I just hooked up my fireview and burned a small fire and now am doing my second fire. The first fire hit 250 and the stove got back down to 150ish and now I am at about 315-325 with the cumbostor engaged and I am wondering if the cat is lit. If the temp rises steadily how long can it take to hit 4-500? Hour or 2? It took me 1.5 hours to just reach 250, but the splits of wood I have are about 6-10" wide, would it help a lot if I spllit the wood smaller? I had it split for the p.o.s. heatiolator fireplace in the basement thats why its so big. I engaged at 250 cut back to 1 and 1/2 hour later I am at 350 is this normal?
woodstock fireview is goin'!!!
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Half way, I'm on my second burn, trying to hit 400 degrees for the second burn in, then tomorrow morning I'll try to get it hotter. All must be well though, I shouldn't worry because for about a half hour I could look up and see the cat glowing even though the stove top is only at about 375, so I'll just let it there and have it go out tonight and put more wood in tomorrow and see what happens because I only loaded it maybe about half full for the second load, first load was kindling then when that was established I threw two very small splits on, the stove hit 250, went out, and then cooled off.
Congrats Chad! Yeah, those splits are too big. I like an assortment of 3-6" for mine. Let the stove go out tonight and your probably good to go with a full load tomorrow. Once you have a good coal bed established and throw 4-6 splits in there it won't take long to get up to 500, It may take longer from a cold start, maybe an hour or more.
Yeah, my father was helping me and the last stove he burned was a franklin and he said that he used to burn tree trunks in those things and I said you don't know what your talkin about stuff is a lot different these days they are way to big.
Bigger splits will get you a longer burn in the Fireview. I can put 4 large 6-8" splits in there and still have coals and a warm stove after 20 hours, but it will get hotter with 6 smaller splits and still give you a good 12 hour burn. Besides the door size limits you to less than 9" rounds.
Yeah, the durock is in the background there, we have to finish that yet, but need to save up more money before we can.
You know what I'm interested in aren't you chad? How about a nice lit up shot of the outlet of that stove and a measurement from front of stove to back of pipe too. You are doing the install that I would have done if I knew that I could have.
Yeah I'll have my wife take pics of the back when she wakes up. The whole unit is approx 30" long front to back. The double wall adapter is a joke though... Not a very good design, it has a sloppy fit on the tee side but it works. Also, as usual, my wood ain't dry enough. Takes like 2-3 hours to get to 250 and I need the door open and the draft on full. Yeah, year old oak.. For real. It doesn't even hiss when it goes but from what I've learned its always the wood so super market bundle test here I come. Obviosly the stuff burns or burned just fine in my open fireplace.
Congratulations Chad!
When you have good dry wood you will find the stove heats up a lot faster. Also, you engaged the cat at 250 and that is when the temperature should start going up fast. From a cold start we'll be at 250 in about 1/2 hour. Sometimes sooner and sometimes longer. But once we engage the cat that temperature soars. If we fill the stove it will shoot up close to 700 quite fast. On half loads we can usually keep it to 500 or thereabouts.
As you have stated, the wood is the real key not only for this stove, but for all stoves. With your wood being less than ideal I would not hesitate to wait longer before engaging the cat. For instance, instead of 10-15 minutes on reloads, I'd say go 20-30 minutes depending on how the wood is burning. From a cold start though you should be able to engage soon after 250 is reached.
Good luck and enjoy the heat!
When you have good dry wood you will find the stove heats up a lot faster. Also, you engaged the cat at 250 and that is when the temperature should start going up fast. From a cold start we'll be at 250 in about 1/2 hour. Sometimes sooner and sometimes longer. But once we engage the cat that temperature soars. If we fill the stove it will shoot up close to 700 quite fast. On half loads we can usually keep it to 500 or thereabouts.
As you have stated, the wood is the real key not only for this stove, but for all stoves. With your wood being less than ideal I would not hesitate to wait longer before engaging the cat. For instance, instead of 10-15 minutes on reloads, I'd say go 20-30 minutes depending on how the wood is burning. From a cold start though you should be able to engage soon after 250 is reached.
Good luck and enjoy the heat!
It's 20 and sunny outside, house was 66 and stove was 150 when I woke up and now the main area is 75 and the back rooms are 72-73. (I am all electric and have digital 240volt thermostats that display temp in each room and and have been set to 60 since about noon yesterday.) The crazy thing is the stove never got over 450
! Once I figure out how to get 600 I'll have no prob heating the house when its single digits and windy (you would think).
! Once I figure out how to get 600 I'll have no prob heating the house when its single digits and windy (you would think).
Chad, this morning I put in 3 small splits of elm. The stove was down to coals (I think around 250 degrees) and within an hour we were roasting. The temperature climbed up to 600 degrees before leveling off. Of course this elm was cut and split about 5 years ago so it is very dry.
