Had a BK Sirocco 30.2 installed in April. Fired it up a few times when I was renovating the house in the late spring when the temps dropped into the 30's for a couple days which also allowed me to cure the paint. Since then haven't used the stove until the other night. This is my first time owning a wood stove, let alone a stove with a catalytic combustor.
Here's what I've been doing with cold starts, and what I was told to do by the shop who I purchased the stove from and installed it: Damper open, thermostat set fully open, door closed but not latched/slightly cracked. Let the fire go until you're in the active zone on the CAT thermometer probe, shut the door, close the damper and over time adjust the thermostat to wherever you want it, doing it in small increments.
I'm using juniper which is really dry (split some larger pieces last week and tested them with a moisture meter and they're anywhere from unreadable because the moisture content is too low, to 6%-7%. I'm in a high desert climate and it's really, really dry here). Fire takes off pretty quick, and as soon as the CAT thermometer probe is into the active zone I close the damper, let it go for a bit with the thermostat all he way up, then incrementally start dialing down the thermostat to my desired setting. When the thermostat is wide open there's obviously a lot of flames, and as you turn it down you can get everything from these really nice "ghost flames", to nothing at all when it's turned down low, which is all obviously normal for this type of stove.
Thing is, most of the time after I initially close the damper and the catalytic combustor is engaged, the needle on the CAT thermometer probe is pegged, like it almost does a complete 360 around the dial. I made sure it's calibrated correctly, essentially "zeroing" it to that first hash mark in the inactive zone. It obviously comes back down over time, but almost always seems to go full tilt initially. The thermostat works incredibly well and it's not like the stove is constantly cranked on high. Yesterday was the first day I left the house and went to work with the stove going. When I woke up the probe was in the inactive zone, I raked up the coals, loaded the stove and very soon after had the fire going again no problem, damper open, door cracked/barely latched, thermostat open until it back into the active zone, then closed the damper to engage the combustor and adjusted the thermostat incrementally down to where it was set pretty low before leaving for work. The house stayed at 69F-73F for the entire 14+ hours I was at work and still had coals in the stove when I got home and only loaded the stove about half-way int he morning (was watching the home thermostat on a WiFi app on my phone to monitor the ambient temp inside the house. I have forced air but only plan to use that as a backup, or if I go out of town for a few days in the winter, etc.)
I'm just worried that I'm over-firing the stove. The shop said once a week to really let the stove rip with the damper open to get a hot fire going to prevent creosote build-up in the chimney and let it go for 20-30 minutes. Did this the other night during the first burn of the season and smelled like something was burning (other than wood!). I already "baked in" the finish when I got the stove during those few burns in the spring with the windows open. This almost smelled like the paint on the chimney was getting baked or something, but didn't have any smoke in the house like when you do the first couple initial burns to cure the paint, if that even makes sense.
How easy is it to over-fire and damage one of these stoves? Is doing a weekly 20-30 minute wide-open burn recommended to clean out the flue/chimney and prevent/reduce creosote buildup? I understand that the higher up the flue and chimney the lower the temps are and these are the areas with the highest potential for creosote build-up, so it would make sense to let a fire rip to attempt to clear this out, but is this at the detriment of temps getting too high in the stove and causing any damage to it?
Here's what I've been doing with cold starts, and what I was told to do by the shop who I purchased the stove from and installed it: Damper open, thermostat set fully open, door closed but not latched/slightly cracked. Let the fire go until you're in the active zone on the CAT thermometer probe, shut the door, close the damper and over time adjust the thermostat to wherever you want it, doing it in small increments.
I'm using juniper which is really dry (split some larger pieces last week and tested them with a moisture meter and they're anywhere from unreadable because the moisture content is too low, to 6%-7%. I'm in a high desert climate and it's really, really dry here). Fire takes off pretty quick, and as soon as the CAT thermometer probe is into the active zone I close the damper, let it go for a bit with the thermostat all he way up, then incrementally start dialing down the thermostat to my desired setting. When the thermostat is wide open there's obviously a lot of flames, and as you turn it down you can get everything from these really nice "ghost flames", to nothing at all when it's turned down low, which is all obviously normal for this type of stove.
Thing is, most of the time after I initially close the damper and the catalytic combustor is engaged, the needle on the CAT thermometer probe is pegged, like it almost does a complete 360 around the dial. I made sure it's calibrated correctly, essentially "zeroing" it to that first hash mark in the inactive zone. It obviously comes back down over time, but almost always seems to go full tilt initially. The thermostat works incredibly well and it's not like the stove is constantly cranked on high. Yesterday was the first day I left the house and went to work with the stove going. When I woke up the probe was in the inactive zone, I raked up the coals, loaded the stove and very soon after had the fire going again no problem, damper open, door cracked/barely latched, thermostat open until it back into the active zone, then closed the damper to engage the combustor and adjusted the thermostat incrementally down to where it was set pretty low before leaving for work. The house stayed at 69F-73F for the entire 14+ hours I was at work and still had coals in the stove when I got home and only loaded the stove about half-way int he morning (was watching the home thermostat on a WiFi app on my phone to monitor the ambient temp inside the house. I have forced air but only plan to use that as a backup, or if I go out of town for a few days in the winter, etc.)
I'm just worried that I'm over-firing the stove. The shop said once a week to really let the stove rip with the damper open to get a hot fire going to prevent creosote build-up in the chimney and let it go for 20-30 minutes. Did this the other night during the first burn of the season and smelled like something was burning (other than wood!). I already "baked in" the finish when I got the stove during those few burns in the spring with the windows open. This almost smelled like the paint on the chimney was getting baked or something, but didn't have any smoke in the house like when you do the first couple initial burns to cure the paint, if that even makes sense.
How easy is it to over-fire and damage one of these stoves? Is doing a weekly 20-30 minute wide-open burn recommended to clean out the flue/chimney and prevent/reduce creosote buildup? I understand that the higher up the flue and chimney the lower the temps are and these are the areas with the highest potential for creosote build-up, so it would make sense to let a fire rip to attempt to clear this out, but is this at the detriment of temps getting too high in the stove and causing any damage to it?
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