I have only been burning for a month now. Before that I have little experience other than my grams oil/wood furnace and cousins fire place. Don't think you can count open pit burning...
I bought a US Stove 1,100 to heat my 600 square foot home as a way to subsidize the electric baseboard heat. http://www.lowes.com/pd_154309-850-APS1100B_0__?productId=3271167&cm_mmc=SCE_PLA-_-HeatingCooling-_-WoodFireplacesStoves-_-3271167&CAWELAID=1072248704&kpid=3271167&"cagpspn=pla"
It was the smallest stove I could find but it seems to be way more than enough. On average like a weekend I'm using 6-8 splts a day to heat the house.
From what I have been reading I'm doing everything wrong but if I burn hot and get the magnetic thermostat to the 'burn zone' I have to open the windows. That seems like such a terrible waste of fuel. I'm burning silver maple I cut down and split in the summer of 2011. It was for my brother but he hurt his back and did not feel up to lugging wood.
The stove is tiny. I can fit 2 splits in the box, no more unless they are small splits. The draft is excellent. I can open the door at any time and there is not smoke or back draft... I actually have to let some of the embers fall out and sit on the shelf to get that woodsy fireplace smell. Smoke detector in kitchen is 6' away and it doesn't go off. When it has it is because the split was 1" or so too long. Brother uses 18" and the max I can fit in there is ~16"... so some of the splits I cut in half to ~8" or so chunks for north/south loading.
On cold starts it lights right up, a couple of crumpled 8"x11" pieces of paper and a couple smaller/thinner maple splits. When it's going strong I'll add a split or two.
Those two splits will burn for ~2 hours and the embers another 2-3 hours keeping the stove top at 400*. The embers will sustain about 300* for another 2 hours. Make the tunnel of love with the ashes and put another split in there and so on. No real room for a rack so the ashes are the rack so air gets under the splits.
So about the only time I have been getting the black iron pipe 2' above the stove in the 'burn zone' is the mornings when the house is ~60*. After that is is just unbearable to be in the house if I try to sustain the burn zone. So 90% of the time the thermostat reads 200* 2' on the stove pipe. That is aside from the 30 minutes during a hot/cold start when the house is at it's coldest
If the stove top temp is higher than 450* it's just too hot. Above that stove top temperature range it doesn't even feel safe. It seems WAY hotter than when you open an oven when it's at 450* but the difference is the heat radiates from every surface of the stove including the stove pipe.
Single wall black stove pipe goes up 35" into a 90* and 56" to the chimney which is concrete block with a 6"x6" tile liner. From the point the stove pipe enters it's ~13' to the top of the chimney
Does anyone else have a small stove like this and how do you best utilize it? I have spent the last couple of weeks reading your forum and and web trying to research but there is very little info on such a small stove. The manual that came with the stove was basically install directions. Should I bother to aim for the flu temps or just worry about smoke coming out of the chimney? My real concern is creosote. When I looked at the top of the chimney there was a substance similar to amber on the cap and some was oozing into the stack. The rest of the flu was relitivly clean with the exception of where the stove pipe is. In that location and 2' up there was thin, black, flaky stuff on the side of tile. Inside the black stove pipe it was some gray fluffy stuff along with some more black, flaky stuff under. The elbow above the stove had the most buildup.
I'm really worried about not burning hot enough but I don't want to burn too hot. The first time I got the thermostat I tried to get the pipe to temp and in order to get it to 450* I let it get hot and ignored the stove top temps and tried to just get the pipe to a "safe" temperature. After it cooled down and I inspected/cleaned the stove I noticed one of the ceramic bricks by the flu collar was not sitting right. The angle iron on the left side of the stove has warped.
With the smaller stove and less capacity should I just concentrate on the smoke coming out of the chimney or do flu temps matter? Just burn it as clean as possible and forget about getting to the temps required for a stove that can hold far more fuel?
Would really appreciate some tips from others who have a similar stove. 6-8 splits a day including the 2 for an all night burn is awesome. It just feels like I'm pushing this little stove way harder than I should have to to keep the chimney clean. I would rather just clean the chimney manually once a month.
