Needing some help with a Grandma Bear

[mnadejesus]

We've recently moved to the mountains where I grew up. Our new home has a Fisher Grandma Bear. I love the feel of wood heat. My Dad used a Baby Bear when I was little, but this is the first time I (or my husband) have had to man one. We're pretty good about getting it started, however some days it can heat almost the whole house and others just the room it's in. Sometimes when the doors are opened to check the fire a smoke smell comes out in the house. Sometimes the wood sparks a lot when I open the doors. The woodpile we have was timbered and stacked by the previous homeowner. I know for sure there is pine and hickory. When we came to look at the house it was snowing and the entire house was warm, in fact I had to remove a layer of clothing. The pipe is straight into the ceiling with a key coil on it. We've been told by the previous homeowners that once the fire gets going, turn the key to 3/4 shut of the damper and control the air flow by the knobs on the front. But I've read that this is a perfect recipe for creosote. We quickly learned that clearing out all the ash in the stove was a bad idea as we had no bed layer of ash start a fire on. We've also found ourselves waking up to an extremely cold house nearly every day we've been here, about a week now. I know we have got to be doing something wrong. I've also read that wood heat is very bad for small children and I certainly don't want to be putting their health, or ours, at risk. I've attached a picture of the stove. Positive advice and tips are greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance and God bless.

 

[coaly]

Welcome to the forum!
Did you find the correct manual in the sticky section at top of main page?

When you open doors, crack them a little to get the draft going better before opening fully. Your 8 inch stove is reduced to 6 inch pipe but that should not be a problem if the chimney flue is 6 inch insulated as well. It is technically illegal to reduce the size of the pipe or flue from the stove outlet. In your case, this stove was built to be able to burn with doors open in Fireplace Mode with screen in pace, so was designed with the larger flue outlet. Papa Bear has the same size firebox with a single door and uses 6 inch outlet and chimney, so it physically works.

Closing the damper 3/4 the way may be fine IF you have an insulated chimney. Creosote formation can occur rapidly when the flue temperature drops below 250* before exiting the flue at top. This is the condensing point that water vapor in the exhaust will condense allowing smoke particles to stick. So if the chimney is 8 inch diameter it is almost twice the cross sectional area of 6 inch pipe requiring much more heat to be left up. Check frequently until you know how much creosote you are forming. A magnetic pipe thermometer will give you a good idea what temp you have at the base entering chimney.

Yes, always leave an inch of ash on the bottom. When in the coal stage there is no smoke, so you can close the damper more to extend burn time. No one can tell you where to run the damper since it goes by chimney size and height, outside air temperature, high and low pressure areas with storms..... This all affects the damper setting. There are a few current threads in the fisher Forum where I explained how the rising buoyant gasses in the flue cause a low pressure area in the pipe and stove causing atmospheric air pressure to rush into the intakes feeding the fire oxygen. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/new-fisher-owner.137880/

Stay away from pine for overnight burns !! It needs to be really seasoned well and correctly to be used at all.

How many square feet are you heating? To answer if this is capable of being comfortable in the morning......... Do you have a good pile of coals left to build the fire on??

Enlighten me on why wood heat is bad for small children?? I've had wood heat ONLY since the early 80's and my daughter and grandson are healthy. My ancestors all lived into their 90's and that's all they had. It's easier to humidify with a kettle and sure is warmer when the power is down. I'd say a house WITHOUT wood heat is unhealthy.

 

[mnadejesus]

Welcome to the forum!
Did you find the correct manual in the sticky section at top of main page?

When you open doors, crack them a little to get the draft going better before opening fully. Your 8 inch stove is reduced to 6 inch pipe but that should not be a problem if the chimney flue is 6 inch insulated as well. It is technically illegal to reduce the size of the pipe or flue from the stove outlet. In your case, this stove was built to be able to burn with doors open in Fireplace Mode with screen in pace, so was designed with the larger flue outlet. Papa Bear has the same size firebox with a single door and uses 6 inch outlet and chimney, so it physically works.

