Sort of new, need some advice...

[chadlebo]

So, after the masonry chimney caught fire last year, I decided to upgrade from the Timberline something or other to a QuadraFire Isle Royale. Also had to have a stainless steel flue installed. Had to pay $1K deductible for the chimney, and about $3400 for the stove and install. Due to a shoulder injury, my firewood processing was limited to finding 'standing dead' oaks to cut and split about a month before the cold hit. Anyway, long story short, I was having trouble with the stove running away. Using a flue thermometer, I was getting surface temperatures of over 900 degrees (thermometer only went to 900, and it was buried). Judging by other threads on here, that's not an uncommon occurrence for this stove. I did all the checks (dollar bill test, incense test) and came up with nothing. Called my dealer, and they sent out a tech who did all the same tests. To his credit, he seemed to know what he was doing, and seemed very knowledgeable. We built a fire and of course since he was there, it burned like a dream. His explanations were as follows: 1) my wood was too dry. I had a moisture meter and was getting readings between 5-10%. He said I should be shooting for 16-22%, otherwise the stage in which the wood is normally offgassing, it's already burnt. Kind of makes sense. He said that two years is too long to season. Pretty much the "sweet spot" for oak is between 9 and 18 months. Also said 2) wood was split too small. Most splits were about 3-4" in diameter. He recommended loading splits between 4-6" in diameter. Again, seems to make sense, but this severely limits the amount of wood I can load into the firebox. However, I have noticed that three 6" splits seem to burn about the same amount of time as 5 or 6 four inch splits. He added that the 3) flue thermometers typically aren't known to be accurate. He said that he's seen them as much as 400 degrees off on a fairly regular basis. Not sure I buy this one, but maybe. Anyway, I guess my question is does this sound right? I've never heard of wood being too dry. I understand that anything will burn under the right conditions, but should a $3k stove be that finicky?

On the same path, how much heat should I be able to get out of this thing? This is the largest stove QuadraFire offers, and I was expecting quite a bit of heat output. The old smoke dragon I had down there was going through between 6-8 CF of wood a day and kept the house at about 70 degrees. I'm burning just about the same amount (maybe more towards the 6 CF end) and I've yet to get overheated. Now, the house isn't the best for heating. There are three distinct sections of house. The one on the far east side is three stories (basement, main floor, second floor) at 500 square feet each. The stove is in the basement. The middle section is one story 30x32 on an uninsulated crawlspace. The far west end is 12x24 on an uninsulated crawl. And the wall and roof insulation isn't very good. There are plans for a deep energy retrofit across the next few years, during which everything will be upgraded. My concern is that the old "bad" stove seemed to push out quite a bit more heat than the EPA "good" stove. I've read just about every thread I can find with the words "Isle Royale" and I've seen everything across the spectrum from some people that can't seem to get any heat from them and others who claim they run them out of the house. I get that all applications are different, but does anyone have any pointers that they might be able to share? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[matt1@]

First off let me say I don't have the isle royale but I have been burning for some time and if you're wood is too dry, I can swap you for some I just cut and split to help you out! Ha, just kidding. This year a friend of my parents gave me a stack of wood they had laying on their covered porch for around 7 years. They stopped using the fireplace because they had a pellet stove installed and I can say I absolutely love this wood. It lights right away and burns perfectly. I don't think too dry is a bad thing but it will burn very hot very quickly, like a Forrest fire during a drought, that's where your skills come into play. It takes practice but you may have to close your air down sooner with the dry wood you're burning. I notice the drier the wood, that's the only time I can shut my primary air all the way (with super dry wood) and the stove does the rest with the secondaries. Right after the load catches and starts burning well, then turn your air down in increments until all the way closed, that's when you'll start to get heat out of it.

 

[Woody Stover]

Did you re-split, and check with the meter in the middle of a fresh surface? There is no way that dead Oak is that dry, unless the tree had been standing dead for a decade or more (probably more.) That guy was right about one thing; Use bigger splits. That stove wants to run, and you need the bigger splits to control off-gassing. I have a sense that by the time you dried out the the small splits in the stove, and started getting a secondary burn, all of them were out-gassing at once and your stove went to the moon. Most of your heat went up the chimney earlier in the wet smoke, with no secondaries. Dry wood will give you secondaries almost immediately, then you get all that heat in the house. Since I run cat stoves, I may be full o' crap...feel free to let me know if this is the case.

