How to Operate My stove

[prajna101]

I have lived in several houses with wood heat over my life. But this year is the first time I am trying to heat my home primarily with wood. I am sure I am making mistakes in my operation of my stove. But I really have not found a clear guide. The manual for my stove, a Lopi Answer, is silly. It states:

Overnight Burn Fully out to 9/32" open
Medium Burn 9/32" to 5/16" open
Medium High Burn 5/16" to 7/16" open
High Burn 7/16" open top pushed fully in

This is just ridiculous if you ask me. It's just a lever that pulls in and out. They couldn't make this more complicated! Cant they just round 9/32 to 1/4 or 25%. Or their description for "medium burn". Am I supposed to really adjust between 9/32 and 10/32? It's just one 32nd difference? Can anyone really guess that difference? Do you go out and measure each time?

So about the only other advice they give in the operation manual is if the metal is glowing red, you are over firing the stove.

SO. . .

I am wondering if there is some guide to real operation of an EPA stove. I think I know what I am doing, but perhaps I am just the whacko that you all make fun of.

I generally start my fires, leave the air fully open until its ripping hot but not glowing. Then shut the air down to mostly closed. Once a bed of coals forms, I repeat.

I dont have a thermometer. I think I will get one, but I hear you all tossing around lots of different temperatures for optimal burn. Is there a list of those temps somewhere? Is it different for each stove?

What is your process for best operation?

Thanks for your help. BTW, its probably best if you just assume that I am a complete moron.

t

 

[littlesmokey]

Anyone have a link to that woodheat video from Canada a fw years ago. That was about the best show and tell I have seen yet. Good make sense simple proceedures. Right now I can't even think of the fellows name. It's a Senior Moment. :-S

 

[Bobbin]

You seem to have a pretty good sense of humor for a complete moron. I know what you mean about making it seeming "complicated" when it really isn't, lol. I'll be interested in reading the replies to your post. I use the stovetop thermometer to give me an idea of when the stove is hot enough to engage the combustor, but without it I'd probably be fine. I load the stove, let it burn a bit before dampering off and engageing the combustor, and then I pretty much go about my business.

Set it and forget it, baby!

 

[SolarAndWood]

The reality is that they cant write a manual for every house, climate, personal preference etc. You should get a thermometer as it will help with your experimentation. Right now, shutting it all the way down works but probably wont in mid-January. Try not to screw around with adjustment or opening it to throw wood in constantly even though that is what everyone does with their new stove. Experiment now and find out what works for your situation. Then adjust as it gets colder.

 

[CarbonNeutral]

I thought it was going to be because they had converted from metric to inches and were being silly about it, but 9/32"=0.71cm, co obviously not. Then I was going to tell my great story of my breadmaker with its ridiculous imperial measurements, but that will have to wait :{

 

[HardWoodW]

I thought the same thing when I got my used lopi freedom bay and downloaded the manual- what a crazy explanation- so I just started messing around with it. I then converted the lopi measurements to my own

High burn- all the way in
medium high burn- mostly all the way in
medium- about half way
low burn- a little farther out than half
overnight burn- mostly all the way out or maybe all the way out depending on how it looks

seriously though- I just got my thermometer and I've found it helpful since I'm new to this. I noticed today that temps in the "burn zone" resulted in almost no visible smoke coming out of the chimney.

 

[Pagey]

I'll offer my insights based on operating my Lopi Endeavor. First of all, don't worry about the notion of trying to literally figure out 9/32 on the primary air. You'll learn where the sweet spot is for your stove, your wood, your climate, etc. I'm not sure if your stove features the bypass damper or not, but mine does so that's what I'll work with in my example. Starting from a cold stove, I lay about 3 pine splits (testing around 20% moisture content) north/south on the bed of ash. Then I place 2 splits running east/west across the 3 bottom splits. I place one of the e/w splits at the very back of the stove, and the other e/w split at the front near the door. In the middle of this "square" I place 4 sheets of newspaper rolled diagonally into knots (thanks, Vanessa!). Then on top of all this I pile on bits of pine bark, pine kindling, and 1" pine splits. Then I top that off with a loosely crumpled piece of newspaper.

With the primary air handle all the way open (which, on my stove, means it's pulled all the way out) and the bypass damper open, I light the news paper in various places and then close the door so that about a 1/2" gap remains. This will have the fuel load on top of the bottom 3 splits fully engaged in a matter of minutes. I also have a stove top thermometer on the first surface of the stove (not on the top "step"). Once it reads around 200F, I latch the door. As the fire travels down to the lower splits and engages them, I now usually have a stove top temp of around 300F. Once I reach 350-400F, I close the bypass damper, and with a good, dry load I have secondary combustion immediately. Now the stove literally looks like the flaming bowels of hell, and flames are rolling up and licking the "glass". Now I wonder how I slow this mother down!

I then slowly begin pushing the primary air lever in towards the stove to back down the primary air. I start by pushing the handle in about half the distance from the end of the coiled spring to the end of the handle that is visible from the ash lip. What does that mean? I do this: I stand on the edge of my heart pad and look straight down at the handle. I eyeball the distance from the edge of ash lip to the point where the spring grip on the handle terminates. Let's say for the sake of conversation that's 5 inches. This means with a stove top temp of around 400F and the bowels of rolling inside, I push that handle in about 2.5".

