Novice with a Big Moe in CT

[gjeep48]

Hello All,

New to the forum and wood stove burning... My home (1969 1200sqft Cape Style) came with a Big Moe in the Basement This is my second year burning, I would say less than a cord in total. I have been using it on weekends/snow days when I'm home to help out the oil burner. To be honest, I'm nervous when its going and I'm constantly poking my head down the basement stairs to see if everything is ok I'm affraid to leave the house with it going and always let it burn out at night so its not going when we are sleeping (I'm a nervous person, I cant help it).

I replaced the seal, got the chimney inspected, did my research, got some nice wood and thermometer on the stove pipe (~18" above the stove). Everything seems to be going well - I think?

The Big Moe has two draft knobs on the door.... Can anyone give me some tips on how much these should be open/closed for maintaining a efficient fire? Once I have a good fire going I have them open about 4 turns per a manufactures document on this site...

I have been maintaining a temperature by loading in 3-logs when its 300Deg. then the temp rises to about 500deg and back down to 300deg.... This cycle takes about 1-hour. So about every hour I'm loading the stove not to go below 300deg.. (Temp out side has been really cold, below 20 for about 2 weeks)

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated!! Thank you.

Respectfully,
Geoff

 

[saewoody]

I don’t know any specifics about your Big Moe, but welcome to the forum. Glad you found us. It’s always great to have another fellow nutmegger on board.


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[gjeep48]

Thank you saewoody for the welcome!

 

[begreen]

There is some documentation including a manual on our wiki. However, the manual is not big on how to run the stove. Sounds like you may have already discovered this:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/all-nighter-stove-co/
For longer burn time you may be able to load more wood and turn the air down more once the fire is burning well. Try to keep the flue temp lower than 500º. The flue thermometer is reading surface temperature. Inside the pipe the flue gases will be 75% to 100% hotter. That translates to flue gas temps of about 750-1000º and is a lot of waste heat up the flue. 300º is much better, so I'd recommend closing the air off a bit more for a lower burn once the wood is burning strongly.

Heating from a basement can be very inefficient, especially if the basement walls are uninsulated.

 

[gjeep48]

Thank you begreen for the info!! After reading your post and some more research, I realized I have not been utilizing my flue damper. I have had it wide open during all my burns. Can you guys please clarify if I should be using this damper in addition to the air intake draft knobs? Should both the air intake draft knobs and flue damper be turned down as the fire is established and burning well? Thank you again.