VC Dauntless FlexBurn Fire starting and maintining

[cyberglyph]

Hey VC owner! I decided to quit complaining about the stove I bought and decided to do a ton of research and worki hard to understand this stove and I believe I have finally nailed it for myself.

I thought I would share what I have learned and how to get the most out of your VC Dauntless FlexBurn!

These are my results and they might not be typical but so far this is working really well for me.

[The Kindling]
I have realized that this stove does require a little kindling to get going and a little extra patience to get a roaring fire up and running.
I am not going to state the obvious in any of this about dryness of the wood as we all well know under 15% is best!

First off I have 2 types of kindling.
1. Small "FatWood" kindling
2. "Chunking" kindling

The small "Fatwood" is about 5-6 inches long and 1.5 - 2.0 inches thick.
The "Chunky" is about 5-6 inches long and 2-4 inches thick or more
Pictures are provided below

I stack the "Fatwood" in the stove like the picture. If you need to add paper scraps to help start go for it.
Make sure this is as far from the glass as possible and pushed as far back in the stove as possible.

I light the wood !

I then push the air control all the way closed facing back, and then move about 3-5 clicks forward.
This has been the perfect control of air, not too much and not too little. You may have to adjust the clicks for your liking.
What I have found if there is too much draft the stove doesn't heat up very well, all the heat goes out the chimney with tons of flame.
By dialing this air control down it holds in the heat and you get coals very quickly, roughly in 20-30 minutes.

Now after you see the flames going well, not too high like a blast furnace but not looking like the flames are going to go out.
What your looking for is a nice slow to medium dance. Add the "chunky" kindling on top and push all this to the back of the stove
let this burn good and adjust the air control for more or less, but I leave it the same position to make it easy.

Now when you see this "chunky" kindling going well throw on your normal wood on top and actually push it back as far to rear of the stove as possible.
The furthest away from the glass as possible.

You have already gotten over the hardest part of the Dauntless now comes the easy part.
Once you put in the regular wood wipe the glass off with a paper towel. The initial smoke will wipe clear easily.
I wipe my glass down every 7-10 logs and its staying extremely clear. But make sure when you load the stove you are pushing the wood to the back of the stove away from the glass

I have gone 12-15 hours without cleaning the glass and its very clear.

Now I don't have a CAT installed on my stove and I don't use the cat feature. I have the space for it behind but I'm not bothering to spend the money for something that I have seen people talk about and it doesn't seem to last very long.

How do you know you got a good burn going? look at the Inside of the stove with the log burning, the ceramic is nearly white and the bricks are white!
This is letting me know I have a complete burn and the creosote is not building up too much.

The tools I am using for the kindling is the Kindling Cracker to make the "Fatwood" and the "Chunky" wood.

Let me know if this helps at all. My stove temps seem to hover around 500-600 when I load it up with 2 pieces. The burn time is dependent on the wood, so I'm leaving this out of the equation.
This is about starting and keeping it going and keeping the glass cleaner.

The glass seems to be very clean using this method and my temps are good so far. There is very little "Tinkering" with the stove to keep the flame going and and this method seems to burning well with plenty of hot and coals for the next few pieces of wood.

I know this is not super all encompassing guide, but if it helps at least 1 or 2 people then great!

The ash tray below is not overflowing either, as the burns seems to be complete, I only empty it once every 24-36 hours.

Comments?! questions?! Let me know I'm doing everything I can to help!
Thanks!

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Thank you for posting.. Please expand your thread with more In depth details of your operation when you get the opportunity.. this will certainly help someone else

 

[a59cheffy]

My Dauntless and myself have been on a learning curve for the past six months. After heeding Woodsplitter67's advice have been burning much hotter than I did previously. I know now if the glass is getting coated with tar, I am not burning hot enough. I too have been burning in the 500-550 range.

 

[newguyjoe]

Are you leaving the bypass open the whole time you have the fire going ? is that what you mean by not using the cat feature ?