Once the stove top hits about 500F, I push the handle in until all I can see is the spring grip when looking down (again, flush with the edge of the ash lip). The final adjustment varies with the amount of wood and the type of wood, but my sweet spot is this: I go just past the tightly coiled part of the spring where the "wraps" touch themselves. Then I push the handle in until the first couple of spaced "wraps" of the spring disappear under the edge of the ash lip (again, standing up looking straight down at the handle and ash lip). From there I can tweak it further, but that puts me in the area where the stove will "cruise" around 600-650F with active secondary burn, plenty of heat, and no visible smoke.

Now, that sounds like a lot, but to me it's second nature at this point. Hope that helps a little!

 

[madrone]

I generally start my fires, leave the air fully open until its ripping hot but not glowing. Then shut the air down to mostly closed. Once a bed of coals forms, I repeat.

I dont have a thermometer. I think I will get one, but I hear you all tossing around lots of different temperatures for optimal burn. Is there a list of those temps somewhere? Is it different for each stove?

What is your process for best operation?


t

The manual is crap. If you close the air too far, the secondary flames go out. Open it more. Wait to see if the secondaries return. Eventually, you'll just know how far to close it. I don't use a thermometer or moisture meter.

 

[gpcollen1]

The bottom line is that you are going to have to get used to adjusting the air intake for that stove when burning. That is the only way you are going to get the hang of it. If you take a look at what is actually sliding, you can see the air intake hole in the stove. That may give you a better idea...

PS - Does a new car manual actually tell you how to drive or just where all the buttons and gadgets are??

 

[littlesmokey]

I found the video. Check out this page:

http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/videos/Woodstove_mgt-Eng.wmv

 

[prajna101]

Thanks for all the input. The video is great.

So here is another question. Why do I keep hearing people say to close the air off slowly in stages? Its not like the fire is going to take a deep breath before the plunge or learn to anticipate what is going on.

Todd

 

[Pagey]

Thanks for all the input. The video is great.

So here is another question. Why do I keep hearing people say to close the air off slowly in stages? Its not like the fire is going to take a deep breath before the plunge or learn to anticipate what is going on.

Todd

In order for that secondary combustion to take place, the smoke needs to be around 1,100F or so. That takes a nice, hot fire box to keep that reaction going well. If you suddenly cut off the air before the fire box is fully up to temp, you rob the fire off all the ingredients necessary for the secondary burn to maintain itself. Sure, you might still get some heat, but it will be a much cooler stove and a bunch of unwanted junk in your chimney.

It has nothing to do with the fire "anticipating" anything. It has to do with taking away a necessary component of secondary combustion.

 

[BrotherBart]

Closing and opening the primary air control changes the balance of where air is drawn into the firebox. On most EPA non-cat stove there are three sources. The primary air intake that feeds the airwash over the glass, the secondary air which comes in through the tubes in the top of the firebox and then a booster which is located usually in the lower front center of the firebox. All three fed from different sources. Given that there is a set amount of chimney draft drawing air in any change in the primary input changes the balance of where the other air is drawn in. Therefore, you make the changes slowly so as to let the burn settle with the new balance of intake air from the other two sources.

My Englander is built by good ole boys down here in Virginia so the settings are:

Just A Skosh: Low burn
A Tad: Medium burn
A Bunch: High burn
The Whole Enchilada: Overfire

 

[madrone]

I've never had any problem just closing it to around 3/4 or more closed in one go.

 

[rhalligan]

New Lopi Freedom here, been practicing for about a month. Just my observations:

1. Closing the damper in stages does seem to make a difference - both in the eveness of the burn and quality of the secondary burn - BrotherBart is definitely on to something - LOL
2. When my air damper is all the way in(which on the freedom is open), I can pull it half closed which is quite a bit of travel and it doesn't do a damn thing. However, when you have it completely closed - even the slightest movement makes a difference - I truly believe that a 1/32 or 1/16 change does matter when over half closed- my fiance has had quite a role on the floor laughing watching me screw with the air damper - moving it ever so slightly - but I swear it makes a difference and in my defense - I have managed to get incredible burn times out of the stove the last week or so after having horrible burn times the first couple weeks.
3. The freedom has the top damper as well for the flu - not sure about yours - but if it does - I have found that once the blower kicks on (usually about 15 minutes) you are good to close the top damper. I don't mess with this at all - I open all the way until hot, then close.
4. Pagey hit the nail on the head - when it is burning properly it literally looks like fire from hell - it can actually scare small children - the secondary burn is just wild!! My first week I had what I thought was good secondary burn, but it really wasn't good at all compared to what I see now.
5. Another good indicator - the glass - first week my glass was always dirty - cleaning it every day before starting again - had a few choice words for the engineer that came up with the air wash system. Now, since learning how to use the stove my glass is never dirty.

 

[Bobbin]

I really enjoyed that video. Thanks for hunting it down and posting it.

A lot of the information is pretty much second nature, but I was interested in the way she loaded the stove and how she managed the the ashes; neither of those things are options for me with our stove.

I liked that she didn't rely too much on a stovetop or stovepipe thermometer. Do you guys think that's a good thing or a not-so-good thing? how come?

 

[yanksforever]

The first thing you need to do is go out and by the manual for Self confidence and Self Respect :exclaim:

 

[smokingolf]

This is my fourth season with my insert (Quad 4100i) and the first two seasons was a learning experience for me during my third season I think I finally had a feel for my stove. I think I've heard it many times on this site that it is a feel that you develope for your own stove. Remmember what works and what doesn't. My biggest problem the first two seasons was not having fully seasoned wood. Now I can start a fire in one try and within a half hour have it going where I can add more wood and then close it down to just short of fully closed and let it go untill it needs more wood.