# Can't get stove much over 300 degrees.



## Matt93eg (Dec 3, 2013)

Hey guys,

Got the new insert yesterday and got everything installed.  I actually installed the liner Sunday and had everything awaiting the arrival of the stove.  Stove came in so I finished everything up.  This is only our 2nd night burning this stove.  Stove is nothing fancy, a Drolet Escape 1800i insert with a fully insulated 6" SS liner.

I did not get ahead like I would have liked for this year as far as wood is concerned, so some of the wood I have is not completely seasoned.  However I do have a stack of good seasoned wood that is about 2 years since it was split, poplar and red oak.  Moisture reading on average between 7 and 12 percent on these splits.  Got warm today so let the fire go out. 

Started a fire this evening for tonight and got my kindling in, then some larger pieces of poplar on top of it.  It seems no matter what I do I cannot get the stove over 300 degrees.  I have read that placing a thermometer on an insert can be tricky to get an accurate reading.  My magnetic thermometer is on the front of the stove beside the top left corner of the door. 

Also no matter what I do I seem to get smoke out of the chimney.  Right now there's two poplar splits in there and they have coals and a few orange flames wicking off them but that's it.  Primary air is fully open, stove temp is 250 according to thermometer, smoke also coming out of chimney.

I probably just need to hone my fire building skills and figure out this EPA stove.


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## pen (Dec 3, 2013)

If you haven't seen it, this might be a good thread for you to check out https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...lem-stoves-air-is-restricted-faq-about.59225/

It's a learning curve, you'll get there!  Be patient, get ahead on your fuel (as you sound like you are suspecting) and as you have good fuel to burn, you'll learn the best loading techniques  But unless the fuel is good to go, it's a fight.  It's rare for a first year burner not to go through this but it's a lesson that pays dividends once you get ahead on fuel so you can control it's drying in the future.

In the meantime, I'd suggest looking at local tractor supply type stores for man-made fuel like bio brick, envi-blocks, etc, to help mix with your fuel to get you through. 

When it comes to measuring the temps, what insert do you have and where do you have the thermometer, and what type of thermometer is it?  Does the insert have an automatic blower?  Are things getting hot enough for it to cycle on automatically?

Good luck and welcome!

Also to add, when measuring moisture take a few of those seasoned splits you have and split them again, and measure the moisture on the freshly split face of it.  Also, how are you loading the stove?  Lots of wood?  Criss crossed?  Log cabin?  Are you building a small fire then loading things up on the hot coals?

pen


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## begreen (Dec 3, 2013)

It sounds like wet wood is the issue. Poplar can be like a sponge. Go to the hardware or grocery store and get a couple bundles of dry wood to test this out. Start them with construction scraps and you should be up over 500F with a good fire.


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## weatherguy (Dec 3, 2013)

Matt, where did you measure the wood? did you take a split and split it into two and measure the fresh split face? Sounds low for oak after two years, usually oak will be, if you're lucky 20 after two years but more likely in the mid 20's.


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## My Oslo heats my home (Dec 3, 2013)

After reading the heading of the thread my first thought was wet wood. Smoke coming out of the chimney, low burn temps, all signs of 20% or higher MC. But as Pen says, check out the link he posted and see if that helps. And if you didn't resplit and get a reading that way, you may want to try again


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## Fort Wisers (Dec 3, 2013)

Based on the experiences I've had with poplar if find it's "useful for burning" period to be very short lived.
When it's green it's obviouslly no good, but then I find if it's left for too long to season it's becomes pretty much as useless.

My brother and I ran into this about 15 years ago at our old moose hunting camp.
When we first cleared the land to build the camp we cut down a few good size poplars and got them split and stacked out of the elements asap thinking we'd have a great supply of wood for the next few seasons.
The first season after being stacked it was pretty good and threw a nice heat, but the second season after being stacked the wood was as light as balsa and threw almost no heat.
I agree with begreen, go get some other stuff and see if it helps.
Just my two cents....


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## Matt93eg (Dec 3, 2013)

Thanks guys for the input, its much appreciated as always!  Pen, I will check out that link you gave.