 

[GrumpyDad]

Did I just get a 24 hour burn on a VC Dauntless?
On Sunday earlier in the morning I put two medium splits in on top of overnight coals, cranked up the oven and let those burn down. I then put 2 very large pieces of red oak, another 1 larger than I normally would put in my stove piece, and a medium small to fill the top a little bit. They took awhile to catch but not as long as I thought they would. This was at around 11:30am Sunday morning. At NOON on Monday I still had coals and the griddle was too hot to hold my hand on for too long. The glass looks great.

I spoke to a dealer on Friday, not the one that sold me my VC but another one that I didnt go with because I didnt want to wait for them to get stock. The lady on the phone told me what I already know about burning hotter but as Ive also noticed as long as you have that great bed of coals you dont need to continue to burn hot you can turn it down pretty low. She also suggested I try the larger pieces too, and I was surprised I didnt smoke out the valley trying this. Im not sure how burn time is calculated, but I had my stove supplying heat for over 24 hours. I did run the stove on the second to lowest setting, what would normally turn the entire stove black when I was learning the stove. I was gone for most of the day skiing, then dinner then to a gathering. I didnt reload when we returned at night, I just went straight to bed and was ok with letting the furnace take over if needed. The furnace never kicked on.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Are you leaving the bypass open the whole time you have the fire going ? is that what you mean by not using the cat feature ?

when people speak of this you can close the bypass.. without the catalyst being in.. doing this and keeping the temperature up.. not turning the air back all the way will allow you to burn a little cleaner.. you can also burn with the bypass open and adjust the air.. again not turning the air all the way back burning hotter and cleaner without overfiring the stove.. it is way better to put the catalyst in and not worry so much about if your creating to much creosote

 

[Dawnie Dauntless]

Hey VC owner! I decided to quit complaining about the stove I bought and decided to do a ton of research and worki hard to understand this stove and I believe I have finally nailed it for myself.

I thought I would share what I have learned and how to get the most out of your VC Dauntless FlexBurn!

These are my results and they might not be typical but so far this is working really well for me.

[The Kindling]
I have realized that this stove does require a little kindling to get going and a little extra patience to get a roaring fire up and running.
I am not going to state the obvious in any of this about dryness of the wood as we all well know under 15% is best!

First off I have 2 types of kindling.
1. Small "FatWood" kindling
2. "Chunking" kindling

The small "Fatwood" is about 5-6 inches long and 1.5 - 2.0 inches thick.
The "Chunky" is about 5-6 inches long and 2-4 inches thick or more
Pictures are provided below
View attachment 309920View attachment 309921
I stack the "Fatwood" in the stove like the picture. If you need to add paper scraps to help start go for it.
Make sure this is as far from the glass as possible and pushed as far back in the stove as possible.

View attachment 309922
I light the wood !

I then push the air control all the way closed facing back, and then move about 3-5 clicks forward.
This has been the perfect control of air, not too much and not too little. You may have to adjust the clicks for your liking.
What I have found if there is too much draft the stove doesn't heat up very well, all the heat goes out the chimney with tons of flame.
By dialing this air control down it holds in the heat and you get coals very quickly, roughly in 20-30 minutes.
View attachment 309923
Now after you see the flames going well, not too high like a blast furnace but not looking like the flames are going to go out.
What your looking for is a nice slow to medium dance. Add the "chunky" kindling on top and push all this to the back of the stove
let this burn good and adjust the air control for more or less, but I leave it the same position to make it easy.

Now when you see this "chunky" kindling going well throw on your normal wood on top and actually push it back as far to rear of the stove as possible.
The furthest away from the glass as possible.

View attachment 309924

You have already gotten over the hardest part of the Dauntless now comes the easy part.
Once you put in the regular wood wipe the glass off with a paper towel. The initial smoke will wipe clear easily.
I wipe my glass down every 7-10 logs and its staying extremely clear. But make sure when you load the stove you are pushing the wood to the back of the stove away from the glass

I have gone 12-15 hours without cleaning the glass and its very clear.

