Bought a stove 2 months ago. Installed into previous chimney that had been used for a year. Add 2 foot to it to raise chimney now sets at 15 foot give or take a few inches. So the problem is there really isn't any air control. Have problems getting it to burn Good I have to crack stove door until it heats up really good. Close it when I hit the hay then you have to get up every 3 hours to load more wood. Should I add a damper to the pipe to save heat? Any reply wood be great. Thanks
pleasent hearth not so pleased
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Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Welcome. I'm sure you'll get good help here.
Let's start with the "usual suspects". Tell us about the wood supply. That's the most common source of problems like this. Have you been able to measure the moisture content of the wood with a moisture meter? That would be the first step. Your stove, like all epa rated stoves, require really dry wood, around 20% moisture content. What kind of wood are you burning and how long has it been split and stacked?
A damper on the flue will not help, but only hurt. A damper is used to tame an over active draft which is not your problem. A 15' flue is about right for that kind of stove (assuming that it's a proper class A 6" chimney).
You shouldn't need to crack the door open for good combustion, so let's figure it out.
Let's start with the "usual suspects". Tell us about the wood supply. That's the most common source of problems like this. Have you been able to measure the moisture content of the wood with a moisture meter? That would be the first step. Your stove, like all epa rated stoves, require really dry wood, around 20% moisture content. What kind of wood are you burning and how long has it been split and stacked?
A damper on the flue will not help, but only hurt. A damper is used to tame an over active draft which is not your problem. A 15' flue is about right for that kind of stove (assuming that it's a proper class A 6" chimney).
You shouldn't need to crack the door open for good combustion, so let's figure it out.
Tamarck. Was cut this late spring and split stack ever since seems that some splits may be damp. Might be a issue. I really don't have any way to controlled air flow as the bottom air inlet doesn't do much just rattles around. I have 5 foot of single wall in to 10 foot of class A chimney. After fire burns for about 3 hours seems to work better
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Pops and clicks are normal heating up. I'm not at all familiar with that stove, but from your description of the air control just rattling around, you sure want to make sure it's assembled properly mechanically.
You need to be sure of the wood's moisture content in any case. The only way to do that is by measuring the face of a fresh split with a moisture meter. You can get a good meter for around $30 from Home Depot or Lowe's and that would be the quickest source. The favorite brand around here seems to be the General brand.
You need to be sure of the wood's moisture content in any case. The only way to do that is by measuring the face of a fresh split with a moisture meter. You can get a good meter for around $30 from Home Depot or Lowe's and that would be the quickest source. The favorite brand around here seems to be the General brand.
Yea. Not sure that on the air lever. Looked under it plate moves in an out when rod is pulled but doesn't seem to do anything air wise. It is a cheap brand from home depot. Its almost like it needs a dryer vent hooked to it can vented outside
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
Again, I don't know the stove, but most stoves are designed so that you can hook up to an outside air supply for combustion, called an OAK, outside air kit. But it should have a way to bypass that with a removeable plate or something. Just make sure the inlet is open to the room air.
Freshly cut green wood may be around 45-50% moisture content as compared to absolutely dry wood (dry measure). Your stove needs wood that is around 20% moisture content for proper operation. Depending on species, that may take from a year to three years after being cut, split, and stacked. Over 25% it will not burn efficiently.
I've heard that tamarack dries fairly quickly, like a year, so your supply may be okay, but it's a close call and you need to measure it.
But that air control sounds like it may be a problem as well.
I had one of those stoves. They ONLY draft on super dry wood. It took a while forme to get it going when I had mine in the green house and I only burned pallet wood 24/7. I sold it this fall I hated it.
Huntindog1
Minister of Fire
If you have one of the smaller Pleasant hearths you will have trouble with long heat cycles. I say heat cycle as its not really burn time. Alot of the heat cycle is in the coal stage. A cycle ends when you have just enough small amount of coals left in the bottom of the stove to easily restart another load of wood.
Stoves 2 Cu ft or larger is usually what you need to get 8-9 hours out of a load of wood.
Those Pleasant Hearth Stoves should work for you if you have good dry seasoned wood as all these EPA stoves will not burn with high Moisture wood.
Try going to a farm store or Homedepot and get some of those biobricks or stop by one of those gas stations that sell camp firewood in a bag and test your stove out with that.
Start your stove with some kindling and a fire starter in there with your main wood load. This will get your heat built up in the fire box faster as its all about the heat built up in the box in these EPA stoves. Secondary burn wont happen till you heat is built up. Stove top temp needs to get to about 375-400 and your flue temp about can be like 500 - 600 then start closing your input air setting down in 1/4 ways increments allowing a few minutes between each adjustment for the burn to balance out to the new setting. The fire starter and kindling will allow your stove to get heated up so you can get thru the process of shut the input air back down to a all night setting , and not burn up too much of your main load doing this.
Your first load of wood is mainly to get you a good bed of coals for the second load. I wouldn't try to do an over night load not having a good bed of coals to start with.
If you wood is too much moisture this type stove will drive you crazy.
I dont think its your stove. Its your technique and wood quality.
