Help us, we're freezing!

[dtt87]

hi all, new here and thankful this forum exists...

Me and my fiance just relocated to Northern BC on the edge of Alaska and are renting an old century home with a wood burning stove located in the middle of the large open concept first floor. We were pretty excited about this except we are having a hard time generating acual warmth and not sure what we are doing wrong.

It is a Fisher Grandma Bear IV and we, well, have no idea what we are doing. We have a fire going and even have an ecofan, but the temp in the room doesnt seem to increase. The previous tenant here apparently had the place quite warm so we are not sure what's going on. It is missing a glass panel on one of the doors that is waiting to be replaced...not sure if that matters.

help usssss please.

 

[coaly]

Is the missing glass panel sealed with metal so it doesn't leak air into the stove??
Is there a damper in the connector pipe and what kind (size, diameter inside and height) of chimney.
Is this your first wood burning experience?
These are the basics that need to be known to start.

 

[dtt87]

Is the missing glass panel sealed with metal so it doesn't leak air into the stove??
Is there a damper in the connector pipe and what kind (size, diameter inside and height) of chimney.
Is this your first wood burning experience?
These are the basics that need to be known to start.

First wood burning experience, yes. My bf grew up in a house with a stove but it was very different.
There is no damper in the connector pipe and short of measuring the chimney with a measuring tape (which we dont have), we dont know any of those details. We know this fire stove has been installed here for years and tenants before had loved it and heated the whole house with it.

 

[peakbagger]

Whats your wood supply like?. When the fire is burning do you see bubbling at the ends of the wood or do you hear hissing?.

 

[dtt87]

Whats your wood supply like?. When the fire is burning do you see bubbling at the ends of the wood or do you hear hissing?.

No hissing, crackling like a fire normally does. Sorry not sure what you mean by bubbling!

 

[coaly]

That was my next question, but if the door isn't sealed and there is no flue damper, fuel quality isn't going to help. It would be like an older model with screen in place and they are not even considered a radiant heater in "open door", Fireplace mode. If leaking around that broken glass panel the flue damper becomes the only control.

Anyway, you should be starting the fire by turning the knobs on the sides a few turns open as well as sliders on front fully open until going good. Then close side knobs to about 1 turn and leave the slide air intakes below doors fully open. To slow the fire more, close knobs fully, not super tight, just until closed. An overnight burn should be enough air with sliders only. They can be closed more to limit heat output. If extremely cold, not enough heat with sliders wide open, you may need to open side knobs a bit as well. This is ONLY if broken door panel is sealed and not leaking air into stove.

 

[jetsam]

It's gonna be cold inside with no front on the stove. You have a big wind tunnel shooting warm indoor air outside there. (That air is replaced by ice cold outside air.) Burning a fire in it makes it go faster.

I suppose there's also theoretically a dangerous potential for overfire with absolutely no air controls, but the high volume of air going through the windowless door probably renders it unlikely.

I would plug the flue and not burn the stove until I could get a replacement stove. Repair wouldn't be an option for me.

 

[coaly]

It's gonna be cold inside with no front on the stove. You have a big wind tunnel shooting warm indoor air outside there. (That air is replaced by ice cold outside air.) Burning a fire in it makes it go faster.
I suppose there's also theoretically a dangerous potential for overfire with absolutely no air controls, but the high volume of air going through the windowless door probably renders it unlikely.
I would plug the flue and not burn the stove until I could get a replacement stove. Repair wouldn't be an option for me.

The picture in the OP's first post shows something over the glass opening, we just don't know if it's an air tight seal.
You wouldn't plug the flue if it was your only heat source. It is quite simple to make a piece of sheet metal the size of a glass panel and install it like it were a piece of glass to close the opening.
Replace the stove due to a broken piece of glass?? Tempered glass is readily available and can be ordered cut to any customized size. (any distributor that sells Robax such as Woodman's) When a glass Fisher is your only heat source, you should have cast iron panels in case of breakage or homemade panels ready to go. You only have to close the door with a log sticking out to break one.





Honey Bear Inserts

 

[coaly]

No hissing, crackling like a fire normally does. Sorry not sure what you mean by bubbling!

You would see liquid bubble out the ends of logs. That is a sign of the wood not being seasoned. That creates steam which takes the heat right up the chimney with it as well as cools the chimney slowing the fire. Any form of water from damp wood or not seasoned correctly does many bad things in the stove for the fire.

A crash course for you to understand what makes any stove work is; hot gasses rising up the chimney creates a low pressure area in the chimney, connector pipe and stove. Like a vacuum that atmospheric air pressure rushes in to fill the void. This rising in the flue is called draft and is what allows air (oxygen) into the fire. So the key is that atmospheric air pressure PUSHES oxygen INTO the stove intake to make the fire burn. So the chimney is the engine that runs the stove. We'll assume that is correct, it needs to be sized correctly and CLEAN.

Now if the broken glass repair leaks, it allows indoor air to rush into stove, giving the fire too much oxygen making it burn faster. This allows too much heat up the chimney (like an open fireplace) and the stove will not heat up to radiate heat inside. So an air leak around that broken panel is critical to heat output. (it makes it burn faster, but without a damper, up the chimney it goes, doing less for you inside)

If a leak was the problem you could slow it down with a flue damper, so that's why I asked that first. The damper when closed slows velocity up the stack, slowing air coming into stove.

Hissing wood when going good is a sure sign of water turning to vapor when leaving the wood and takes lots of energy to release that moisture, so like I stated above all kinds of bad things happen in there with too much water vapor in the fuel.

Your picture doesn't show much of a fire and no coals, so that fire at that stage won't put out much heat. How long has it been burning and is there any magnetic thermometer to put on the step of the stove? It's like driving a vehicle with no speedometer wondering how fast you're going without one. You really need some type of thermometer to give you an idea of what you are doing. BTU output goes by the surface temperature of each square inch of the stove. You need the top to be around 500 or 600* f. for normal output.