 

[jeff_t]

How tall is the chimney? I'm guessing on the tall end with a basement install. From what I've read, the stove breathes really well, and overdrafting is a possibility. Is there a key damper in the pipe?

I, too, would be really surprised if standing dead oak was 5-10%. He's right, 16-20ish is ideal. He's wrong with 9-18 months to season oak. It can't season too long. Well, maybe in the desert.

My magnetic thermometer reads 100° higher than my IR over 500 or so. They aren't precision instruments.

 

[Huntindog1]

I dont think too dry wood is an issue but the way to burn these EPA stove is a little different.

If you load too small of pieces and alot of air can get in between the small pieces of very dry wood the thing can burn hot on you. Plus if you load on alot of very hot coals and your wood is really dry and you dont get the input air shut down earlier then it could be an issue.

Larger splits will help packed tighter on small amounts of coals.
Shut your air down earlier and dont let the stove heat too much.
I know on a insert thats hard to tell what the temps are as you only have the face of the stove measure off of.
You will need to reference what the temps are and pick a spot on the stove to always reference from the same place so
you can learn the stove. IF the stove is getting too hot before you start shutting the air back down all that built up heat is
going to cause you trouble as these fireboxes are insulated with firebrick and insulated baffles to hold that heat in. Your
wood is really dry and you just made the perfect storm. Then if your wood is sitting on really thick bed of hot coals that adds to the heat.
Let the coals burn down farther before reload and just have enough so you can rake your coals forward to the front of the box. So that only half
of your firebox bottom has coals the back half is empty of coals. Then load the wood in the back right on the bottom of the stove . You will be able to load more wood in the back since you are loading all the way to the bottom of the stove and have more head room for stacking it higher. This will make up for in the front where all the coals have been raked you have less room to load wood so it evens out in the end. You will have loaded about the same amount of wood.

Look at these pics:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/rake-coals-forward-and-stove-start-up-pictures.80659/#post-80659

Experiment getting the input air shut down sooner . Take note of this as its important. You can shut down the air before temps get all the way up in the box like with free standing stoves I start shutting the air down with a stove top temp of 350. But I only shut it down 1/4 ways then I wait 2 or 3 minutes and watch if the heat raises and how fast it rises maybe like one minute or two or 3 then close the air down another 1/4 ways now I am at half way and wait a little then close it down another 1/4 ways now I am only 1/4s open. The heat will build each time you close the input air as the air flow is reduced and less heat is flushing up your flue. If the fire dies too much then you shut things down a little too soon for the condition of your wood load. So by the time my stove top temp gets to 500 to 550 I am usually only 1/4 ways left open on my input air then I am feathering it down to the lowest level with out killing my secondaries.
My stove top temps like to cruise 600 to 650 depending on the load and conditions. But your insert dont have a stove top temp but you have to relate to a face of the stove temp maybe like in a corner above the door on the front. Using an IR gun.

 

[Woody Stover]

How tall is the chimney? I'm guessing on the tall end with a basement install. From what I've read, the stove breathes really well, and overdrafting is a possibility....My magnetic thermometer reads 100° higher than my IR over 500 or so. They aren't precision instruments.

Nice get on the chimney height. Can you just loosen the bolt on a surface meter and adjust the dial to where it needs to be?

 

[jeff_t]

Can you just loosen the bolt on a surface meter and adjust the dial to where it needs to be?

Dunno, never thought about it. I don't think so. It's spot on at 400. It's just for reference, anyway. The stove rarely gets over 600, unless I really try.

 

[chadlebo]

OK, so this sounds ridiculous even as I type it, but I've got a feeling I need to work on my burning "techniques". Honestly, I hadn't been doing much more than waiting until the fire burned down to coals and loading the next load on top. If the coals were really low, I'd open the air all the way until the charge was fully engulfed, then damp it back down to low air for longer burn times. To answer questions above, I haven't re split and re checked the moisture. The stuff I'm burning now was standing less than 20 days ago. I'm checking moisture on the cut ends and center of the split. The chimney is 26'. I don't have a key damper in the flue. Which reminds me this was actually something Billy (the tech) had mentioned as a possibility if I couldn't get it under control with better wood. Wanted to see if an alternative could be an outside air kit... wouldn't it basically do the same thing as a key damper? Slow the rate of air through the stove? Given that the basement is more or less open to the crawl with not much more than a bat of R13 between the two, I'm worried that the combustion is drawing in cold air from under the house. On a side note, what are the 'best burn practices' for the Isle Royale? The website and owners manual didn't offer much more than "open door, insert wood. Repeat as needed."

