Using more wood?

[redhorse]

We had an old Baker coal stove that we burned wood in; not very efficient, not very clean burning. We swapped it out for a Harman TL 300. Well, we're now using more wood (measured in the number of wheelbarrows we push from the barn) and we're not getting near as much heat. The stove is drawing and burning great; we just thought since it burned the smoke that we'd get more heat with less wood.

Is this normal for the new stoves?

 

[HotCoals]

Something is not right..is this in a basement?
Did the old coal stove hold more or less wood then the Harman?
How many hours will the Harman burn off a full load to just coals?
Are you leaving the intake air open to far to long?

 

[redhorse]

Something is not right..is this in a basement?
Did the old coal stove hold more or less wood then the Harman?
How many hours will the Harman burn off a full load to just coals?
Are you leaving the intake air open to far to long?

It's in our family room and we're barely keeping it 75 in here (even with it being rather warm outside). The coal stove held less, so we filled it more often. But we're measuring the total by how many loads we have to haul to the house. The Harman will burn 12 hours, more or less, and still have good coals. We add wood, open the air intake either 3/4 or full, let it burn 4-5 minutes, then kick it into afterburn. Once in, we leave the air intake about a quarter to a third open (we do get really bad soot on the glass door if it's under 1/2 air).

 

[HotCoals]

Something is not right..is this in a basement?
Did the old coal stove hold more or less wood then the Harman?
How many hours will the Harman burn off a full load to just coals?
Are you leaving the intake air open to far to long?

It's in our family room and we're barely keeping it 75 in here (even with it being rather warm outside). The coal stove held less, so we filled it more often. But we're measuring the total by how many loads we have to haul to the house. The Harman will burn 12 hours, more or less, and still have good coals. We add wood, open the air intake either 3/4 or full, let it burn 4-5 minutes, then kick it into afterburn. Once in, we leave the air intake about a quarter to a third open (we do get really bad soot on the glass door if it's under 1/2 air).

Sounds like you are operating it just fine...is the wood your using now "greener" then usual?

 

[oldspark]

I've got similar results with the summit compared to my old nashua except I can turn my summit all the way down and not get black glass. I may have burnt less wood than the old stove but not by much (if any) other wise my results mirror yours. May be your old stove was better than some give them credit for, I think that is the case with my old Nashua.

 

[redhorse]

Sounds like you are operating it just fine...is the wood your using now "greener" then usual?

Nope. We did buy some wood (some of it kiln dried), but we have a wood pile we're burning from now that we've had out there for three years; same wood we were using in the old Baker.

 

[HotCoals]

Well,maybe it's like OldSpark is saying then...you wouldn't think that.

 

[begreen]

Some folks have replaced radiant heaters with convective heaters. They miss the direct radiant heat which made them feel warmer. Maybe that is the case here?

redhorse, outside of measuring just the family room temps, how is the house heating overall? Same as before, a bit better, worse?

 

[redhorse]

Some folks have replaced radiant heaters with convective heaters. They miss the direct radiant heat which made them feel warmer. Maybe that is the case here?

redhorse, outside of measuring just the family room temps, how is the house heating overall? Same as before, a bit better, worse?

Worse for sure. Part of that, I believe, is because we don't use the blower much with the Harman (tends to knock it out of afterburn); we used the blower all the time with the Baker.

 

[begreen]

Well that sucks. Is the wood a bit unseasoned this year? You should be able to run the blower all the time once the stove is heated up. But this stove needs drier wood than the old Baker. You could probably burn green wood with the Baker's under the fire air supply.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Something is not right..is this in a basement?
Did the old coal stove hold more or less wood then the Harman?
How many hours will the Harman burn off a full load to just coals?
Are you leaving the intake air open to far to long?

It's in our family room and we're barely keeping it 75 in here (even with it being rather warm outside). The coal stove held less, so we filled it more often. But we're measuring the total by how many loads we have to haul to the house. The Harman will burn 12 hours, more or less, and still have good coals. We add wood, open the air intake either 3/4 or full, let it burn 4-5 minutes, then kick it into afterburn. Once in, we leave the air intake about a quarter to a third open (we do get really bad soot on the glass door if it's under 1/2 air).

The bold above is what throws a caution in my mind. Even though it sounds as if your wood should be excellent, if it were then you should not get soot on the glass door. Also, if you have to operate a stove with too much draft then you are losing lots of heat as it is going right up the chimney. One other thing you might try is to leave it open for more like 10-15 minutes more or less. There have been times when we let the stove run really low and then put wood in and we do not hesitate to leave the draft open full 20 minutes or more. One still has to judge by what the fire is doing rather than using a pat formula. I hope you are able to figure this out. Good luck.

 

[oldspark]

Sounds like you have a different issue than me, I run my fan above 300 with out a problem and never get black glass, sure sounds like your wood is in question, not doubting your word just saying. Like backwoods said if you have the air that open you will burn a lot of wood.

 

[BrotherBart]

As to the using more wood part, everybody uses more wood the first full season with a new stove than they do after they get settled in with burning in it.

And I have to wonder about kicking in the afterburner after only four or five minutes with a new load. What is the stove top temp when you do that? That load has to be still throwing off a lot more smoke than the afterburner can handle after that short of a time. Try letting that stuff char for fifteen or twenty minutes before you kick in the afterburner. That should solve the problem of the blower killing the afterburner too.

 

[redhorse]

Well that sucks. Is the wood a bit unseasoned this year? You should be able to run the blower all the time once the stove is heated up. But this stove needs drier wood than the old Baker. You could probably burn green wood with the Baker's under the fire air supply.

We tried some kiln dried 12% wood; the wetter wood almost seems to burn "hotter" (in fact the Harman tech said Harman tests the stoves wtih 19-22% wood and that's what they recommend); he told me wood that is too dry won't burn as well in the stove (don't know about that for sure, but the past two days we've been burning wood that tests wetter and it seems to be burning longer). Of course, it's also oak (as opposed to hickory, walnut, and some yellow poplar).

 

[Slow1]

The other thing to consider is your flue setup. I'm assuming you are using the same configuration - if so you may not have what the new stove really likes/wants to run at peak efficiency. Newer stoves (some at least) are a bit more demanding in this area than older stoves from what I have read here. Thus you may want to dig into this area by providing some specifics on your chimney system for folks to comment on.

 

[redhorse]

The other thing to consider is your flue setup. I'm assuming you are using the same configuration - if so you may not have what the new stove really likes/wants to run at peak efficiency. Newer stoves (some at least) are a bit more demanding in this area than older stoves from what I have read here. Thus you may want to dig into this area by providing some specifics on your chimney system for folks to comment on.

We just put in a brand new 6" steel chimney liner, solid air-tight connections from stove to top, about 23-24' in total length.