New to wood burning - Jotul F 600 Firelight CB

[sbnh]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a little help on a few perplexing issues. I just moved north last summer and am new to wood stoves. The house I purchased came with a Jotul F 600 Firelight CB (black paint I think, definitely not enamel). No documentation came with it so I am relying on what I see from their site online and downloaded current manuals but I'd guess the stove to be at least 10 years old. I am using well-seasoned cord wood that seems to my inexperienced opinion to be good quality. It's a mixed batch of hardwoods and am not familiar yet with the different wood types to be able to identify what they are. I have no trouble starting a fire. The house is old (1820) so definitely no problem with it being too tight and the stove is in a huge main room downstairs with low ceilings.

I have done a lot of lurking and reading here and I am running into trouble with these areas:

1. I have seen a lot of mention of "burning hot" to avoid creosote but to avoid runaway fires. How hot is "burning hot" and how does one do that without triggering a runaway fire? Also, it seems the hotter I burn, the faster I'm using wood, and the less of a burn time I get (see #2).

2. I am getting nowhere near the burn times everyone else seems to get, and especially nowhere near what the Jotul documentation claims for this stove. Maybe 2 hours if I'm lucky. What am I doing wrong?

2b. It seems like the firebox for this stove is very small compared to the overall size of the stove. I am not seeing how I can stuff it full of the amounts of wood people say they do and be able to criss-cross the wood to leave the space for oxygen to move around like I was taught to do. Mostly it's an interior height issue.

3. This secondary burn thing. For the life of me, I can't ever see this happening. Yes, I have read countless threads, looked at videos, and I can't ever see anything burning around those holes inside. I rarely see much of anything come out my chimney, no gray smoke, which apparently is a good thing, so does that mean I'm burning cleanly even though I can't see any secondary burn? Could it be doing a secondary burn even though I can't see it? Am I looking at the wrong place or for the wrong thing?

4. Sometimes I manage to get decent heat out of the stove and sometimes I can't and I don't know why. I don't think I'm doing anything differently so what should I be doing to get heat out to the room versus up the chimney?

The way I set up my wood inside is this:
Two splits going east west, with crumpled up newspaper in the middle.
Three or four pieces of kindling on top of that going north south.
Two more splits on top going east west again.
Light the paper.
Air control in front all the way open to the right. Once fire is steady, I move it halfway.

There is no way with that setup I could get another layer in. That just skims the top where what I assume is the piece where the secondary burn holes are.
According to my temperature gauge, I generally get it running around 400F - 500F but it starts dropping after about an hour and by two hours, I'm at coals and barely hitting 300F.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[firefighterjake]

Answers in context - Click to expand

Hi all,

I'm looking for a little help on a few perplexing issues. I just moved north last summer and am new to wood stoves. The house I purchased came with a Jotul F 600 Firelight CB (black paint I think, definitely not enamel). No documentation came with it so I am relying on what I see from their site online and downloaded current manuals but I'd guess the stove to be at least 10 years old. I am using well-seasoned cord wood that seems to my inexperienced opinion to be good quality. It's a mixed batch of hardwoods and am not familiar yet with the different wood types to be able to identify what they are. I have no trouble starting a fire. The house is old (1820) so definitely no problem with it being too tight and the stove is in a huge main room downstairs with low ceilings.

I have done a lot of lurking and reading here and I am running into trouble with these areas:

1. I have seen a lot of mention of "burning hot" to avoid creosote but to avoid runaway fires. How hot is "burning hot" and how does one do that without triggering a runaway fire? Also, it seems the hotter I burn, the faster I'm using wood, and the less of a burn time I get (see #2). Folks that think you need to burn a hot fire are partially right . . . ideally you want to be in the Goldilocks Burn Zone -- not too cool so you produce creosote, but not so hot that it can ignite the creosote. If you have a flue thermometer this will help you immensely. With my probe style thermometer in my double wall pipe over 900 degrees is too hot . . . again, this is on the flue thermometer.