Closing the damper 3/4 the way may be fine IF you have an insulated chimney. Creosote formation can occur rapidly when the flue temperature drops below 250* before exiting the flue at top. This is the condensing point that water vapor in the exhaust will condense allowing smoke particles to stick. So if the chimney is 8 inch diameter it is almost twice the cross sectional area of 6 inch pipe requiring much more heat to be left up. Check frequently until you know how much creosote you are forming. A magnetic pipe thermometer will give you a good idea what temp you have at the base entering chimney.

Yes, always leave an inch of ash on the bottom. When in the coal stage there is no smoke, so you can close the damper more to extend burn time. No one can tell you where to run the damper since it goes by chimney size and height, outside air temperature, high and low pressure areas with storms..... This all affects the damper setting. There are a few current threads in the fisher Forum where I explained how the rising buoyant gasses in the flue cause a low pressure area in the pipe and stove causing atmospheric air pressure to rush into the intakes feeding the fire oxygen. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/new-fisher-owner.137880/

Stay away from pine for overnight burns !! It needs to be really seasoned well and correctly to be used at all.

How many square feet are you heating? To answer if this is capable of being comfortable in the morning......... Do you have a good pile of coals left to build the fire on??

Enlighten me on why wood heat is bad for small children?? I've had wood heat ONLY since the early 80's and my daughter and grandson are healthy. My ancestors all lived into their 90's and that's all they had. It's easier to humidify with a kettle and sure is warmer when the power is down. I'd say a house WITHOUT wood heat is unhealthy.

Yes, there's usually a good bed of red hot coals in the morning. Our home is 1,900 sq. ft. As for what I read about it being harmful to children (as well as elderly and people with respiratory issues) it had something to do with tiny particles being breathed in and it causing respiratory problems. It also read that it's like breathing in second hand smoke and that the particles could be carcinogenic. I grew up in WV where everyone used wood heat or kerosene. My Dad used both. It's one thing to just read about it, but when one has children it's worth worrying about, at least until it's proven to just be an opinion. I asked my oldest how he felt and he said, "Mom, honestly, I feel better here than our old house." He is a severe asthmatic and has a bad dust allergy. Our old house had a heat pump and duct work. :-/ It's true that it feels better and I'm not dusting everyday. Anyway, thank you so much for your time and help. I'll definitely read the article. Thanks again!

 

[coaly]

Dust and removing ash is all about making it airborne. Try not to shovel out a cold stove. If you have to, wad up some newspaper and light it in the stove to get the chimney hot and drafting. Keep the ash can close to the opening. Any fly ash or dust created goes right up the chimney. You don't want it settling in the house anyway. That's the #1 reason some people will say a coal stove or wood burning is "dirty". They don't know how to do it cleanly.

You may not have to do this in VA, but around here it doesn't go above freezing for a month or more, so here's a cycle for ash removal;
Every morning you will find the coals are burned down to the finest ash in the front near the intake vents. That is the time to shovel out a little ash from the front each morning. Open doors so it gets drafting heat from the coals up the chimney. Keep the metal bucket close to the opening so any dust rushes up the stack. It won't get in the house and you won't breathe it. If you're afraid any gets in, (if you set the pail down abruptly on noncombustible hearth) stay with it while the doors are open allowing contaminated indoor air up the flue. Your chimney is like a 6 inch vacuum cleaner when hot. After reading that thread you will understand why cracking a window nearby allows atmospheric air pressure to rush in and carry the dust up the chimney. Just as it helps when starting a fire. Rake coals with a little ash ahead and load kindling in all directions on the coals. Spin the draft caps a few turns open and it should take right off. This cleaning and raking keeps the ash to a minimum so you never have to shut the stove down to remove ash cold, and restart with a cold stove and chimney. During cold weather when burning hard you won't end up with too many coals taking up room for wood. That is an issue up north. They burn down faster up front. You'll notice a stove full of coals doesn't throw much heat like a load of wood.
That cycle works better with a deep narrow single door stove since you end up with a larger pile of coals and charcoal in the back ready to flame up when raked ahead.

The last page of manual (17) has a wood chart and uses for hard and soft woods.