As far as the seasoned splits I have, I did not re-split them, I took the moisture reading from the end of the already split chunks.  I will re-split a few and see what reading I get. 

Pen, the insert is a Drolet Escape 1800i, the thermometer is a magnetic one I got at tractor supply and it is stuck to the face of the stove, just beside the top left corner of the door.  Maybe I need an IR Thermometer, I almost bought one at lowes today but didn't want to drop 40$, may have to after all.  The stove does have a thermostat controlled blower and last night when I fired the insert up for the first time it came on just past 200 degrees, of course that temp reading was from the magnetic thermometer. 

I have not been packing the stove full per say, last night I put quite a bit in it to get as much burn as I could.  Normally its 2 or 3 splits with the first 2 East/West and the other one kind of angled North/South. 

I will read that article and also try and get my hands on either some bio bricks at tractor supply or northern tool or some of the bundles at a gas station.  And trust me, I won't give up on this thing, if anything I am determined to get it figured out and get the most out of our money.


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## pen (Dec 3, 2013)

Matt93eg said:


> I will read that article and also try and get my hands on either some bio bricks at tractor supply or northern tool or some of the bundles at a gas station. And trust me, I won't give up on this thing, if anything I am determined to get it figured out and get the most out of our money.



You'll get there!  Buying a stove is sort of like giving someone who's never driven a car before a vehicle with a 6spd manual transmission and being told, "go, have fun!"

It's going to take some experimentation.  Don't be afraid to ask as you go along and never feel like you are alone, we've all been there.  

Also, unless your store is different from mine, I've never had luck with Rutland thermometers which are the only ones I've seen sold there.

Use it as a guide to compare one burn to the next, but don't get too stuck on the numbers or the scale.  An insert is tough to measure temp on anyway, and those thermometers can be hit or miss at best sadly.  I've had much better luck with condar thermometers.  But again, an insert is difficult to measure temp on so as long as this thing is consistent, you'll be able to judge one fire versus another so long as you don't go too crazy about the exact number.  

pen


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## Matt93eg (Dec 3, 2013)

Pen, that is an excellent way to explain as far as the stove and car thing, great analogy.  Funny you mention Rutland thermometers because that's exactly what I have.  Right now its reading just over 300 but the darn stove feels hotter than that.  If nothing else I can use the Thermometer to see how consistent I am like you said.  I don't need much fire tonight since its not really going to be cold, 48 for the low, in fact I wasn't even going to burn a fire tonight that way I could conserve wood, I was going to let the heat pump work tonight but the Wife wanted a fire so I didn't argue, I would also be lying if I said I didn't want to burn one anyways.


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## Swedishchef (Dec 3, 2013)

Matt93eg said:


> As far as the seasoned splits I have, I did not re-split them, I took the moisture reading from the end of the already split chunks


 
Something tells me wet wood is a big source of the problem.

Welcome to the forum and Pen has provided great advice. Lots of pros on this forum and you will get all the advice you need.

Your insert will be able to put out great heat, just give it time. What is the new reading on those splits?

Let us know how you make out with some dry wood.

Cheers

Andrew


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## setitonfire (Dec 3, 2013)

I would also suggest you get a second mag thermometer to place on the other side of your insert.  The first one I got was a dud and was consistently 200 deg below what the actual temp was.  Invest in an IR thermometer as well.


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## My Oslo heats my home (Dec 3, 2013)

It's the wood


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## begreen (Dec 4, 2013)

Moisture is never going to be accurate read from the end grain. It needs to be measured on a freshly split face of the wood. Resplit some of the thicker splits and recheck the moisture level. I think it will be high.


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## oldspark (Dec 4, 2013)

begreen said:


> Moisture is never going to be accurate read from the end grain. It needs to be measured on a freshly split face of the wood. Resplit some of the thicker splits and recheck the moisture level. I think it will be high.


 
Unless its a fresh cut and then the reading is the same, I did a bunch of testing a couple of years ago and a fresh cut=a fresh split, in the middle of the wood not close to the end for best reading.


