I run a fisher grandma bear as you can see in my sig.
Here are some pics to show how I run.
First off, never clean out all ashes from the stove. I find my stove is very slow to get up to temp if all ashes are cleaned out. So, even after emptying, I leave about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch at the bottom.
Then start my fire log-cabin style like this (note, this is getting set for about an allnighter 8-9 hour burn). I find that my wood works best as long as there are 2 layers (such as 2 blocks on the bottom and one on top of them) you don't need to add this much, but one layer alone across the bottom never burns well.
here is the pic, you could use 1/2 as much wood, just make sure you have an upper and lower layer.
after 5 mins with the damper and drafts wide open
For my stove and my good quality wood, my next step is to take and only close the damper so that it is pointing at about 1pm on a clock face or about 20 degrees from vertical. Then, I adjust the dampers to as little as 3/4 a turn open each for an overnight burn t about 325degrees stack temp to 1 - 1 1/4 turns open as seen here for a day time burn at this temp. Once set, it will burn for 2 1/2 hours at this temp, then slowly drop off. I never touch the stove again until the chimney thermometer hits 125-100 degrees, then I rake coals and start all over again.
I also have found that with my setup, my stove pipe leaves the top of the stove and goes up 24 inches, then a 90 out the wall to the thimble. I get the best stack readings on my thermometer just after this 90 degree section. When I had my thermometer in the vertical just above my damper (18 inches up), I would get very irratic readings. Remember, our stoves are pre-epa so things burn and work a little differently. Basically, these things are not as consistent as the new stoves.
Also, in the past I have learned that stack velocity of the flue gasses is as important as stack temperature. For example, I have in the past tried (while burning premium seasoned/dried hardwoods) closing the damper nearly to 3pm (closed all the way) and burning the stove to get the most heat out of it. Even though I had very good flue temps in the 325-450 range, I still built up a lot of 3rd stage creosote. Apparently our old stoves do not burn as clean as the new ones. So by closing the damper so much, I was slowing down the flue gasses. Even though they were very hot, this gave them a better opportunity to deposit hot or not. Since I only close my damper to about 1pm now I no longer have a creosote problem. And really, it does not change my burn times or my heat output. Basically, with the damper closed, I had to open the primary drafts more. All said and done, it is 6 one, 1/2 dozen the other. But since I get essentially no creosote build up with hardly using the damper, I opt to go that route.
Good luck..
pen
