Help me not hate my Regency F3100.

[mfglickman]

That room should be able to exceed 80 degrees as the burn cycle progresses. If it can not, I would feel draftiness is a big factor here.

This is how I know my house is drafty. Keep in mind my stove is in a 500 SF room that was built in the 1970's - so it has some insulation and the windows are actually quite nice quality for modern windows...but it's over a crawlspace and the wall insulation is probably not optimal and there are air leaks everywhere - around windows, baseboards, electrical outlets...craziness. The "old" part of the house actually feels more solid, but because it has 2 hearths standing corner to corner next to each other, plus a cooking oven, it's like a wind tunnel.

 

[velvetfoot]

A 2.9 cubic foot firebox is not small.

 

[pearlgirl]

Ok after I opened the air back up a bit, little less than a half hour ago, (so I think it's about down 75% again), the temp has started to drop, it's down to 600 now.

I am hoping this is the wet wood? I feel like it should hold longer than it is. With dryer wood we can close down the air sooner, and won't burn so much of the wood just heating up the stove so it will maintain the 2ndary burn longer?

 

[pearlgirl]

A 2.9 cubic foot firebox is not small.

LOL Thank you. What is small is the box on my antique cook stove, and that easily heats 1200 square feet of my house! (Admittedly not efficiently) Hence why I am questioning this thing!

 

[Waulie]

Sounds like you've got it rolling now!

I still think you're going to see a nice difference even though you've had the stove hot before. With the wetter wood, you were having to keep the draft open more to keep it going which was sending more heat up the flue. Even though parts of the stove were hot (maybe too hot), overall you were wasting a lot of heat boiling off all that water in the wood. With the dry wood you should be able to find a nice cruising spot on the draft which will heat up the whole stove and overall provide much more heat. Let us know how it goes.

Also, if the far reaches of house house were pretty cool to start, it is going to take a long time to get all that "stuff" up to heat. I'd be curious to see what things look like come morning if you have enough dry wood and get a nice load in before bed. I think what you're doing with the draft is good. Find the spot that makes it hold temp and run it there. Especially at this hour, I'd run it as hot as is reasonable to warm things up and burn that load down so you can get a nice one in for the night.

 

[pearlgirl]

This is how I know my house is drafty. Keep in mind my stove is in a 500 SF room that was built in the 1970's - so it has some insulation and the windows are actually quite nice quality for modern windows...but it's over a crawlspace and the wall insulation is probably not optimal and there are air leaks everywhere - around windows, baseboards, electrical outlets...craziness. The "old" part of the house actually feels more solid, but because it has 2 hearths standing corner to corner next to each other, plus a cooking oven, it's like a wind tunnel.

PS: mfglickman LOVE the picture of your dogs! So cute. We have two yellows labs and little poodle mix. I love how the stove puts them in a coma! LOL It does do that well, they have no qualms about laying right in front of it and snoozing.

76 in here now, but stove has started it's decent.

 

[Waulie]

Ok after I opened the air back up a bit, little less than a half hour ago, (so I think it's about down 75% again), the temp has started to drop, it's down to 600 now.

I am hoping this is the wet wood? I feel like it should hold longer than it is. With dryer wood we can close down the air sooner, and won't burn so much of the wood just heating up the stove so it will maintain the 2ndary burn longer?

We were posting at the same time. I didn't see where the temp was already dropping. Dropping a little bit should be OK, but it should find a happy place and hold steady for a couple hours at least. What does the fire look like?

 

[pearlgirl]

We were posting at the same time. I didn't see where the temp was already dropping. Dropping a little bit should be OK, but it should find a happy place and hold steady for a couple hours at least. What does the fire look like?

It's dropped to 525 and almost no visible flame

 

[pearlgirl]

A little bit of blue flame coming off one of the back logs, other wise no flame. The box is barely glowing orange when I look across the room, when I get close to it the underside of the logs is glowing orange but that's all that's going on.

 

[Waulie]

It's dropped to 525 and almost no visible flame

That doesn't seem right to me. Do you still have a bunch of solid wood in there or is it looking like split-shaped coals?

 

[BrowningBAR]

In the room with the stove, do you feel cold air coming in from the other rooms?

 

[pearlgirl]

That doesn't seem right to me. Do you still have a bunch of solid wood in there or is it looking like split-shaped coals?

Probably split shaped coals. I could probably break the logs up pretty easily at this point. At least into thirds, some smaller coals and some bigger hunks.

 

[pearlgirl]

In the room with the stove, do you feel cold air coming in from the other rooms?

Not where I am, no. That does happen some times though. Right now the one side is warm from the cook stove, this is the first time we've run it this year. Room temp is stalled at 76 in here a high for today, it's mid 70's on the one side of the house that is older and more drafty due to the cookstove, not feeling any coolness from there.

