I lit the fireplace!

[EatenByLimestone]

And I loved it!

I do it once or twice a year and putting up the Christmas tree and lights is one of them. If I do the Thanksgiving dinner, that's the other time. It's pretty and a small fire cools off quick enough that I don't have to leave the damper open all night. I've found a pile of pine (gasp) 2x4s with a single hardwood split placed on the front for looks works great!

 

[area_man]

I burned mine for the first time tonight. It's...

beautiful.

 

[Jags]

You will be forgiven, my son.

 

[Dustin92]

The way things are going today, I would love to burn a fire in our fireplace, but there is an ugly, stinking, smoking, sooty insert jammed in it. When I got up at 8 this morning, the house was 63 degrees, and still had coals in the stove. I ran a friend across town to work, got back and had a fire going by 9:30. It is now 12:03, and the fire has been cooking away since 9:30, The upstairs is.... Drumroll please- a toasty 64 degrees! Its mid 20's outside, little to no wind, and has only managed to bring the temp up one degree. The chimney has been belching smoke like a freight train, while the fire burns just fine, and plenty hot. I would love to rip the insert out and build an open fire- would probably get more heat.

 

[Jags]

The chimney has been belching smoke like a freight train, while the fire burns just fine, and plenty hot.

Does not compute. Something about the burn isn't correct.

 

[Dustin92]

It's not making sense to me either! The air is wide open, the windows are clean, and no hissing or sizzling from the wood, just belching smoke until it gets down to coals.

 

[Jags]

Close that air down. You are pumping too much air into the stove to get a clean burn. Try a couple of different adjustments. Go down to 50% air and wait a few - see what happens. Then goto 25% and repeat. Lower it in small increments (like 5% at a time) until you can walk out and see clean/clear burning. If you CAN'T do that we have other issues and I would suggest posting up a new thread about it.

 

[Dustin92]

I just learned something! I thought more air equals a cleaner hotter burn. I thought turning the air down would just smother the fire and cause it to smolder, but it seems to be working better now, I put the air controls at about half, and although I haven't been outside yet, I don't see smoke billowing over the roof anymore. It seemed to run fine yesterday with the air full open, the chimney wasn't smoking and the house was warm. I'm hoping to get the cat replaced soon, it should be easier to burn then.

 

[Jags]

Keep fiddling to get the fine tuning down.

 

[begreen]

Fireplaces suck. Heat that is. They are nice for ambiance.

 

[Sprinter]

I just learned something! I thought more air equals a cleaner hotter burn. I thought turning the air down would just smother the fire and cause it to smolder, but it seems to be working better now, I put the air controls at about half, and although I haven't been outside yet, I don't see smoke billowing over the roof anymore. It seemed to run fine yesterday with the air full open, the chimney wasn't smoking and the house was warm. I'm hoping to get the cat replaced soon, it should be easier to burn then.

This would be a good discussion for a new thread. Bet a lot of people do that with EPA stoves.