Yeah the most I hit was between 525-550 last night with about 8 very small splits. Loaded at 6pm and the top hit 530ish by bout 715-730 then went to 450 for about 2hours, then 400 for a while and when I woke up at 5 am the stove was at 200 with coals. Even though my wood (oak and elm) is a year old I still have to work with it. I must put a lot of kindling in and get that going really good, then 2-3 very small splits on top of that, run the draft on full for maybe 10-15 mins, then I load it full so the splits are about 3-5 inches from the top and let that go for about 30 min, enagage and SLOWLY choke the draft back to 1 ish. It also turns out that my "kiln dryed" stuff I wasted my $ on was not any dryer than my wood cause it probably wasn't kiln dried. In order for me to get over 500 I really have to jam it full . I think I'm diong great though cause it seems like a lot of people have a hard time hitting that 5-600 mark their firts couble of years. Hopefully I don't toast the cat with less than ideal wood. It seems like the reason you guys can hit these high temps is because you can engage the cat in 10 minutes and I have to burn the moisture out of my wood, so it can take me 40-80 minutes to engage. By the time I get the wood dryed out from the fire and can engage the cat, my wood is already half gone!! now I see the importance of having 10 cords in your yard at all times.
Can't complain though, this thing keeps my ranch house toasty at 75-78 in the main area and 72-74 in the bedrooms with a 450 deg stove and high teens/low 20s at night!! I love it.
Can't complain though, this thing keeps my ranch house toasty at 75-78 in the main area and 72-74 in the bedrooms with a 450 deg stove and high teens/low 20s at night!! I love it.
Are you burning full open at #4 before engaging the cat? Try backing off to about #2 to keep some of that heat in the stove unless your wood just won't allow it. With full air the heat and flame really shoot out the back and up the pipe, slowing it down helps heat up the cat sooner.
Chad, you might try an experiment. I laugh whenever someone is here and I show them that when I turn the draft down from 1 to .5, the flame actually increases! But, it will die back down again.
On leaving the cat off for longer periods, we do that occasionally. I've left the cat off for a half hour or more more then once but it did not burn the wood up that much. I do agree with Todd that if you leave the draft full open most of the heat is going straight up the chimney.
I predict you will be in much better shape next winter.
On leaving the cat off for longer periods, we do that occasionally. I've left the cat off for a half hour or more more then once but it did not burn the wood up that much. I do agree with Todd that if you leave the draft full open most of the heat is going straight up the chimney.
I predict you will be in much better shape next winter.
Yeah last night when I almost hit 550 what I did, like Todd said, is put the draft at 2.5 with the cat off. Then against my better judgement of not seeing much flame, but having a 300 deg stovetop and a full load that was only in there for 20 minutes engaged the cat. I set the draft to 1 and went away for an hour so I wouldn't screw with it. I was on my way back in and my wife was freaking that it was 525 and looked like it was going to keep going up and I said "cool, maybe it'll hit 700". I think more of my problem is worrying about seeing a huge flame engulfed fire box BEFORE I engage because I found out that if I just say screw it and throw it in gear the firebox will go almost out and then about 2-5 minutes later POOF all the sudden a crazy amount of flames then the temp maxes out and gets that purple floating fire happening and the cat glows bright orange. Last night I had the draft set to about .9 and I almost hit 550 but when I go to 1.5 or above I can only get 400-450. Thats what it seems like . anyway. At least I'll kind of have it figured out for the beginning of the next season. Also, I do have the OAK hooked up, but If I unhook it it doesn't seem to effect the draft al all. My OAK goes down 2' and back 2' to the outside in an area where wind does not effect it.
Chad, you are almost there now! Realize that many times there will be absolutely no flame and you may or may not even see a red coal. Yet, the cat will be glowing bright red and the stovetop temperature will be way up there! It is weird when this happens but you'll get used to it.
On that crazy flame, I recall with ours when that happened and the temperature kept going up. The first time it went to 650 and I was worried but it leveled off there and all was well. Now we look forward to that beautiful rolling flame at the top of the stove. It truly is beautiful. Most times the stovetop won't get to 700 but sometimes it will get close. We had over 700 for the first time this year but were able to control it okay. We learned to bypass the cat when it gets that hot. In just a couple of minutes the temperature will start going down and then engage the cat again and all is well.
You will also learn, or probably already have, that you do not need that big flame and you will get more heat from the stove by dialing that draft down. I agree that at 1.5 about 450 is all you can get. Turn it down and the temperature goes up, thanks to the cat.
On that crazy flame, I recall with ours when that happened and the temperature kept going up. The first time it went to 650 and I was worried but it leveled off there and all was well. Now we look forward to that beautiful rolling flame at the top of the stove. It truly is beautiful. Most times the stovetop won't get to 700 but sometimes it will get close. We had over 700 for the first time this year but were able to control it okay. We learned to bypass the cat when it gets that hot. In just a couple of minutes the temperature will start going down and then engage the cat again and all is well.
You will also learn, or probably already have, that you do not need that big flame and you will get more heat from the stove by dialing that draft down. I agree that at 1.5 about 450 is all you can get. Turn it down and the temperature goes up, thanks to the cat.
Backwoods Savage said:
Not for my stove. If I leave mine at 1.5 it will easily get up over 600 and when I want a lot of heat I keep flame and a nice red coal bed going. True when you turn it way down the stove top temps climb because the cat is right underneath and doing all the work, but the rest of the stove is relatively cooler. What works for me and my high density Locust is engaging a little above 1 for about 15-30 minutes then idle down til the flame slows way down and seem to lift off the splits, I also still have some red in the coals, this is usually around .75 and I just leave it there for the rest of the burn. Species, dryness of firewood, stove and chimney setup will dictate what will work best for you so keep playing with it.
Welcome to the Fireview club. I have had the best results running mine more like Todd does than like Dennis does. Maybe next year when I have a better wood supply I'll get the results Dennis does.
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