fireview question???

[Todd]

That sounds great, just let her go, it should be throwing off gobs of heat now and will probably climb a little more before settling down. Don't worry so much about flaming the cat, I think you would have to have the air almost wide open to damage it and even if you do Woodstock would probably give you a new one for free if you claim temporary insanity.

 

[yamgrizz700]

thanks todd, this thing is throwing tons of heat, well so much i need to get out of this room( the stove is right next to the computer so to all a good night and a good night too all, thanks again, next time i will put up pics of my setup and a raging fire.

 

[wendell]

Glad to hear it is working better. That Todd is an amazing person!

Don't turn it down before you go to bed. You will still have plenty of coals in the morning.

What I tend to see as when I load up for the night and once I engage the cat and turn it down to .8-1 (depending on the outside temperature warmer=less draft=setting it higher), I will get a rolling flame along the top of the stack with some occasional flame up the front. The flame will then die out and I will just have a little red coals on the wood and then about 30 minutes later, once the cat is really cranking, the flames will return on the top of the stack but will be more straight up.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hello Robert. Sorry I missed this thread last night but I was not on the computer much yesterday.

That is great that you have a Woodstock person not far from you and he should be capable of knowing something about your wood. Yet, just because he is a Woodstock person does not necessarily make him that knowledgeable about firewood, but he should know more than just a little bit at the least.

You asked more than once if dry wood will make a difference. Believe me, you will be amazed at the difference! If you have ever had bad gas in your car and know how badly it runs, then fixed it and it ran like it should, then you can visualize the same thing with your wood and stove. Wood is fuel for your stove the same as gas is fuel for your car. Buy good stuff and all is well; buy bad or not-so-good and it is a battle.

You have both maple and oak. For sure I would not try to burn the oak yet as that is a very, very slow seasoning wood. Maple? It all depends upon what type of maple it is. This, of course, tells you that all wood does not season in the same length of time.

By all means get next year's wood as soon as possible. Get it split and stacked out in the wind and hopefully where it will also get sunshine.

On the flames going into the cat, I too think this is misread a lot. Flames going up there does not harm the cat, otherwise what would we do when we get that beautiful rolling flame at the top of the firebox?

If I thought my wood was a bit less than seasoned, I would definitely wait more than the 10-15 minutes before engaging the cat. I still do that at times even though our wood is pretty darned dry. It all depends upon how the fire is acting at the time. I would go by the fire actually more than time. I also look closely at the temperature of both the stove top and flue.

As for where to set the draft lever, again it all depends upon the fire. Most times I'll cut the draft to 1 when engaging the cat. However, there are times I go a lot lower and I even remember a few times going higher. So you can not make a blanket statement on how to set the stove. However, you probably could make the statement that when engaging the cat., dial down to 1 or between 1 and 1 1/2 and then turn down in stages.

One thing for sure is that when you engage the cat, that temperature should rise pretty darned fast. Late yesterday afternoon I put in 3 splits of maple and within about 20-30 minutes the stove top temperature was flirting with 600 degrees.

Please do not hesitate to ask more questions. Also let us know how things went last night.

 

[yamgrizz700]

Well guys i want to first start off by saying THANK YOU todd, wendell and Dennis. I appreciatie your time and willingness to teach other people about wood and how to burn there wood stoves. Also a Big thank you to woodstock co. (especially jamie and lorin) who by the way read my posts and it gives them a chuckle from now and then. thanks guys for all your help and "the wood".
And as far as last night it was awesome i controlled my (ocd like my wife says i have??) and left the draft alone didnt touch it, it was hard to do but i managed. So the stove ran great pushed 575 and stayed there for some time, i got up this morning at 530 and the stove top was 275++ threw some splits in let it go and set the draft and like clock work by the time i left for work at 630 it was at 475 stove top and climbing. so with the wood i so kindly got from my friends at woodstock(thanks again guys/gals) well see if we can have a repeat fire.

 

[Todd]

Sounds great! I know what your saying about staying away from your air control, I was the same way my first year. Now I know just where to set and forget according to the weather conditions and firewood load.

Tell your friends at Woodstock to drop in here and give up some of their wisdom, we don't bite, much.

 

[yamgrizz700]

i am sure they will, right guys

 

[Todd]

Ha, I just thought about something else Robert. Since your so close and already have an inside angle, you could be our spy and give us details on that new larger Woodstock stove that's in the works. Oh, and tell them to hurry up! lol

 

[yamgrizz700]

will do, :cheese: it sure would be nice to have a bigger stove. i ll keep my spy eyes open ;-) and by the way a little kiln dried wood an some of my "seasoned'' wood in the stove right now stove top is 575 and climbing yahooooooooooooo air at 1.25 ish loving life right now. but man am i hot at this computer!! already in shorts.

 

[yamgrizz700]

throwing some heat and staying steady at 600 °F