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## Woodreb (Dec 4, 2013)

We have a Regency i2400 insert that is somewhat similar to your Drolet insert and have a Condar Inferno magnetic thermometer placed just above the left side of the door. When I compare that temperature to a reading with an IR thermometer just beside the Condar, I find the temp on the thermometer to be reasonably accurate (within 50°F). However, this reading is a good 100-150 degrees lower than checking a spot just above the center of the door. the magnetic thermometer doesn't fit in the center of the door or I'd put it there. I just use the Condar as a general guide that things are OK. But I mentally add about 100 degrees to what ever I see. I think the IR thermometer is a good investment.

If you get wood from the grocery store to try, I'd still check it with a moisture meter on a fresh split. I bought a couple packs to try last year because I wanted something other than cherry and there were a couple of splits that were wet. I didn't check them, but judging by the sizzling, i'm pretty sure they were above 20% moisture. I'd try some Envi blocks if you can find them in your area (I think they're better than the bricks at Tractor supply).


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## wood4free (Dec 4, 2013)

I owned the smaller Escape 1400I for 3 years and initially had the same problem where I could not get heat out of the stove. Lack of dry wood and operator error were the biggest culprits. Try re-splitting your wood into smaller splits. That will help them get burning better. Once you have a good hot fire going you need to slowly reduce the draft until you start to get secondary combustion going at the burn tubes at the top of the firebox. At that point the inside of your stove should look like a hurricane of fire rolling towards the door and the stove top temperature will really start to increase. There should be no reason your stove top should not measure 500 degrees at a minimum. With dry wood I suspect your stove top should measure around 700 degrees. As others have suggested you might consider getting a IR thermometer so you can measure temperature at multiple spots on the stove.


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## DianeB (Dec 4, 2013)

Open the door and listen closely for sizzling sounds - wet woood


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## KSgrown (Dec 4, 2013)

I've been here before... it's the wood.  You can read through my thread of the exact same scenario (below).  Some of the suggestions to me were to go buy some wood from the gas station or use non-treated kiln dried 2x4s to see if you can get the stove up to temp, just so you can confidently point your finger at the fuel and understand why.  My insert is similar with my temp gauge in the same spot.  I can get my temps up now but couldn't when I first started.  It was a tuff first year for us!

Other thing to try is let the fire burn with the door cracked for ~10-15 minutes to really get it rolling, then close the door and see if you can get your temp up.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/help-diagnose-low-temps-that-i-cant-maintain.62037/


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## Matt93eg (Dec 4, 2013)

Wow, thanks everyone for being so helpful.  I am sure a lot of my problem is operator error since I am new to this stuff but it seems like you guys said, its the wood.

I just re-split some of the splits that I thought were seasoned, its red oak that has been split for 1 1/2 to 2 years but the freshly split face was showing on average of 25%.  The poplar I have is good.  I got off work a bit early today so I am going to go out and re-split quite a bit of this wood, one it will help speed up drying a little bit and the other reason is some of these splits are a bit hard to work with in this stove.  Now that I have the stove and have gotten a feel for the firebox size I will know what size to split wood the first go round.  So it looks right now that the only seasoned wood I have for this year is the poplar and there's not to much of it so I may have to put off burning the stove until next year, sucks but I don't want a bunch of build up in the chimney. 

I think I will go ahead and invest the 35-40 bucks on an IR Thermometer.


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## Soundchasm (Dec 4, 2013)

Matt93eg said:


> Wow, thanks everyone for being so helpful.  I am sure a lot of my problem is operator error since I am new to this stuff but it seems like you guys said, its the wood.
> 
> I just re-split some of the splits that I thought were seasoned, its red oak that has been split for 1 1/2 to 2 years but the freshly split face was showing on average of 25%.  The poplar I have is good.  I got off work a bit early today so I am going to go out and re-split quite a bit of this wood, one it will help speed up drying a little bit and the other reason is some of these splits are a bit hard to work with in this stove.  Now that I have the stove and have gotten a feel for the firebox size I will know what size to split wood the first go round.  So it looks right now that the only seasoned wood I have for this year is the poplar and there's not to much of it so I may have to put off burning the stove until next year, sucks but I don't want a bunch of build up in the chimney.
> 
> I think I will go ahead and invest the 35-40 bucks on an IR Thermometer.