2. I am getting nowhere near the burn times everyone else seems to get, and especially nowhere near what the Jotul documentation claims for this stove. Maybe 2 hours if I'm lucky. What am I doing wrong? You're leaving the air control open too much . . . turn it back down to the quarter mark . . . or less. That should help a lot. How full you load the firebox and what wood you are burning also factor into burn times . . . which reminds me . . . what is your definition of burn time? Going in I imagined burn time to be a raging fire for x amount of hours . . . now I consider burn time to be more of the time when I get usable, meaningful heat . . .

2b. It seems like the firebox for this stove is very small compared to the overall size of the stove. I am not seeing how I can stuff it full of the amounts of wood people say they do and be able to criss-cross the wood to leave the space for oxygen to move around like I was taught to do. Mostly it's an interior height issue. Yeah, forget the criss cross deal. This is also why you're not getting the long burns . . . combined with the air control. Load the stove east to west. If the wood is truly seasoned it will light up. Doing the Lincoln Log fire is fine for camp fires . . . not for woodstoves.

3. This secondary burn thing. For the life of me, I can't ever see this happening. Yes, I have read countless threads, looked at videos, and I can't ever see anything burning around those holes inside. I rarely see much of anything come out my chimney, no gray smoke, which apparently is a good thing, so does that mean I'm burning cleanly even though I can't see any secondary burn? Could it be doing a secondary burn even though I can't see it? Am I looking at the wrong place or for the wrong thing? Seeing no smoke is a good thing. There's many "types" of secondaries -- not all of them are going to be like jets of flame shooting out the top like a propane BBQ. In fact, I rarely, if ever, see the BBQ flames. I tend to see more of the "ghost" flames, "firework" explosions and most often -- the Portal to Hell has opened up in the firebox. The key is if you see smoke from your chimney.

4. Sometimes I manage to get decent heat out of the stove and sometimes I can't and I don't know why. I don't think I'm doing anything differently so what should I be doing to get heat out to the room versus up the chimney?

The way I set up my wood inside is this:
Two splits going east west, with crumpled up newspaper in the middle.
Three or four pieces of kindling on top of that going north south.
Two more splits on top going east west again.
Light the paper.
Air control in front all the way open to the right. Once fire is steady, I move it halfway. A very strange way to light a fire. Look up top down fires. Sometimes it takes a bit to master, but they work well.

There is no way with that setup I could get another layer in. That just skims the top where what I assume is the piece where the secondary burn holes are.
According to my temperature gauge, I generally get it running around 400F - 500F but it starts dropping after about an hour and by two hours, I'm at coals and barely hitting 300F.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[schortie]

I'm a big F600 fan so I'll try to get to your questions.

1. If you're burning at 400+ you're likely burning hot enough to prevent too much build up. Hopefully you're able to check your chimney or have a pro come out and take a look with some regularity.

2. You explain your fire starting procedure. If that's all you're doing and starting from a cold start, you're not going to see longer burn times. On a side note, "burn time" is relative and for some is the time from the first match to the final coal. The time your fire will actually burn isn't much past a coupla three hours - at least from my experience. For longer heating time, you'll want to fill your stove as much as possible on the bed of coals your first fire generates. Also consider that wood species, split size, and of course moisture content play a major role in the amount of heat and "burn time" you'll get.

As for loading the stove, according to what I've read here my method is unorthodox. I load my f600 north/south. Yup, I open the front doors regularly. I'm not sure how other folks do it, but that side door severely limits the amount of wood I can get in there. I do use it for smaller fires and stirring the coals when needed, but otherwise I'm loading from the front. I also get a more complete burn from north/south loading. The pic is the stove loaded up for a night of sub zero temps - 3+ year pin oak. I get nostalgic thinking about that wood, some of the best I ever burned.

