Hi, new at using a wood stove but sick of paying for oil my property is wooded and there is a endless supply of wood. I punched s refurbished Morso 1125, saw reviews and it seemed to be a classic. I installed it into a masonry chimney that was used by a stove that was in place when we bought the house we used it once and it was full of cracks. The chimney is 8"? Square terra cotta inside block I am tied in with two 90's and short upright and into round terra cotta outlet into chimney " yikes " well I am getting a good bit of smoke inside even though it is drafting well ? This stove gets free air through the handle when the door is closed. I am not sure it is getting enough air this way but when I open the doors to let air in smoke is being realeasd into room, also when I add wood. I'm loving the proses but could really use some help. Thanks
Morso 1125
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Great stove - but does need some draft. The handle is not the only thing that lets the air in! When you turn the handle, it makes the doors close tighter or looser, so you have to adjust some of the air that way. You are definitely going to want to get the chimney warm and a bed of embers going by starting with one door slightly cracked open - stove should run better than.
Make sure your stove pipe and chimney connections are well cemented together so you aren't losing draft.
Morso has an old manual on it, but not of much use...
http://www.morsona.com/Files/Filer/PDF/Manuals USA/udg. ovne/1125 manual.pdf
If it is smoking out the doors, it shows a lack of draft. This may be because you didn't warm the chimney up enough initially or it may be other factors (read the chimney articles in our info section, search around, etc.)
With a decent chimney and good wood, that thing is going heat to beat the band...
Make sure your stove pipe and chimney connections are well cemented together so you aren't losing draft.
Morso has an old manual on it, but not of much use...
http://www.morsona.com/Files/Filer/PDF/Manuals USA/udg. ovne/1125 manual.pdf
If it is smoking out the doors, it shows a lack of draft. This may be because you didn't warm the chimney up enough initially or it may be other factors (read the chimney articles in our info section, search around, etc.)
With a decent chimney and good wood, that thing is going heat to beat the band...
Just replaced our beloved 1125. It was a wonderful stove that was our only heat source in a 2400 sq ft home (well insulated). It sounds like you are leaking air or not getting a good draft on the stove. When I would start a fire I would leave one door open about an inch and a half until I got a good fire going and then slowly close the doors down. The handle does allow some air through, but it is very little and is only really good for when there is an established fire. I would easily get 10-12 hour burns with this stove and have enough coals to re-establish a fire morning or night. I do have a 28' chimney with plenty of draft to help me out. Let me know if there are any other specific questions about the operation of the stove. It did take me a little to figure out exactly how the stove liked to run too, but once I did it was a wonderful stove.
Thanks so much for the info glad to hear its a good stove like I said above it had good reviews. Ok next round of questions do you use sealant on smoke pipe joints some say yes some say not needed if so any favorites. We got a fire screen and would love to use this stove like a fireplace I saw that this was done somewhere love looking at fire and it kicks off some real heat thoughts on this? I guess the process is get a good bed of coals going and then close doors lightly and let it stew? I have read ( I told you I'm obsessed ) that wood is most efficient when it is one fire, but that does not seem possible when I shut the doors even lightly. Look forward to what you guys think I have read so much I don't know what's right Thanks
holyman
New Member
Ok, this may sound obvious but is the damper on the collar open? Is the cleanout door on the chimney secure? This is a large stove and does require decent draft, but not more than any other stove.
I have one of these and this is what I have found. Back the nut on the door handle off a bit to allow more air into the stove. When starting, leave the right side door about 2" until it gets in the burn zone 275 (get a cheap magnetic burn indicator and place it 6" up from where the pipe exits the stove). Turn the flue damper to about 1:00 and lightly latch the door as it goes to 300. At 350 you can turn the damper to 2:00 and at around 400 degrees you can close the handle a bit more. Load it up when it's good and hot and slam both dampers down and it will stew nice and hot (very hot!) all night. On very cold Pa nights I will reload it between 4 and 6 AM with the last load up around 10:30 or so.
