my little experiment

[yamgrizz700]

Since i have been home for a few days i have been messing with my stove. With the air setting at 1 or 1.5 thinking i will get the cat to really glow, and usually it just glows a little or just part of it. So i decided to see what would happen when i turned it to.5 and the cat started to glow all over and very bright. Why is this and should i know regularly put the stove at this setting? what are you guys/gals thinking on this?

 

[wendell]

The cat doesn't need to be glowing ot be working but the cat works by burning up the smoke. When you have more air, you have a hotter, more efficient fire so there is less smoke for the cat to burn up.

 

[yamgrizz700]

Gotcha, so if i want more heat then give it more air? and for overnight burns turn the air down so i have a nice coal bed in the morning?

 

[wendell]

Somewhat. Too much air and you will just be losing the extra heat up the flue but with it set too low, you will have high stove top temps (since the cat is working full out) but less total heat from the stove. It is 13 degrees here right now and find .7-.8 is about perfect. A few days ago when it was in the 20's I had it set at 1.

 

[yamgrizz700]

How do you find that perfect setting? without babysitting and watching it every second of the day. i really want this stove to work but i think i am asking to much out of my "seasoned" wood, Hopefully next year i will have it down. oh well, anytime the furnace isnt kicking on is cool with me. so even if i cant find that perfect balance just yet, i am still saving money on the old propane bill.

 

[wendell]

You just gotta experiment as it is going to differ with the outside temp and the quality of your wood.

 

[Todd]

Yep, trial and error the whole 1st season with me, and I also had marginal dry firewood. Now I think I have it down pretty good. During the shoulder seasons it's either 1 good firing or 2 loads per day with the air set for a low burn around .5, when it gets colder like now it's 3 loads per day with the air set at #1 give or take. Suppose to hit well below 0 tonight so no sleeping in tomorrow, need to get up and get her fired up.

 

[yamgrizz700]

well i will get it soon enough with help from this forum and people like yourself and the many other knowledgeable people here.
thanks for all the help guys. I have a thousand questions. i cant sleep until i get things right, kinda of a perfectionist crossed with a little add( so my wife says) :roll:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

How do you find that perfect setting? without babysitting and watching it every second of the day. i really want this stove to work but i think i am asking to much out of my "seasoned" wood, Hopefully next year i will have it down. oh well, anytime the furnace isnt kicking on is cool with me. so even if i cant find that perfect balance just yet, i am still saving money on the old propane bill.

Well, "babysitting" is always a poor choice of description and you do not have to watch that stove every minute of the day. What you do have to do is pay attention to what you are feeding it (maybe a bit like a baby because baby does not like poor food), what the weather is doing and how the stove is reacting.

When we put he Fireview in over 2 years ago I went through a period of adjustment and actually became frustrated once or twice but determined to figure this thing out, and I did, in a very short time.

Every installation will be a bit different so you can not determine your settings by what someone else is doing even if it is the same stove. They might have different wood and their chimney is different and their weather is different, etc., etc.

While Wendell and Todd have their settings different from mine, I still much prefer the lower settings and feel that I do indeed get a higher stove temperature that way.

Whoa What is that idiot saying? How can you get more heat from a lower setting? Good question. Easy answer. Although initially the fire will die down a lot and sometimes go right out, that will not last, at least not in our stove.

Case in point was early this morning when I got up and put wood in. First, the cat. is off and draft set full. This morning I left it that way for 20 minutes before engaging the cat (yes, that time varies from load to load). When engaging the cat, I turned the stove down to 1 but was not happy with it so put it a 1.5 for another 10 minutes or thereabouts before turning it down to .25.

Just about 30 minutes later, all across the top of the stove, above the wood was this beautiful rolling red flame all the way across the glass. The stovetop temperature quickly went to 650 degrees. I did not check any areas of the stove to see if there was a difference, perhaps I should, but at 650 degrees that baby was cooking nicely (felt good too).

My point is that each installation can be a bit different as to how best to operate your stove. Use other people's suggestions as guidelines and not as rules. Make adjustments and conclusions by what you get from your stove.

Also, I am in no way knocking Todd or Wendell as these two men know much more than I. I am only stating what I experience with the stove.

Another thing to consider is that every one of us burn different wood and I can assure you that Todd and Wendell do not burn the same type of wood that Dennis does and I do not think either of them have as dry of wood that I have.

I also find that probably more than half the folks on this forum do not know what type of wood they are burning. That is why we get so many threads in the Wood Shed questioning what type of wood they have. Hopefully in time, every wood burner will know what he has in his woodpile. Then for sure he will know to not try to burn his popple when the temperature outdoors is zero or thereabouts.

Good luck Robert and I hope you find the answers.

 

[LLigetfa]

Whoa What is that idiot saying? How can you get more heat from a lower setting?

Ja, I've been advocating fighting the urge to crank it up because it isn't like the burners on the gas cooktop.