Also, if you're only setting your air at half, you're going to go through wood faster and losing a fair amount of heat. Continue to turn down the air in increments as long as the fire remains strong. You'll likely see the illusive secondaries with your air lower as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[sbnh]

Firefighterjake and schortie, thank you for taking the time to read through all that! You've both given me some good ideas to try. No idea why I never thought to add wood in from the front doors. You're right, the side door is limiting. I will try out the recommendations you both made.

 

[Nick Mystic]

Where are you taking your stove top temperature readings? It makes a big difference on the Jotul F600. The manual calls for a stove top thermometer to be placed on one of the top corners of the stove. On my F600 the center top of the stove will run 200F hotter than a corner reading, so to interpret the temperature readings you mentioned in your post we need to know where they were recorded. As for loading the stove, I load exclusively through the side door with no problems. I cut my wood around 20 inches in length for easier loading (stove can handle 24" lengths). I always make sure the dog house primary air holes are clear of ash and then make a channel back through the ashes to the rear of the stove before I do a reload to allow the primary air to circulate freely through the wood. You'll find that once a fire is established and the stove is up to around 300F if you shut the primary air down about 80% or 90% the secondaries will start firing off since more air will be streaming out of them to compensate for the reduced primary air flow. At least that is what happens with my stove. However, if you push the primary air lever to the left too soon and notice the fire dying out too fast you need to open it back up some to keep some good flames until the stove gets a bit hotter. Good luck.

 

[sbnh]

Thank you Nick Mystic.

I have my stove top thermometer on the center back of the oval part. It is a Rutland. You're saying then that my readings are 200F degrees higher than my stove really is? I have a couple other unopened stove top thermometers so I will place one in the corner as well to see what the difference is.

About those channels in the ash: are those going opposite direction from how you lay your wood? It sounds like you lay your ash channels north/south and lay your wood east/west. Is that correct?

How full do you load your stove?

Update from the prior posts:

Last night, I tried schortie's method of loading north/south 8 splits from the front glass doors on a bed of coals. I think I loaded too soon because it flared up high and went fast up to 650F (that's the highest it went) and I panicked thinking I was overfiring. So based on what Nick Mystic says, maybe I didn't overfire after all, but it sure was glorious. I got major heat output as well, it went it up to 70F degrees at the opposite end of the room. I also got double burn time (4 hours!) than I had before, so that was awesome.

I consider burn time to be from when the fire goes on its own to when the coals aren't putting out any noticeable heat.

This morning, I tried pen's method of top to bottom loading. It worked ehhhh at first, I had to fudge starting a bit by adding more knotted newspaper, rearranging my kindling a bit, and then relighting, but now it's going great. With some practice, this may be a great way to go once I get the hang of it.

This morning I saw the secondaries after I shut down the air half way! Crystal clear coming out of the holes, at around 400F. Now it's comfortably burning at 450F and I don't see them anymore. I'm not getting the same kind of heat output though that I did last night. Do I understand correctly the first load won't put out much heat but subsequent loads will?

Thank you all!

 

[Nick Mystic]

Yes, the channel I'm making starts at the dog house and goes straight back through the ashes and coals to the very back of the stove. This assumes there are enough ashes in the stove so that when you load your wood (east/west) the ashes and coals on either side of this channel will be high enough to support the wood and maintain a bit of a channel. If there aren't enough ashes/coals to accomplish this, then I place two pieces of wood between 1" - 2" in diameter N/S on the floor of the stove about six inches on either side of the dog house. This will hold up the E/W splits to create the air channel.