View attachment 309925View attachment 309927

Now I don't have a CAT installed on my stove and I don't use the cat feature. I have the space for it behind but I'm not bothering to spend the money for something that I have seen people talk about and it doesn't seem to last very long.

How do you know you got a good burn going? look at the Inside of the stove with the log burning, the ceramic is nearly white and the bricks are white!
This is letting me know I have a complete burn and the creosote is not building up too much.

The tools I am using for the kindling is the Kindling Cracker to make the "Fatwood" and the "Chunky" wood.

Let me know if this helps at all. My stove temps seem to hover around 500-600 when I load it up with 2 pieces. The burn time is dependent on the wood, so I'm leaving this out of the equation.
This is about starting and keeping it going and keeping the glass cleaner.

The glass seems to be very clean using this method and my temps are good so far. There is very little "Tinkering" with the stove to keep the flame going and and this method seems to burning well with plenty of hot and coals for the next few pieces of wood.

I know this is not super all encompassing guide, but if it helps at least 1 or 2 people then great!

The ash tray below is not overflowing either, as the burns seems to be complete, I only empty it once every 24-36 hours.

Comments?! questions?! Let me know I'm doing everything I can to help!
Thanks! View attachment 309926

Hey VC owner! I decided to quit complaining about the stove I bought and decided to do a ton of research and worki hard to understand this stove and I believe I have finally nailed it for myself.

I thought I would share what I have learned and how to get the most out of your VC Dauntless FlexBurn!

These are my results and they might not be typical but so far this is working really well for me.

[The Kindling]
I have realized that this stove does require a little kindling to get going and a little extra patience to get a roaring fire up and running.
I am not going to state the obvious in any of this about dryness of the wood as we all well know under 15% is best!

First off I have 2 types of kindling.
1. Small "FatWood" kindling
2. "Chunking" kindling

The small "Fatwood" is about 5-6 inches long and 1.5 - 2.0 inches thick.
The "Chunky" is about 5-6 inches long and 2-4 inches thick or more
Pictures are provided below
View attachment 309920View attachment 309921
I stack the "Fatwood" in the stove like the picture. If you need to add paper scraps to help start go for it.
Make sure this is as far from the glass as possible and pushed as far back in the stove as possible.

View attachment 309922
I light the wood !

I then push the air control all the way closed facing back, and then move about 3-5 clicks forward.
This has been the perfect control of air, not too much and not too little. You may have to adjust the clicks for your liking.
What I have found if there is too much draft the stove doesn't heat up very well, all the heat goes out the chimney with tons of flame.
By dialing this air control down it holds in the heat and you get coals very quickly, roughly in 20-30 minutes.
View attachment 309923
Now after you see the flames going well, not too high like a blast furnace but not looking like the flames are going to go out.
What your looking for is a nice slow to medium dance. Add the "chunky" kindling on top and push all this to the back of the stove
let this burn good and adjust the air control for more or less, but I leave it the same position to make it easy.

Now when you see this "chunky" kindling going well throw on your normal wood on top and actually push it back as far to rear of the stove as possible.
The furthest away from the glass as possible.

View attachment 309924

You have already gotten over the hardest part of the Dauntless now comes the easy part.
Once you put in the regular wood wipe the glass off with a paper towel. The initial smoke will wipe clear easily.
I wipe my glass down every 7-10 logs and its staying extremely clear. But make sure when you load the stove you are pushing the wood to the back of the stove away from the glass

I have gone 12-15 hours without cleaning the glass and its very clear.

View attachment 309925View attachment 309927

Now I don't have a CAT installed on my stove and I don't use the cat feature. I have the space for it behind but I'm not bothering to spend the money for something that I have seen people talk about and it doesn't seem to last very long.

How do you know you got a good burn going? look at the Inside of the stove with the log burning, the ceramic is nearly white and the bricks are white!
This is letting me know I have a complete burn and the creosote is not building up too much.