I have also notice my stove burns WAY BETTER with the clean out door OPEN about 1/2"! I think the large 8" dia of this stove was made to pull cool air in from outside once it's hot. If you don't have a lower opening for cold air this stove will need more air from inside the house than the tiny air hole in the door can provide. I have seen a guy burning this same stove with no cold air intake in his flue and he added threaded barrel dampers to both doors AND runs the stove without the door gaskets. That's fine, but your pulling air from inside the house and that means cold air has to be coming in somewhere else. If you think about the new airtight stoves, they use a 4" intake line and a 4" flu, so both can happen in an 8" pipe! This does cause some soot buildup in the steel pipe but it's very easy to open and dump. My stove sits on a concrete basement floor and I put an ATV jack under it and lift it up about 1" and roll it back. I keep a spare, cleaned out pipe section at the ready so I can swap the pipe out with the stove fairly hot (damper closed) in less than 2 minutes. Then I can clean out the dirty pipe after it cools and it's ready for the next swap. I also burn a creosote log once a month but if your wood is well seasoned it burns the rest of the chimney nice and clean if it's burnt hot.
IF I close my clean out door all the way, it will NOT burn hot, puffs smoke from the seams and rattle the damper because it's trying to fight the flue stack to pull cool air from the top of your chimney. I think this stove was a very early airtight setup. It re-burns the smoke quite well once over 300 degrees with the baffle plate installed. If you don't have this plate installed it's an entirely different stove, and not in a good way. When over 300 you can see no smoke from the chimney. The stove was in the house when I bought it and was setup with an 8" T pipe that was in crappy shape and then piped into a small 6" chimney. I made a temp chimney from 8" pipe and it burnt ok for 2 years until I was able to construct a new 8" square tera cotta masonry pipe with a nice 8" square clean out and I took time to sculpt the bottom nice and smooth filling in all the corners for a nice round air flow (and suite cant pack in the corners) and once I figured out how far to keep the clean out door open, It burns 1/2 as much wood as it ever did and burns longer and hotter.
My stove heats about 2000 sq feet of old farmhouse but I have an electric range hood over the stove with a thermostat and an 8" in duct fan (both duct-o-stat available on ebay) that is ducted into my oil forced hot air duct work. I can use the floor registers to heat the rooms I want and close off the ones I don't. When the stove falls below an adjustable temp setting, the fans shut off (waking me up) and if the house temp gets to low the oil will kick on @ 62 degrees.
If your stock baffle plate is in good shape, take it to a fab shop and have them use it to cut you a 1/2 steel plate and you will be good to go since the cast iron one will eventually warp and can be cracked by mistake by throwing in a large log.
No sealant of the seams should be needed if the stove is on level ground and no sealant of the pipes is needed. I did use some stove sealant around the collar and the close off plate for the unused opening along with new rope gasket. I switched my stove pipe exit to the back as I like to keep a water pot on it and also cook on it in the winter. I had run it with the the pipe out the top with my temp setup and it did not give off as much heat as you can imagine quite a bit of the heat that should radiate from the top goes right up pipe. This also cause shoot and fly ash to fall down and get packed in under the baffle plate and needing to remove it to dump about twice a winter. Now that junk stays in the steel pipe and gets dumped when I swap out the pipe as mentioned, about twice a winter as well.
I have also notice my stove burns WAY BETTER with the clean out door OPEN about 1/2"! I think the large 8" dia of this stove was made to pull cool air in from outside once it's hot. If you don't have a lower opening for cold air this stove will need more air from inside the house than the tiny air hole in the door can provide. I have seen a guy burning this same stove with no cold air intake in his flue and he added threaded barrel dampers to both doors AND runs the stove without the door gaskets. That's fine, but your pulling air from inside the house and that means cold air has to be coming in somewhere else. If you think about the new airtight stoves, they use a 4" intake line and a 4" flu, so both can happen in an 8" pipe! This does cause some soot buildup in the steel pipe but it's very easy to open and dump. My stove sits on a concrete basement floor and I put an ATV jack under it and lift it up about 1" and roll it back. I keep a spare, cleaned out pipe section at the ready so I can swap the pipe out with the stove fairly hot (damper closed) in less than 2 minutes. Then I can clean out the dirty pipe after it cools and it's ready for the next swap. I also burn a creosote log once a month but if your wood is well seasoned it burns the rest of the chimney nice and clean if it's burnt hot.
