kozy heat help!

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mompus

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Oct 10, 2009
3
northern IL
We bought a 17 year old home that has a kozy heat fireplace with 2 wooden handles. The house was banked owned so I have no info on how to use this insert. I have downloaded the manual from kozy heat and tried that, but the fire dies after i close the doors. Chimney was cleaned and the outer vent was checked for blockage. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated!!
 
how good is the wood?
 
Start out with known dry wood, construction scraps are ok for starting a fire. Maybe use something like splits of shingles for starting and then make a small teepee of 2 x4 cut offs over them. Get that burning well, then add some 2-3" splits and get them going. As you add larger pieces to that fire, watch the ends of the splits. Are they sizzling and bubbling? If so, the wood is not dry and will be a booger to burn well. It will burn too cool and will likely gunk up the chimney with creosote.

If this is your issue, try the same procedure with a bundle of wood purchased at the grocery store and see it that goes better. If it does, the original wood is either wet or unseasoned.
 
Levers have to point to the left for being open if like mine. Top lever is for control of out going smoke in the flue and the lower handle is for the outside air intake.

TO start a fire leave the upper handle left and lower one upright to shut air off and start fire leaving door the cracked handle closed but door open and let it burn until the fire gets going good and then turn the lower handle to the left and close door until fire is burning really good.

After the fire is burning strong then trim the upper handle to about 45 degrees and same with the lower and it should been fine.
Does the fire place look like this NOte the handles above.
[Hearth.com] kozy heat help!
 
Here is a close up of it in action as of this afternoon.

[Hearth.com] kozy heat help!
 
Struggle, This is almost exactly what we have. It did have a fire grate in it, but I took it out because manual said not to have a fire grate (build fire on the fire brick) so I thought that was the problem. Should we use it? We also cut down three dead oaks in the yard so maybe the wood is too green. I appreciate the help!
 
We have always used the fire grate so maybe we are doing it wrong. I will have to check my manual. I am guessing your wood could be to wet.

Does it sizzle when burning? Bubbles out the ends of it.

We have never had any problems with using the grate so if the previous owners had one in there it must have worked for them as well.

I would caution you to make sure the gaskets are good on the glass and doors as ours were not and it led up to a lot of dirty glass. They still sell gasket kits for this unit.
 
MOMPUS

I ran mine without the grate in it last night and have to say I like that better than with grate in place. You see more of the fire and it is easier to clean out the ashes. The only difference I saw was on start up that there was a little more smoke than it would be in the fire grate. Once it was burning good it ran as clean as before. .

I looked in my manual and could not find where it said to not use a grate. It just stated start a fire back at least 6" from the glass.
 
It is on page 3 of the Homeowners manual.

Also the glass is very black. What is the best product to use to clean it?

Thanks
 
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