The tools I am using for the kindling is the Kindling Cracker to make the "Fatwood" and the "Chunky" wood.

Let me know if this helps at all. My stove temps seem to hover around 500-600 when I load it up with 2 pieces. The burn time is dependent on the wood, so I'm leaving this out of the equation.
This is about starting and keeping it going and keeping the glass cleaner.

The glass seems to be very clean using this method and my temps are good so far. There is very little "Tinkering" with the stove to keep the flame going and and this method seems to burning well with plenty of hot and coals for the next few pieces of wood.

I know this is not super all encompassing guide, but if it helps at least 1 or 2 people then great!

The ash tray below is not overflowing either, as the burns seems to be complete, I only empty it once every 24-36 hours.

Comments?! questions?! Let me know I'm doing everything I can to help!
Thanks! View attachment 309926

Hi there this is great info!! I have been doing well with my new Dauntless but it is a daunting learning curve to say the least. My fiancé will not touch it but he takes care of the wood for me so that is fine! I really don't trust anyone to run this stove, not even the dealer. Dealer seems to be clueless and from what I can see this is a dangerous stove. Well I love danger I guess and I picked this out based on the dealer saying what an easy effortless stove, the quality craftmanship and how this stove will be a lifetime stove. When it's all said and done here we are looking at a 7K investment with the install and now I have gone all out on Enclume wood racks. Have not even gotten to the mantel and hearth that is in the works. So yeah. Lots of money here and I am bound and determined to love this thing!! This will be my second season and I am having a lot of ash build up on my glass doors, like piled up against it when I burn for a few days straight . I only top load once it is going, and getting nice long burns, still have good coals in the morning with the oxygen dialed back before bed a bit. Have not had a flash back so far and reading that stuff has scared me a bit I have to admit. Should I be front loading here and there pushing that all back instead of only top loading? My glass is much better as I have learned to burn hotter. I have a mirror and light I am going to look up in the new straight pipe and see if I have any build up. These chimney fire tales in a new pipe has me quite concerned as well. I do not have a catalyst, get her rolling up to 550 - 600 and then I close the stove down for the after burn. I do notice I have some like residue on the wall behind the stove, almost looks like off gassing? I have many Co2 detectors everywhere and so far none are going off. We do have a tight house so on start up I do crack the window right next to the stove a hairline...Seems to help plus I do a top down burn. I pretty have it down but took a while. Just wondering why I don't have any ash in the ash container and I have it building up on the glass at the bottom and then it will be so high there I don't open the front doors. I have really good dry wood...Any input on how to not have all this ash on the front would be great. Maybe I should front load and wipe the glass as you are doing periodically and push the load back?

 

[a59cheffy]

Hi there this is great info!! I have been doing well with my new Dauntless but it is a daunting learning curve to say the least. My fiancé will not touch it but he takes care of the wood for me so that is fine! I really don't trust anyone to run this stove, not even the dealer. Dealer seems to be clueless and from what I can see this is a dangerous stove. Well I love danger I guess and I picked this out based on the dealer saying what an easy effortless stove, the quality craftmanship and how this stove will be a lifetime stove. When it's all said and done here we are looking at a 7K investment with the install and now I have gone all out on Enclume wood racks. Have not even gotten to the mantel and hearth that is in the works. So yeah. Lots of money here and I am bound and determined to love this thing!! This will be my second season and I am having a lot of ash build up on my glass doors, like piled up against it when I burn for a few days straight . I only top load once it is going, and getting nice long burns, still have good coals in the morning with the oxygen dialed back before bed a bit. Have not had a flash back so far and reading that stuff has scared me a bit I have to admit. Should I be front loading here and there pushing that all back instead of only top loading? My glass is much better as I have learned to burn hotter. I have a mirror and light I am going to look up in the new straight pipe and see if I have any build up. These chimney fire tales in a new pipe has me quite concerned as well. I do not have a catalyst, get her rolling up to 550 - 600 and then I close the stove down for the after burn. I do notice I have some like residue on the wall behind the stove, almost looks like off gassing? I have many Co2 detectors everywhere and so far none are going off. We do have a tight house so on start up I do crack the window right next to the stove a hairline...Seems to help plus I do a top down burn. I pretty have it down but took a while. Just wondering why I don't have any ash in the ash container and I have it building up on the glass at the bottom and then it will be so high there I don't open the front doors. I have really good dry wood...Any input on how to not have all this ash on the front would be great. Maybe I should front load and wipe the glass as you are doing periodically and push the load back?

