New Regency I3100 user

[CCifone]

I recently purchased a I3100 and have been burning it for about 5 weeks now. Being relatively new to the wood burning world I have a few questions that I am hoping folks can help with. I know some of these topics have been covered in past posts and I have read and followed some of the suggestions but I still feel like I am not doing some things incorrectly. For starters I can't seem to keep my stove hot (475 - 550 IR) range for the secondary burn to work correctly without keeping the air open about 3/4. With that I feel like I am burning more wood than I should as I am putting three - four splits in every 1.5 to 2 hours. I am primarily burning 2 year old seasoned white oak. Every reload I burn wide open for about 10 minutes than cut it back to 3/4 where I get a nice dancing flame but as I said that load will only burn for about 1.5 hours when its down to glowing hot white coals no flame I repeat the same process. Also as a second issue when loading up the stove for the night I follow the same process except I gradually back the air down to about 3/4 to fully closed. When I wake up in the AM ( 7-8 Hours) I still have hot coals but the glass is dark brown which is a bit concerning. Any advice / pointers folks could provide to improve my stove burning knowledge and performance would be greatly appreciated. Thank You all in advance.

 

[realstihl]

THis is an insert, right? What's the fan speed? Two things some to mind. Fan speed and wood dryness. You don't want to run the blower too high or it will draw too much heat away from the stove. Might help, might not.

 

[CCifone]

Thanks realstihl for your quick reply. Yes it is an insert , SS liner, 22 -25 foot chimney. I only run it on low speed. Wood seems dry as it sounds hollow when I bang it together. I don't have a moisture meter so its more of as best I can tell observation.

 

[realstihl]

Here's another tip. I know some will disagree with me on this but make sure there are no leaks in the flue system. In my opinion it help with the draw of flue gasses. I think leaky pipe joints are sometimes the cause for smoke spillage and lazy secondary's. You might want to check it. Also don't forget the chimney cap and screen if you have one.

 

[CCifone]

Thanks again.. I have the chimney cap and screen. I assume there are no leaks in the system as it was installed by the stove contractor. How would I tell for sure ?

 

[realstihl]

I'm not really qualified to tell you how. I'm guessing you would have to remove the panels or slide the stove out. Once pipe is exposed you can take a lighter or incense stick and see if it draws the flame or smoke in. I'd definitely check it to eliminate that problem source.

 

[CCifone]

Thanks I'll see if there is an easy way to get to the pipe and do as you suggest.