Stoves 2 Cu ft or larger is usually what you need to get 8-9 hours out of a load of wood.
Those Pleasant Hearth Stoves should work for you if you have good dry seasoned wood as all these EPA stoves will not burn with high Moisture wood.
Try going to a farm store or Homedepot and get some of those biobricks or stop by one of those gas stations that sell camp firewood in a bag and test your stove out with that.
Start your stove with some kindling and a fire starter in there with your main wood load. This will get your heat built up in the fire box faster as its all about the heat built up in the box in these EPA stoves. Secondary burn wont happen till you heat is built up. Stove top temp needs to get to about 375-400 and your flue temp about can be like 500 - 600 then start closing your input air setting down in 1/4 ways increments allowing a few minutes between each adjustment for the burn to balance out to the new setting. The fire starter and kindling will allow your stove to get heated up so you can get thru the process of shut the input air back down to a all night setting , and not burn up too much of your main load doing this.
Your first load of wood is mainly to get you a good bed of coals for the second load. I wouldn't try to do an over night load not having a good bed of coals to start with.
If you wood is too much moisture this type stove will drive you crazy.
I dont think its your stove. Its your technique and wood quality.
If the wood is too wet, even fully open air may not be enough, which is why you have to crack your door.
Usually you can see a change in the fire when you adjust your primary air setting. With my stove, even a minor adjustment makes a huge difference in how active the flames air... they get much lazier when the air is shut. Air typically flows down the front glass... if you shut the air flow from wide open to fully shut, you should see the flames become less active. If you see absolutely no difference in the fire when going from full open to full shut, then maybe something is mechanically wrong.
I agree the problem is probably moisture in the wood... it requires more air to burn, meaning shorter burn times and less heat. Try buying/borrowing some wood seasoned over a year, or mixing in some dry pallet scraps and see what happens (but don't burn ONLY pallets, or you will overfire). With drier wood, you should be able to gradually shut the primary air setting in stages, to give you longer burns.
I think you already have the answer: get a moisture meter and check your wood. Or buy known-dry, kiln-dried wood and use it for a full load or two or three.
disamatic
New Member
This is our first year burning wood. We also bought a pleasant hearth medium stove. I have had pretty good luck so far. I did split my wood a bit small. I have no problems maintaining flue temp. I have noticed when the gauge gets to 335ish and up it gets really hot in the house quick. I am burning Alder, Pine, Doug fir, maple, and a few lumber chunks here and there. I have no problems with stove other than I wish burn time was longer, but with bigger splits I think it will help.
Tired the dry wood also bio bricks not much luck. Stove seems to not be pulling in fresh air from air control. It is on the bottom of the stove pull it in and out doesn't do anything. I bought a elbow to extend it past the stove in hopes that it will pull air better. But no luck
Also if I leave the door cracked an 1/8 of an inch get the flames it needs an will heat up to 300 range
Huntindog1
Minister of Fire
Is your baffle plates in the stove correctly? As One person report one time same stove and found the issue to be the baffle plates had slid out of place during shipping.
Where are you reading the temps?
What are you reading the temps with?
As those real dried bio bricks will burn really hot.
Not much to these stoves , the baffle plates and insulated fireboxes heat up and the super heated secondary air injects at the top of the box.
Basically same design for all these stoves just better quality workmanship in some of the stoves and fancier trimmings.
Here is one Home Depot Review with some advice:
I purchased this stove a month ago & we are having the worst winter in southern OHIO in over 25 yrs & was 3 degrees last night & it kept my home at 74 degrees my furnace come on this am only once & after getting the stove up & going again it has not come on since!! My home is around a thousand square ft in size & a sectional home & sits in the corner of my living room & is a nice piece of American workmanship
! I cant get 8 hrs of burn time tho as stated but other than that I'm very pleased with it so far & would tell others to buy one. I purchased the small model & returned it due to issues with draft problems & was very hard to keep going if you don't have all seasoned wood as I don't!! This stove is a lot easier to start & does not kill the fire when you close the door as the smaller model did & you will save on wood due to how long it does burn on a load of wood in the fire box!! Do not block the air injection tube on the bottom middle front of stove cause it does burn a lot better if you don't "as stated in manual" I think if I had all seasoned wood small stove would of worked a lot better! But I do feel there is a draft issue with it & should be looked into & fixed BUY the medium or large cause it does work very well & I am very happy so far with it!! 
Where are you reading the temps?
What are you reading the temps with?
As those real dried bio bricks will burn really hot.
Not much to these stoves , the baffle plates and insulated fireboxes heat up and the super heated secondary air injects at the top of the box.
Basically same design for all these stoves just better quality workmanship in some of the stoves and fancier trimmings.
