.