I too am a second season Dauntless owner! I have been given some great advice on this forum by a couple of good people. Hopefully they will chime in! My relationship with my Dauntless is warm and friendly at this point!

I don't have an ash build up as you describe. When you say, "ash", is it chunks of black charcoal or just light gray ash?

I also don't load from the top, just easier for me, less smoke and I can clean the glass if need be. I usually don't have to push ash around while loading. I do clean my ash pan and fire box every other day or if the ash pan is full.

I am concerned about how you "close the stove down", without a catalytic combustor installed.

Currently I do not have a combustor installed. I plan on installing a combustor and a temperature probe when I get all the parts I need. I don't see how anyone can fill the fire box with wood and maintain a safe stove without a combustor.

I do not close the bypass. Maintain temperature around 500-550 degrees using 2-4 splits at a time. Only closing the air control a little if the temperature is going over 550 degrees.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Hi there this is great info!! I have been doing well with my new Dauntless but it is a daunting learning curve to say the least. My fiancé will not touch it but he takes care of the wood for me so that is fine! I really don't trust anyone to run this stove, not even the dealer. Dealer seems to be clueless and from what I can see this is a dangerous stove. Well I love danger I guess and I picked this out based on the dealer saying what an easy effortless stove, the quality craftmanship and how this stove will be a lifetime stove. When it's all said and done here we are looking at a 7K investment with the install and now I have gone all out on Enclume wood racks. Have not even gotten to the mantel and hearth that is in the works. So yeah. Lots of money here and I am bound and determined to love this thing!! This will be my second season and I am having a lot of ash build up on my glass doors, like piled up against it when I burn for a few days straight . I only top load once it is going, and getting nice long burns, still have good coals in the morning with the oxygen dialed back before bed a bit. Have not had a flash back so far and reading that stuff has scared me a bit I have to admit. Should I be front loading here and there pushing that all back instead of only top loading? My glass is much better as I have learned to burn hotter. I have a mirror and light I am going to look up in the new straight pipe and see if I have any build up. These chimney fire tales in a new pipe has me quite concerned as well. I do not have a catalyst, get her rolling up to 550 - 600 and then I close the stove down for the after burn. I do notice I have some like residue on the wall behind the stove, almost looks like off gassing? I have many Co2 detectors everywhere and so far none are going off. We do have a tight house so on start up I do crack the window right next to the stove a hairline...Seems to help plus I do a top down burn. I pretty have it down but took a while. Just wondering why I don't have any ash in the ash container and I have it building up on the glass at the bottom and then it will be so high there I don't open the front doors. I have really good dry wood...Any input on how to not have all this ash on the front would be great. Maybe I should front load and wipe the glass as you are doing periodically and push the load back?

If your doing overnight burns and cutting the air back to any degree.. You should definitely run you stove with the catalyst in it.. I just did a thread on why.. you should probably read that one

 

[Eric_Vermont]

Hey VC owner! I decided to quit complaining about the stove I bought and decided to do a ton of research and worki hard to understand this stove and I believe I have finally nailed it for myself.

I thought I would share what I have learned and how to get the most out of your VC Dauntless FlexBurn!

These are my results and they might not be typical but so far this is working really well for me.