Here is one Home Depot Review with some advice:
I purchased this stove a month ago & we are having the worst winter in southern OHIO in over 25 yrs & was 3 degrees last night & it kept my home at 74 degrees my furnace come on this am only once & after getting the stove up & going again it has not come on since!! My home is around a thousand square ft in size & a sectional home & sits in the corner of my living room & is a nice piece of American workmanship
! I cant get 8 hrs of burn time tho as stated but other than that I'm very pleased with it so far & would tell others to buy one. I purchased the small model & returned it due to issues with draft problems & was very hard to keep going if you don't have all seasoned wood as I don't!! This stove is a lot easier to start & does not kill the fire when you close the door as the smaller model did & you will save on wood due to how long it does burn on a load of wood in the fire box!! Do not block the air injection tube on the bottom middle front of stove cause it does burn a lot better if you don't "as stated in manual" I think if I had all seasoned wood small stove would of worked a lot better! But I do feel there is a draft issue with it & should be looked into & fixed BUY the medium or large cause it does work very well & I am very happy so far with it!! Is your baffle plates in the stove correctly? As One person report one time same stove and found the issue to be the baffle plates had slid out of place during shipping.
Where are you reading the temps?
What are you reading the temps with?
As those real dried bio bricks will burn really hot.
Not much to these stoves , the baffle plates and insulated fireboxes heat up and the super heated secondary air injects at the top of the box.
Basically same design for all these stoves just better quality workmanship in some of the stoves and fancier trimmings.
Here is one Home Depot Review with some advice:
I purchased this stove a month ago & we are having the worst winter in southern OHIO in over 25 yrs & was 3 degrees last night & it kept my home at 74 degrees my furnace come on this am only once & after getting the stove up & going again it has not come on since!! My home is around a thousand square ft in size & a sectional home & sits in the corner of my living room & is a nice piece of American workmanship
Reading temps 18 inches up on flue. Temps will stay at 150 175 for a good length of time only get it to 300 if door is cracked open an burning bio bricks. The bricks for baffle came in there own box just had to place them where diagram showed
When you say baffle plates are you referring to the bricks in the top of the next to flue collar?
Huntindog1
Minister of Fire
Temps on the stove pipe and different areas on the stove can give you different readings. Spring Thermometers can be not very accurate.
So the temp on the thermometer is a round about temp not a precise temp.
I would also get the temps from the stove top. So might be a good idea to get another thermometer.
What kind of flue are you hooked too as I once had an issue with trying to feed an over sized masonry flue with a 6" pipe which is what t he stove outlet was.
The fix was to put an adapter right on top of the stove outlet and run 8" pipe to the larger Masonry flue that had an 8 " thimble. The larger volume of air that started from the hottest part of the system, the top of the stove, provide a larger volume of heated air to feed the larger masonry flue.
Plus your first fire should be with smaller stuff and started with kindling to get a nice bed of coals. As these stoves work better on a nice hot bed of coals.
Also these stoves work better from full loads about 2 to 3 inches from the baffle plate where the secondary air comes in. The hot coals will get the new full load of wood off gassing faster and part of your new full load on the hot coals should be some kindling. As the Kindling will bring the temps in the box up really fast. See if you can shut the door and leave the input air wide open while the kindling which is very samll will burn very easily and will allow the stove door to be shut. Shutting the door will allow thew hat to build up in the stove with the hot coals to help also. When the stove top temps get to like 375 to 400 then start slowly turning down the input air in 1/4 ways increments as this will keep you from killing the fire. Plus as you close the input air the stove will have less air flushing heat up the flue so you can build heat inthe firebox allowing for the next lower 1/4 ways setting of the input air.
If your wood is not dry and seasoned this all will not work.
So the temp on the thermometer is a round about temp not a precise temp.
I would also get the temps from the stove top. So might be a good idea to get another thermometer.
What kind of flue are you hooked too as I once had an issue with trying to feed an over sized masonry flue with a 6" pipe which is what t he stove outlet was.
The fix was to put an adapter right on top of the stove outlet and run 8" pipe to the larger Masonry flue that had an 8 " thimble. The larger volume of air that started from the hottest part of the system, the top of the stove, provide a larger volume of heated air to feed the larger masonry flue.
Plus your first fire should be with smaller stuff and started with kindling to get a nice bed of coals. As these stoves work better on a nice hot bed of coals.
Also these stoves work better from full loads about 2 to 3 inches from the baffle plate where the secondary air comes in. The hot coals will get the new full load of wood off gassing faster and part of your new full load on the hot coals should be some kindling. As the Kindling will bring the temps in the box up really fast. See if you can shut the door and leave the input air wide open while the kindling which is very samll will burn very easily and will allow the stove door to be shut. Shutting the door will allow thew hat to build up in the stove with the hot coals to help also. When the stove top temps get to like 375 to 400 then start slowly turning down the input air in 1/4 ways increments as this will keep you from killing the fire. Plus as you close the input air the stove will have less air flushing heat up the flue so you can build heat inthe firebox allowing for the next lower 1/4 ways setting of the input air.
If your wood is not dry and seasoned this all will not work.
Huntindog1
Minister of Fire
Yeah, the inside of my stove is just a metal plate with some 1/4 holes running in a row. The air control on the bottom doesn't seem to change anything.
Huntindog1
Minister of Fire
It is also angled to the back of the stove then stops where the 2 baffle bricks sit (horizontal)
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