Top down start, break in fire

[USMC80]

Did my third break in fire so went bigger. Decided being the temp outside was 46f that I would do a top down. Put a very small piece of supercedar on top of the kindling and lit her up. Never had to crack the door this time, maybe because top down created a better draft? First pic is at 5 minutes in, really no visible smoke

12 minutes in

20 minutes in, air still all the way open

30 minutes in, made first air adjustment

Air almost completely closed

Air completely closed

 

[Huntindog1]

Thats looks really good with outside temps not being real cold and not having the firebox full.

Your wood must be really dry.

Good Job. Nice Stove.

 

[USMC80]

that's sass split last March, about 18% moisture. 4 small splits gave me usable heat for 4 hours . Fan on auto kicked on it 35 minutes. Was able to close air off and still got awesome secondaries firing. Think I'm gonna love this insert

 

[USMC80]

video is about an hour and a half in, great secondaries and good heat output for the size load. the fan noise you hear is a box fan i have set up to push the smell of the paint burning off out the windows, its not the blower on the insert

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[BrotherBart]

Officially time to change the sig from "Soon to be.."

Great looking stove be doing its thing and ready to keep the place warm this year. That door glass is huge.

 

[USMC80]

Officially time to change the sig from "Soon to be.."

Great looking stove be doing its thing and ready to keep the place warm this year. That door glass is huge.

ahh forgot about that!

 

[HDRock]

30 minutes to get it rockin , that's what I am getting, with my new new EPA stove
BURN ON

 

[ridemgis]

Did my third break in fire so went bigger. Decided being the temp outside was 46f that I would do a top down. Put a very small piece of supercedar on top of the kindling and lit her up. Never had to crack the door this time, maybe because top down created a better draft? First pic is at 5 minutes in, really no visible smoke

I'm a huge fan of the top down start. As you've noticed, any smoke from the wood catching below is burned in the fire above. No smoke means no cranky neighbors and less cresote to lose sleep over.

 

[USMC80]

I'm a huge fan of the top down start. As you've noticed, any smoke from the wood catching below is burned in the fire above. No smoke means no cranky neighbors and less cresote to lose sleep over.

I'm now a believer!

 

[BrotherBart]

A member here two years ago started his BBQ top down with everybody standing around laughing. Until the sucker took off and didn't smoke.

 

[Tenn Dave]

WOW - seeing is believing. I will definitley be trying the 'top down' method this winter.

 

[Trilifter7]

Looks good! I'm just jealous your already burning! !

 

[BrotherBart]

Everybody that has ever posted about the top down method not working has said "I tried it exactly that way except..." and then said it didn't work. Don't "except". Doesn't work with skydiving either.

 

[USMC80]

Everybody that has ever posted about the top down method not working has said "I tried it exactly that way except..." and then said it didn't work. Don't "except". Doesn't work with skydiving either.

Couldn't believe how fast it took off, having 3 year seasoned wood surely helps also.

 

[daleeper]

Couldn't believe how fast it took off, having 3 year seasoned wood surely helps also.

Seasoned wood certainly helps. A luxury that only those that experience burning with it understands.

 

[Oldhippie]

Officially time to change the sig from "Soon to be.."

Great looking stove be doing its thing and ready to keep the place warm this year. That door glass is huge.

> To the OP.. really nice insert and installation!


> RE: Changing sig: Speaking of which, ...I tried changing my sig, and was prompted to get down to some very small number of characters. I am hoping it's a generic setting and the Hearth.com management team isn't worried that sigs are going to cause out of space storage problems. I get a message that says my 11 line sig is 8 lines too long.

Anyone else notice this?

 

[USMC80]

ya thats why I didn't change it lol

 

[firecracker_77]

Nice looking fire. Good secondaries.

 

[Shadow&Flame]

Great looking stove USMC80. Looks like you have things well in hand. I use a combo method on the top down fire. Swedish fire lay
with fire in the middle and on top. Thanks for the pics....

 

[Seanm]

First fire of the season last night (High of 46f/8c and lows of 39f/4c) and I started it with a top down fire. No smoke in the house at all. Last year was our first year with this stove and with top down fires and had a few smoke outs while learning. My wife was looking forward to having a fire last night but wasn't looking forward to getting the smoke. The bottom had a few bigger splits so I was able to start it with one fatwood near the top and then close the door until the next reload.

 

[USMC80]

Had third break in last night. Doing a final full load on Saturday night. Sending the wife upstate so she doesn't have to worry about the fumes. Here's some pics from last night, these are with the air almost fully closed

 

[Oldhippie]

Awesome!! Enjoy the heat!!

Woke up chilly here in north central Mass this AM. I almost broke down and started a break-in fire myself.. and then said "nah.. that glass is so clean and it looks so nice, and besides, it's just not that cold yet."

 

[USMC80]

got down to 39 last night, house wasn't all that cold but I want to break it in now just in case there are any issues i can fix them before the chill hits

 

[oldspark]

Everybody that has ever posted about the top down method not working has said "I tried it exactly that way except..." and then said it didn't work. Don't "except". Doesn't work with skydiving either.

Heh Heh, I tried it the way the women did in the one film about wood burning and it did not work very well but the tunnel of love wrorks great for me with little or no smoke but it is sorrta a modified top down. Dont think I have tried it since I put in the new chimney so will have to give it another go.

 

[USMC80]

Had what I hope will be my final break in last night, fired her up around 9pm fan kicked on at around 10, think I have to check that snap disk because it took too long and I had it cranking. Woke up at 615, whole house around 78 degrees except for our bedroom because door was shut. Fan was still on and had a nice bed of coals still. This was all on five small splits of sassafrass that i loaded before bed at around 1030. Fan was still pumping out useable heat when i left the house at 645. Was very happy with the results