I was going to warn you about loading N/S like Scortie does with his stove. I had always loaded E/W due to the length of my wood, but when I first got the F600 I had some longer splits cut for the insert I replaced and they wouldn't fit in the new stove. I just cut them in half and ended up making for awkward loading, so I mostly just mixed them in with longer pieces using just one or two at a time. However, when I encountered several of them stacked together in one of my piles I decided to do an entire N/S load of the stove with them. I, too, loaded on a hot bed of coals and I was really surprised at what happened. Soon after I shut the side door the entire firebox became consumed in active flames. I had my primary air wide open as I normally do after a reload and before I could get a handle on what was happening the fire was burning out of control. I shut the primary all the way down, but it didn't seem to make any difference at that point. I happened to look behind the stove and saw that the back of my T-connector was glowing red, as was the bottom two inches of my flex liner! To cool the stove I had to open the side door all the way open and let cool air flood the stove. It was pretty scary doing that, but I figured it was my only option and after a minute or two I was able to shut the door and with the primary air closed off the fire settled down and the stove cooled back to normal. So, my warning is to be cautious when you burn with N/S loading of very dry wood on a hot bed of coals.

Here is one more suggestion: Since you are new to this stove it would be a good idea to remove the top plate some time when the stove is cool to inspect the top of the baffle and make sure the thermal blanket is in place on top of it. To remove the oval top plate you reach inside the stove from the front and locate the two 11mm bolts (I'm pretty sure that's the size - I keep mine finger tight, so I don't need a wrench to remove them) that hold the top plate down. They are near the outer edges of the oval on either side going into the top oval plate. Once the bolts are removed you can lift the top from the front using that clam shell handle. There should be a rope gasket in a channel under the oval that might pull loose when you lift the top. On my stove the rope gasket had been cut a bit too short and there was a two inch piece of the same gasket material filling the gap. Once when I removed the top I didn't notice this two inch long piece of gasket fell into the stove when I lifted the top and I ended up sucking it up with my shop vac when I cleaned all the ashes out of the top of the baffle. It was a messy task searching through the contents of the vac to locate it later.

As I said, there should be a thermal blanket sitting on top of the baffle. This blanket looks like yellow fiberglass, but is probably some other material. At any rate it is very delicate and will easily tear apart if you aren't very careful handling it. I usually fold mine over in thirds to keep all the ashes in place on top of it before I lift it out of the stove. I carry it outside in the woods and gently unfold it and flip it over and the gently tap it to remove most of the ashes. After I vacuum out the top of the baffle area of the stove and clean out any creosote and ash in the bottom of my T-connector I put the blanket back in place making sure it is positioned up against the front edge of the baffle so that it doesn't block the opening to the flue collar.

As for loading my stove, it depends on how much heat I'm needing. For maximum heat I do a full load up to within an inch or two of the burn tubes. I try to keep my wood an inch or so off the glass up front. I have pretty good size splits, so that might mean I can put 4 or 5 splits in the stove. One in the very back, then a big one up front. I try to find a third split or round that will fill the open slot in the center of those two spits and then put another couple of splits on top of that bottom layer. If it's a cold start I usually will leave one of those final splits out and use that space for kindling and fire starter to get a top down fire going. When the fire is established and the kindling is burned away I might slide another split into that center space if it's really cold out, otherwise I just wait until it's time to reload to get more wood in the stove.

As for burning temperatures: I have my thermometer on the left rear corner on the top of the stove. This was the hottest corner when I tested them with my IR thermometer. With full loads of dry wood the stove usually cruises between 400F and 450F. If I take a reading with my IR thermometer on the top center of the stove it will exceed the 620F limit of the IR thermometer, so I know it's at least that hot. As for burn times, this type of full load with hardwoods will yield 4 to 5 hours of heat above 300F before the coal bed is burned down enough for another full reload.

 

[ratsrepus]

If the 600 is anything like the Oslo (500) you'll make a big mess every time you open the front door.

 

[Nick Mystic]

That's exactly right and a very good reason to load through the side door.

 

[sbnh]

Yes, it was messy opening the front doors and the latch isn't as smooth working as the side door, which is a little stressful when you have a big raging fire on the other side!