 

[pearlgirl]

500 and absolutely no flame

 

[BrowningBAR]

Pack the bastard full, gut it roaring, and see what you've got going on for burn times.

If the stove isn't heating your area unless it is roaring and over 500 degrees, that means you are dealing with a drafty home and an undersized stove.

The problem is, the 3100 is not a small stove and there aren't many options out there that will be large enough to make a difference. The Blaze King King and Equinox are the only others, but they require 8" exhaust.

If you have the means, insult the hell out of the place.

 

[BrowningBAR]

500 and absolutely no flame

Nothing wrong with that. 500 should be providing your area with plenty of heat. If it is not, well, you already know what I think the true problem is.

 

[Waulie]

It does seem like it went to the coaling stage pretty fast, which is surprising since it never really got that hot. I really have no experience with this stove, but it sure seems like it should be burning hotter if it's burning through that much wood that fast. See what it does for awhile with those coals.

Do you know if that load was softwood or hardwood?

 

[pearlgirl]

475 opened the air back up all the way, got a little bit of blue flame back off a log in the back, everything is glowing orange on the bottom again.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Welcome to hearth pearlgirl. There is not much I can add given what has been said already but I hope you figure it out. This is certainly the right place to come for help.

Good Luck
Pete

 

[pearlgirl]

I t

It does seem like it went to the coaling stage pretty fast, which is surprising since it never really got that hot. I really have no experience with this stove, but it sure seems like it should be burning hotter if it's burning through that much wood that fast. See what it does for awhile with those coals.

Do you know if that load was softwood or hardwood?

I truly do not know. I believe we bought it as seasoned hard wood, but honestly we have been so desperate to buy seasoned wood we have picked up FC all over the place here and there and I am not sure what we were told this was. I know I need to know how to tell the different kinds of wood, but I am not totally there yet. This didn't have much bark either. They were VERY big pieces that I think actually were pretty seasoned for their size when we got them. We have had them in an open ended barn all summer and they are probably the driest batch we have. My husband has been splitting the big pieces.

I think the stove got hotter than the 650-675 I said it was. That reading was after it had been turned down already. I had it going when I left for the store to get the therm, and I turned it down about 1/2 before I left and my dh turned it down another 1/4 while I was gone. So it probably burned up more in the beginning than you are thinking based on what I said when I got the thermometer on there.

 

[pearlgirl]

Welcome to hearth pearlgirl. There is not much I can add given what has been said already but I hope you figure it out. This is certainly the right place to come for help.

Good Luck
Pete

Thanks, I appreciate it! Love the wood shed in your picture! I have been day dreaming of some thing similar and looking up plans online!

 

[BrowningBAR]

It does seem like it went to the coaling stage pretty fast, which is surprising since it never really got that hot. I really have no experience with this stove, but it sure seems like it should be burning hotter if it's burning through that much wood that fast. See what it does for awhile with those coals.

Do you know if that load was softwood or hardwood?

Took about two hours. Seems about right to me.

 

[pearlgirl]

It does seem like it went to the coaling stage pretty fast, which is surprising since it never really got that hot.

I really think I have been getting this stove really hot (despite some opinions to the contrary) and it seems that I am burning up a lot of the wood doing so because it's too wet. When it comes time to get a 2ndary burn there just is not a lot left in the wood to maintain that for very long and it peters out pretty quick.

Now at this point it will take quite some time to get this crap that's left to burn up, while the stove continues to drop, requiring full air to get it gone while most the heat goes up the chimney, in time to reload for bed. I live this cycle over and over and over again.

 

[PapaDave]

First, welcome to the Hearth. You've found the best place possible to get help for your issues.
I'm curious what kind of wood you have. If it's softwood and you're leaving the draft open too long, the wood will be gone before you know it.
Not to beat a dead horse (sorry Dixie), but it takes a LOT of energy to burn/boil off the moisture, and it's not going to heat your house while doing it.
I don't have an EPA stove, but had the same problem you're having when we started burning. Got the fire going great with the door cracked open, then it died as soon as the door was closed. This would go on for a while until the moisture was down, then the stove would take off. By this time, not much was left of the wood and we got poor burn times.
Classic wet wood syndrome. Most of us have been there.
To get rid of the coal excess, rake them to the front of the stove, then lay a smallish piece of wood E/W across them. Give the stove some air, and they'll burn down while adding heat to the space.
Stick around a while, you'll be as batty knowledable as the rest of us.
That's all I got, for now.

 

[pearlgirl]

Took about two hours. Seems about right to me.[/quote

So it's right that 2 hours after loading my stove it should be 475? I did load it a little before 4:00, so two hours and the temp starts to drop and it's the coals now. What do I do with the air once the flames stop? I asked before and might have missed any answers. Obviously when we are asleep the air just stays dampered down, but if I am sitting here should I also just leave it down or should I open up the air to help burn the coals better?