Cheap us stove Co. Model US1269E looking for advice for best burn times and overall proper usage from ppl familiar with this model.

[Nate_west]

Hi all, I hope this is the appropriate place to post this pictular discussion.
I live in a small 10' × 20' cabin off grid in the woods. I just finished installing a cheaper model US stove Co. US 1269E stove.
Now although new to wood burning I am aware that this is a cheap single burn rate stove. Although I have discovered some small work arounds to affect the burn rate which I will mention later on.
Firstly The manual states that this single burn rate stove is not approved for use with a damper. I installed one anyway as I want some burn rate control. What concerns, if any, would there be to doing this to a non-damper approved stove? I assume creosote build up would be the main concern but proper use of the damper and occasional hot flashing fires with the damper wide open (along with checking the clean-out T once a month at first) would help with this, correct?
Along with the damper for added air control I have noticed I can sorta chose how tightly sealed I can close the feed door. If I don't crank the handle down forcing the latch to pull the door into a complete seal, I can close the door but still have a crack where the door isn't sealed completely by kinda half-latching the door. This seems to allow me to get a hotter burn when first getting the fire going or when getting a new piece of wood to flash up. Once the stove is up to temp and the wood is good and burning I will then seal the door by cranking the latch all the way tight. Once the wood is mostly ambers I will then close the damper 3/4 closed. Btu will then drop but the ambers will last longer. Is there any downside to this technique? Is there anything else I can do to get a long burn for overnight? Remember this is a well insulated small 10' × 20' cabin so it's not a huge area to heat. What is this cheap stove known for as far as wood consumption and burn times (keeping in mind I do have a damper installed).
Any advice and opinions, recommendations etc welcome.

Thanks all
From New Brunswick, Canada

 

[Insanity]

I have the big brother to this, the US stove 2469E. So what I say may or may not apply to you. I can't recommend anything against what the manual says for anyone else, but I feel much safer having the damper to prevent a runaway burn, and it also allows you to have larger fires since you can dial it back. What I aim for, is about 1-2 hours being at 1000F flue GAS temp (not surface temp). People may say that is too high, but I hate choking a fire off to the point it makes much if any smoke. Also seems if your peak temp is below 1000F, it drops off pretty quick with the damper fully closed. Slightly above that, it'll stay at peak temp longer, I assume that its able to sustain the secondary burn then. I've had to adjust my technique since new, as part of the secondary burn system (baffle plate, kao wool baffle insulation, and secondary air cross pipe) need to be rebuilt, the stove is much tamer than it used to be. I used to have to close the damper at about 4-500F gas temp to keep it from hitting too high of a peak temp (1100+F, only my opinion). 1100+, start countermeasures. 1200+, do all countermeasures. If it wanted to go hotter than 1100, I'd put aluminum foil underneath the door (thick enough that you can just slide it in), and a piece over the center door intake. If all else failed, I would push all the firewood to the back of the box to hopefully slow it down some (I shoot for 18" pieces, can take up to 27" IIRC, so you have wiggle room). If you want it to be more aggressive, have the firewood close to the door. More tame, further back. Having full length pieces, and fully loaded, is asking for an uncontrollable stove temp with this kind of stove. You may also do these things at an even lower temp, with experience you will determine a certain rate of increase in temperature will correlate to a certain chance of it getting too hot, and you can be proactive. As far as burn times, I can go up to 16 hours and still have enough embers for a restart. Leave a good inch of ash on the bottom to lessen the chance of the stove cracking. If you have no ash for some reason, do small fires first until you have a healthy ash bed.

 

[Nate_west]