Now today, after putting 4 "average" size splits on the bed of coals from my first cold-start fire this morning, I am getting lovely flames but can't get the temp up over 350F. The wood is from the same batch as all my other wood so far, a mix of seasoned hardwoods. I do notice that rearranging the splits every now and then helps some. I've tried adjusting the air back and forth from full open (as far as the lever will go - one groove before the last one), middle, and as far closed as it will go (one groove before the end one again).

It seems I can do one extreme or the other but "just right" seems to elude me. (At least an intentional "just right". Sometimes just dumb luck hits it.)

 

[firefighterjake]

Think of these large cast iron stoves as a large battery . . . they suck up the heat and radiate the heat out . . . and tend to work best when run 24/7 and in cycles vs. starting a fire and then letting it die and then starting a new fire from scratch and letting it die.

Once you have the stove up and running it's easier to run and the heat is more consistent.

I figure on my normal operating temp on the stove to be around 450-650 degrees F. I tend to rely more on the flue thermometer though to let me know when to cut back on the air . . . if I cut back the air too soon or too much the fire will die down, I will not get a good, clean burn with much heat and if I cut back the air too late then I tend to get a good burn, but a lot of the heat goes up the chimney and I don't get as long a burn.

I cannot emphasize this enough . . . the flue thermometer I have is perhaps one of the most important tools I have to gauge when to start shutting down the air . . . and most often I tend to do this incrementally .. . closing it down a quarter mark and then waiting . . . closing it down another quarter mark and waiting and eventually getting it to the quarter mark or all the way "closed."

 

[sbnh]

I have a double lined flue so I would need the kind of thermometer that screws in? Or am I better off getting one of those infrared types?

I can understand how keeping the stove going 24/7 will make make it work best to radiate heat out. I haven't managed yet to have any live coals remaining when I wake up, though.

So every time I add a new load in onto a bed of coals, no matter how much or little I add, I need to put the air back to full then gradually cut it down? This might be one of my problems.

 

[ratsrepus]

Yes, it was messy opening the front doors and the latch isn't as smooth working as the side door, which is a little stressful when you have a big raging fire on the other side!

Now today, after putting 4 "average" size splits on the bed of coals from my first cold-start fire this morning, I am getting lovely flames but can't get the temp up over 350F. The wood is from the same batch as all my other wood so far, a mix of seasoned hardwoods. I do notice that rearranging the splits every now and then helps some. I've tried adjusting the air back and forth from full open (as far as the lever will go - one groove before the last one), middle, and as far closed as it will go (one groove before the end one again).

It seems I can do one extreme or the other but "just right" seems to elude me. (At least an intentional "just right". Sometimes just dumb luck hits it.)

your describing jotul issues to the tee. I think they are very well made good quality wood burners, but I have a hard time being consistent with the burns. either too hot or not hot enough. I thinks its the nature of the tube stove syndrome. wide open secondaries. I have had to stick a rag in the secondary air opening to slow it down before.

 

[firefighterjake]

I have a double lined flue so I would need the kind of thermometer that screws in? Or am I better off getting one of those infrared types? If you mean you have a double wall flue you would need a probe style thermometer . . . this requires drilling into the pipe with two different sized drill bits, but it is rather easy to do. An infrared thermometer is nice, but would not give you an accurate reading for double wall flue temps.

I can understand how keeping the stove going 24/7 will make make it work best to radiate heat out. I haven't managed yet to have any live coals remaining when I wake up, though. With my Oslo with the firebox loaded maybe 2/3 or 3/4 full with miscellaneous wood (i.e. not the primo stuff like oak, black locust, etc.) I can easily get 5-7 hours and have coals that are still large enough to get kindling or small splits lit.

