New Lopi Answer- Questions

[wagne223]

By 12 minutes from start it is ready to close primary air to only 10% open.

Stove temp is approaching 300, the lower logs are starting to off gas, secondaries are going great. It will burn like this with no more attention needed for 2 hrs. The stove temp will settle around 375 - 400.

If I need more heat, I will set the primary air at 20%. Stove will go to 500 but obviously the fuel won't last as long.

 

[DBoon]

That's a great example, wagne223. The Answer is a smaller stove, so the operation will be slightly different (and a little slower than yours due to smaller firebox), but the principle, timeline and sequence of events is similar. The kindling photo is similar to what I do, but I don't do a top-down burn but a bottom-up burn (of course, they both work fine).

 

[Caw]

I just chronicled my most recent reload on the "what's in your stove" thread in the wood shed forum and thought it may be of some use here. Here's a link to the first post:

What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

Why can't they both be right? 200C would be 424F not 390

www.hearth.com

For reference of you read my posts:

I run a 2019 Osburn 1600 tube stove. 1.85 cu ft box, two secondary tubes, on a 24' external chimney with an un-insulated 6" flex liner.

All my wood is hardwood and c/s/s myself from log length deliveries. It is seasoned 1-2 years depending on the species. I like smaller, rectangular splits best for fast drying and easy loading so cherry/maple/ash are ready in 1 year whereas red oak takes at least 2 years.

 

[Rose Lane]

Thanks for the detailed posts!

I've been trying a new approach this past week:
-burning 50% biobricks and pressed logs, and 50% reg firewood.
-loading the stove up before leaving for the night. (not my favorite thing to do in an unmonitored space, but this is an experiment.)

If I return in the morning to a space above 30 degrees, it's pretty quick to get up above 50 degrees- thus my working life is improved.

Yesterday (blizzard day) I worked in the space all day, feeding the fire every hour*, and could only get it to 57 degrees.

At 4:30pm I left a full firebox going and air flow tamped.
Returned at 8:30pm to 43 degrees, i.e. a loss of 14 degrees while the fire was going.

As a point of comparison, I left our home for the same exact same period of time and only lost 6 degrees.
(900 square feet, starting temp 67, ending temp 61, Esse Ironheart, fed and tamped prior to leaving)


*The Lopi Answer fire has to be fed every hour to maintain temperature- the firebox is small and all material will be ash in 2 hours once the fire is going (doesn't matter whether it is wood or biobricks or pressed logs).

The small firebox proves to be more of an issue with bio bricks and other pressed sawdust things. Material falls out of this firebox A LOT and dealing with chunks of hot wood coal is better than dealing with sprays of flaming sawdust.

I would be curious if anyone else is using this specific stove as a sole heat source, in a cold climate, in a building used only during the day.

Based on my current experience, I think Lopi Answer would have to be fed at night a few times to maintain an acceptable temp level (i.e above 50.)

 

[ctyankee]

OK I have to ask --- what cottage industry do you have going on in there? I'm always interested in hearing about craftspeople etc. doing their thing. Especially in Maine!!

 

[Rose Lane]

OK I have to ask --- what cottage industry do you have going on in there? I'm always interested in hearing about craftspeople etc. doing their thing. Especially in Maine!!

I'm an artist 😄. The cool temps actually help a little because the oil paint dries slower -age old tip is to put a palette in a freezer when not in use.

 

[DBoon]

Hi Rose Lane, if you are adding wood to the stove every hour, you are not burning the stove the way it was designed to be burned. I'll add wood to my Lopi Answer three times a day in the depths of winter and twice per day on a 40 degree day. My house is 1250 square feet in an 8000 heating degree day climate. It will not heat the house by itself below 30 degrees F, and if I skipped a load, the house would cool down a lot (without supplemental heat).

Having said all that, your cottage should be able to get warmer. If your wood was wet, you would have to expend a lot of heat energy to keep the stove temps up. A comparison - I loaded my stove on coals at 200 degree stovetop temperature with a full load of wood at 6:30pm - it was a mix of half hickory and half sugar maple. By full load I mean that I had the firebox probably 80-85% filled using a bunch of square split pieces that I could stack in very well. By 7pm the stovetop temperature was 500 degrees. It will be between 500 and 550 degrees from 7-10pm before the temperature starts to decline due to the wood being mostly coals.

If your cabin is poorly insulated and/or you are starting from a 30 degree temperature in the morning, you are probably asking for this size stove to do too much. However, once you gain experience running the stove, leaving it unattended overnight to heat the cabin should not be a concern.

Just by your description of how your stove is burning, I think you are having to give the stove a lot of air to overcome the moisture in the wood. A load of all bio bricks should burn well, and you should be able to turn the primary air down nearly all the way to get great heat and sustained burns with off gassing.

There is a learning curve with a new stove. I would stick with it and figure it out. You'll have the same burning problems with a larger stove too if you don't learn the right techniques and get the right moisture content wood in the firebox.

Please feel free to ask questions and I'll do whatever I can to help you learn how to run your new stove.