[The Kindling]
I have realized that this stove does require a little kindling to get going and a little extra patience to get a roaring fire up and running.
I am not going to state the obvious in any of this about dryness of the wood as we all well know under 15% is best!

First off I have 2 types of kindling.
1. Small "FatWood" kindling
2. "Chunking" kindling

The small "Fatwood" is about 5-6 inches long and 1.5 - 2.0 inches thick.
The "Chunky" is about 5-6 inches long and 2-4 inches thick or more
Pictures are provided below
View attachment 309920View attachment 309921
I stack the "Fatwood" in the stove like the picture. If you need to add paper scraps to help start go for it.
Make sure this is as far from the glass as possible and pushed as far back in the stove as possible.

View attachment 309922
I light the wood !

I then push the air control all the way closed facing back, and then move about 3-5 clicks forward.
This has been the perfect control of air, not too much and not too little. You may have to adjust the clicks for your liking.
What I have found if there is too much draft the stove doesn't heat up very well, all the heat goes out the chimney with tons of flame.
By dialing this air control down it holds in the heat and you get coals very quickly, roughly in 20-30 minutes.
View attachment 309923
Now after you see the flames going well, not too high like a blast furnace but not looking like the flames are going to go out.
What your looking for is a nice slow to medium dance. Add the "chunky" kindling on top and push all this to the back of the stove
let this burn good and adjust the air control for more or less, but I leave it the same position to make it easy.

Now when you see this "chunky" kindling going well throw on your normal wood on top and actually push it back as far to rear of the stove as possible.
The furthest away from the glass as possible.

View attachment 309924

You have already gotten over the hardest part of the Dauntless now comes the easy part.
Once you put in the regular wood wipe the glass off with a paper towel. The initial smoke will wipe clear easily.
I wipe my glass down every 7-10 logs and its staying extremely clear. But make sure when you load the stove you are pushing the wood to the back of the stove away from the glass

I have gone 12-15 hours without cleaning the glass and its very clear.

View attachment 309925View attachment 309927

Now I don't have a CAT installed on my stove and I don't use the cat feature. I have the space for it behind but I'm not bothering to spend the money for something that I have seen people talk about and it doesn't seem to last very long.

How do you know you got a good burn going? look at the Inside of the stove with the log burning, the ceramic is nearly white and the bricks are white!
This is letting me know I have a complete burn and the creosote is not building up too much.

The tools I am using for the kindling is the Kindling Cracker to make the "Fatwood" and the "Chunky" wood.

Let me know if this helps at all. My stove temps seem to hover around 500-600 when I load it up with 2 pieces. The burn time is dependent on the wood, so I'm leaving this out of the equation.
This is about starting and keeping it going and keeping the glass cleaner.

The glass seems to be very clean using this method and my temps are good so far. There is very little "Tinkering" with the stove to keep the flame going and and this method seems to burning well with plenty of hot and coals for the next few pieces of wood.

I know this is not super all encompassing guide, but if it helps at least 1 or 2 people then great!

The ash tray below is not overflowing either, as the burns seems to be complete, I only empty it once every 24-36 hours.

Comments?! questions?! Let me know I'm doing everything I can to help!
Thanks! View attachment 309926

Thank you.
We had a Jotul F3 CB which was in the house when we bought it. The Jotul was good. Burned well. Heat was good. Used a lot of wood but glass was clean. The chimney sweeper told us the stove was warped and he could not clean the flue. So we decided to get a new one. So we got a new Vermont Casting Dauntless Flexburn. And it has been a challenge so far.
I am glad you mentioned the air control. I will try it as you indicated. I closed it once when the stove was hot (500-600) and the glass turned so black, we could not see inside the stove.

The VC stove heats well and does not burn too much wood.
The main problem is the glass gets dirty right away and very difficult to clean. Everyday.
You mention using paper towel to wipe the glass at the beginning and then every 7 to 10 logs. The glass must be very hot?