You'll wonder how you ever lived without an IR gun after you get it.  You can measure ceilings, floors, vents, windows, engines, yourself, the back of your wife's head...

One other consideration.  Draft seems to boil down to pressure differential in least terms.  I have a heck of a time getting something going when temps are above, say, 45 degrees and the humidity is high.  Around 20 is when my stove begins to enjoy being a stove.


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## blades (Dec 4, 2013)

Another trick to getting more heat , but at the cost of a long burn - use splits only 2-4" cross section width.  Also note that if the fan is blowing that will give a slightly lower reading apx 100 or so deg. less than actual.  as you surmised center above door gives the best reading an IR Temp unit is about the only way to monitor that.  Look or ask around at the big box stores for some pallets or similar companies. the pallets are mostly ok moisture wise the bulk of them are made out of various conifers and some use deciduous . just do not pack the insert full or you will have a runaway, as in stove going balistic.


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## oldspark (Dec 4, 2013)

Soundchasm said:


> You can measure ceilings, floors, vents, windows, engines, yourself, the back of your wife's head


Works good on electrical outlets and panels, great for finding hot spots.


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## stoveguy2esw (Dec 4, 2013)

not familiar with this drolet model assuming its a reburn stove , i see the OP is running the draft wide open,

try backing down the draft control and looking for secondaries (flames in the top of the stove) running too much primary air in a non cat has a tendency to run cooler than  running with the primary closed off a bit.

remember more air doesn't always equate to more heat (especially in a non cat)


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## KSgrown (Dec 4, 2013)

Beware, some ir guns have a peak. I've seen one max out at 500°, just something to check if you buy one


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## BrotherBart (Dec 4, 2013)

KSgrown said:


> Beware, some ir guns have a peak. I've seen one max out at 500°, just something to check if you buy one



My Harbor Freight one is good to at least 1,425. Don't ask.


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## stoveguy2esw (Dec 4, 2013)

BrotherBart said:


> Mine Harbor Freight one is good to at least 1,425. Don't ask.




in the immortal words of Paris Hilton,  "that's hot"


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## BrotherBart (Dec 4, 2013)

stoveguy2esw said:


> in the immortal words of Paris Hilton,  "that's hot"



You know the story of the old Sierra cracking with a full fresh load in it...


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## bag of hammers (Dec 4, 2013)

Matt93eg said:


> Normally its 2 or 3 splits with the first 2 East/West and the other one kind of angled North/South.



This may not be a huge help in addition to the great comments so far, but you might also try loading everything N/S if you can, or at least the bottom row.  My stove will burm much lower / slower when I load e/w on the bottom.  That's typically what I'll do if i want to extend the burn overnight or if I'm away for a good part of the day.   Easy sanity check to try....


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## Matt93eg (Dec 5, 2013)

Yeah I noticed some of the IR guns had a low peak reading when I was in lowes the other day.  They had one for I think 40$ that read to 900 degrees. 

Bag of hammers, I will try loading N/S and see if that helps.  Won't burn another fire until Saturday night by the way it looks right now because its warm.


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## Matt93eg (Dec 8, 2013)

Hey guys,  I went ahead and bought an IR gun yesterday, and like soundchasm said I don't see how I was going without it.  You can get a reading anywhere on the stove.  I usually point the laser on the top of the stove.  Right now she is cranking away at 455 degrees.  I think I am starting to get a better handle on this EPA stove.  I have learned that after a reload I have got to leave the primary air open until the wood gets charred good and then I can slowly start cutting back the primary air. 

I would probably be cussing this thing by now if it wasn't for the advice on this forum.  I got some wood that was more seasoned and that is making a huge difference.  Next year I will be ahead and have some good wood already.

Anyways, its raining outside, about 34 degrees at the moment.  Its 78 in the stove room, 75 in the hallway leading to the bedrooms, and 68-70 in the far bedroom.  I still need a couple more small fans to distribute the heated air better but overall I am liking this Drolet stove. 

