Newbie stove owner needing to learn

[Crimson Blaze]

Hi all, we just bought and installed a Morso Squirrel1440, and I love it! I've been a fireplace burner my whole life but am quickly realizing that stoves are much much different. As such, I have a couple questions after our fist couple of burns.

1st burn: had to keep the stove around 200 degrees to start curing. When I was done curing, I durned off the air inlet to kill the fire. I still had a chunk of EnviroBrick in there but assumed it would go out. 10 minutes later the house is filling up with smoke. I came back, opened it up and broke apart the back and it went out pretty quickly. Obviously I won't do that again, but I'm trying to understand what happened. Is it always the case that turning off the draft will cause your fire to smolder or was it mostly because of the envirobrick?

3rd burn: I wanted to try to just burn the enviro brick because we don't have a lot of seasoned wood. I was able to get the brick burning easily with some fatwood but again it just smoldered and put out a ton of smoke. I figured I would need to get the temp up so I added some wood, got the temp up and it did just fine. Here's the question: Am I going to always need to get the temp up and a coal bed first before the evirobrick will actually burn well? If so, that's not good news because I have so little dry wood.

Thanks everyone! Any tips on how to do this better is greatly greatly appeciated!

 

[Randy Acton]

My limited experience tells me that you need to get the stove up to temp and any fuel "involved" before you start regulating air too much.

Where did you measure that 200 and what did you measure it with. That doesn't seem to me to be enough temp to maintain an efficient burn.

I would think that if all it is doing is smoldering, you need more air and you need to get the temps up for a longer period of time.

 

[begreen]

Draft can be weaker at this time of year due to warmer outside temps. If that is the issue it will get better. What is the flue system like on the stove? Inadequate draft can also be caused by a too short chimney or stove location.

You can't shut off all the air to the fire in a modern stove, it's better to let it burn out.

 

[JA600L]

Try this.

Put the enviro bricks on the bottom. Put some small splits on top of the bricks. Add kindling, newspaper, fatwood, etc on the very top preferably just below the secondary pipe work assuming it has that. Use plenty of it the first time. With practice you will learn how much you need.

Load the stove as if to burn through a full cycle but make sure there is plenty of kindling, and small splits, etc on top of the bricks. Open the air wide open and or crack the door if needed. Light the kindling on top.

What you are doing is the equivalent of giving an old diesel a huff of starting fluid. Your primary goal is to get your chimney (the engine) to start drafting quickly from a burst of heat just below it. Your next goal is to bring the secondary air system on line by subjecting it to direct flame .

Within minutes your chimney should be very active and drafting well, the secondaries should be pumping out some serious flames, and your kindling should be lighting the smaller row of splits below it.

Keep the air open. You now have a very clean,efficient, and well established fire. Now you need the smaller splits to light the bricks. This may take practice. Don't close the air until the bricks are fully involved and the stove pipe or stove top is above the creosote temperature mark. When you feel confident that your bricks are well established set the control to your desired comfort level. This is called a top down fire.

 

[Squirrel]

Am I going to always need to get the temp up and a coal bed first before the evirobrick will actually burn well?

In a word, yes you are.
I have been using a squirrel 1410 for several years and have not discovered a way to burn efficiently with the stove below it's operating temperature of about 500f and without a good hot coal bed on a good layer of ash, especially when using manufactured logs or bricks.
I think this stove is so small and so heavy that the mass of the grate takes heat away too quickly to maintain an efficient burn with a small fire. The upside of this is that once the stove is hot it will stay that way for a long time and can be brought back to life quickly from a few hot coals by placing one or two pieces of kindling under larger splits. Manufactured logs tend not to give the kind of coal bed you need to do this.
Top down is a good way to light off a kindling fire in a cold stove to give you an initial coal bed but do not start with larger splits on the bottom in a cold stove as it takes too long to heat the larger splits and the mass of the bottom of the stove.
So, light a roaring kindling fire, let it burn using the air control to keep the temp safe but high, when the initial load is down to coals with a few flames add larger splits or let it go out and enjoy the heat of the stove for an hour or two.
If you think you have enough kindling stored you're probably wrong!

 

[Sconnie Burner]

Try @JA600L method. It works wonders on getting a cold stove going and burning clean within minites of light off. The least amount of smoke created the better. Research top down fire and you will find pics and steps as described.

With my old secondary burn stove I always waited for a stove top temp of 350 or higher and a good rolling fire before starting to adjust the air down. And would do it in steps with 5-10 minute intervals depending on what the fire looked like.

 

[cd36]

I find in my zc fireplace my first fire in a cold stove is never as good as the second one once the stove is warmed up.

When the stove is cold I have to feed it alot more air and it never seems to get burning as nicely if I start to throttle the air down. But when I reload on a hot coal bed, that second fire just takes off and really starts throwing heat. The secondaries get burning very nicely and I can throttle back the air without issues.

I've kind of accepted that my first fire in a cold stove should just be a smaller quick fire to get the fireplace up to temp.


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[xman23]

All very correct advice. It did sound like you were burning one brick in a cold stove. Not that I know your stove or burn those bricks. But in general you need many pieces of wood to get a cold stove up to temp. And a number of reloads to build a bed of coals. Only when I have a bed of coals do I consider the stove up and running. Only then with a bed of coals can you try burning a single split. But normally 2 or 3 splits.

 

[Crimson Blaze]

My limited experience tells me that you need to get the stove up to temp and any fuel "involved" before you start regulating air too much.

Where did you measure that 200 and what did you measure it with. That doesn't seem to me to be enough temp to maintain an efficient burn.

