I am a 2 year wood burner and tonight I made a silly mistake I thought I would share.
I decided to make the first fire of the season tonight......actually a wee bit early but temps will be in the mid to low 30s by morning so I said what the heck.
My stove and pipe was super clean, wood was ready, damper cleaned and checked and a bit of graphite added to add smoothness to the overall operation.
Kindling loaded and all was great.........lit the fire and it took off with a medium sized load of kindling and all was well.
Kindling burned down so I decided to add 5 pieces of poplar and it too took off really well.
During the kindling run I tested the damper and did not notice the usuall quick snuff out my stove is capable of doing..........should have realized there was a problem then.
So after the poplar took off, I noticed my stove climbed to 500........so I dampered halfway.........no result.........so I go for the full kill switch I can normally get and NOTHING ! 8-/
Not to panic I knew the poplar would go fast.....it did and my stove reached a toasty 600........which is still ok but for my house temp which had now reached 80...........it was really hot.
When my wood got to a less flaming state, I got my tools and while sweating extremely bad I removed the damper and realized while cleaning and lubing back in the summer I had installed the damper upside down..........which meant the intake holes were fully open at all times and NO way to damper at all.......what a silly mistake........it won't happen again.
This worked out fine, but could have been bad if I had added 3 or 4 splits of oak........which would still be burning I guess.
So..........please don't load your stove on the "first test run of the season" really full until you have a chance to check all the controls and make sure your stove responds well.
Robbie
I decided to make the first fire of the season tonight......actually a wee bit early but temps will be in the mid to low 30s by morning so I said what the heck.
My stove and pipe was super clean, wood was ready, damper cleaned and checked and a bit of graphite added to add smoothness to the overall operation.
Kindling loaded and all was great.........lit the fire and it took off with a medium sized load of kindling and all was well.
Kindling burned down so I decided to add 5 pieces of poplar and it too took off really well.
During the kindling run I tested the damper and did not notice the usuall quick snuff out my stove is capable of doing..........should have realized there was a problem then.
So after the poplar took off, I noticed my stove climbed to 500........so I dampered halfway.........no result.........so I go for the full kill switch I can normally get and NOTHING ! 8-/
Not to panic I knew the poplar would go fast.....it did and my stove reached a toasty 600........which is still ok but for my house temp which had now reached 80...........it was really hot.
When my wood got to a less flaming state, I got my tools and while sweating extremely bad I removed the damper and realized while cleaning and lubing back in the summer I had installed the damper upside down..........which meant the intake holes were fully open at all times and NO way to damper at all.......what a silly mistake........it won't happen again.
This worked out fine, but could have been bad if I had added 3 or 4 splits of oak........which would still be burning I guess.
So..........please don't load your stove on the "first test run of the season" really full until you have a chance to check all the controls and make sure your stove responds well.
Robbie