Thank you for the speedy reply. I too feel like despite what the manual states the damper is almost required. My space is small (10' × 20') too hot of a fire = sweating. I need to get a temperature gauge for the pipe but seeing as how I can touch the pipe briefly when the fire is roaring I would say I'm not getting close to the temps you state. Likely 350*F - 500*F but that's just a guess. I have found that the damper is almost required otherwise I'd go through wood fast and will cook myself out of my cabin. If anything I worry about not running a hot enough fire and getting possible excessive creosote buildup. However I haven't even had the stove for a month so I have yet to check the clean out T. This stove can accept up to 19" logs. I find sticking to 12" - 16" logs to be quite acceptable. Because the space is so small I pretty much torch only one log at a time otherwise, again, I'd cook myself out. Because of this, however, I don't seem to get nice long burn times and sometimes find myself sticking kindling under the log to get it to fire as at times my ember bed is not very large. What seems to work for me is to put about two big logs on the bottom (roughly the middle), a couple of smaller logs on top of that, then kindling atop of that. I then do a top down burn with the damper wide open. Once that has burned down the stove will be good and hot and I'll have a good bed of embers. I'll damper it off at that point and let the embers cook for a bit. Once I start to feel the btus drop a tad I will then open the damper back up and feed one 12" - 15" log in, wait for it to burn then close the damper 3/4 way. I'll continue to repeat this as that's all it takes to keep this well insulated small space warm. The main problem I'm running into thus far is I find myself getting up a few times in the night to feed the fire in order to ensure it doesn't die out so much that I have to relight, regardless I find myself relighting in the morning almost every time. If I try to create a larger longer lasting ember pile it will become too hot in here. I'm quickly discovering that balancing appropriate temps with trying to achieve longer burn times to be an art form. I'm sure as I learn this stove and as the weather gets colder outside I'll learn to create longer lasting burns that produce a steady temperature without overheating the cabin. It would be nice to build a fire, go to bed and wake up to a warm place with a nice ember pile that I can simply toss a log on. Rather than wake up to a cooling off cabin and a few embers but not enough to add new wood without relighting. I don't mind tending to the fire throughout the day but overnight I want to sleep undisturbed. I'd say I'm getting apx. 5h as of now. I want longer without increasing temps.

PS: I do always keep at least 1" of ash on the bed.

 

[stoveliker]

I think at 1.2 cubic foot you'll never have it easy to get burn times that allow you to reload without relighting through the night.

Either you have to choke it into a dirty burn (flue accumulation and chimney fire risk) or you'll burn cleaner but it runs out too soon for your wishes.

The stove only can hold so many BTUs in fuel, and the engineering only allows a minimum burn rate low enough to still burn clean. These two things will make it hard to stretch a small stove through the night.

 

[Nate_west]

I think at 1.2 cubic foot you'll never have it easy to get burn times that allow you to reload without relighting through the night.

Either you have to choke it into a dirty burn (flue accumulation and chimney fire risk) or you'll burn cleaner but it runs out too soon for your wishes.

The stove only can hold so many BTUs in fuel, and the engineering only allows a minimum burn rate low enough to still burn clean. These two things will make it hard to stretch a small stove through the night.

I figured as much. It's not a huge deal as the cabin is well insulated so even after the stove cools completely the cabin still retains quite a bit of warmth. Of course how long it retains it's warmth depends on the outside temperature. 0*c to -3*c the cabin can easily retain warmth for up to 3 - 5h. Couple that with a burn time of the same that gives me most of the night without having to get up and light a fire. As long as I can light one at night (or stock up on a preexisting fire from the day) and only have to relight once in the morning then I am golden. We will see as the weather gets colder how realistic of a goal this is.
I agree. With the limited capacity of this stove I can only expect so much. For the size of the cabin the lil stove is perfect IMHO. Funny though, the through the wall kit, all the proper piping (dual walled & dual wall insulated pipe, etc) and the floor peice for the stove to sit on cost substantially more than the stove itself. Stove = $700. Installation kit and all the other required protection stuff (floor mantle, heat shields, etc) including the stove $4k. Yikes. But it's all up to code stuff installed to code as well. So you know. I didn't want to cheap out on my life and become a crispy critter.

 

[stoveliker]

Do you have a CO detector?

 

[Nate_west]

Do you have a CO detector?

No. Which isn't smart I know. I was just thinking of that the other night that I need to make that an ASAP purchase. Thank you for reminding me.

 

[stoveliker]

Get one of the 10 year battery ones. No forgetting to change batteries that way.
And put a reminder in your calendar to buy the next one 9.5 years from now. (And write the date on the label of the thing.)

 

[Nate_west]

Get one of the 10 year battery ones. No forgetting to change batteries that way.
And put a reminder in your calendar to buy the next one 9.5 years from now. (And write the date on the label of the thing.)

Good call. I was not aware they made ones that could last that long on a battery. They must not take much power to continuously detect if it can last 10 years. Now that I know they exist, thank you, that's exactly the kind I'll purchase where I am off grid and my power comes from generator/batteries/inverter I can see myself easily forgetting to charge the detector batteries so a 10 year one would be my best bet. Good call on making a note. I'll likely put a note or a date written on a small note and stick it directly beside the detector as well so every time I happen to look at it I'll be reminded.
Thank you for the great advice. 🙏