Just relaying a little advice I learned from tonight. Previously in my less-than-ideal stove+flue setup (2 stoves venting into an oversized flue), my small downstairs Jotul Series 8 would have a hell of a time starting up due to draft issues. My original setup was to lay some of the WoodBrickFuel bricks (similar to biobricks/envi blocks et al, except they don't look as highly compressed) side by side with some kindling/firestarters in between. It'd take me over 2 hours to get a hot fire going (talking ~600F fluepipe temps here).
Tonight, using just the downstairs stove (should be the worst draft possible as it's a 6" pipe venting into a 12"x12" clay liner) I arranged the bricks the way they tell you on the website--in a teepee formation, with 1 brick in back, 2 stacked against it, 1 brick on top, add firestarters and light, then put another brick in front (so 5 bricks total, 4 arranged in a pyramid with 1 on top). Kept the door wide open. In that little enclosed space, the firestarters got nice & hot and that top brick lit up FAST. Once the fluepipe temps reached 400F I closed the door and it just rocketed it up from there. After like 1 hour the fluepipe temps were touching ~1300F, and I just had to turn the air damper down to about ~1/4 open. Just goes to show that one should follow the directions when given. I used two camp firestarter sticks this time, but I am going to experiment with other forms of tinder & kindling, preferably stuff that's freely available by scavenging... and see if it's just as effective. Love those bricks!
FYI: Fluepipe thermometer is a Condar probe stuck ~18" away from the stove in the fluepipe just after a 90-degree elbow. The temperature outside is currently 50F.
Tonight, using just the downstairs stove (should be the worst draft possible as it's a 6" pipe venting into a 12"x12" clay liner) I arranged the bricks the way they tell you on the website--in a teepee formation, with 1 brick in back, 2 stacked against it, 1 brick on top, add firestarters and light, then put another brick in front (so 5 bricks total, 4 arranged in a pyramid with 1 on top). Kept the door wide open. In that little enclosed space, the firestarters got nice & hot and that top brick lit up FAST. Once the fluepipe temps reached 400F I closed the door and it just rocketed it up from there. After like 1 hour the fluepipe temps were touching ~1300F, and I just had to turn the air damper down to about ~1/4 open. Just goes to show that one should follow the directions when given. I used two camp firestarter sticks this time, but I am going to experiment with other forms of tinder & kindling, preferably stuff that's freely available by scavenging... and see if it's just as effective. Love those bricks!
FYI: Fluepipe thermometer is a Condar probe stuck ~18" away from the stove in the fluepipe just after a 90-degree elbow. The temperature outside is currently 50F.
