Tips for First Inaugural burn in Insert

[Elisurfer4]

Howdy Folks,

I have my Century CW2900 being delivered today (finally!). The chimney guys are going to show up either today or tomorrow to hook it up to the existing SS liner in my chimney.

In short, does anyone have any great tips for the first burn?? I have heard this is a gnarly activity and to expect lots of stink and smoke... How can I minimize this? Would it be crazy to do a small burn in the stove outdoors before the chimney guys get here to load it in?

Let me know any awesome tricks you guys have for breaking in an insert in the least smokey and nasty way possible.

Cheers

 

[yooper08]

Congrats and hope the install goes well.

I have the same insert as you. You could do a burn outside if you wanted, you may need some chimney to attach to the flue collar to produce good enough draft though. At least with my insert, the smell wasn't that bad but I did keep the room pretty well ventilated. Read the manual's section on first burns but essentially just build a quick hot fire as the first one. That will drive moisture out from the unit and start the curing process. The next burn can be bigger and hotter yet, and then just keep building up from there. You should really only need two or three burns, but they have to get progressively hotter.