Last night I loaded it full at 10:30pm, went to bed, didn't wake up until 6:25am, still felt fine in bedroom but I jumped up to feed the stove.  Was still still 68 in the bedroom, 75 in stove room.  Had a nice bed of hot coals so I spread them out a bit, put a few splits on there and off she went.  I am still a LONG ways from a pro but so far I am grinning.


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## Swedishchef (Dec 8, 2013)

Great news! It sounds you're getting the hang of it. Nothing comes fast in the wood burning world. I can only speak for myself but after 3 years of burning I am still learning!

GOod wood is key to an EPA stove.

Andrew


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## DanCorcoran (Dec 8, 2013)

Matt93eg said:


> I still need a couple more small fans to distribute the heated air better



Another tip from this forum:  put the fans on the floor and blow the cold air toward the stove room.  It'll be twice as effective as trying to blow warm air into the cold rooms.


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## Matt93eg (Dec 8, 2013)

Dancorcoran, Yes I received that advice on this forum as well.  I was trying to blow the heated air towards the cool rooms but it works better having a small fan on the floor blowing the cold air towards the stove room, works really good.


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## bag of hammers (Dec 9, 2013)

Swedishchef said:


> Great news! It sounds you're getting the hang of it. Nothing comes fast in the wood burning world. I can only speak for myself but after 3 years of burning I am still learning!
> 
> GOod wood is key to an EPA stove.
> 
> Andrew



+1

I burned an older smoke dragon for @ 10 years or so, then the tube stove for the last 4.  Looking forward to one day when maybe I can cut my teeth on a hybrid or cat stove too.  It's all about the journey . 



BrotherBart said:


> My Harbor Freight one is good to at least 1,425. Don't ask.



BB was it you that once recommended keeping a change of clothes near the wood stove? 

I happened to walk by a 60% off deal on cheap IR guns in one of the box stores here one day - so I grabbed one.  To be honest, I have no idea what the limit is, 'cause I think I probably pointed it at everything except the wood stove.


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## Matt93eg (Dec 9, 2013)

Well guys,

My Wife stayed home from work today so she wanted a lesson on using the new stove.  So I showed her what I knew(thanks to you guys) and loaded the stove up before leaving for work.  I checked in with her several times throughout the day and I be darned, I think she was running the thing better than I was.  I came home from a COLD WET day at work and couldn't wait to get home and relax in the heat, I walked in and man was it nice.  She had it 80 in the stove room, far ends of the house were 70. 

I told her "darn, your running the new stove better than I have in the week we have had it".  That had her smiling from ear to ear.  She loves heating with the wood.  Doesn't like the mess no more than I do but its worth it.  Heat pump hasn't been on once since I started the fire on Saturday evening.   I "DO NOT" miss hearing the compressor firing up in the heat pump in the middle of the night.


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## oldspark (Dec 9, 2013)

Matt you have a keeper.


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## Matt93eg (Dec 9, 2013)

Oldspark I believe I do!!   Only suppose to be a low of 45 tonight with rain, its already 45.  Still plenty warm in the house.  Nice coal bed in the stove.  I had thought about letting it go out but think I will load up a few splits for the night just to keep the stove hot a nice coal bed because its suppose to be 30 tomorrow night and 20 on Wednesday night.


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## aaron1 (Dec 9, 2013)

My wife probably runs our stove better than I do too.  I always want to damper it down fast to get the secondaries going.  She wants to let it run full blast, blazing away.  She never get smoke out of the chimney, ever, but she goes through wood faster.  I slow the burn some, but I go up to check for smoke when I am wondering if I dampered it down too much, and often, I have a little smoke and have to crank it up again.  Still learning how slowly to damper it down.  Glad you're getting the stove to work well!


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## pen (Dec 9, 2013)

aaron1 said:


> My wife probably runs our stove better than I do too.  I always want to damper it down fast to get the secondaries going.  She wants to let it run full blast, blazing away.  She never get smoke out of the chimney, ever, but she goes through wood faster.  I slow the burn some, but I go up to check for smoke when I am wondering if I dampered it down too much, and often, I have a little smoke and have to crank it up again.  Still learning how slowly to damper it down.  Glad you're getting the stove to work well!



