New Guy...Sort of an Introduction

[BeautifulBC]

Hello, and thanks for having me.
My name is Martin, and I joined this forum mostly to read up on what maintenance I should be doing now, or in the future.
A little background on myself, I was born and raised in the city, never ran a chainsaw, or burned wood, outside of an occasional campfire if vacationing by the lake and a fire pit was available. Being a Radiologist and living in a major city, my yard had a few fruit trees, and nothing else. I had a gas furnace, and that was my normal for 42 years. Seven years ago I had a life changing experience, my wife was hit by a drunk driver, so I was suddenly single, my daughters were grown, and while one still lived with me she had a job, and could be self sufficient. So I decided to go after my life long dream of moving to the country, but also decided to pursue being a businessman, and not just a Radiologist. Six years ago at age 43, I moved a small town of approximately 9,000 and bought a house which had a wood heater in the basement. The couple who I bought from explained to me how to use it, but it was summer, and we didn't actually light it. Come winter it was interesting to say the least, a few days into the first cold spell I was catching on to how to use it. I still ran the electric only furnace a lot, kept using the wood stove more and more with time. Then I bought 2,560 acres outside of town, a few months later after my moving to this small town, the large acreage came with a business, and a rickety old house, which I promptly tore down, while continuing to live in town, had a custom home built in its place. Hearing about Blaze King wood stoves, I opted to put one in the basement of my new home, to supplement my electric only furnace, as there is no natural gas plumbing in this area. Four and a half years later, I feel proficient enough with a chainsaw, and my wood splitter, as I clear land, have amassed a lot of wood, already about 12 to 15 years worth I'll guess. As far as the stove goes, I empty the ashes regularly, and have a chimney sweep come every summer and clean the chimney, but thought that was really about the extent of maintenance required, until someone was asking me about how often I replace the wear items in my stove. I stood there looking foolish, and asked what wear items. So I joined here a few days ago to begin educating myself, and am amazed by the details many of you use in burning wood. You discuss cords burned, moisture meter readings, and the like. I just burn wood, never putting much thought into it.
Thanks for this wonderful forum, to help the ignorant, like myself learn. This is winter four with my Blaze King Ultra, and it works very well. Now I understand that I will be looking in the near future at doing some maintenance besides the ash removal, and once a year having my chimney professionally cleaned.

 

[begreen]

Welcome Martin. If your stove is running well it may not need a whole lot of servicing. Mostly it will be checking the cat to see if it is clean and checking gaskets. See if any of the professional sweeps in your area owns or services Blaze Kings. Maybe ask the stove shop that sold the stove for some names. A good sweep should clean out behind the bypass and look for any issues when cleaning the flue. Not all do this, especially if they are unfamiliar with the stove. Have some spare cat gasket material on hand and after 4 yrs it wouldn't hurt to have an extra cat on hand as well.

 

[BeautifulBC]

Thanks for the advice. I know that he cleans something inside the stove every summer as well as the chimney. All i do is empty ashes, and clean the glass in the door occasionally. In my ignorance, I thought that a stove just basically ran for 20 years or so, then was replaced with a new one. Little did I know that the 'Cat' was a wear item, or anything else. It does work well, and I probably use it less than some others would. I just heat with electricity in the shoulder seasons of fall and spring, use the stove mid winter when its colder, and even then I usually light it in the morning and run it fairly hot, when I get around to it many hours later, I fill it up again and run it fairly hot again. If it goes out fine, I'll relight it the next morning which is very easy and usually requires nothing more than putting a few smaller pieces on the bottom and some big blocks on the top, walk away and a half hour later its burning well again. My electric furnace may kick on occasionally to help keep the temperature up, but it probably only runs 10%-20% as much as it would without the wood stove helping.

Us city boys, we move to the country, and gain a whole new level of education, we never had before. Only practicing as a Radiologist five days per month now, and enjoy running my company, which is a gravel pit, lots of heavy equipment, semi trucks, crushers, screening plant, and have hired a great crew to run it all for me. This is living the dream! My property is covered in many species of trees, and my wood comes from what I clear to expand the pit, or clearing trails around the house, including a swath about 12 feet wide, and 1700 feet long, from the backyard to the river, and i now launch and retrieve the jet boat right from my property. Doubtful that if I lived to be thousands of years old, I could burn all the trees on my property, and I give some away each year to others. There was an old wood shed, I have it full now, likely had four years worth in it when i bought the place. I just store the rest outside and will move it to the wood shed as it has room. Probably a decades worth of wood fits in the wood shed, it is massive. I truly enjoy running my Husqvarna chainsaw, and wood splitter. I just slowly cut and split as time allows. My wood supply continues to grow, and in a few more years, suspect it to be 25 years worth in the back yard.