The first stove lighting of the year..

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Seanbear

Member
Dec 27, 2021
105
Central PA
Im on my 3rd fire with a new stove pipe setup. Working great. was 59 in my house the other day, and I got it back up to 74 in about an hour and a half. I didnt have a clean out on my last set of pipe,, Im a newbie, but I have one now. Now its time to buy a cleaning kit. I just have a US Stove company wood burner. Heats my whole old house up great. My house was built in 1886!
 

marty319

Minister of Fire
Nov 17, 2014
635
Belair mb
Close to frost again this morning so another burn.

marty stove.jpg
 

stoveliker

Minister of Fire
Nov 17, 2019
7,261
Long Island NY
Me too. But the sun is making it 75 inside today...
 

mattie5960

New Member
Mar 28, 2022
46
PA, USA
I've had a few small fires going over the last couple of weeks. I didn't get my stove until mid-March this year, and it's my first wood stove, so I'm really looking forward to the heart of winter this year to see what she can do.

Many of you helped me diagnose my over firing issue late last season (about 6 months ago). Recently, I've managed to keep the stove top cool enough by engaging the oven as a regular practice, but the fact that the manual recommends against this has been eating at me. This year's fires have been small so far, so I've been able to keep the oven side disengaged while regulating stove top heat with great success.

Just today, for the first time I tried raking the coals from my tinder fire to the front of the box and loading 5 medium-ish splits in North-South orientation. Every fire I've built before today has been in a tic-tac-toe type pattern, where one layer goes N-S, and the next E-W, repeating the pattern until I've got enough wood, or the box is full. Obviously this gives the wood a lot of breathing room, and everything tends to ignite at once. I could never keep the stove top cool with this loading method before, unless I engaged the oven, allowing the air to circulate through the entire stove.

So anyway, today I had a load of such size that it definitely would have over fired the stove had it been arranged in the NS/EW pattern I normally use, but the stove was easily regulated (without engaging the oven) when the coals were raked to the front, and all logs were tightly oriented NS.

It's going to be mid-30s tomorrow night, and I'm very excited to try this new strategy with a large load of wood to see how it goes.
 
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stoveliker

Minister of Fire
Nov 17, 2019
7,261
Long Island NY
I've had a few small fires going over the last couple of weeks. I didn't get my stove until mid-March this year, and it's my first wood stove, so I'm really looking forward to the heart of winter this year to see what she can do.

Many of you helped me diagnose my over firing issue late last season (about 6 months ago). Recently, I've managed to keep the stove top cool enough by engaging the oven as a regular practice, but the fact that the manual recommends against this has been eating at me. This year's fires have been small so far, so I've been able to keep the oven side disengaged while regulating stove top heat with great success.

Just today, for the first time I tried raking the coals from my tinder fire to the front of the box and loading 5 medium-ish splits in North-South orientation. Every fire I've built before today has been in a tic-tac-toe type pattern, where one layer goes N-S, and the next E-W, repeating the pattern until I've got enough wood, or the box is full. Obviously this gives the wood a lot of breathing room, and everything tends to ignite at once. I could never keep the stove top cool with this loading method before, unless I engaged the oven, allowing the air to circulate through the entire stove.

So anyway, today I had a load of such size that it definitely would have over fired the stove had it been arranged in the NS/EW pattern I normally use, but the stove was easily regulated (without engaging the oven) when the coals were raked to the front, and all logs were tightly oriented NS.

It's going to be mid-30s tomorrow night, and I'm very excited to try this new strategy with a large load of wood to see how it goes.
Maybe your signature line needs to be changed :)
Seems you are getting the hang of what you are doing!
 

NewGuy132

Burning Hunk
Jan 22, 2021
234
Central MA
I might possibly fire the stove up tonight or tomorrow morning. Work from home tomorrow, so I might need it to take the chill out first thing.
 

begreen

Mooderator
Staff member
Nov 18, 2005
102,540
South Puget Sound, WA
Not yet. Looks like we are going to start October with near 80º temps.
 

Deppizzymo

Member
Feb 28, 2022
55
Missouri
I have done three fires in our brand new Lopi Liberty. This is my first year on wood. Night #1 it was going to be 38 for a low so I lit the stove before bed... bad idea! Got way too hot but it was so fun to use for the first time we didn't mind. Two nights ago it was 40 for a low. I decided to see how cold the house would get... got down to 68 when I woke up so it was perfect. Lit a small fire and brought it back up to 75 for the wife and kids when they woke up. This morning it was 69 after a low of 40 last night. I did the same thing except a slightly smaller fire. It was 73 when my wife got up and the fire was just about done so she threw more on (we normally keep the house at 72)! She is liking it just about as much as I am. We will all be spoiled by wood heat very soon. 309019634_489409222846973_8862985929409555257_n.jpg
 

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gzecc

Minister of Fire
Sep 24, 2008
5,118
NNJ
Lit a fire in the buck 27000 after a cleaning to verify its working. Its not. Ordered a temperature sensor from Servicesales.com. Hope its here before we need it.
 

Dakotas Dad

Minister of Fire
Mar 19, 2009
1,513
Central Kentucky
Be another month or so here, but I may be able to sneak in a couple of small "drying" fires at some point between now and then..
 

Boxer

Member
Aug 30, 2009
72
SE Ohio
Lit mine last night. I worked outside in the rain all day and the house was damp when I came in. We usually never have a fire until at least the end of October. Next week shows cold so it’s looking like an early start this year.
 
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PaulOinMA

Minister of Fire
Oct 20, 2018
1,525
MA
Hoping it will be in a few weeks. Still haven't cleaned the liner. Will do this week. Just moved wood into the hoop in the garage. Have a trash can full of kindling in the garage from last year. Will do 2 or 3 more. Will do some this week.

My first fire here metrowest Boston averages October 25. Earliest September 30. Latest November 24.
 
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Caw

Minister of Fire
May 26, 2020
1,782
Massachusetts
Hoping it will be in a few weeks. Still haven't cleaned the liner. Will do this week. Just moved wood into the hoop in the garage. Have a trash can full of kindling in the garage from last year. Will do 2 or 3 more. Will do some this week.

My first fire here metrowest Boston averages October 25. Earliest September 30. Latest November 24.
Mid to late October is about right for us too, same location. We've had 2 fires so far. First one shouldn't count that was just curing the new paint. We had one the other day for fun, we're years ahead on wood so why not, everyone enjoyed it. I'm typically riding my heat pump/solar until it gets below 40...but...if the wife wants fire there will be fire ;).
 
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