Successful burning??

[mattjm1017]

Am I doing this right my wife lit a fire around 12noon yesterday in our new Fireview when I got home at 6 it was going good dying a little but not bad around 830-9 I loaded it up full engaged the cat and set the air to 1 and went to bed. When I got up at 430 there were coals and two small chunks of logs that hadnt quite burned up all the way. I raked all the coals to the front and loaded it up again it got going pretty good again I engaged the cat and set the air to 1 went to work. My wife called me at 9 and said the temp was dropping and there was pretty much nothing left in the stove I had her reload and set the air at 1 1/2 I just got home and its pretty much burned down to coals again and the temp has dropped to 300* Im going to reload again but what am I doing wrong Ive read about everybody not having to reload again until after 10-12 hrs Im having to do it at 5hrs. Could it be because my wood isnt seasoned or am I doing something else wrong? My wood is a mixture of oak,maple,hickory and some other stuff its all reading on the MM at around 20-35%.

 

[ohlongarm]

Am I doing this right my wife lit a fire around 12noon yesterday in our new Fireview when I got home at 6 it was going good dying a little but not bad around 830-9 I loaded it up full engaged the cat and set the air to 1 and went to bed. When I got up at 430 there were coals and two small chunks of logs that hadnt quite burned up all the way. I raked all the coals to the front and loaded it up again it got going pretty good again I engaged the cat and set the air to 1 went to work. My wife called me at 9 and said the temp was dropping and there was pretty much nothing left in the stove I had her reload and set the air at 1 1/2 I just got home and its pretty much burned down to coals again and the temp has dropped to 300* Im going to reload again but what am I doing wrong Ive read about everybody not having to reload again until after 10-12 hrs Im having to do it at 5hrs. Could it be because my wood isnt seasoned or am I doing something else wrong? My wood is a mixture of oak,maple,hickory and some other stuff its all reading on the MM at around 20-35%.

Dry wood is an absolute must to extract maximum efficiency and longest burn times in any stove,especially a cat stove,moisture content of 35% will detract from any type of stove performing to its maximum potential.If I were you I'd shoot for below 20% in the wood I was to burn in any given season,ideally16 to 18% you'd be amazed at what a stove can do when you get to burning wood that is in the teens.

 

[mattjm1017]

Dry wood is an absolute must to extract maximum efficiency and longest burn times in any stove,especially a cat stove,moisture content of 35% will detract from any type of stove performing to its maximum potential.If I were you I'd shoot for below 20% in the wood I was to burn in any given season,ideally16 to 18% you'd be amazed at what a stove can do when you get to burning wood that is in the teens.

Thats what I was thinking unfortunatly I dont have the luxury of well seasoned wood this year. I guess Ill have to struggle through with it this season and hopefully by next year Ill have some seasoned wood.

 

[rijim]

Don't own a Fireview but those burn times seem low for a CAT stove, as I see it, wet wood should slow it down not speed the burn up. Someone with a Woodstock will hopefully comment but do you know what your stovetop and flue temps are. I have coals in my Castine after a 9:00pm reload and check it a 5:00am you should be getting much better with it dialed down and the CAT engaged. Woodstock is known for their customer support if no one chimes in give them a call.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Matt, you wood definitely is not good but it also sounds like there is some other problem. Right now I'm puzzled. I am especially puzzled because of the full loads because we still have not burned a full load yet this year. It simply has not been cold enough outdoors to need it.

I will say with that wood you definitely need to give the stove extra time before engaging the cat. The reason is moisture and moisture is the enemy of the catalyst. So do give it extra time before engaging.

Just as a reminder, after reloading, the manual suggests 10-15 minutes before engaging the cat. You need more time. Not sure if you have a thermometer on the flue pipe but if not I'd suggest you get one. Assuming single wall pipe, we like to get a reading of 400 degrees or higher on the flue before engaging. We've gone as high as 500 but it is more normal from 400-450. Of course 250 stove top temperature before engaging. Also I like the wood to be charred before engaging.

But when you do engage the cat, I'd suggest you try setting the draft at about 1.5 and wait another 5-10 minutes before turning it down further. Then you need to look at the fire. What does the fire look like with the setting of 1? Not right away but give it 2-3 minutes and then how does it look? Hopefully you have some flame but not a lot. I'm thinking perhaps that you very well may need a setting below 1. There are several of us that need this setting and our normal is about .75 on the draft. We can get a good overnight burn using 3 or 4 splits and our splits are not large. There will be enough coals in the morning to restart the stove and the temperature when we get up is usually around 250 stove top.

 

[mattjm1017]

Matt, you wood definitely is not good but it also sounds like there is some other problem. Right now I'm puzzled. I am especially puzzled because of the full loads because we still have not burned a full load yet this year. It simply has not been cold enough outdoors to need it.

