New to Wood Burning

[BBrookes03]

Hello Everyone,
I apologize firstly since I'm sure some of these questions are answered by others, but I've been going through post after post and there is just a ton of information.

Firstly I'd like to say I'm new to wood burning, I originate from the sunny thermostat controlled apartment in Southern California and moved to middle Montana area. The most we had was a fireplace which was for aesthetic looks and burns, not heating a house. So much of this is foreign (like all beginners) and I have some concerns.

The stove I have in our rented cabin is made by United States Stove Company, I've looked on their website to see which model looks similar and it looks like we have a 2,000sqf stove for a 500sqft cabin which is divided into two rooms (about even). However, the design is different as this one stands on 4 legs rather than a stand like the one online, but other than this it looks identical.

My query begins with this.

On our arrival we had a significant amount of trouble lighting it (our landlord squirts a bit of diesel on a rag and lights it with the door cracked so no combustion), to which "yikes" was a quick response of mine mentally. It does however get it blazing quickly. The first few nights I had a lot of trouble starting it with/without diesel. It smoked a lot, it back puffed, and set off our smoke alarm. Newbie mistakes (I hope). I couldn't for the life of me keep the fire going once I closed the front door. So I had to continually leave it cracked or it would die.

Fast forward a 10 days. I've got it going in 30min, a bed of coals in an hour, and I can close the door and still have it burning. Success! But now I'm having a problem with it putting out huge amounts of heat and still dies about every other hour unless attended. It chews through logs pretty quickly. The wood I'm using is Pine. Yes I know, a soft wood with lots of ash and easily dirties the chimney. But most the places I called out here only sell pine wood or some small mix which runs about 150 a cord split in 1/2 to 1/3's. I've taken the liberty to split some into 1/4's to get the fire going easily. I hope this sounds correct (despite it being pine...).

My problem currently is my damper is closed/shut and while it does slow the fire it's still going through a log an hour 1/2 loge or 1/3 log if dense. That seem quick to me but who am I to know. My landlord and neighbor both say they can run a night long burn off 2-3 logs, which is my problem.

If I go to bed at 10-12pm, my fire is dead with burned out coals by 1am MAX. Meaning by 3am it's freezing in the house and I'm not even into negative weather yet.

How do I get a nice over night burn? I've tried different stacking techniques here with smaller pieces, then large, and finally a log but they kind of all just blow up and burn, just super hot if more wood. I need to figure this out sooner than later as I'm heading into negative weather soon, and for the first time in my life I might add. . .

I love it here in Montana, I love the clean air of the country, being a hour from the city, and working from home. I love the animals to the door, the people, etc. But I'm stuck on this stove. It's the one part that has yet to fall into place.

I keep getting told "every stove is unique, each has a personality that you got to figure out how to work with it". I've tried hard with just information and not asking for several weeks now. But I feel not asking is stupider at this point...

Thing's I've considered
1. It's unknown even to the landlord when the chimney was last cleaned.
2. Possible leak since the fire should die if the damper is closed yet it burns slower (I've tried smoking the box to see leaks but I can't find any).
3. Not enough pressure in the room (opened a nearby window but it didn't seem to change any)
4. Burn harder wood (If only I could find some)
5. Learn to get up every other hour in the night...

With all these things considered does anyone have any extra input? Any thoughts, suggestions, or senior advice?

What I plan on doing soon:
Having the chimney professionally serviced for cleaning (seems dangerous not knowing the condition).

I appreciate all thoughts and advice, thanks for listening to my somewhat rant about my stove problems.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Can you post a picture or two of the stove setup? That will help us with the model of your stove. Or, is there a UL label on the back of the stove that identifies it?

Your technique may not be at fault. Some of these stoves are hard to achieve a good controlled burn in or it may not have the capacity for long heating. From a safety standpoint, having a professional cleaning and inspection is a good idea, but it may not solve the heating problem.

 

[Texas123]

I have used both the United States Stove Company Wonderwood and Wonderluxe heaters for almost 20 years and your experiences are usual; if this is the model you are using. These are not much more then self contained stainless steel boxes with an ash pan. No insulated baffles or secondary burn tubes. You are correct, add more wood to get a hotter fire and they will die down to coals in about a couple of hours. I would get used to feeding these old fashioned smoke monsters and recommend a chimney cleaning. The one good thing of these older stoves is, they are simple to use with no worry of secondary burn air flow or catalytic converter problems.

 

[BBrookes03]

Welcome. Can you post a picture or two of the stove setup? That will help us with the model of your stove. Or, is there a UL label on the back of the stove that identifies it?

Your technique may not be at fault. Some of these stoves are hard to achieve a good controlled burn in or it may not have the capacity for long heating. From a safety standpoint, having a professional cleaning and inspection is a good idea, but it may not solve the heating problem.

Added two photo's tried to get one of the back but it's pretty close to the wall...

 

[fbelec]

get yourself a stove top thermometer. tell us what temp the stove is about halfway thru it's burn. if you turn down your primary air does it slow down the fire or does it make no difference?

 

[BBrookes03]

get yourself a stove top thermometer. tell us what temp the stove is about halfway thru it's burn. if you turn down your primary air does it slow down the fire or does it make no difference?

If you mean shutting the damper it does very little to the fire. If fully open it's about the same as fully shut. The only thing that really speeds it up or slows it down if leaving the front door slightly open or fully closed. I'll take your advice and grab a thermometer next time I'm in town.

