Newbie poster and stove user here. I've been observing this form for a while now, learning a lot. I wanted to see if anyone could provide some thoughts or advice. My backstory, I recently built a vacation home/second residence in the northern Catskills in New York. I wanted to have a wood stove for heat while I'm there, however, there is propane baseboard as a backup. This is our first winter in the home. We use the propane baseboard set low to prevent the house from freezing, and the wood stove as primary heat while there. We had a few nights dip into the 40s late August/early September so we seasoned a brand new Vermont Castings Defiant with some small quick fires per the manual, just to get the chill out of the air.
This past weekend temps didn't get out of the 50s and were into the 30s at night, so we decided to go full force with the stove. Here is what we did/learned. It is a catalytic stove, which I've been reading mixed opinions on. But it's what we were sold, so let's roll with it. We are burning all hardwood. It is not as seasoned as I'd like, I would admit.
To get it going, we put a couple of pieces of crumbled newspaper and two or three strips of fatwood with one smallish split log. We leave the damper open and door cracked for a bit to let as much oxygen fuel the fire. Once the larger log ignites, we close the front doors. Then we add some logs to the top, stacking it full for an overnight burn. We let the temperature get to about 550-600 at the stove top (per the magnetic thermometer), and the flames are roaring. We then close the damper. Upon closing the damper, the flames basically die down to a glow or nothing much at all. This is when my better half starts yelling at me that it's not working right. And I say, to the contrary, this is how catalytic stoves work. We burned all night and when I woke up, the stovetop was at about 200 with some hot coals left. I opened the damper, threw another couple of logs on the fire, and let it continue to warm up until it burned out. Then we didn't need the heat much during the day. We reignited the fire again for our second night.
So I guess my questions are: am I doing this right? Are we not supposed to see crazy flames when the damper is shut? Additionally, is it ok to just let the fire slow burn overnight with the damper closed although the temp eventually gets to below 250? My wife sees the "creosote" meter on the thermometer and freaks that we are going to burn the house down.
The little catalytic gauge on the back of the stove isn't moving at all...even when the stove rips at 600 degrees for some time. We also have a blower installed on it that doesn't seem to work...I called our installer about it..waiting to hear back.
So how am I doing? Ideally I'd like more seasoned wood to burn.....we have some blacking on the glass already. I plan on cleaning the chimney in the spring. And this is only for part-time use while we are there which is every couple of weekends. Am I missing anything with operating this stove? I have used other wood stoves when I was younger, however they were older models and had dampers that partially opened/closed. The Defiant has open/close damper setting and a separate temperature control. Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.
This past weekend temps didn't get out of the 50s and were into the 30s at night, so we decided to go full force with the stove. Here is what we did/learned. It is a catalytic stove, which I've been reading mixed opinions on. But it's what we were sold, so let's roll with it. We are burning all hardwood. It is not as seasoned as I'd like, I would admit.
To get it going, we put a couple of pieces of crumbled newspaper and two or three strips of fatwood with one smallish split log. We leave the damper open and door cracked for a bit to let as much oxygen fuel the fire. Once the larger log ignites, we close the front doors. Then we add some logs to the top, stacking it full for an overnight burn. We let the temperature get to about 550-600 at the stove top (per the magnetic thermometer), and the flames are roaring. We then close the damper. Upon closing the damper, the flames basically die down to a glow or nothing much at all. This is when my better half starts yelling at me that it's not working right. And I say, to the contrary, this is how catalytic stoves work. We burned all night and when I woke up, the stovetop was at about 200 with some hot coals left. I opened the damper, threw another couple of logs on the fire, and let it continue to warm up until it burned out. Then we didn't need the heat much during the day. We reignited the fire again for our second night.
So I guess my questions are: am I doing this right? Are we not supposed to see crazy flames when the damper is shut? Additionally, is it ok to just let the fire slow burn overnight with the damper closed although the temp eventually gets to below 250? My wife sees the "creosote" meter on the thermometer and freaks that we are going to burn the house down.
The little catalytic gauge on the back of the stove isn't moving at all...even when the stove rips at 600 degrees for some time. We also have a blower installed on it that doesn't seem to work...I called our installer about it..waiting to hear back.
So how am I doing? Ideally I'd like more seasoned wood to burn.....we have some blacking on the glass already. I plan on cleaning the chimney in the spring. And this is only for part-time use while we are there which is every couple of weekends. Am I missing anything with operating this stove? I have used other wood stoves when I was younger, however they were older models and had dampers that partially opened/closed. The Defiant has open/close damper setting and a separate temperature control. Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.
. I will say, once you get comfortable with it, the overnight burns are fantastic with these cat stoves. I keep waking up after 8+ hours with a 300+ degree stove, a heap of hot coals, and a warm house.
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