New guy, old stove, thimble ?

[NickW]

Thanks for the input guys!

I'm burning ash that was 15-18% in the fall on a fresh split, so it is seasoned. I burned all the 20-25% when the smoke dragon was still in. Another day of experimenting makes it look like Mark may have been right. I've since let it go higher (up to 660) without the smoke detectors going off and let it get to 450 like he said before starting to choke it down. The heat and length of burn time is AMAZING! Takes forever to burn the coals down to ash to drop into the drawer though. I'll keep watching the wind and experimenting with the air control accordingly.

I've attached a photo of the install with a fresh one lit.

 

[Woody Stover]

If you can open the air a bit on the coals, to the point where they burn faster but not so far that it's blowing all the heat up the flue, you should be able to keep the coal bed manageable. You can also toss a couple small splits of faster-burning wood on top of the coals, after pulling them forward in the box. This might get the secondary firing again for more heat, yet not leave a lot of coals from the less-dense splits.

 

[NickW]

Ah.... So this is not the first I've heard of using softwoods in the EPA stoves. I could never get enough heat out of it with the old one, but I saw suggestions about using softwood spring and fall to take the chill out but not heat yourself out... I have tons of aspen on some property up north, too much to use in campfires and it sucks to try to cook on camping.

 

[SpaceBus]

I burn mostly spruce and fir. I use it for cooking and heating.