I bought a US Stove 1,100 to heat my 600 square foot home as a way to subsidize the electric baseboard heat. http://www.lowes.com/pd_154309-850-APS1100B_0__?productId=3271167&cm_mmc=SCE_PLA-_-HeatingCooling-_-WoodFireplacesStoves-_-3271167&CAWELAID=1072248704&kpid=3271167&"cagpspn=pla"
It was the smallest stove I could find but it seems to be way more than enough. On average like a weekend I'm using 6-8 splts a day to heat the house.
From what I have been reading I'm doing everything wrong but if I burn hot and get the magnetic thermostat to the 'burn zone' I have to open the windows. That seems like such a terrible waste of fuel. I'm burning silver maple I cut down and split in the summer of 2011. It was for my brother but he hurt his back and did not feel up to lugging wood.
The stove is tiny. I can fit 2 splits in the box, no more unless they are small splits. The draft is excellent. I can open the door at any time and there is not smoke or back draft... I actually have to let some of the embers fall out and sit on the shelf to get that woodsy fireplace smell. Smoke detector in kitchen is 6' away and it doesn't go off. When it has it is because the split was 1" or so too long. Brother uses 18" and the max I can fit in there is ~16"... so some of the splits I cut in half to ~8" or so chunks for north/south loading.
On cold starts it lights right up, a couple of crumpled 8"x11" pieces of paper and a couple smaller/thinner maple splits. When it's going strong I'll add a split or two.
Those two splits will burn for ~2 hours and the embers another 2-3 hours keeping the stove top at 400*. The embers will sustain about 300* for another 2 hours. Make the tunnel of love with the ashes and put another split in there and so on. No real room for a rack so the ashes are the rack so air gets under the splits.
So about the only time I have been getting the black iron pipe 2' above the stove in the 'burn zone' is the mornings when the house is ~60*. After that is is just unbearable to be in the house if I try to sustain the burn zone. So 90% of the time the thermostat reads 200* 2' on the stove pipe. That is aside from the 30 minutes during a hot/cold start when the house is at it's coldest
If the stove top temp is higher than 450* it's just too hot. Above that stove top temperature range it doesn't even feel safe. It seems WAY hotter than when you open an oven when it's at 450* but the difference is the heat radiates from every surface of the stove including the stove pipe.
Single wall black stove pipe goes up 35" into a 90* and 56" to the chimney which is concrete block with a 6"x6" tile liner. From the point the stove pipe enters it's ~13' to the top of the chimney
Does anyone else have a small stove like this and how do you best utilize it? I have spent the last couple of weeks reading your forum and and web trying to research but there is very little info on such a small stove. The manual that came with the stove was basically install directions. Should I bother to aim for the flu temps or just worry about smoke coming out of the chimney? My real concern is creosote. When I looked at the top of the chimney there was a substance similar to amber on the cap and some was oozing into the stack. The rest of the flu was relitivly clean with the exception of where the stove pipe is. In that location and 2' up there was thin, black, flaky stuff on the side of tile. Inside the black stove pipe it was some gray fluffy stuff along with some more black, flaky stuff under. The elbow above the stove had the most buildup.
I'm really worried about not burning hot enough but I don't want to burn too hot. The first time I got the thermostat I tried to get the pipe to temp and in order to get it to 450* I let it get hot and ignored the stove top temps and tried to just get the pipe to a "safe" temperature. After it cooled down and I inspected/cleaned the stove I noticed one of the ceramic bricks by the flu collar was not sitting right. The angle iron on the left side of the stove has warped.
With the smaller stove and less capacity should I just concentrate on the smoke coming out of the chimney or do flu temps matter? Just burn it as clean as possible and forget about getting to the temps required for a stove that can hold far more fuel?
Would really appreciate some tips from others who have a similar stove. 6-8 splits a day including the 2 for an all night burn is awesome. It just feels like I'm pushing this little stove way harder than I should have to to keep the chimney clean. I would rather just clean the chimney manually once a month.
