New Install / First burn

[GabrielHill]

I am first time wood stove insert owner / burner and I just got my Napoleon EPI3 installed last week (interior chimney). My chimney had a clay liner (fair shape), and I ran a SS liner down it, it was a tight fit, but it worked.

The temperature has been a bit odd for this time of year, but I couldn't wait any longer to try the stove out. It was in the high 50's yesterday when I did my first burn. The manual mentioned that it would be difficult to get a fire going, due to the moisture in the firebrick.

I put some paper that I crushed into a ball in the middle of the stove, and put some fireside kindling wood all around it. I left the door open slightly until all the paper burned up (it started to smoke a bit, so I shut the door), and then once the kindling wood was going decent, I place two cedar logs that I cut earlier this year (pretty dry wood).

It took a while for the blowers to kick on, but once they did it was a very good heat source , I was very happy.

I decided to go on the roof, and check the liner, and see what it looked like the next day (today). It was brownish gold on the inside as far as I could see (sticky feeling), and the top of the chimney cap was the same way. I wasn't for sure how normal this was? I assume that brown sticky feeling is creosote? I always thought creosote was black / tarish looking.

 

[Oldman47]

Yes, that tan colored sticky stuff is creosote. I have never inspected a flue after a first small fire but it seems like a lot of buildup for a single fire. The only place I have seen that rapid a build has been on the outside of a pot over a camp fire where the water I was trying to boil was holding down the temperature of the pot as the wood smoke hit the surface.

 

[begreen]

As long as you are burning fully seasoned wood the build up should be minor. Congratulation on the new insert. Keep us posted on your progress and thoughts on this model.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah no issue on a first burn. Learn here how to burn it hotter and keep an eye on it once a month and you will be fine. That film of stuff will dry and become dust with future hotter burns.

BTW: You are gonna love that cap. I have two of them and they are the nuts.

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

That residue likely came from the cedar you burnt. If you cut it earlier this year, there is very little chance it was dry and seasoned enough. Cedar is full of aromatic compounds and has a very long seasoning time. As a person new to all this, get yourself a moisture meter, split some of that wood in half, and test the fresh split. It should be well under 20% to cleanly burn cedar.

Enjoy that new insert!

 

[GabrielHill]

Thank you all for the great reply and advise - I was just a bit over paranoid - thanks for clearing that up.

The cedar tree was dead standing when I cut it. I have a mudder moisture meter, but I do not really trust it. Almost everything I have shows less than 20% when split, even some of the trees I know are not seasoned.

 

[Heftiger]

Thank you all for the great reply and advise - I was just a bit over paranoid - thanks for clearing that up.

The cedar tree was dead standing when I cut it. I have a mudder moisture meter, but I do not really trust it. Almost everything I have shows less than 20% when split, even some of the trees I know are not seasoned.

Dead standing is still not the same as seasoned. We burn Pine around here, which seasons very quickly. Dead standing pine can still be in the 30% MC before its C/S/S to dry.

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

Dead standing is still not the same as seasoned. We burn Pine around here, which seasons very quickly. Dead standing pine can still be in the 30% MC before its C/S/S to dry.

Amen. My wife works in the wine industry and last year they took down some standing dead locust trees on a job site. The trees had been standing dead for so long that they had started to become punky. Sure enough though, took em down, bucked and split em, and had many pieces measuring in the high 20's early 30's for moisture. One of her co-workers who owns the property said they had been dead for over 20 years. I hate to say it but standing dead to stove in a day is a myth.

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

Thank you all for the great reply and advise - I was just a bit over paranoid - thanks for clearing that up.

The cedar tree was dead standing when I cut it. I have a mudder moisture meter, but I do not really trust it. Almost everything I have shows less than 20% when split, even some of the trees I know are not seasoned.

There are some good recent threads on here talking about very affordable moisture meters that rate high on the performance scale. Do some quick searching and get yourself a reliable one. You will be very happy with the results.