 

[matt1@]

Try this post for more info
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/quadra-fire-isle-royale-burn-time.75272/#post-952613

 

[Huntindog1]

OK, so this sounds ridiculous even as I type it, but I've got a feeling I need to work on my burning "techniques". Honestly, I hadn't been doing much more than waiting until the fire burned down to coals and loading the next load on top. If the coals were really low, I'd open the air all the way until the charge was fully engulfed, then damp it back down to low air for longer burn times. To answer questions above, I haven't re split and re checked the moisture. The stuff I'm burning now was standing less than 20 days ago. I'm checking moisture on the cut ends and center of the split. The chimney is 26'. I don't have a key damper in the flue. Which reminds me this was actually something Billy (the tech) had mentioned as a possibility if I couldn't get it under control with better wood. Wanted to see if an alternative could be an outside air kit... wouldn't it basically do the same thing as a key damper? Slow the rate of air through the stove? Given that the basement is more or less open to the crawl with not much more than a bat of R13 between the two, I'm worried that the combustion is drawing in cold air from under the house. On a side note, what are the 'best burn practices' for the Isle Royale? The website and owners manual didn't offer much more than "open door, insert wood. Repeat as needed."

Ok looks like you dont have an insert as I thought. So yes a key pipe damper would be a good thing.

 

[billb3]

I have 6 year old dead standing red oak
It measures from 7 to 12% on the ends and 15-21% when I split a piece and measure the inside.
It's not "too dry".
Varies with temperature of wood too.
My magnetic flue/stove thermometer reads about 75 degrees low vs the IR thermometer which reads pretty darn close to 212 with a pan of boiling water and room temp matching at wall thermometers and thermostats. Above that I'm assuming.
26 feet is a lot of suction.

 

[chadlebo]

So, I found as dead standing oak to split, getting between 12-16% on the meter. And I split most of them at about 6" across. Seems to have calmed down the the fire, but I'm still not getting quite the heat I expected off of this stove. Now it seems that I can't get the surface temp over 350 (according to the magnetic thermometer. I can't find an IR that measures over 400 at any of my local stores.) And I did notice that I'm not getting any secondaries until late in the burn, probably about two hours in. With the last stack of firewood (the old dry stuff) they were firing almost immediately. That being said, the stove was usually getting reloaded with a surface temp of almost 600 degrees, and I'm reloading now at almost half that temp. I tried getting the temps up faster by opening the air, but didn't get a lot of reaction to the air controls until about two hours in, once the charge was already fully engulfed. Really starting to get discouraged here... really hoping that I'm doing something wrong. Any suggestions?

 

[Huntindog1]

Leave your door cracked to get the wood buring good. Then shut it and have your air wide open. When you close the door when the wood is burning good on hot coals then you will notice an increase in your stove top temp. As your not flushing as much heat up your flue as when you had door cracked open. Then once the fire seems to have balanced out with the door shut then close the input air 1/4 ways to lower the input air and air flow thru the stove. You should see a little more stove top temp increase since now even less heat is flushing up the flue. You do this 1/4 ways shut down again and again in increments until you have got the input air to its lowest level and still have secondaries going. If you shut the input air down to quick you will loose good flames and secondaries so you have to learn your stove and your wood on how fast to shut it down in those 1/4 ways increments. But like I mentioned leave the door cracked open at first to get the wood burning good on your hot coal bed. I dont know your stove but your can most likely close the door at about 375 deg stove top temp. Then make your first input air adjustment when you get to 400 then make additional adjustments as you see the stove heat up even more. But if the stove is taking off on you quicker then shut the input air down quicker. Its a feel. By the time you get to 550 stove top your should be pretty much shut down to your over night burn low setting what ever you figure that out to be so you dont kill you secondaries.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B005K1N7F4/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

 

[chadlebo]

Thanks Dog! I'll give it a try. Also, thanks for the link. Ordered it last night. I've come to realize that if Amazon doesn't sell it, I probably don't need it. Someone else had suggested that in order to get the best burn, to not load a full charge of wood except when loading for over night. He recommended throwing in just one or two pieces (which would give me at most half a firebox full) during the day, and only loading it full for over night or extended burns. He claims this keeps it a small, albeit hotter fire, which keeps the stove temps in the "comfort range". He's using a somewhat modified old box stove, but the logic seems legit.