So every time I add a new load in onto a bed of coals, no matter how much or little I add, I need to put the air back to full then gradually cut it down? This might be one of my problems. This is what I do for most reloads . . . open up the air all the way and then open up the firebox door and stir the coals and ash to allow a goodly amount of the ash to drop down into the ash pan through the grates, leaving the coals. Depending on how large the coals are I will either toss on some kindling or small splits . . . this is also dependent on how much of a rush I am in. I will leave the side door ajar until the wood ignites AND is up to temp as measured by my probe style thermometer at which point I close the door and watch the fire and the temp. I will then begin to shut down the air a quarter mark at a time, waiting for a few minutes after doing so to allow the fire to regain its intensity. Typically these waits last no more than 5-10 minutes . . . if the coals were still large and the stove was still hot sometimes I will be able to close the air off much sooner and even skip the longer process of cutting back the air a bit at a time and waiting. With my draft and well seasoned wood I typically will see intense secondaries (i.e. the Portal to Hell) when I reach the quarter closed mark and most often am able to shut my air control all the way "closed".[/QUOTE]

 

[firefighterjake]

your describing jotul issues to the tee. I think they are very well made good quality wood burners, but I have a hard time being consistent with the burns. either too hot or not hot enough. I thinks its the nature of the tube stove syndrome. wide open secondaries. I have had to stick a rag in the secondary air opening to slow it down before.

A lot of the control is in the draft control . . . specifically when you start closing the air down on the front. A thermometer -- specifically the flue thermometer I have found -- helps immensely in this regard. If I close down the air when it just reaches the safe operating temp or about halfway in the safe zone as measured by my probe style thermometer generally I have a consistent burning experience (i.e. plenty of heat, no surprises with the temps rocketing out of control.)

The few times when things get a little too hot for my comfort is when I don't close the air down early enough -- most often because I've been distracted and let the flue temps go a little too high and close to the unsafe zone. This sometimes will result in a fire that is a little too intense for my tastes . . . a rare "problem" (happens maybe 2-3 times a month) I suspect I could solve with a chimney damper, but for now I simply use a folded up piece of aluminum foil and partially block the incoming air at the back which slows the burn and most often gives me a longer burn as well . . . the nice part is the strong draft holds the foil in place until the fire and draft die and then the foil falls on to the hearth.

Of course, the second half of the equation is also about the fuel -- how much you load, size of the splits, wood species (i.e. higher BTU wood vs. lower BTU wood.)

 

[sbnh]

So here's where I'm at now:

Seems I suffered from a severe lack of proper procedures, impatience, and timidity.

I have found how to see the secondaries and when. I mostly didn't know what I was looking or when to look. I now see them generally at 400F with primary air at half or less.

I don't think I was loading enough splits in the firebox to last any significant amount of time. By the time I finished messing with it, they were all burned out. Also my method of loading them was clearly bad.

I had no idea what I was doing with the air. Now I have followed the advice to leave the side door open a while to let the fire take hold and to watch the temperatures. I then close the door when the temperature gets around 300F, and make sure it still burns well after closing the door. If it starts to die down, I reopen the door. I have been playing with how far to leave the door open and for how long. Once it stays burning, I start to close down the primary air in 1/4 increments, still watching the fire. This worked great for me all day yesterday and this morning.

My stove's sweet spot seems to be around 550F-600F on the Inferno thermometer (see attached photo). This is where I seem to get the longest burn times and the best heat radiated out. The temps are not at ideal in the picture, but to show you what I'm using and where they are positioned. Interestingly, the center Inferno and Rutland are not showing the same temperatures and never do. Which one is reputed to be more accurate?

When I was worried about overfiring when my stove hit 650F (see above post), this was based on the Rutland center temperature. I had not put out the Inferno thermometer yet. Was that actually considered overfiring or no, given the placement of these thermometers?

As to no burning coals left in the morning, I guess that's because I go to bed "too early" and get up "too late". I generally head to bed around 10pm and read for a while, and get up around 7am. Plus I am not comfortable enough yet to set a full stove burning then head upstairs leaving it unattended.

Which leads me to another question: what do you all do if you live alone or happen to be home alone with a fire going and you need/want to go out? Smother it? Leave it burning?

I really, really appreciate you all giving me your time to get me sorted out. Thank you all very much!

