# New homeowner with a Cresswood CW-26



## offroadphotog (Oct 22, 2013)

Bought our first home this spring. To me personally, this stove was a huge selling point to me as they are not too common in this area. I would ideally like to heat my 1700sqft house with this stove all winter. Wood costs are kind of high here since I am going to buy my wood this year while the hardwood I have been collecting is too fresh to burn. I have been reading through the forums here and learned a fair bit. I guess I just have questions about this stove and if I am "doing it" the right way by heating the house. I have read that you want to allow the wood to complete its burn cycle. I have been doing that and its working great. The stove will get to about 840* on the top, heat up the firebrick inside and the brick that surrounds it. The radiant heat is awesome is lasts for hours. One of my questions is about the heat the stove gets too. Is that too hot? What are things I can do to maximize my burn time and heat output. The flue at about 2 feet up is around 600* at times. Is that ok?

Also, I am having a hard time getting the heat distributed through my house. Its a ranch and the stove is at one end and the bedrooms are at the other. They are pretty chilly. When it gets to 30* they will get to about 65*. I have been trying to push the heat along the ceiling with small fans but should I instead "feed" the stove cool air by placing the fans on the floor an point towards the stove?

I have many questions but this will get me started.

Thanks!


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## begreen (Oct 23, 2013)

Greetings. This is the first time I've heard of this stove, but that doesn't mean too much. 840F on a stove top is very hot. 650F is a safer running temp. Can you reduce the air control setting?

For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan at the far, bedroom end of the hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running.


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## offroadphotog (Oct 24, 2013)

Thanks for the reply.

It seems like a very well built stove. I am going to put some pics up tomorrow. It is a step up style and has a blower on it and it draws the air in from the front on the bottom and then outputs to blow across the top of the stove. Ive read they are a gimmick so I do not turn it on. I will try the fan. I think my only challenge is that there is only a single door opening between the stove room/kitchen and the rest of the house.

I can choke the air supply once its well established and the temp will sit around 700 but thats almost an hour into burning. If I choke it off any sooner then it just smokes and the temp drops quickly. My wood is decent although some of the logs hiss so perhaps thats part of my issue. I will be burning better wood tomorrow. 

I appreciate the advice.


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