 

[northwinds]

Sounds like you're experiencing normal ups and downs of learning your new Isle Royale. Having said that, this is not a difficult stove to run when you figure out your wood and burn cycles. Burying your thermometer above 900 is not recommended and means something went very wrong.

I run the Isle Royale on 3 cycles per day in the middle of the winter--each load is 3/4 to full with larger sized splits of oak or hickory that has been seasoning for three plus years.
,
Reloading procedure. Temps under 400 and often 200, Door closed, Start-up air closed, primary air open. Rake coals to the front of the stove to create a single line. Load wood. Close door. Let fire burn to 500 or 550 (temp taken on my stove is center-left on griddle). This usually takes 15-30 minutes depending on reload temp. Close primary air to 25% open. Temp will rise to 600-650. Close air to 5-10% open. Temp stabilizes at 600-650.

Every setup is different because every installation/chiimney/wood supply is different. Many users of this stove can close the air all the way or utilize a key damper if they have strong draft.

The only thing I do different with a cold stove is that I use the start-up air for the first 5-10 minutes.

Your wood may take longer to reach temps if it isn't seasoned enough. You need to be watchful if that's the case because once the moisture is driven off it will take off on you quickly. Shorter burn times will occur because the fire has been using energy driving off the moisture instead of heating your home.

Yes, modern wood stoves are much more finicky than the old ones when it comes to wood. But in the end, you should end up using a lot less wood and still heat your home. I heat 2300 square feet with my Isle Royale when temps are zero or above.

 

[chadlebo]

Thanks everyone for the input! I've been burning a mix of very seasoned oak with some stuff that is ranging between 20-30% moisture. I assume I may be expecting too much by thinking I'm going to be able to "cheat" ideal performance without having ideal fuel. I am getting better burn times and temps than I was, but still no where near what I was expecting when I purchased the stove, although I'm a lot more optimistic about getting peak performance if I can get some good seasoned fuel. One thing that does have me concerned is that I'm not getting sustained secondary burns. When I reload, I usually keep my primary air wide open and secondary tube damper open until the temp hits 500-600 (which I'm able to measure with my new IR thermometer from Amazon, thanks again, Dog!) and then I'll close up the tube damper and close down the air until the secondaries start shooting out the tubes, usually about 75%. I'll come back in 15-30 minutes and if the temp is still rising, I'll pull it down to 50%, and down to 25% if it's still rising 30 minutes later. What concerns me is that anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour after I "stabilize" the temp, the secondaries will go out. Temp stays fairly stable, dropping steadily (sometimes quickly, sometimes it takes 4-6 hours to get below 300) but I rarely see any secondary burn after the first hour or two of burning. Is this something that will change when I'm able to get some decent fuel? Or am I still not getting the air right? Again, I understand and accept that I may be expecting too much out of my hodgepodge of fuel (firewood, if you can find it, is up to $200 a cord in VA), but if there is any way to maximize performance that I'm not already doing, all ears are open. Thanks again!

 

[brad wilton]

you might be waiting a bit to long to turn your air down by increments turn it down once your fire has stabilized turn it down again shouldn't take that long you might be wasting heat up flue

 

[northwinds]

The Isle Royale has two air controls: the start-up air, which is the push/pull knob on the far right side, and the primary air, which is the slide under the middle of the stove. On a reload, start-up air remains closed and adjustments are being made with the primary air only.

Secondary burn occurs mainly in the first part of the burn cycle when the wood is degassing/smoke releasing, and reburn is occurring through the tubes.
After the volatile gases/smoke has burned off, secondary burn stops, and the remainder of the cycle is the release of heat through the glowing red goals.
During that process your temps will drop off.

I loaded up a bunch of odds and ends a couple of hours ago, and secondary burn is limited to one tube in the back of the stove. Stove temp is stable
at 550. Primary air is closed at 95%. It will slowly drift down over the course of 6 hours, and I will reload to a temp of about 200 on a small bed of remaining coals.

That's the nature of secondary burn stoves. Lots of heat in the beginning. A lot less heat at the end. Better wood will give you more of the heat in
the beginning going into your home and less going up the chimney and used to burn off moisture. During the first year or two, almost everyone struggles a
bit until the firewood is optimal.

