Howdy,
First post, been reading for a while. My parents installed a used Kent Tile Fire that appears to be in good shape cosmetically inside and out but I haven't opened her up at all to take a look and I only have a cursory understanding of her inner workings. This is our family's first season using the stove.
My concern is that my fire tends to smolder and not really flame like it should. I'm seeing excessive smoke from the chimney and carbon build up on the glass in days, not weeks. The fires tend to start out quickly and I let the fire go for 15-30 minutes with the damper open and things look OK but after I close the bypass damper things really slow down.
I'm trying to determine which of the following is the cause:
1. I am building the fire incorrectly. I try the newspaper, stack kindling, smaller splits, then larger splits. Looks like what I see online but doesnt burn like them, especially once I close the damper.
2. Is there insufficient oxygen due to something internal being clogged up?
3. The wood my parents bought was sold as seasoned and appears dry but maybe it wasnt as advertised.
These are my best guesses. I've never had a wood stove before, only relatively cosmetic fireplaces. I really want to use this thing safely and efficiently so I've read the manual for the Kent tile fire back to front at least five times and several dozen pages here and elsewhere on proper stove use and I still can't figure out what is going wrong.
Can anyone help me figure this out? Could it be some other issue?
First post, been reading for a while. My parents installed a used Kent Tile Fire that appears to be in good shape cosmetically inside and out but I haven't opened her up at all to take a look and I only have a cursory understanding of her inner workings. This is our family's first season using the stove.
My concern is that my fire tends to smolder and not really flame like it should. I'm seeing excessive smoke from the chimney and carbon build up on the glass in days, not weeks. The fires tend to start out quickly and I let the fire go for 15-30 minutes with the damper open and things look OK but after I close the bypass damper things really slow down.
I'm trying to determine which of the following is the cause:
1. I am building the fire incorrectly. I try the newspaper, stack kindling, smaller splits, then larger splits. Looks like what I see online but doesnt burn like them, especially once I close the damper.
2. Is there insufficient oxygen due to something internal being clogged up?
3. The wood my parents bought was sold as seasoned and appears dry but maybe it wasnt as advertised.
These are my best guesses. I've never had a wood stove before, only relatively cosmetic fireplaces. I really want to use this thing safely and efficiently so I've read the manual for the Kent tile fire back to front at least five times and several dozen pages here and elsewhere on proper stove use and I still can't figure out what is going wrong.
Can anyone help me figure this out? Could it be some other issue?