Another analogy is pulling a heavy load up a hill. There is not only a point of diminishing returns but even a point of loss when pushing the gas pedal too far. Reminds me of my youth when my little brother got his first car. He was driving faster than he should and when I asked him what the rush was he said he needed to hurry up and get to the nearest gas station cuz the needle was on empty.

 

[yamgrizz700]

Dennis, thank you for the input, I think you should travel around and get peoples stoves and wood set up for them Seriously all joking aside its just frustrating when i am not sure what i am looking for in flame and weather, i guess everyone has to start out somewhere with being a first time wood burner. Dont get me wrong i love this stove and have no intentions of letting it go back. its easy to adjust and watch the stove since its right next to the computer. well thanks again i am already searching for some wood for next year so i can take that out of the mix.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Robert, you are a very wise man to be thinking of next year's wood supply. When you can get 2-3 years ahead you will notice a huge difference in the way that stove works just because the fuel will be right.

Hey, having that stove by the computer is pretty close to what we have too! It makes things handy for sure. Today we've kept that stove cooking pretty good because it is a bit chilly outside. Makes one really appreciate the wood heat. I know all my life I have been fortunate to have experienced that great feeling of coming indoors from the cold and really feeling the warmth of wood heat. It is just so hard to beat.

Keep at it and you will be on top of things quick.

 

[Todd]

Yeah, Dennis is right, firewood is THE major factor burning this stove. Right now I'm burning Black Locust and this stuff takes more air to get going than any other wood I've used before. If I engage too soon or to low an air setting it will stall or take awhile to come up to temp. If I load up with Silver Maple or dry dead Elm it lights off fast and doesn't seem to need as much air. My Oak seems somewhere in between.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Thanks Todd. This agrees with the theory of needing different settings for different wood.

 

[yamgrizz700]

So let me ask you this, if i have a few rolling flames and some good hot coals and this is after about 3.5 or so hours and the stove top temp is 450ish and the house is at 73, there's only a few splits left in the fire and this was my second time loading today should i leave the air alone(its at 1. top of lever even with 1) does that sound good?( i am burning mostly oak "seasoned" i do seem to be getting better temps as the wood is "drying" out in the basement and of course i bring about 40 splits upstairs next to the stove to dry.

 

[Vic99]

Backwoods Savage: "Case in point was early this morning when I got up and put wood in. First, the cat. is off and draft set full. This morning I left it that way for 20 minutes before engaging the cat (yes, that time varies from load to load). When engaging the cat, I turned the stove down to 1 but was not happy with it so put it a 1.5 for another 10 minutes or thereabouts before turning it down to .25."

Dennis, when you say you left the draft set full for 30 minutes, does that mean you left it open all the way to 4 for 20 minutes? I never tried this, but seems like too much air . . . but maybe that is a good trick.

 

[Todd]

So let me ask you this, if i have a few rolling flames and some good hot coals and this is after about 3.5 or so hours and the stove top temp is 450ish and the house is at 73, there's only a few splits left in the fire and this was my second time loading today should i leave the air alone(its at 1. top of lever even with 1) does that sound good?( i am burning mostly oak "seasoned" i do seem to be getting better temps as the wood is "drying" out in the basement and of course i bring about 40 splits upstairs next to the stove to dry.

Sounds pretty good to me, I'd leave the air where it's at and reload at bed time.

 

[yamgrizz700]

Todd, when it gets cold out say 0 °F or colder do you load more often and try to keep the stove at a higher temp lets say over 400 °F ? and now its about 350 °F stove top and just coals. do you still wait another couple of hours to reload? or throw a couple splits on ton last a few hours and get the temps up to 500 °F plus?

 

[Slow1]

So let me ask you this, if i have a few rolling flames and some good hot coals and this is after about 3.5 or so hours and the stove top temp is 450ish and the house is at 73, there's only a few splits left in the fire and this was my second time loading today should i leave the air alone(its at 1. top of lever even with 1) does that sound good?( i am burning mostly oak "seasoned" i do seem to be getting better temps as the wood is "drying" out in the basement and of course i bring about 40 splits upstairs next to the stove to dry.

Sounds pretty good to me, I'd leave the air where it's at and reload at bed time.

This sort of description is what convinces me that my wood is not very hard hardwood. Although it tests out good and dry, I won't have any rolling flames after 3.5 hours - rather I'll have a nice bed of coals glowing and stove top temp falling at a steady rate (below 400) if I was burning with air set at 1. Mind you I will likely have peaked at 575-625, but I won't have held that peak temp for very long. I simply don't seem to have the BTUs in my wood to sustain these longer term heat outputs that others are reporting. I can't identify most of the wood I'm burning this year - some I know is oak, early on I knew it was oak and hickory but that section of the pile (top front) is gone and I'm into the mystery meat now.

Oh well, next year I know I have one cord of all oak, 2 cords of 'poplar' (unknown variety), some apple, pine, and a misc pile to burn. I'm cutting about 3-4 cords of oak right now for the year after so hopefully I'll be better informed after this year eh?