I would think that if all it is doing is smoldering, you need more air and you need to get the temps up for a longer period of time.

I measured right on top of the stove, just in front of the pipe with a condar stove thermometer. I had to purposely keep the oven cooler that I wanted in order to cure the paint. Tonight I'm doing my 4th burn and even adding 4 small pieces of wood, I couldn't get the eco brick to catch until I added about double the wood I started with. Should I just start with more wood? I'm just afraid to overfire. Thanks!

 

[Crimson Blaze]

Draft can be weaker at this time of year due to warmer outside temps. If that is the issue it will get better. What is the flue system like on the stove? Inadequate draft can also be caused by a too short chimney or stove location.

You can't shut off all the air to the fire in a modern stove, it's better to let it burn out.

Hi begreen, my wife (enigmablaze) says that you are awesome! It is a 6 inch double walled Ventis Chimney vented directly out of the top, straight out through the roof with no turns. It has about 6 feet of pipe inside and 8 feet outside. So far I think the draft is pretty good. I'm glad to know the draft should only get better! One question I have is about the ash bed, as there isn't much of one yet. I'm not sure I understand why this is important. I get that you need coals, but I always thought that ash will put out the fire. So why do I need an ash bed? Thanks!

 

[begreen]

Ha, the forum is Blazing! Morso recommends 16' flue for this stove. 14' is a bit shy for good draft in mild weather. The fact that it's straight up helps. It should get better though as temps drop.

This is a tough little stove. Now that it's broken in you can take it up to 700ºF on the stove top without worry. You'll want to keep at least an 1.5" deep ash bed in the stove. It acts as an insulator protecting the bottom of the stove and it also helps the fire stay hotter.

 

[Crimson Blaze]

Draft can be weaker at this time of year due to warmer outside temps. If that is the issue it will get better. What is the flue system like on the stove? Inadequate draft can also be caused by a too short chimney or stove location.

You can't shut off all the air to the fire in a modern stove, it's better to let it burn out.

Oh and when this ecobrick smoldering session happened it really blackened the window of the stove. I read that a hot fire could burn this off but I got it up to 700 yesterday and that didn't help. So, two questions, was it the smoke that blackened the window or something else? What do you recommend for cleaning the window? Morso just says to buy their fancy cleaner, but surely there's another way. Thanks again!

 

[begreen]

There are lots of threads on cleaning the glass here. The simplest way is to dampen a paper towel and dip it into the ash. Then clean the window with it. Once the black is gone wipe with a clean, lightly dampened paper towel. If you want to use a cleaner, Rutland makes a good stove glass cleaner. It's inexpensive and one bottle will last for years.

 

[cd36]

Oh and when this ecobrick smoldering session happened it really blackened the window of the stove. I read that a hot fire could burn this off but I got it up to 700 yesterday and that didn't help. So, two questions, was it the smoke that blackened the window or something else? What do you recommend for cleaning the window? Morso just says to buy their fancy cleaner, but surely there's another way. Thanks again!

I take a dry paper towel and wipe off as much as I can dry. Then wet a paper towel and wipe the rest off. Then another dry one to clean it up. That's all you should need.

If it's really tough you can dip a wet paper towel in some ash to help clean as well.

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[Crimson Blaze]

There are lots of threads on cleaning the glass here. The simplest way is to dampen a paper towel and dip it into the ash. Then clean the window with it. Once the black is gone wipe with a clean, lightly dampened paper towel. If you want to use a cleaner, Rutland makes a good stove glass cleaner. It's inexpensive and one bottle will last for years.

Thanks begreen! the ash trick worked perfectly!

 

[Crimson Blaze]

I find in my zc fireplace my first fire in a cold stove is never as good as the second one once the stove is warmed up.

When the stove is cold I have to feed it alot more air and it never seems to get burning as nicely if I start to throttle the air down. But when I reload on a hot coal bed, that second fire just takes off and really starts throwing heat. The secondaries get burning very nicely and I can throttle back the air without issues.

I've kind of accepted that my first fire in a cold stove should just be a smaller quick fire to get the fireplace up to temp.


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Ok, thanks, that's good to know. Sounds like I'll be in much better shape once Its cold and I've got a fire burning all day with a coal bed.

 

[Crimson Blaze]

All very correct advice. It did sound like you were burning one brick in a cold stove. Not that I know your stove or burn those bricks. But in general you need many pieces of wood to get a cold stove up to temp. And a number of reloads to build a bed of coals. Only when I have a bed of coals do I consider the stove up and running. Only then with a bed of coals can you try burning a single split. But normally 2 or 3 splits.

well... that's what I was afraid of. I've only been able to find wood that is 20-35% moisture here in central Illinois and our stove says we need 20% or less. Does anyone know how big a risk it will be to use this "wet wood" just to get my stove up to temp so the eco brick will burn? What is the best way to use this wood and minimize smoke/creasote?

 

[Crimson Blaze]

One more question for anyone out there...about the ash bed, as there isn't much of one yet. I'm not sure I understand why this is important. I get that you need coals, but I always thought that ash will put out the fire. So why do I need an ash bed? Thanks!

 

[begreen]

Ash insulates the base of the stove protecting is and it helps keep the firebox hotter for a cleaner burn.

Damp wood may not burn too well but you can give it a try. If it is closer to 20% moisture then it may be ok. Try making a good fire as shown in the manual. Once it has burned down to a coal bed put in the EcoBrick on the next reload.

If the wood is very poorly seasoned then stop around at some cabinetry and trim shops. They may have barrels of scraps you can get a box full from. Also, check out flooring shops and ask if they have cutoffs and scraps. Unfinished hardwood flooring is nice and dry and burns well.