IF I close my clean out door all the way, it will NOT burn hot, puffs smoke from the seams and rattle the damper because it's trying to fight the flue stack to pull cool air from the top of your chimney. I think this stove was a very early airtight setup. It re-burns the smoke quite well once over 300 degrees with the baffle plate installed. If you don't have this plate installed it's an entirely different stove, and not in a good way. When over 300 you can see no smoke from the chimney. The stove was in the house when I bought it and was setup with an 8" T pipe that was in crappy shape and then piped into a small 6" chimney. I made a temp chimney from 8" pipe and it burnt ok for 2 years until I was able to construct a new 8" square tera cotta masonry pipe with a nice 8" square clean out and I took time to sculpt the bottom nice and smooth filling in all the corners for a nice round air flow (and suite cant pack in the corners) and once I figured out how far to keep the clean out door open, It burns 1/2 as much wood as it ever did and burns longer and hotter.
My stove heats about 2000 sq feet of old farmhouse but I have an electric range hood over the stove with a thermostat and an 8" in duct fan (both duct-o-stat available on ebay) that is ducted into my oil forced hot air duct work. I can use the floor registers to heat the rooms I want and close off the ones I don't. When the stove falls below an adjustable temp setting, the fans shut off (waking me up) and if the house temp gets to low the oil will kick on @ 62 degrees.
If your stock baffle plate is in good shape, take it to a fab shop and have them use it to cut you a 1/2 steel plate and you will be good to go since the cast iron one will eventually warp and can be cracked by mistake by throwing in a large log.
No sealant of the seams should be needed if the stove is on level ground and no sealant of the pipes is needed. I did use some stove sealant around the collar and the close off plate for the unused opening along with new rope gasket. I switched my stove pipe exit to the back as I like to keep a water pot on it and also cook on it in the winter. I had run it with the the pipe out the top with my temp setup and it did not give off as much heat as you can imagine quite a bit of the heat that should radiate from the top goes right up pipe. This also cause shoot and fly ash to fall down and get packed in under the baffle plate and needing to remove it to dump about twice a winter. Now that junk stays in the steel pipe and gets dumped when I swap out the pipe as mentioned, about twice a winter as well.
Also, my stove had two pretty big cracks in it. One is in the back and behind the fire bricks so no big deal. The other was moving along the back of the top plate and got bad enough I had to cut in front of it with an angle grinder. I V ed out all along the crack with the grinder and then welded it up. It's holding up fine so far with no leaks.
If the cleanout door needs to be open then it's possible that either the draft is weak or the wood is not properly seasoned, or both.
30 ft 8" square chimney flows great. It only takes a few seconds of looking at the size of this stoves fire box and the 1/4" hole in the handle to figure out this stove just can not burn it's fuel with that as the sole source of air. The hole in the handle is there to keep it cool enough to touch, though I use a glove since my stove is an older one with a cast iron handle, the newer ones had a boxed aluminum handle and a grooved lip for an ash catching tray below the doors. The cam on the door is to seal the doors up air tight with the gasket. Backing the nut off is a good trick to get some air gap but this guy needs air from outside. If I close the clean out door more than 1/2 it will pull a vacuum so strong you can hear it and it will ride the clean out door up the latch ramp and slam it shut! I have seen clean out doors with adjustable dampers on them and would like to either find one or make one. Every time someone walks by my ajar door they think they are doing me a favor with the latch it LOL.
I drilled two 3/8" holes, one in each door about 4" from the bottom and put metal screen over them . It injects a bit of air through the wood grate and to help get some air at the bottom of the fire box and it lets me see the status of the fire and fuel (burning bright or not) by peaking down though the floor register at it. That really helped it burn down the charcoal when the flue damper is closed down at night and helps blow the ash away from the doors so you don't get a dump when you open the doors (as it tends to do since the door opening is lower than the firebox! This stove is not the best for a furnished living space for this reason.