 

[chadlebo]

Aaahhh! What am I doing wrong? I went ahead a bought a load of seasoned firewood thinking with "good wood" I could figure this thing out. I haven't. The load I got is all oak and locust, mostly measuring between 10-20% moisture, cut at 18", split to 4-6". When I start in the mornings (bout 4:30), the surface temp of the stove is down to less than 200, sometimes as low as 100. There are usually enough coals left that if I throw on some smaller splits and leave the air fully open with the secondary damper open, I'll have it up to 300-400 in about 20 minutes. If it's a work day, I'll load it about 75% full, leave the air almost fully open,close the damper and leave for work. My wife usually gets down to check it around 7:30, and it's rarely above 500, but still has a good bed of coals and maybe a few chunks of fuel left. From this point, she normally struggles the rest of the day to keep the temps above 500, although I don't think that's entirely the stove's fault. I gave her (another) tutorial yesterday on the air controls work, and when she should adjust them. On days I'm home, I follow the same basic routine, but I leave the air open and damper up until it gets to at least 500. Then I load it about half to 3/4 full, and set the air to 75%. 20-30 minutes later, I'll check it and if the temp is over 600, I'll damp the air down to 50%, so on and so forth. My aim is between 500-600 surface temp, which, as long as I'm down there every hour or two, I can maintain that. My concern is 1) I'm burning the same amount of wood as I was last year on the old smoke dragon and 2) seeing less heat. That is extremely discouraging considering I've got over $4000 invested in this set up, and I sold the old one for $200. Not to mention, on the old box, I used to load it full every morning, turn the dampers open 2 turns, and nobody looked at it again until lunchtime, when my wife would usually reload it full, close it back up, and it wouldn't get looked at again until I got home from work. And we were WARM! Now, I've feel like half my day is spent babysitting the stove, with no visible gains. I've done a lot of watching, and noticed that very rarely do I get more than one secondary (actually, tertiary according to Quadrafire) burn tube burning at one time. The only time I've ever been able to get more than two burning is about 20 minutes after a reload, when the new fuel is fully engulfed, if I throw the air way down to about 5-10%, the secondaries will really kick in. Normally, though, leaving the air closed that much chokes the fire down so much that the temps drop down to about 300, and the secondaries will stop. Other than that, the most I ever see burning is one. Also did some chimney watching as well. During start up, getting a lot of heat and some smoke coming out, which I assume is typical. What worries me is that when I hit my operating temp, the chimney is still blasting heat. It looks like the backwash of a jet engine coming out the top of my house. Granted, no smoke, no ash, but a steady blast of heat. I WANTED THAT IN MY @#$&%! HOUSE Is that where all my heat is going? Because I'm getting no where near 72000 BTU's inside the house. How do I get it back? I assumed since my surface temps had gotten back down where they belonged, I'd figured out the proper burn cycle, but apparently that's not the case. I started checking my flue temps, and noticed that they normally match the stove temp about 6" from the stove, and drop about 150% as I travel up the pipe to the elbow out of the house (about 3 feet). Is that normal? Here are some pictures. First one is just the set up in the basement. (I know, the wood cart is too close to the stove. That's some not so seasoned stuff I'm trying to dry. My regular supply comes from a wheelbarrow out of frame). Second pic is after my morning start up. I'm at 533 degrees, so, loaded half full, closed primary air down to about 50% and flipped the baffle down. I don't know if I've got a camera that will pick up the heat blast out of the chimney, but I'll try.

 

[Grisu]

leave the air almost fully open,close the damper and leave for work.

The only time I've ever been able to get more than two burning is about 20 minutes after a reload, when the new fuel is fully engulfed, if I throw the air way down to about 5-10%, the secondaries will really kick in. Normally, though, leaving the air closed that much chokes the fire down so much that the temps drop down to about 300, and the secondaries will stop.

When you leave the air fully open you are operating your stove like a fireplace, sending most of the heat up the chimney. You will need to close the air in order to switch the stove to the more efficient secondary burn (or tertiary if you want to go with QF's definition). Then the stove will maintain its temperature while slowly over the next hours chewing through the wood. If you snuff out the fire when lowering the air it means your wood is not dry enough or you have insufficient draft. Do you have a masonry chimney with a full liner? How tall?