 

[Todd]

Backwoods Savage: "Case in point was early this morning when I got up and put wood in. First, the cat. is off and draft set full. This morning I left it that way for 20 minutes before engaging the cat (yes, that time varies from load to load). When engaging the cat, I turned the stove down to 1 but was not happy with it so put it a 1.5 for another 10 minutes or thereabouts before turning it down to .25."

Dennis, when you say you left the draft set full for 30 minutes, does that mean you left it open all the way to 4 for 20 minutes? I never tried this, but seems like too much air . . . but maybe that is a good trick.

Didn't mean to steal your thunder Dennis, but if I were to leave my air wide open on #4 in bypass mode I can easily peg my probe thermometer to 2000 degrees in my pipe in as little as 10 minutes. I think he may start out there til it gets going then turn it down. During reload I like to keep the flue temps under 1000, it seems to heat up the stove faster, so If I have a decent coal bed all it takes is starting out at #2 and adjusting down to #1 when it gets close to 1000, sometimes it takes a little more or less depending on the coal bed.

 

[Todd]

Todd, when it gets cold out say 0 °F or colder do you load more often and try to keep the stove at a higher temp lets say over 400 °F ? and now its about 350 °F stove top and just coals. do you still wait another couple of hours to reload? or throw a couple splits on ton last a few hours and get the temps up to 500 °F plus?

No, I just get into a routine of loading full loads and set the air to get me to that point of reload. For example Today, 1st load 7am, it was cold outside -10 and a bit chilly on the inside at 69, so I figured I'd burn a hot load first for about 6 hours and air set at about 1.1. 1PM second load, house was holding temp at 73 so this load is burning at .75 and I'll load up for the night after 9pm. But then to throw a wrench in the whole works the wife wants a fire in the fireplace upstairs so I built a small hot one and it rose the upstairs temp up to 80. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a more even 8 hour reload schedule since the upstairs will be warmer tomorrow morning than today.

 

[Todd]

So let me ask you this, if i have a few rolling flames and some good hot coals and this is after about 3.5 or so hours and the stove top temp is 450ish and the house is at 73, there's only a few splits left in the fire and this was my second time loading today should i leave the air alone(its at 1. top of lever even with 1) does that sound good?( i am burning mostly oak "seasoned" i do seem to be getting better temps as the wood is "drying" out in the basement and of course i bring about 40 splits upstairs next to the stove to dry.

Sounds pretty good to me, I'd leave the air where it's at and reload at bed time.

This sort of description is what convinces me that my wood is not very hard hardwood. Although it tests out good and dry, I won't have any rolling flames after 3.5 hours - rather I'll have a nice bed of coals glowing and stove top temp falling at a steady rate (below 400) if I was burning with air set at 1. Mind you I will likely have peaked at 575-625, but I won't have held that peak temp for very long. I simply don't seem to have the BTUs in my wood to sustain these longer term heat outputs that others are reporting. I can't identify most of the wood I'm burning this year - some I know is oak, early on I knew it was oak and hickory but that section of the pile (top front) is gone and I'm into the mystery meat now.

Oh well, next year I know I have one cord of all oak, 2 cords of 'poplar' (unknown variety), some apple, pine, and a misc pile to burn. I'm cutting about 3-4 cords of oak right now for the year after so hopefully I'll be better informed after this year eh?

Yeah, your probably right, maybe post some pics over in the woodshed to identify?

 

[Vic99]

Slow1: "I won’t have any rolling flames after 3.5 hours - rather I’ll have a nice bed of coals glowing and stove top temp falling at a steady rate (below 400) if I was burning with air set at 1. Mind you I will likely have peaked at 575-625, but I won’t have held that peak temp for very long. I simply don’t seem to have the BTUs in my wood to sustain these longer term heat outputs that others are reporting."

I'm getting this too. Peak in the 500s. Sometimes 600s if I leave the air open to 1.25 or a bit higher with the CAT engaged, but then I run out of steam. Most of my burns are .75 to 1. Still playing with it.


Wood1: "do you still wait another couple of hours to reload? or throw a couple splits on ton last a few hours and get the temps up to 500 °F plus?"

I have played with this too . . . although I don't know the Fireview well enough like others here. Better to burn down to 275-300, I think and complete burn cycle. Sometimes I go down to 250. If I'm expecting guests, I'll add a couple splits just before they show up to get nice flame for atmosphere, though, even if burn cycle isn't done.

 

[yamgrizz700]

vic99, no i didnt add more slits since i was going to bed in about a hour so i just waited the temp in the house was falling from 73 to 71 in that time and the temp out side was about 7 with the wind chill so i guess thats no so bad in this 20 year old house, so i waited and get it back up to temp 550 or so and put the air down to about .75 or maybe a little lower and by the time i got up this morning(7ish) my furnace was on(set at 65). The stove top was still at about 250 and i had plenty of coals to start my fire up this morning.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Dennis, when you say you left the draft set full for 30 minutes, does that mean you left it open all the way to 4 for 20 minutes? I never tried this, but seems like too much air . . . but maybe that is a good trick.

Vic, yes, that is exactly what I mean! That does not always happen but every now and then it does. If that is what it requires, I don't hesitate to do it.