Finicky stove or finicky user?

[spitfire557]

Hello all,

First season burning wood as a heat source for my wife and I. The house we bought has an Englander 28-3500 which seems to be in okay shape. I had the chimney swept and I replaced the firebrick/door gaskets before the start of the burn season.

I understand it's a terrible year for cord wood, which may result in abnormal burns but our stove seems particularly fussy. I've been very cautious with flue temps and bought an Auber Instruments AT210 to monitor them (screwed washer to single wall, 18" above stove).

I've read that ideal 'cruising' flue temps should be in the ~350* range, but ours seems to be much happier in the 400-425* range. Is this an issue or is it okay to keep these temps sustained for ~2 hours at a time? The other issue is that the stove has a sliding air intake adjustment on the front, and despite it having ~6" of adjustment, only about ~1" seems to mean anything. This results in the slightest movement of the slider to cause drastic changes to the burn temps. VERY frustrating at time. One second it's creeping into the mid 400* range and a 1/4" slide of the intake adjustment sends the fire dipping into the low 300* range and about to die out.

Side note: I also bought a moisture content meter and have been careful to not burn anything that is above 20%.

So is it me, or the stove? When I vent at work about this, the guys that also burn wood chuckle at how particular I am with it. Most just throw some wood in it and as long as it looks good leave it alone. I can't help but wonder if I'm over thinking it.

 

[Dix]

No, you are not, and welcome to the forums !

I don't know your stove, so I am going to go with my gut here, from your informative post

1st season burning is a learning curve. How seasoned is your firewood (it's a red flag ) ???? 20% on the middle of an old split, or 20% on a fresh split piece of wood?

My Englander cruises at 450 - 550 F on primo firewood, with the front air just about shut down.

I am sure, more will chime in

 

[spitfire557]

No, you are not, and welcome to the forums !

I don't know your stove, so I am going to go with my gut here, from your informative post

1st season burning is a learning curve. How seasoned is your firewood (it's a red flag ) ???? 20% on the middle of an old split, or 20% on a fresh split piece of wood?

My Englander cruises at 450 - 550 F on primo firewood, with the front air just about shut down.

I am sure, more will chime in

Firewood is all purchased this year. It's sold as "seasoned" and the majority is 10-15% on a fresh split. The last cord we had delivered (which was from his "reserves") is terrible. 25% on a fresh split, I'm not even going to burn it this year.

And when you say 450-550*, is that stove top or flue temp?

 

[Bartman23]

Is this starting from a new fire or reloading a warm stove? Also what species of wood are you burning. Maybe try getting it a bit hotter before trying to shut it down especially when starting a new fire. When starting a fire I can have my pipe thermometer at 400° and put my face on the stove. You need to warm it up before shutting the air controls.

 

[spitfire557]

Is this starting from a new fire or reloading a warm stove? Also what species of wood are you burning. Maybe try getting it a bit hotter before trying to shut it down especially when starting a new fire. When starting a fire I can have my pipe thermometer at 400° and put my face on the stove. You need to warm it up before shutting the air controls.

Almost always starting a new fire. And I'm burning a mix of species, not very good (yet) at identifying split wood so really no help there.

Tonight for example, I've had the stove running for about 5 hours now at a steady ~400*F flue temp. It's currently at 430*F about an hour after throwing two more logs on it. I'm about to turn it down a bit more and head to bed. Hope is that the blower stays running all night.

 

[kborndale]

Firewood is all purchased this year. It's sold as "seasoned" and the majority is 10-15% on a fresh split. The last cord we had delivered (which was from his "reserves") is terrible. 25% on a fresh split, I'm not even going to burn it this year.

And when you say 450-550*, is that stove top or flue temp?

Is that 10-15% on a fresh split at room temp? If it is than congrats, its very rare to buy wood that is below 20%,

 

[spitfire557]

Is that 10-15% on a fresh split at room temp? If it is than congrats, its very rare to buy wood that is below 20%,

Yeah fresh split at room temp. Our source is a local retired guy who only has a few customers, so maybe he's a bit more genuine than some random source that you'd find on Facebook or Craigslist. Either way, he's been good to us (with the exception of this last cord).

 

[jetsam]

I have to doubt that any firewood seller in PA is selling 10% MC firewood. It's been a swamp of a year. The wood would need to have been dried indoors in a building with floors and walls (not just outdoors under cover) .

If you load in some wood on top of hot coals, does it hiss or sizzle?

 

[spitfire557]

I have to doubt that any firewood seller in PA is selling 10% MC firewood. It's been a swamp of a year. The wood would need to have been dried indoors in a building with floors and walls (not just outdoors under cover) .

If you load in some wood on top of hot coals, does it hiss or sizzle?

The majority of it does not hiss or sizzle. Just for kicks, I just went downstairs and split three separate pieces and stuck the MC meter in them. The results certainly don't support my argument (but still not bad IMO).


Those were all just split down 5 minutes ago by me. They have been stored in the basement for about a week while they await their final destination.

I guess my main question is this: if my stove seems happiest with flue temps at 400-450*F, is there are harm in letting it run that hot for extended periods of time?

 

[begreen]

Is that surface thermometer temp on single wall or probe on double-wall stove pipe? If single-wall, 400-450ºF is high for a wood stove. It means a lot of heat is going up the flue. But for an old style wood furnace maybe that is more normal?

 

[Bartman23]

I have this on my single wall pipe. I usually let it climb to 500 or 600 than shut it down. Usually settles in at 4 or 450 I'd say what your doing is all good. When I moved into my house this stove was already here but no thermometer on it. I'm certain I burnt it way to hot on several occasions.

 

[begreen]

500º surface temp is ~900-1000º internal temp on single wall. That is pretty hot. Try starting to close down the air sooner, like around 250 to 300º.

 

[spitfire557]

Is that surface thermometer temp on single wall or probe on double-wall stove pipe? If single-wall, 400-450ºF is high for a wood stove. It means a lot of heat is going up the flue. But for an old style wood furnace maybe that is more normal?

I’m using a surface thermometer on single wall.

 

[spitfire557]

I have this on my single wall pipe. I usually let it climb to 500 or 600 than shut it down. Usually settles in at 4 or 450 I'd say what your doing is all good. When I moved into my house this stove was already here but no thermometer on it. I'm certain I burnt it way to hot on several occasions. View attachment 242023

I have that exact magnetic thermometer on my flue (in addition to the Auber AT210). FYI it’s been prett accurate to my digital thermometer readings, minus the obvious delay for the spring to catch up.

 

[Bartman23]

Yeah I've tested mine with the ir gun too. Usually pretty close to accurate.