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm kinda partial to my Condar thermometer . . . mostly because when I measured the temp it showed against the temp registered on an IR thermometer they were within 50 degrees of each other -- not what I would call a precision instrument reading, but close enough for what I want.

I forgot to mention that a home's insulation and the temperature difference in the outside and inside temps makes a big difference. Last night I loaded the stove around 8 p.m. or so and then went to bed (an early night for me) and when I got up this morning around 4:30 there were still plenty of coals . . . I actually waited until 5:30 or so before reloading the stove. House was still in the low 70s . . . temp outside was in the low 30s . . . when the temps are in the single digits or lower I do not see as long a burn as a rule.

What do I do if I need to leave the house and the woodstove is going? Well . . . I leave the house. I pretty much do the same thing I do before going to bed at night . . . I make sure the fire is established and running well before heading out. It means I have to plan things out and generally I try to figure on not going anywhere for 45 minutes to an hour . . . just to be sure the fire is going well with no surprises.

 

[sbnh]

So a month later, after everyone's very helpful advice, I have improved my wood stove skills and am very pleased with the results. Here are my procedures, which have been 99.99% successful first try. Hopefully this condensed version of the things that worked best for me from all the advice offered can help somebody else just starting out.

Cold start:

1. Get the coffee brewing and feed the dog.
2. Clean out ashes/empty ash bin below if necessary.
3. Make sure the air flow lever in the front is all the way to the right (open).
4. I choose to use the side door to load. Front glass doors is just too messy and a pain to get closed right (at least on my stove).
5. Set two thin kindling splits N/S just high enough to leave a gap for airflow, one on either side of the front air input holes to make an air channel throughout the stove.
6. I have had great luck with the top-down method - 3 medium splits E/W first row on top of the two used for the channel. Then two more medium splits E/W on top of those, leaving the middle space open.
7. Placed any one of knotted newspapers/tinder/fire starter square in the gap in the middle and loosely covered that with a few kindling pieces.
8. Pour cup of coffee and bring it to wood stove.
9. Leave side door open for about 30 minutes or until the stove-top temperature gauge reads ~300F (center gauge, Rutland).
10. Enjoy excuse to sit in chair next to wood stove for those 30 minutes and enjoy coffee and relax.
11. After the ~30 minutes, close side door.
12. Watch for about 5 minutes to make sure fire still burns nicely.
13. Assuming it does still burn nicely, move air flow lever to middle position. Wait another 5 min to make sure that still burns nicely and if it does, close it down to the left as far as it will go.
14. If it doesn't, move the level all the way open again and open the side door to get it burning again. Repeat steps 12 and 13. (In the past month, I have only had to try again once.)
15. For a cold start, I've only managed to get a 3 hour burn time for that first load.
16. The temperatures tend to stabilize between 400F - 600F (center guage, Rutland).

Reload:

1. I reload when the temperature gauge is around 250F-300F (center gauge, Rutland) and there are only coals left.
2. Spread out ash and glowing coals evenly. A lot of ash should go through the grate.
3. Open the air flow lever all the way to the right again. (NOTE: there are times for me this is not necessary but not always. Depends on how fast the wood catches fire.)
4. Clear out a channel N/S in the middle of the firebox, exactly the width of the 4 air input holes at the front. This should make a low pile on each side of that channel that rises up a bit. Same concept as step #5 for the cold start, except it uses the burning coals to raise the splits I load next.
5. Add 3 medium splits E/W across the coals. Add 3 more splits on top of those. Sometimes I can squeak one or two flattish splits on top of those 6 if they were on the small side.
6. Leave side door open until you see the bottom wood splits catch fire. Normally for me this is within a minute or two. Close the door.
7. As soon as the wood burns well, push the air lever back to the middle then the left. Again, this is only a couple minutes.
8. My stove's sweet spot seems to be around 550F-650F (center guage, Rutland).
9. I get a solid 4 hour burn time with this, sometimes if I'm lucky it will to go 4.5 to 5 hours.