 

[begreen]

Can't see which model it is, maybe try a mirror to see if you can see lower down the label for the model. At least it's a modern stove. Are you loading the stove with a full load of wood? How are you working the air control once the fire is burning? You should be closing the air down once the wood is burning well. Turn it down until the flame slows down. This may be 50% closed or all the way closed depending on how soon the air starts getting closed.

 

[BBrookes03]

Can't see which model it is, maybe try a mirror to see if you can see lower down the label for the model. At least it's a modern stove. Are you loading the stove with a full load of wood? How are you working the air control once the fire is burning? You should be closing the air down once the wood is burning well. Turn it down until the flame slows down. This may be 50% closed or all the way closed depending on how soon the air starts getting closed.

The air control is monitored by two factors, 1: me leaving the front door open to achieve an actual fire (if I don't it will die). Then second the damper on the bottom which is a piece of metal that covers a hole in the underside. Fully open or closed it burns about the same. Closed it burns slightly (very slightly) less intense.

For getting it going I use a rag with a bit of fuel on it, tinder, about 1/8 a log then a 1/4-1/3 log until it's going and wait till coals. Once I have coals I put a single 1/2 log on it and it burns with the damper closed and the front closed about an hour to on occasion two hours. I sometimes have to turn a log over in order for it all to burn. Tonight has been a good night, I've had 1/2 log last about 2hours with a small flame before I need a new one.

Note: If I load the stove with a full load we get run out of the room as it all goes up at once. Our first night we ended up leaving the window open it was so hot.

 

[fbelec]

can you snap a picture of what you call a damper and any other controls on your stove?

 

[BBrookes03]

can you snap a picture of what you call a damper and any other controls on your stove?

Added, the gold knob spiral is a metal stick that attaches to the flap underneath that covers the air intake. It does very little open or closed. Currently it is 100% closed, however it looks as thought it is 50% open? It's stuck a where it currently is.

 

[Squisher]

If no one knows when the chimney was last cleaned that is priority número uno. A clean chimney is not only safe, it draws much better than a filthy one. and you could try all the different wonderful techniques and woods you want but if the chimney is signifigantly sooted up they aren't going to work.

First time burner, burning pine. Landlord lighting it up with diesel? Get the chimney cleaned.

 

[begreen]

Just a guess, I haven't run this stove, but in the picture the air control valve it looks like there are two air channels, one which is covered by the valve in the picture and one which remains open. The open one may be the secondary air intake in which case staying open is normal. The secondary air is fed only to the tubes at the top of the firebox.

Modern stoves don't close the air off completely, that helps keep the glass clear and stops smoldering. My guess is that is why the v-notch in the air control. If correct that is where primary air continues to get a little feed with the air control closed.

It's hard to heat a small area evenly with a wood stove, especially when burning a volatile wood like pine. You are getting short burns because there's not much fuel in the stove. When the stove is loaded full of fuel, then it gets too hot. The best solution may be to have a backup source of heat for overnight. If this wasn't a rental then a catalytic wood stove would help. That can run at a steady low rate and smolder because the catalyst burns up the gases in the smoke. But seeing it's a rental perhaps an electric space heater would make it easier to stay warm through the night?

One thing for sure, get rid of that stinky starting method. There is a product called SuperCedars that will make starting easier and odor free. Keep starting with a few 1/8 or even 1/10 splits of pine in a crisscross fashion with 1/4 SuperCedar underneath the center of the pile and ignite. This product is available to hearth.com members for a substantial discount.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/super-cedar-40-discount-for-hearth-members.155618/

 

[kennyp2339]

Just burning pine? How big are the splits? There's nothing wrong with burning pine as long as its dry, when you make a fire use smaller splits 2-3" once the fire gets going switch to the big fat boys, that should help keep things from going nuclear.
How long is your flu, from stove top to chimney cap? What condition is the fiber baffle in (located inside the stove, that board thing that rests on top of those reburn tubes)
Also check the door seal by using a dollar bill, put the dollar between the door and stove, close the door, if the dollar pulls out easy then the door gasket should be replace, test all around the door.

 

[edyit]

the stove you have is a Magnolia 2015, same as the one i have. the pics of the underside of the stove are of the primary air (controllable) and the secondary air (not controllable) intakes, i've used this stove as our primary heat source for the last 5 years. get yourself 2 thermometers one for the stovetop right about where first flat section starts to inline, and the second for your chimney about 16 inches up. think of them as your speedometer a and tachometer on a car. second if your not getting any difference with the air adjusted down check your door gasket. take a dollar bill and close it in the door, it should pull out with resistance, if it pulls out really easy your gasket needs replacing. also get that chimney cleaned ASAP.

as for getting it started i'm a huge fan of the top down method in this stove, search this site for a more detailed explanation, but it works great. 2 good sized splits on the bottom, a couple medium splits on top of those then kindling on top of that. I use a propane torch to light it, point the torch into the top left hole in the fire box for about 30-40 seconds this helps establish draft (for me anyways ymmv) then light the kindling leave the door cracked for a few minutes to make sure the fire is fully established then close it with the air control fully open (all the way out) this is where the thermometers come in really handy. when the flue thermometer starts to hit 300 i'll push the air rod in about half way. give it a few minutes since closing too fast can (for me) snuff it out. next i'll push it in about half again and repeat this until it's set to where i want it. with my personal setup that's usually with the air rod about 1/2" from being fully pushed in.

This stove in a 500 sqr foot cabin is gonna blow you out of it. i'd suggest a good hot fire in the morning then let that heat for the day then a good fire at night before bed to keep it warm overnight. this will mean relighting the stove though.

TLDR: check your door gasket, get the chimney cleaned ASAP chimney fires are no joke, get some thermometers