I lived that same story my first two years running the modern stove.  I bought a better chimney thermometer and played around with it's position (it's actually one with basically no numbers on it) so that when that thermometer reaches the noon position, it's time to start decreasing the air.  The temp will usually drop to about 11 after the air adjustment, when it's back to 12, time to damper again, do that until I reach where I usually cruise with the air control, and look one more time about 10-15 mins later.  If it hasn't gone past 1 at that point, it's perfect where it is for the duration.  If it is past 1, then I close things up just a touch more. 

Buying that stack thermometer with no (almost none) numbers on it was the best thing I ever did.  Made me look for a pattern rather than a certain number.  I let the accumulation in the chimney after some experience and cleanings let me know if that practice was right or not. 

pen


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## aaron1 (Dec 9, 2013)

I had been wondering if a stack thermometer wouldn't be a great solution to this problem of how fast to damper down.  My stove is hearth-mounted with little room to get to the stovepipe and no ability to read a thermometer stuck to the pipe.  Is there a some way i can rig a temperature probe through the cleanout on the bottom or from the top that has a remote readout?  

If this isn't possible, I might be better off just using the flames as a guide if possible or maybe going high-tech and rigging a permanent, quality, wireless surveillance camera to my chimney and monitoring on my laptop (over-engineered, geek solution that appeals to me!)


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## Matt93eg (Dec 10, 2013)

aaron1, I am the same way, I tend to start closing the air to soon.  She will run it wide open and hot but burns through wood faster just like you said.  I think I am a bit more "wood conscious" I think since I am the one going into the woods, sawing up trees, splitting the logs, and then hauling the splits home.  While I am doing that she is in the house with the toasty stove.  I enjoy working with the wood for the most part but that doesn't mean its not hard work.


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## aaron1 (Dec 10, 2013)

Amen, that's exactly it!  And, I'm just frugal by nature (for the most part, though this stove was a luxury item b/c I love burning and watching flames!)  I also just love the look of the purple secondaries when they kick in fully on lowest draft setting and just lick the glass for minutes and minutes, awesome complete combustion!  

I also noticed that the wife doesn't really want to load her up and pack her tight.  I'm always encouraging her to put more in so we can jack up the temp and let the secondaries rip!!  We're both going through the learning curve!  I'm starting to think that watching the flame pattern is key to figuring out when to damper down the draft (maybe in absence of a stovepipe thermometer or chimney cam )


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## Matt93eg (Dec 10, 2013)

Yeah I for the most part frugal by nature as well.  We are going through the learning curve as well and hopefully next year will be in much better shape.  On top of getting use to this new modern stove, I also have less than "ideal" wood this year.  I got a bit of seasoned stuff and man did that rock.  Like swedishchef said above, good seasoned wood is the key.  Hopefully next year I will be much more ahead and have much more ideal wood for burning, right now we just have to do the best we can with what we have and keep an eye on the liner for buildup.


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## aaron1 (Dec 10, 2013)

I think if you aren't seeing any smoke and you are burning it hot most of the time you won't have a problem with creosote buildup.  I ran my "smoke dragon" VC Vigilant last year and went through maybe 2 cords of wood for fires in the evenings and weekends.  I didn't have anything in the liner when my sweep checked it this Fall.  He was amazed at how clean it was, as was I.  i guess since I didn't load it up and let it smolder, it didn't have any problems.  Again, I'd rather "waste" a little wood and not get any smoke and buildup in the liner than starve the fire, extend the burn, and have buildup.


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## Matt93eg (Dec 10, 2013)

aaron1 said:


> I think if you aren't seeing any smoke and you are burning it hot most of the time you won't have a problem with creosote buildup.  I ran my "smoke dragon" VC Vigilant last year and went through maybe 2 cords of wood for fires in the evenings and weekends.  I didn't have anything in the liner when my sweep checked it this Fall.  He was amazed at how clean it was, as was I.  i guess since I didn't load it up and let it smolder, it didn't have any problems.  Again, I'd rather "waste" a little wood and not get any smoke and buildup in the liner than starve the fire, extend the burn, and have buildup.