I consider a burn time the time from when the fire is satisfactorily "going" to the time I need to reload.

I have 3 temperature gauges on my stove (yeah I know, overkill, but I'm still learning my stove): One Rutland in the back left corner, and an identical Rutland and a Condar Inferno in the middle oval. The one on the back corner is consistently 150F-250F lower than either middle one, and the Inferno is consistently 100-150 higher than the Rutland it is directly next to.

The only issue I still seem to have is being unable to get through the night and end up with any burning coals in the morning. I think I have to choose between the comfort and warmth of my flannel sheets at 2 or 3 am, or burning coals at 7am. And given the upstairs stays comfortable through the night, I haven't been motivated to get up and go downstairs.

I think I covered it step by step. If I left something out that puzzles anyone, holler, and I'll go back and clarify or add something I forgot.

Thank you all for being here to take the time to help us newbies out. I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

 

[adrpga498]

Looks like you've done very well with the learning curve. I have the smaller castine f400 model and I always put my largest split in rear of stove for overnight burn. I set air intake compleatly closed around 11:30pm which leaves me with a nice coal bed for 7am reload. Rarely do I not have embers in the am. My goal was to not have to use a match after Thanksgiving. I failed on that goal about 5 times. Oh well. Cheers!

 

[begreen]

Good info, thanks for the thorough report.

I consider a burn time the time from when the fire is satisfactorily "going" to the time I need to reload.

Burn time will vary with outdoor temps and how quickly the house is losing heat.

My stove's sweet spot seems to be around 550F-650F (center guage, Rutland).

I would trust the Inferno over the Rutland. If so it could be the stove is being run with a stove top temp closer to 750-800F. That's pushing the top end range and would explain the 4-5 hr burn time. What is the reload cycle like when the outside temp is 35º?

 

[Nick Mystic]

I'm a bit surprised that you need to keep your side door open for up to 30 minutes to get a fire going. With my F600 I generally only need to have the side door cracked a quarter inch or less on a cold start up and can usually shut it withing 5 - 10 minutes, if that long. I'm burning four year old oak and locust. If you are needing a half hour with the door cracked open your wood might not be too well seasoned.

 

[sbnh]

I'm a bit surprised that you need to keep your side door open for up to 30 minutes to get a fire going. With my F600 I generally only need to have the side door cracked a quarter inch or less on a cold start up and can usually shut it withing 5 - 10 minutes, if that long. I'm burning four year old oak and locust. If you are needing a half hour with the door cracked open your wood might not be too well seasoned.

Hmm, the door isn't cracked open, it's wide open. The wood catches fire quickly, but takes a while to become a full-bodied fire. When I close the door, it's going really well. I never tried leaving it open just a crack.

 

[sbnh]

Good info, thanks for the thorough report.

Burn time will vary with outdoor temps and how quickly the house is losing heat.

I would trust the Inferno over the Rutland. If so it could be the stove is being run with a stove top temp closer to 750-800F. That's pushing the top end range and would explain the 4-5 hr burn time. What is the reload cycle like when the outside temp is 35º?

I never really paid attention to the outside temperatures when timing my reload cycles but it seemed to me that the warmer it is outside, the harder it is to get the fire started from a cold start.

 

[Nick Mystic]

When the door is cracked just a small amount you get a high velocity of air rushing in to fan the flames. This tends to push the fire into the rest of the wood further in the stove. That's assuming that you started the fire on the outer edge by the open door.

 

[sbnh]

When the door is cracked just a small amount you get a high velocity of air rushing in to fan the flames. This tends to push the fire into the rest of the wood further in the stove. That's assuming that you started the fire on the outer edge by the open door.

I try to start it as close to the middle as I can, lighting the knotted newspaper under the kindling using the top down method. Generally I light it in two places: somewhere on the paper maybe 1/4 of the way in and then again on the very outer edge by the open door.

I will try that, thanks!