I keep an old metal horse water bucket under the doors between the front legs and use that neat stainless open door grate screen that came with the stoves over top of it to catch any any embers and wood dust when I load it so I don't end up with smoldering wood and embers in the ash pan. After I load, a quick pop of the screen puts anything back in the fire box and a trowel of the door gasket area with my poker to clear it off for a good seal and dump the ash on the screen down into the metal ash bucket. The stove does not have a grate on the fire box floor so don't allow more than 2.5" of ash or it will not burn the wood all the way down.
These are my observations of my stove after having it for about 7 years with 3 different chimney configurations. My current config is by far the best it has ever burnt for me.
I drilled two 3/8" holes, one in each door about 4" from the bottom and put metal screen over them . It injects a bit of air through the wood grate and to help get some air at the bottom of the fire box and it lets me see the status of the fire and fuel (burning bright or not) by peaking down though the floor register at it. That really helped it burn down the charcoal when the flue damper is closed down at night and helps blow the ash away from the doors so you don't get a dump when you open the doors (as it tends to do since the door opening is lower than the firebox! This stove is not the best for a furnished living space for this reason.
I keep an old metal horse water bucket under the doors between the front legs and use that neat stainless open door grate screen that came with the stoves over top of it to catch any any embers and wood dust when I load it so I don't end up with smoldering wood and embers in the ash pan. After I load, a quick pop of the screen puts anything back in the fire box and a trowel of the door gasket area with my poker to clear it off for a good seal and dump the ash on the screen down into the metal ash bucket. The stove does not have a grate on the fire box floor so don't allow more than 2.5" of ash or it will not burn the wood all the way down.
These are my observations of my stove after having it for about 7 years with 3 different chimney configurations. My current config is by far the best it has ever burnt for me.
Does anybody have a picture of how to install or what the heat baffle looks like when it is installed I'm doing battle with one of these please help much appreciated
![[Hearth.com] Morso 1125](/talk/data/attachments/183/183247-01e8242823a138998141d631c94b5736.jpg?hash=srXIIdQmU1)
hey
i have joined the Morso 1125 team, mine has draft plates and windows in the door.
Jason thanks for all the input it was super useful in setting up my stove this week.
i am running it, and the draw is great. i wanted to ask what is the most efficient temp you find to yeild most btu against the wood you use? i have a temp guage on the outlet pipe ( this seems to require cast iron flue at 2 o clock position to keep my pipe at 300 , if i close it down the smoulder is great in the stove but i believe the flue temp is lower at say 250 ) I have a second temp guage at the top of the stove and try to ride that at about 300- 350 as well.
I have sealed all my pipes and as you point out the stove requires a decent amount of air to keep a small flame and try to get a secondary burn. I am super happy with the stove now i just want to hone in on the best burning combinations to yeild the most power.
amazing stove so far.
curtis
i have joined the Morso 1125 team, mine has draft plates and windows in the door.
Jason thanks for all the input it was super useful in setting up my stove this week.
i am running it, and the draw is great. i wanted to ask what is the most efficient temp you find to yeild most btu against the wood you use? i have a temp guage on the outlet pipe ( this seems to require cast iron flue at 2 o clock position to keep my pipe at 300 , if i close it down the smoulder is great in the stove but i believe the flue temp is lower at say 250 ) I have a second temp guage at the top of the stove and try to ride that at about 300- 350 as well.
I have sealed all my pipes and as you point out the stove requires a decent amount of air to keep a small flame and try to get a secondary burn. I am super happy with the stove now i just want to hone in on the best burning combinations to yeild the most power.
amazing stove so far.
curtis
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Temps on stove top seem too cool. Are these fahrenheit temps or centigrade? Location doesn't help.
yeah experimenting with running it closer to 400, seems to bring flue temp to a better range in the right configurations.
thx
yeah things do get chilly in the outer orbits.
thx
c
thx
yeah things do get chilly in the outer orbits.
thx
c
Lake Girl
Moderator
![[Hearth.com] Morso 1125](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/188/188124-c572cd5ef785017ee23fce99f3a1ce8c.jpg?hash=leTpgxJi3H "[Hearth.com] Morso 1125")
you'd think not , right?... but with enough pointers from ridley scott, demo's by Mat Damon, i have enough to burn.
be well
c
be well
c
OK, looks like you are in Canada which would be centigrade temps, right? If so 300- 350ºC is the correct range to run in.
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