I will say with that wood you definitely need to give the stove extra time before engaging the cat. The reason is moisture and moisture is the enemy of the catalyst. So do give it extra time before engaging.

Just as a reminder, after reloading, the manual suggests 10-15 minutes before engaging the cat. You need more time. Not sure if you have a thermometer on the flue pipe but if not I'd suggest you get one. Assuming single wall pipe, we like to get a reading of 400 degrees or higher on the flue before engaging. We've gone as high as 500 but it is more normal from 400-450. Of course 250 stove top temperature before engaging. Also I like the wood to be charred before engaging.

But when you do engage the cat, I'd suggest you try setting the draft at about 1.5 and wait another 5-10 minutes before turning it down further. Then you need to look at the fire. What does the fire look like with the setting of 1? Not right away but give it 2-3 minutes and then how does it look? Hopefully you have some flame but not a lot. I'm thinking perhaps that you very well may need a setting below 1. There are several of us that need this setting and our normal is about .75 on the draft. We can get a good overnight burn using 3 or 4 splits and our splits are not large. There will be enough coals in the morning to restart the stove and the temperature when we get up is usually around 250 stove top.

I dont have a thermometer on the flue any suggestions on a good one to get? I have a stainless liner going all the way to the top of the chimney.

I am waiting until the stove top is at 250-300 before engaging the cat and the wood is pretty much all charred Ill wait a little longer tonight and bring the air down slower also will try leaving the air at .75. Another thing I thought of its been pretty windy here for the last couple days would that have anything to do with it? I did the match test and it was good and when I open the door there is little to no smoke coming out. When I turn down the draft the fire goes down significantly but not out there are still some small lazy flames in there dancing about. This is very confusing to me cause I was thinking that I would struggle with getting and keeping the fire going not burning through the wood this fast. Like I said this morning I was pretty happy to find the stove still warm and have enough coals in it to keep it going but then I got concerned when I found out that the wood had all burned up within 6hrs. I left a 5am got home at 11am to find a nice bed of coals I left that until about 430pm today and just reloaded the stove is full air is at 1.5 and Im engaging the cat now. Ill drop the air down to .75 in a couple minutes and see what happens.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I too would be concerned burning that much wood! I do suggest you contact Woodstock but one thing you might check on too is the draft control. Do you have a heat shield on the back of the stove? If so you'll have to remove it. Then looking at the back of the stove you will be able to see the control rod for the draft control. You will also see a hole where the draft slider is. It is possible that this slider may have jumped off the track during shipping as this has happened before but not to many. Make certain that the slider is working and you'll be able to tell just by watching it and even feeling something perhaps binding when moving the draft control.

On the thermometer, get another one from Woodstock. They are the best ones we've found and ours is still going and we are into our 5th heating season now with them.

Funny that just now I went to the stove because it is getting a bit too warm in here. Wife had the draft setting at 1.25 and 3 splits in the stove. Stove top is at 540 and flue at 370. Outside temperature is high though around 40 right now. Where's winter?

 

[fox9988]

This is my first year with a Keystone, so take this for what it's worth.....
So far very impressed with the stove and the burn times. I'm burning red oak that is ~23% moisture content. To help counter the moisture, I'm burning in bypass mode for 30 min on a reload. There is such a lag on stove top temps through the soapstone (and being directly above an inactive cat), I use a flue pipe thermometer regulate burn during this phase (as Dennis suggests). Using the stove top thermometer I can incinerate half a load of wood taking the stove top from 200 up to 250, due to the lag. I regulate the single wall pipe temp to ~375 to get a good drying char on the wood, without sending half a load of btu's up the chimney. I also often do overnight/workday burns with the air set on 0. Dennis reports high stove top temps burning on 0, but I see ~400 and stable temps with full loads. It would be best to experiment during the day on a weekend if you what to try a 0 burn. You will get it figured out

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Fox, one thing you might notice is when burning in bypass mode, it can take a long time to heat up. However, if you turn that draft down once the fire gets going the stove will heat up much faster. It usually does not take long before we turn the draft down to 2 or sometimes lower. When we do that the stove top heats much faster and you don't send all that heat up the chimney.

Not necessarily always a super hot stove top with zero draft but I still do not recommend it. With ours, when trying to run the stove lower than .75 (sometimes we are okay with .5), we will get backpuff. However, after that backpuff the stove will really rage then! Looks like the pits of Hell in there. lol

 

[fox9988]

Dennis, as suggested I start the air at 3-4 on reload, then back it down to about 1.5 during the bypass phase to maintain pipe temps at ~375. The Keystone may have more stove top lag due to cat/thermometer placement (maybe Todd will chime in on this).