 

I agree, I don't want build up in the liner if at all possible, right now with this less than ideal wood I am having to leave the primary air open more to get it to burn nice and hot where with that dry stuff I had I could close the primary and I was enjoying secondary's for quite some time.  I have next week off of work so I plan to be in the woods several of those days sawing logs and splitting, trying to get myself ahead for next year.  Suppose to be 27 here tonight so I will have it blazing.


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## bag of hammers (Dec 10, 2013)

Matt, Aaron while you find your groove, don't drive yourselves crazy over the possibility that you might burn up a few extra splits.  Efficient burning is a good thing, of course, but not loading it up enough, trying to dial it down too soon, etc - just adds to frustration while you're trying to learn your setup.  Once you're comfortable with the basics, then fine tune for optimum efficiency, when the pressure is off.  You might find you're already there, without having done too much worrying along the way.  Just my 2c fwiw...


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## aaron1 (Dec 10, 2013)

Thanks,  BoH, that's a good point.  I'm just OCD, so I want it to be perfect, now!  In the grand scheme it's probably not a lot of extra wood to just let it burn longer.


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## pen (Dec 10, 2013)

You can do almost anything in the world with a stove so long as you keep up with chimney inspections and cleanings if you have a solid (by the book) installation. 

My grandfather cleaned his exterior masonry chimney once per month, no matter what (fisher mama bear).  As a kid, I spent a lot of time there and he was great about letting me load the stove, adjust the air, and explain why what I did was a good choice or not at the time.  It sounds romantic, but it mostly was (so, do you plan on sleeping with blankets, a sheet, or walking out to the garage to cool off????)  He had a system but was willing to let me mess with it.  I'll forever thank him for his willingness to let me play,,,,, he had the unique ability to let me make a decision then sneak in knowledge and let me feel like me changing what I did was my idea. 

When it came to the chimney, I helped there too and he never had much accumulation as he burned good wood, and burned it good and hot consistently but years as a firefighter and chief just couldn't get him do less.  When cancer decided to kick him in the ass, the duties came back to me in keeping gram safe as she still burns about a cord a winter, when things get really cold.  When I took over these duties, I wasn't burning in my own home and the seriousness of the whole thing hit me and I was searching the old memory bank for things he told me to make sure I was doing it right.  Funny how responsibility sneaks up and makes one wish they took more advantage of situations they had in the past.

With my own house, even after lining and insulating the exterior masonry chimney, I kept up monthly cleanings for a year just to be certain I knew how things were operating.  Then, with experience, I knew I could cut back to less.  Now, I'll clean around Christmas/new years then again sometime in March, then again at the end of the season. 

I could get away with once per year I'm certain, maybe someday I'll feel confident to do that, but in the meantime, I find the peace of mind worth the effort.

Moral of the story, you are doing it right.  You are playing and being cognizant of the possible consequences, learning and asking questions. 

Keep it up.

Well done.

pen


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## aaron1 (Dec 10, 2013)

Well, pen, I for one should have tested my chimney sooner.  I just got lucky that it was really clean.  I think your cautious approach of cleaning more often is much better advice.  That's a nice memory of your grand dad.  I have a lot of fond memories of my dad stoking our inefficient old Sears stove from the 80s as a kid. That baby could really crank, but I still remember the horrible smell it emitted as I played in the snow in the back yard!  He taught me a lot about building fires though.


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## bag of hammers (Dec 10, 2013)

aaron1 said:


> Thanks,  BoH, that's a good point.  I'm just OCD, so I want it to be perfect, now!  In the grand scheme it's probably not a lot of extra wood to just let it burn longer.


As am I - I'd drive myself nuts worrying about burning a bit more than "necessary".  Don't let it bug you too much.  

Pen, the way you described your grandfather's approach to showing you the ropes - that's the hallmark of a great teacher.  Great story, sounds like he was a great man.


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## pen (Dec 10, 2013)

It's all about the learning curve.  By having the ambition to ask questions, have a willingness to learn, it's funny how most here find themselves on the upper side of that curve 

I was lucky and had an influence that was ahead of his time in many regards.  That said, I've still learned a poo-ton from this site!!

pen


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