Question or two on the over fire post

[crater22]

Read that thread with great interest as I am actually afraid to burn all night or away from home. This will be my second year burning. I have a few questions regarding the answers to the question.

Does the chance of a chimney fire lessen when you have a stainless steel liner.

What is an ideal temp. with a IR thermometer reading at the front of the insert?

How does packing the insert tight, help from getting an overfire?

Sorry for the stupid questions, but like I said I am new.

One more question. I have heard about reloading on hot coals when the temp reaches a certain point. What is that temp on a insert with a cat and where should the temp be taken? From a IR therm or from the cat probe.?

Many thanks in advance

 

[jharkin]

Best way to get comfortable with burning overnight is to load it full to the gills in the morning of a cold day you are planning to be home so you can watch how it reacts through a full cycle. Do that a few times to get comfortable with its reaction to a variety of loads and weather and you will build up the comfort.

If its a catalytic insert and you have the probe use probe temp. Once probe temp drops below 800F the active part of the cycle is basically over and you are into coaling. At that point you can safely reload. Now depending on the situation you might want to wait a bit if there are a lot of coals to burn down or the room is too hot. Sometimes if the coal bed is deep you can even open up the air control and stretch a couple more hours of heat out of it before reloading - all depends on what kind of wood you are burning, weather, etc.


As to your question about ideal temps - I would consult the manual. I am not an expert on inserts.

 

[bholler]

Does the chance of a chimney fire lessen when you have a stainless steel liner.

Not really but if you do have one as long as that liner is properly installed and insulated the chances of the fire spreading to the structure is much lower. Another benifit is they are easier to clean and draft better which means there should be less fuel for a fire.

The rest of your questions really will vary greatly depending on the stove so like jharkin said go by the manual

 

[crater22]

Many thanks for the advice. I keep getting confused on instructions for operating a cat vs non-cat. Kind of would like to see a separate forum for just cat stoves....Look like I need to read up on the different types of stoves out on the market.

again, thanks.