 

[jeff_t]

Buying 10-20% wood is almost a miracle. Did you resplit and check on the freshly split face? And while I've never burned any, folks here say locust is hard to get burning on its own. Better to get some less dense wood in the mix with it.

With adequate draft and truly dry wood, you should be able to run the air almost to fully closed, and have good secondary combustion.

 

[chadlebo]

Grisu, that's exactly my concern, that I'm producing the heat, but blowing it out the chimney. The chimney is 6" stainless steel flex pipe surrounded by about an inch thick blanket that looked like fiberglass, but I assume was some something more heat resistant. Then surrounded by the existing masonry chimney. From the floor to the top is just about 29', minus about three feet for the stove, so, about 26' from the back of the stove to the top of the chimney. About three feet of pipe out the back of the stove to the elbow, which connects to the SS liner. I've never had a problem with draft. If anything, I've got too much (see beginning of this thread). I've tried damping down the air, but it always seems to choke out the fire. At the advice of Northwinds, I even tried taking the air down in 10-25% increments so as not to "shock" the fire into smoldering, but by the time I get down to what should be a stable burn (10-25% open), I've burned through most of my wood and need to reload. I'd considered a key damper about a foot above the stove to slow down the draft, but I can't really find anything published that says this is a good or bad idea. I also considered installing an outside air kit and putting the key damper before the stove. Figured this could benefit twofold, slow down the draft, and keep the combustion air from drawing in the cold outside air in our leaky old house. My concern, isn't that what the primary air control is for? Shouldn't that take care of "overdraft?" Any thoughts?

While I'm thinking about it, other IR owners, are you only supposed to open the baffle when loading from the top? While convenient for quick top offs, I've found that trying to do an overnight load from the top usually doesn't work too well. The baffle gets in the way of getting wood to the back of the box. Same if I load from the front. I can't get a good size piece of wood past the baffle without flipping it down. Is it OK to do a front load without flipping the baffle open? So far, I've not had any real problem with smoke spillage... I guess it's one of those "whatever works" situations, but I was curious what everyone else did.

I'm starting to think my moisture meter might be junk. Everyone says that the readings I'm getting are almost impossible. And just for curiosity's sake, I stuck it in some stuff that I cut and split back over Christmas leave. Read 30%. This was stuff that had green leaves on it in October, I cut and split in December. I know sap stops running in early fall, but would it be dry to the tune of 30% already? I burned some of it a few weeks back, and got a lot of hissing and popping, and it finally smoldered out once the seasoned stuff burned off. More or less what I expected. This was a $20 meter I picked up at the local big box. Only one I could find without going online. According to the built in calibrator, it's good. But... I don't know if I ever knew a piece of equipment to tell me when it was wrong. Anyone recommend a more reliable one? For a budget minded individual....

 

[northwinds]

I never open the baffle when loading from the front. I don't top load, so I haven't opened the baffle in years. You are right. It's much easier to fully load the stove from the front without opening the baffle.

You aren't going to get 600 degree temps for eight hours. You should be able to get 500-650 degree temps for several hours on a full load and then it will start dropping off.

It might help if you took some pics of what the inside of your firebox looks like 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes into a burn, along with the corresponding temps. Just a pic of your setup of your stove would be nice too.

 

[northwinds]

On turning down the stove in increments, you shouldn't have to wait a long time to get it down to 10% open. I'll reload my stove at 6 a.m., and I'm done messing with it by 6:45 a.m. I don't touch it again until 3:30 p.m. after I've picked up the kids from school. It definitely takes some practice, and most people burn more wood during their first year learning on a stove than they will in subsequent years.

 

[Grisu]

And just for curiosity's sake, I stuck it in some stuff that I cut and split back over Christmas leave. Read 30%.

Ok, that sounds wrong. But before trashing the meter let's make sure you do your measurements correctly. Take a few splits inside and let them get to room temp. Split them in half and press the pins in the center of the freshly exposed surface. What reading(s) do you get in that case?

At the advice of Northwinds, I even tried taking the air down in 10-25% increments so as not to "shock" the fire into smoldering, but by the time I get down to what should be a stable burn (10-25% open), I've burned through most of my wood and need to reload.

Liner and chimney length sounds ok. Taking the air down in stages is good advice but is should never take that long that you burn through 3 cu ft of wood. Right now let's first make sure your wood is ok, then you can think about adding a key damper.