I have been experimenting with different ways to light my stove, a VC Defiant CAT, when completely cold. I have tried bottom-up, top-down, using starter blocks and different combinations of kindling and newspaper, cracking the ashpan or not, etc. Then I tried a technique that worked amazing well: a arranged the wood in diagonal pairs starting at the bottom and criss-crossing the pairs as the they make their way toward the top. The stove is not very deep, but there is just about enough room to be able to do this. I thought that arranging the wood in this way leaves a 'hole' in the middle of all the pairs which theoretically would create a chimney effect and allow the fire to rise quickly and light off as much as the wood as quickly as possible. Criss-crossing also leaves more surface area of the wood exposed to flame, versus stacking in one direction. I lit a small starter block and slid it in between the bottom pair of splits, slightly cracked the ashpan, and WOOF, in about 5 minutes, all the splits were burning!! I closed the ashpan, and in 30 minutes, the stovetop thermometer read 600 degrees! By far, this was the fastest way to get the fire going that I've tried.
Then, since I was feeling real cocky, I decided to experiment and engage the CAT which is much sooner than I normally would (I usually wait a bit over an hour until a good bed of coals has formed). My thinking was that since the stovetop temperature was already 600, I should be able to light off the CAT; and boy did it ever! The temperature of the CAT probe quickly rose to 1850 and the stovetop temperature rose to almost 800! Then smoke started forcing it's way past the gaskets in the top griddle, and it just started smelling like everything was burning. I opened the top to see what was going on at which point smoke poured out into the room. I think I just witnessed my first honest-to-god back-puffing! I then quickly opened the damper to allow the smoke to exit and to try cool down the CAT. After a few minutes both the CAT and stovetop temperature went back down to normal levels. I waited a little longer, closed the damper to reengage the CAT, and everything was fine after that.
So what happened? I thought of a few possibilities:
a) not enough hot coals which caused excessive smoke when closing damper to engage CAT
b) chimney not warmed up enough which caused poor draft
c) combination of a) and b)
d) some other problem
What do you think happened?
Then, since I was feeling real cocky, I decided to experiment and engage the CAT which is much sooner than I normally would (I usually wait a bit over an hour until a good bed of coals has formed). My thinking was that since the stovetop temperature was already 600, I should be able to light off the CAT; and boy did it ever! The temperature of the CAT probe quickly rose to 1850 and the stovetop temperature rose to almost 800! Then smoke started forcing it's way past the gaskets in the top griddle, and it just started smelling like everything was burning. I opened the top to see what was going on at which point smoke poured out into the room. I think I just witnessed my first honest-to-god back-puffing! I then quickly opened the damper to allow the smoke to exit and to try cool down the CAT. After a few minutes both the CAT and stovetop temperature went back down to normal levels. I waited a little longer, closed the damper to reengage the CAT, and everything was fine after that.
So what happened? I thought of a few possibilities:
a) not enough hot coals which caused excessive smoke when closing damper to engage CAT
b) chimney not warmed up enough which caused poor draft
c) combination of a) and b)
d) some other problem
What do you think happened?