This is my first post but have got so much information so far by just reading. I am somewhat new to burning wood, although I did have a wood stove growing up.
Some background info - I have an old wood stove that came with the house when we bought it. The previous owners lived there 10 years and rarely used it, and it was there when they bought the house. So the stove is at least 12 years old, probably twice that or more. This is the second winter we have lived there, and the first winter we heated with only oil. We kept our thermostats at 60 and were going through about 200 gallons a month (OUCH!). Last fall we got a new 6" insulated SS liner installed. We have been burning wood since September and our house has been a constant 70+ and just bought oil since last summer (we use it for hot water). So we have pretty much covered the cost of the liner already.
We have burned through about 2 1/2 cords of wood and most of the wood was questionable at best. Long story but I do have a reliable source for wood now, and he is only about a mile down the street. Since coming on to this site a few days ago when I started having problems, I've been reading a lot (probably too much
) and learning a lot. And I can admit that I was doing it all wrong. I was letting the fire burn too slowly and ended up creating too much creosote in my chimney, so much that it plugged up my chimney cap! I cleaned the cap enough to have a fire the past couple days and plan on doing a full cleaning this weekend. Hopefully before it starts snowing.
So now I have been burning my stove much hotter, and using only a little of the questionable wood mixed in with good dry wood. My question is how should the back damper be set? I've been reading about everyone with the new EPA stoves don't have one but my stove has one built in. Should I just leave it open all the time and only use the primary air control? When I get a good fire going, I can see the fire going through the stove pipe and up the liner, is this dangerous?
I've included a picture of the stove from when we bought the house before the liner was installed. I know it's a beast.
Thanks for the help.
Some background info - I have an old wood stove that came with the house when we bought it. The previous owners lived there 10 years and rarely used it, and it was there when they bought the house. So the stove is at least 12 years old, probably twice that or more. This is the second winter we have lived there, and the first winter we heated with only oil. We kept our thermostats at 60 and were going through about 200 gallons a month (OUCH!). Last fall we got a new 6" insulated SS liner installed. We have been burning wood since September and our house has been a constant 70+ and just bought oil since last summer (we use it for hot water). So we have pretty much covered the cost of the liner already.
We have burned through about 2 1/2 cords of wood and most of the wood was questionable at best. Long story but I do have a reliable source for wood now, and he is only about a mile down the street. Since coming on to this site a few days ago when I started having problems, I've been reading a lot (probably too much
) and learning a lot. And I can admit that I was doing it all wrong. I was letting the fire burn too slowly and ended up creating too much creosote in my chimney, so much that it plugged up my chimney cap! I cleaned the cap enough to have a fire the past couple days and plan on doing a full cleaning this weekend. Hopefully before it starts snowing.So now I have been burning my stove much hotter, and using only a little of the questionable wood mixed in with good dry wood. My question is how should the back damper be set? I've been reading about everyone with the new EPA stoves don't have one but my stove has one built in. Should I just leave it open all the time and only use the primary air control? When I get a good fire going, I can see the fire going through the stove pipe and up the liner, is this dangerous?
I've included a picture of the stove from when we bought the house before the liner was installed. I know it's a beast.
Thanks for the help.
