Stove working harder in the cold, or something else?

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mywaynow

Minister of Fire
Dec 13, 2010
1,369
Northeast
Just about when the cold got colder this month, I noted that the stove was not making the cut keeping the house warm. Our temps at night were single digit with high winds, and daytime highs were in the low 20s. I just could not get the stove to run at it's normal temps. Looked closely at the air flow and found that the main air tube was covered 90% in ash. Cleaned it out, and poof! hot stove again. The only thing I have had to change is the log sizes. The colder temps need smaller, hotter burning logs to keep up. Learnin' everyday.
 
I do the same thing with the smaller splits but mix in a couple 8x8 splits.
 
Mine burns hotter when its colder out.. much better draft. The stove is like a second wife, except it knows my wants and needs and takes care of them ;-P
 
mywaynow said:
Just about when the cold got colder this month, I noted that the stove was not making the cut keeping the house warm. Our temps at night were single digit with high winds, and daytime highs were in the low 20s. I just could not get the stove to run at it's normal temps. Looked closely at the air flow and found that the main air tube was covered 90% in ash. Cleaned it out, and poof! hot stove again. The only thing I have had to change is the log sizes. The colder temps need smaller, hotter burning logs to keep up. Learnin' everyday.

Ya, I'm still learning too.
 
Battenkiller said:
Backwoods Savage said:
Ya, I'm still learning too.

Another 50 years at it and you'll probably be there. :)

So, 100 years divided by three... Oh right, only 33.3 more years until I got this!
 
logger said:
Mine burns hotter when its colder out.. much better draft. The stove is like a second wife, except it knows my wants and needs and takes care of them ;-P

Unfortunatley, sometimes she can nag a lot worse than my wife! I agree with you, stove tends to burn hotter when it is cold because of draft.
 
Remkel said:
logger said:
Mine burns hotter when its colder out.. much better draft. The stove is like a second wife, except it knows my wants and needs and takes care of them ;-P

Unfortunatley, sometimes she can nag a lot worse than my wife! I agree with you, stove tends to burn hotter when it is cold because of draft.

Yep. A few times a year when it is extremely cold and / or windy I need to use the flue damper a bit to help control the draft.

pen
 
Well a few times every year my wife also gets sort of windy and I have to use a damper too.
 
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