New to wood stoves in general

[Raven172]

Hey all,

I just recently bought a house in New Hampshire that has a Hearthstone Clydesdale installed. I've been learning how to get the thing burning a little bit better each day, but I have some basic questions.

What's the best way to run the stove? Full open air and feed it a log at a time? Fully load the fire box? Choke down the air? I'm having trouble getting the stove up past 350 or 400 degrees consistently and I think from what I've read I really want it closer to 450 or 500.

Thanks.

 

[begreen]

The insert will generate more heat with a full load of wood. One or two logs at a time may not generate enough heat to initiate secondary combustion. With a full load of wood, start turning down the air in increments as soon as the wood starts burning well. Turn it down just enough each time to make the flames become lazy, but not out.

 

[peakbagger]

FYI, its tougher to run a stove in "shoulder season" which is in the fall and spring, as it gets consistently colder it should be easier to run if you have proper dry wood.

The standard warning is most people new to burning don't have dry wood and contrary to various ads on Craigslist its very rare to find anyone selling it. If you are up near Tamworth I can give you a lead but the basic rule is if you need to buy wood its going to need to season for at least a year possibly two. A good indication of damp wood is if you hear hissing from the logs.

 

[Simonkenton]

You either have wood that is not dry enough, or else, your chimney is not properly installed.

 

[Raven172]

I'm definitely guessing it's the moisture in the wood. I bought 2 cord of "seasoned" wood at the last minute but moisture reader is saying 18-20% on most of the stuff. I'm going to start stacking and letting wood season on the property now that we're settled for future years.

Thanks for the tips guys. The moisture, coupled with me running it wrong, seem to be my problems. I had the chimney inspected when we moved in and everything came back as being well insulated, well installed, and well maintained. But I've definitely been building up a coal bed and then running one log at a time rather than reloading the fire box each time. I'll give that a shot and see if I can get better temps even with my damp wood.

 

[Simonkenton]

18 percent is pretty dry. How are you measuring the moisture? You need to put a stick inside the house overnight, then split it, then test the freshly split part.

 

[Raven172]

I was using a moisture meter on random splits in my stack outside. I'll definitely try what you suggested and try to get some more accurate numbers.

I think I got some random stuff mixed in from the guy I bought from. I don't get the hissing all the time, but I've definitely had splits that hiss and I even had one that dripped a drop or two of moisture out the end as it was heating in the middle. Lesson learned on buying a big batch of wood and seasoning it myself on the property.

So I should be looking for 18% roughly?

 

[tadmaz]

I am currently working through a stack of firewood that fell over at some point. Been split/stacked/covered (besides falling over) for 1.5 years. The wood is pretty wet, I'm totally bummed. Doesn't want to burn.

 

[Simonkenton]

You have to get the wood up to room temp before you test it. 17 percent is the golden number but 18 will do.

 

[Raven172]

Awesome. I've got some sitting inside I just brought in the other day so I'll split that tonight and give it a check. Probably do it a few times for an average because I'm crazy.

Super bummer Tadmaz on the wood falling over. Do you have other wood you can burn and re stack that to dry back out?

 

[tadmaz]

Awesome. I've got some sitting inside I just brought in the other day so I'll split that tonight and give it a check. Probably do it a few times for an average because I'm crazy.

Super bummer Tadmaz on the wood falling over. Do you have other wood you can burn and re stack that to dry back out?

Yea I believe the rest of my wood for this season should be dry, 4 cords. I've converted to holz hausens, I've got 5 cords totally covered for next season.