new to burning wood... question.

[sadworld]

i'm reluctant to burn wood at a slow rate for fear of the creosote build up but my burns don't last as long as i would like (i have a 3.0cu ft firebox in a steel wood stove) i don't even understand why anyone would burn at a slow rate for this reason.... the build up... do i have a legitimate concern here? guys that slow burn a lot, you just have to clean the chimney more then.... ??
when i stoke it at night it's barely alive in the morning and heats like crazy when i don't need the heat and the same thing for all day at work, it is pretty much dead by the time i get home... a slow burn would help alleviate this but again, i'm fearful of the creosote build up and a chimney fire... am i being overly concerned?

 

[bluefrier]

What kind of stove?

 

[sadworld]

What kind of stove?

i have a quadrafire 5700.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yes you are. Learn how to run that big hoss at the lowest burn where you don't see smoke coming out of the chimney. Put a thermometer on the stove and keep it in the five to six hundred degree range with no smoke and that chimney is going to be fine. Well, that is if it is a pipe chimney or a masonry chimney with a liner.

Get a hot coal bed established and then when you load it back it down until the secondary burn is doing the work. Use the best gauge you have available, what is coming out of the chimney. If it ain't smokin it ain't crapping up the chimney.

 

[iceman]

Yes you are. Learn how to run that big hoss at the lowest burn where you don't see smoke coming out of the chimney. Put a thermometer on the stove and keep it in the five to six hundred degree range with no smoke and that chimney is going to be fine. Well, that is if it is a pipe chimney or a masonry chimney with a liner.

Get a hot coal bed established and then when you load it back it down until the secondary burn is doing the work. Use the best gauge you have available, what is coming out of the chimney. If it ain't smokin it ain't crapping up the chimney.

I'm Iceman and I approve Brotherbarts message too!

stoves like you have are meant to run with little air.. once they are going..thats howyou get max heat output and burn time outta your wood...

 

[bluefrier]

BB pretty much summed it up.
Also make sure you are burning dry wood if want to reduce creosote and get the best performance out of you stove.

 

[sadworld]

what also got me concerned is when i have tried the slow burns my glass turned black very rapidly... i can only imagine what was getting caked on my chimney.

thanks for the replies so far i will do some experimenting. matt.

 

[begreen]

How's the fuel? The glass shouldn't blacken up with the air turned down as long as it is not turned down right away. If the wood is nice and dry, try turning the air down partially, just to the point where the flames get lazy, but not out and see how that works. The other thing to try is smaller splits, especially if the current wood chunks are large.

 

[gpcollen1]

How's the fuel? The glass shouldn't blacken up with the air turned down as long as it is not turned down right away. If the wood is nice and dry, try turning the air down partially, just to the point where the flames get lazy, but not out and see how that works. The other thing to try is smaller splits, especially if the current wood chunks are large.

I think this is the issue with some here. Wood is not as dry as needed and they want to close the stove's air down to soon. And if the wood is damp, then you definitely cannot close the air down quickly.

The stovetop thermometer will help solve this as noted...

 

[got wood?]

Go and buy a little bundle of firewood from a gas station or such and burn that to see how it performs compared to your fuel. That stuff is typically very well seasoned and for short money you can answer CTwoodburner's question and yours.

 

[Dustin]

I was having the same issues listed above with my glass door on my old Osburn. Wood is VERY seasoned and very dry. What I learned? I was choking the air back way too quick. How did I know this? I bought a stove thermometer. Burning the "old way" that I had been taught was keeping the stove at 300 degrees and smoking up my glass door in no time.

With my knew found Hearth.com knowledge, did I mention I love this site? I wait until I have a nice bed of coals and the stove running from 500-600 degrees. I choke the air back and it will hang out and burn at about 400-500 until it's time for more wood

 

[SteveT]

I'm also getting a bit of haze on the glass. It seems to stay crystal clear while burning then get smoky by morning as the fire goes out. I assume this is a shoulder season issue and will not exist when I am into daily burns. Have others experienced this?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We get some dirty glass in the fall but as soon as we have the stove going good it cleans itself nicely. Just make sure your wood is well seasoned and don't take a supplier's word for the seasoning. Learn to know the difference.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

If the glass is getting dark- it's a different issue than if it's getting "hazy"- if you mean whitish film. I think that whitish film is from complete combustion. I would guess that reburning stuff from the secondary/air wash deposits on the glass as it burns in some cases.

Black crap that you can't see through is from incomplete/dirty combustion.

 

[SteveT]

If the glass is getting dark- it's a different issue than if it's getting "hazy"- if you mean whitish film. I think that whitish film is from complete combustion. I would guess that reburning stuff from the secondary/air wash deposits on the glass as it burns in some cases.

Black crap that you can't see through is from incomplete/dirty combustion.

Hazy was a poor choice of words. Some sections of the glass are smokey black the morning after a burn, but mostly not to the extent you can't see through. More like very tinted glass. Nice and clear during the burn. I think it is that the burn does smolder as the fire goes out.

I'm hoping that with colder weather/better draft/bigger fires the problem goes away.

 

[Ken45]

makes me wonder how the secondary air intakes affect the heatloss up the chimney when the fire dies down,eh? i think its called heatloss due to airwash.

Or how much household heat goes up the chimney when the stove is not in use due to not being able to fully close the primary air intake.

Ken

 

[sadworld]

where would i get one of these thermometers and what type would you recomend?

i tried a slow burn last night and she burned nicely for 10 hrs but the coles and heat were way down after that.... i'm sure it was below temp and i would (and did) need to blaze up another roaster to get some nice coals in there and my temp back up before i could stoke it and cut the air back again... that would be difficult to do when i have to work in the morning (i'm off today!) not sure if i could get it to temp between the time i get up to stoke it in the morning and when i leave.... i guess a little more experimenting is in order. thanks. matt.
(also a work day would require a 11or 12 hr burn time when you ad in drive time and stuff) the stove is rated for it so we'll see what happens....

 

[pumiglk]

Don't want to hijack thread but since simnilar situation thought I would post some comments since that maybe we both can learn from. So I have just started burning some "experiemental" fires two with my new equinox (big firebox soapstone stove). Prior stove was a small Quad in a different House and BH (Before Hearth.com) - we just threw wood in on the weekends, enjoyed the fire, adjusted the air a bit and turned it down at night. It provided great supplemetal heat but heat wasn't our "mission". Now it is. We would like to use this stove as a significant component of our heat.


Set-up: Equinox mounted on hearth, open floor plan. Extreior masonry chimney, with SS 8'' flex-liner 25'.

My observations so far:

1. It is really hard to get this stove up to 550 degrees stovetop. Is hat a stove size thing? a soapstone thing? I am using a condar stove top/magnetic placed on the steel plate on the top of the stove (it is vented in the rear) +/-20degrees with an IR type thermometr. Also have a condar probe type 18'' from the rear exit.

2. I can push the Flue "gas" temps into that range with the air open not sure how much higher as this is when I started to ramp down the air.

3. Dropping air intake drops flue gas temperature pretty quick, much slower effect on stovetop temps.

4. Wood is pretty dry measures 12-15% on fresh split with moisture meter

BUT

5. Can see smoke (not too bad) and but do get build up on glass with air turned down.

Does this sound right? Do I just need to relax a little and let this big boy run a bit? (4 cuft of firebox in full flame is a bit intimidating)

I know that this is a new stove and there isn't a lot of experience with it out there yet and I am definately going to have to work through timing, load size, the rthym etc. However I would welcome any insights or comments that might guide these experiemntal fires before I really need this thing to produce heat.