First fire in my Blaze King
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Nice!
It's fine if the cat gauge goes this high or even "beyond". It'll settle down soon enough (1 cord?)
Do make sure you don't get your flue much cooler than this (I assume it's a probe sticking in) - otherwise you may have near or below 212 F at the top, leading to condensation of water there, which will pick up smoke particles --> and that results in creosote deposition.
This is particularly important if you have a tall flue (much time to cool gases down) or a non-insulated (liner).
It's fine if the cat gauge goes this high or even "beyond". It'll settle down soon enough (1 cord?)
Do make sure you don't get your flue much cooler than this (I assume it's a probe sticking in) - otherwise you may have near or below 212 F at the top, leading to condensation of water there, which will pick up smoke particles --> and that results in creosote deposition.
This is particularly important if you have a tall flue (much time to cool gases down) or a non-insulated (liner).
Yeah I didn't let it burn long enough at high at the start of the fire. I'm learning.
It's definitely a learning process. When I first got my Sirocco 30.2 the cat probe would almost do a 360 around the dial, but as it's been mentioned it will settle and I guess level out a bit and now that that's happened I seem to have more control over the stove.
I have also noticed that I get more control and longer burns in the stove if I use bigger pieces. All last week I experimented and cut my bigger pieces down smaller to be able to get more wood stuffed into the stove, and swear the smaller pieces and smaller splits burned faster. Purely anecdotal, but that's been my observation with limited experience.
On a cold start, and even when I reload I let the new wood char a bit before incrementally dialing back the thermostat. I am away from the house for 14 hours when I go to work and found letting the wood char first and then incrementally dialing back the thermostat incrementally while I'm getting ready for work in the morning and getting down to a pretty low setting before I walk out the door has resulted in pretty consistent and even burns for that long period of time I'm away. I also use the same method for overnight.
Twice a week I've been letting the stove run with the thermostat wide open for 20-25 minutes which I was told to do by the shop to help get rid of the build up in the flue and chimney. Seems like that has received mixed responses on here on whether this is good practice or not, but was told that's what I should do if I'm routinely running the stove on low settings for extended burns.
I have also noticed that I get more control and longer burns in the stove if I use bigger pieces. All last week I experimented and cut my bigger pieces down smaller to be able to get more wood stuffed into the stove, and swear the smaller pieces and smaller splits burned faster. Purely anecdotal, but that's been my observation with limited experience.
On a cold start, and even when I reload I let the new wood char a bit before incrementally dialing back the thermostat. I am away from the house for 14 hours when I go to work and found letting the wood char first and then incrementally dialing back the thermostat incrementally while I'm getting ready for work in the morning and getting down to a pretty low setting before I walk out the door has resulted in pretty consistent and even burns for that long period of time I'm away. I also use the same method for overnight.
Twice a week I've been letting the stove run with the thermostat wide open for 20-25 minutes which I was told to do by the shop to help get rid of the build up in the flue and chimney. Seems like that has received mixed responses on here on whether this is good practice or not, but was told that's what I should do if I'm routinely running the stove on low settings for extended burns.
The 20-25 minutes on high get rid of stuff in the firebox; deposits form there because the gases there have not passed the cat yet. Creosote is corrosive so it's good to do that.
A high burn will never get rid of stuff in the chimney. In fact the only way to clean the chimney is by sweeping it or by having a chimney fire.
The latter is what sometimes used to be done long ago, by burning full out with a stove without a baffle. That's where that advice is coming from - but it's no longer correct.
A high burn will never get rid of stuff in the chimney. In fact the only way to clean the chimney is by sweeping it or by having a chimney fire.
The latter is what sometimes used to be done long ago, by burning full out with a stove without a baffle. That's where that advice is coming from - but it's no longer correct.