I will follow your steps and keep you posted in a few days.
Thanks.
Eric

 

[Kevin Weis]

Wet wood is usually the biggest issue with black glass. Burning not well dried wood and lowering the temp of the stove is like a double wamie with creating black glass. I think the downdraft set up of the stove compromises the air wash to a certain extent. I wonder if the air wash air doesn't get heated up enough before contacting the glass causing the smoke to condensate on it?

 

[steel city fire]

Hey VC owner! I decided to quit complaining about the stove I bought and decided to do a ton of research and worki hard to understand this stove and I believe I have finally nailed it for myself.

I thought I would share what I have learned and how to get the most out of your VC Dauntless FlexBurn!

These are my results and they might not be typical but so far this is working really well for me.

[The Kindling]
I have realized that this stove does require a little kindling to get going and a little extra patience to get a roaring fire up and running.
I am not going to state the obvious in any of this about dryness of the wood as we all well know under 15% is best!

First off I have 2 types of kindling.
1. Small "FatWood" kindling
2. "Chunking" kindling

The small "Fatwood" is about 5-6 inches long and 1.5 - 2.0 inches thick.
The "Chunky" is about 5-6 inches long and 2-4 inches thick or more
Pictures are provided below
View attachment 309920View attachment 309921
I stack the "Fatwood" in the stove like the picture. If you need to add paper scraps to help start go for it.
Make sure this is as far from the glass as possible and pushed as far back in the stove as possible.

View attachment 309922
I light the wood !

I then push the air control all the way closed facing back, and then move about 3-5 clicks forward.
This has been the perfect control of air, not too much and not too little. You may have to adjust the clicks for your liking.
What I have found if there is too much draft the stove doesn't heat up very well, all the heat goes out the chimney with tons of flame.
By dialing this air control down it holds in the heat and you get coals very quickly, roughly in 20-30 minutes.
View attachment 309923
Now after you see the flames going well, not too high like a blast furnace but not looking like the flames are going to go out.
What your looking for is a nice slow to medium dance. Add the "chunky" kindling on top and push all this to the back of the stove
let this burn good and adjust the air control for more or less, but I leave it the same position to make it easy.

Now when you see this "chunky" kindling going well throw on your normal wood on top and actually push it back as far to rear of the stove as possible.
The furthest away from the glass as possible.

View attachment 309924

You have already gotten over the hardest part of the Dauntless now comes the easy part.
Once you put in the regular wood wipe the glass off with a paper towel. The initial smoke will wipe clear easily.
I wipe my glass down every 7-10 logs and its staying extremely clear. But make sure when you load the stove you are pushing the wood to the back of the stove away from the glass

I have gone 12-15 hours without cleaning the glass and its very clear.

View attachment 309925View attachment 309927

Now I don't have a CAT installed on my stove and I don't use the cat feature. I have the space for it behind but I'm not bothering to spend the money for something that I have seen people talk about and it doesn't seem to last very long.

How do you know you got a good burn going? look at the Inside of the stove with the log burning, the ceramic is nearly white and the bricks are white!
This is letting me know I have a complete burn and the creosote is not building up too much.

The tools I am using for the kindling is the Kindling Cracker to make the "Fatwood" and the "Chunky" wood.

Let me know if this helps at all. My stove temps seem to hover around 500-600 when I load it up with 2 pieces. The burn time is dependent on the wood, so I'm leaving this out of the equation.
This is about starting and keeping it going and keeping the glass cleaner.

The glass seems to be very clean using this method and my temps are good so far. There is very little "Tinkering" with the stove to keep the flame going and and this method seems to burning well with plenty of hot and coals for the next few pieces of wood.

I know this is not super all encompassing guide, but if it helps at least 1 or 2 people then great!

The ash tray below is not overflowing either, as the burns seems to be complete, I only empty it once every 24-36 hours.

Comments?! questions?! Let me know I'm doing everything I can to help!
Thanks! View attachment 309926

How do you wipe the glass with a paper towel? Isn’t the glass extremely hot?? Doesn’t it damage the glass??