Most days it may be between 50-59 degrees and it'll be warming up to the mid 60s this weekend, but the temperature in my condo has been ranging from 45-56 degrees inside (no central heating running). I unfortunately don't have chimney specifics besides that it's a long chimney from what I can see.
And yes, this is my first wood stove and I'd been looking forward to using it since I moved in. I hadn't used any type of fireplace since childhood, so I'm a bit rusty about these things.
OK, I'll start with what makes a stove work, then you will understand what needs to be done and how to operate it.
First,
the chimney is the engine that drives the stove. It is more important than the stove itself;
Heated exhaust gasses lighter than outside air rise up the stack creating a low pressure area in the chimney, pipe and stove.
This allows atmospheric air pressure to PUSH into the stove. The pressure differential is related to the temperature differential inside and outside of the chimney flue. This pressure differential is measured as draft. This feeds the fire oxygen as the air rushes in to fill the void created by the chimney. So you can see why a stove will work better when cold outside, with a hot flue inside the chimney. This is the reason for insulated chimneys or chimney liners. An outside chimney cools faster than an indoor chimney.
So you need paper and cardboard to preheat the chimney with kindling. Some chimneys need twisted up paper to get the draft started. **
The object is keeping the internal flue temperature ABOVE 250* f. to the top of the chimney when smoke is present.** Below that temperature, water vapor from combustion condenses on flue walls, allowing smoke particles to stick, forming creosote.
Now you can see why an insulated flue stays warmer inside, uses less wasted heat to stay hot, becoming more efficient, so the stove has more heat to radiate heat to the inside of the building.
Chimney diameter is very important, and even more so with a smaller stove. The outlet on your stove is 6 inches. If connected to an 8 inch chimney, that drops flue temps by 1/2. So it becomes impossible to keep the chimney hot enough to the top when smoke is present with a larger flue than necessary.
The magnetic surface thermometer you use will read pipe surface temperature, which is about 1/2 the actual inside flue gas temp. Remember the thermometer reads 1/2 the actual inside temperature. So the color zones on the thermometer correspond to keeping a normal height chimney, the correct diameter hot enough to the top. They have a cold zone; below 250, normal; 250 - 500, and hot; above 500. Running in the cool zone will create creosote, normal is where to keep it, hot is wasting fuel up the chimney. It's a guess as to how much cooling each chimney has to the top. That you learn by checking creosote formation frequently and getting it down to one cleaning a year.
Read the owners manual. That has a lot of operation tips as well. You can use the manual for the Combination Honey Bear in the manual thread in the sticky section at top of Fisher Forum home page. They were for mobile home use with a different intake, but operation is the same.
Open both intakes 2 or 3 turns. Light paper and cardboard with kindling. If it roars up stack, close intakes to slow it down, you want the heat in the stove to heat larger wood to get it going, not all up the stack. As it heats up, one turn each is normal as it comes up to temp, then adjust for correct pipe temperature (300 - 400* pipe surface temp) Usually cracked open to 1 turn is the adjustment range. This all varies by chimney, wood, outdoor temps, weather conditions, (high or low pressure area moving over) and many other factors.
No, you don't light a stove and go. That's like asking how to drive and being told to turn the key and go.
I explain what makes the stove go, so you know why it acts like it does and what to do to correct it.
Many people ran stoves for years but never knew why they reacted the way they do when a control or a weather change happened. The colder it gets outside, the harder it will naturally burn, it's a learning process.