 

[Rose Lane]

Please feel free to ask questions and I'll do whatever I can to help you learn how to run your new stove.

hi DBoon- this is a great answer and so glad to hear you have the same stove.

Is yours also new (post 2020)?
Would you mind posting a picture of it?
How tall is your chimney and stovepipe?
How many pieces of wood do you go through in a day?
Are you cutting down your wood so that you can load it N-S? (Is that what square split means?)

We just got a second batch of kiln dried wood (from a different vendor) delivered last week. It appears to be primarily ash, and feels very dry, but I still need to do the fresh split and moisture test to confirm.
(EDIT: I just split and tested two pieces of wood using the Lopi provided moisture meter and the directions from the video posted earlier in this thread: both measured solid 15% moisture.)

I'm going to gather firebox interior measurements tomorrow morning (when it is cold, right now it's full of fire).
(EDIT: with a ruler and some extra wood, I carefully gathered firebox measurements: 11" N-S, and 2.5" below lip.)


Thank you.

 

[DBoon]

Hi Rose Lane, I'm pretty busy during the week but will post some more info closer to or during the weekend. I did post earlier in this thread as well, so you might want to re-read earlier in the thread.

 

[DBoon]

Hi Rose Lane,

My stove is from 2007/2008, but it should burn essentially the same as yours. I would assume that it burns the same as yours because that is probably true. My chimney is ~12' height from the top of the stove - on the low side. East-West (E-W) means the wood is loaded with the long side going from left-right in the stove. North-South (N-S) means it is loaded with the long side going from back to front of the stove.In a day, I'll burn about 2 cubic feet of wood if I have three fires (early morning, afternoon, evening).

This is my cold-start process and full load start process. The first image shows the initial kindling load and start. I load a bunch of kindling and very small splits as shown, separating the wood to get good air flow during the start up burn. I use a wax fire started and newspaper on the bottom, and maybe a little kindling wood too, if I have it. I use a bottoms-up method for the start, but others use a top-down method (either works). The second image shows it after about 5 minutes and stove top is about 175 degrees. At this point, stove top is low temperature, but fire is raging and it is small kindling pieces, so I cut the air back to 75%. The third image about five minutes later and stove top is 350 degrees - I cut the air back to 50%. The fourth image is about 5 minutes later and stove top 500 degrees. I cut the air back to 25% and just let it go. After about an hour I have the fifth image - a nice pile of coals. It should burn this hot and lively and fast if the wood is dry and small and well-spaced apart in the stove.

Now, I am ready to load my stove for the full load - the full load will start better with the stove already at 350 degrees and the chimney flue warmed up and drawing well, which is why I do that kindling fire first. Push the air control all the way in (100% air again). I pre-stack my pile (6th image) to get a decent sense of what I will put where (this gets pretty intuitive after a while, and I like to have stacked it ahead of time to get the fullest load and not spend too much time with the door open). I rake the coals forward (7th image - those are the long welding gloves I wear when I am loading the stove) and the coals are shown at the front (8th image). I make sure the primary air is again at 100% (full air, handle all the way in). I load the wood into the back (9th image) and create a V groove in the coals (10th image). Then I load the front stack (11th image) and close the door but leave it open just a little (note the handle is not fully pointed down - depending on how tight the wood is, how many coals you had, the outside temperature, how dry the wood is, etc. you might have to leave the door open more or less and for shorter or longer time - but shouldn't be more than 5-10 minutes if you have good coals and your wood is dry). That's shown in the 12th image. Within 5 minutes, I've got decent flames (13th image) so I close the door tight (handle down) and about 5 minutes after that the flames are building nicely (14th image). Now, I'll go through the process of slowly shutting the air down. With dry wood, I'll go to 75% of full air with stove top at 350 and 50% of full air with stove top at 500. (When I first started burning, I would let the stove top get to 500 before I shut down primary air to 75% because my wood was not well dried). I'll shut down the air to 25% when the stove is between 550 and 575 (usually about five minutes after it gets to 500, if the wood is dry), and then I'll shut it down in 1/8th (12% increments) as it allows me to, depending on wood, how cold it is outside, etc.). The 15th image is what it looks as it is gasifying well, probably 500-550 stove top, and the 16th image is it settled into a nice burn at about 550-575 stovetop within about a half or three quarters of an hour of initial load. Note the purplish flames in the last image - that is indicative of a really hot, efficient burn and if you can get a burn like that, then your wood is really dry. If not, you have more moisture in your wood than you should. I don't even get this burn all the time with the purple flames, but the more purple they are the more efficient and hotter the burn. I think I had some nice dry hickory in that burn, mixed in with some maple and ash, so it was burning pretty nicely. Regardless, if you get the flames dancing off the top of the tubes, you are doing the right thing with the burn.

I recall you telling me that you just got a new delivery of wood from a supplier - I can tell you that new deliveries of wood from suppliers are never dry enough to burn well - get a bunch more of that now and stack it up in the open air and top cover it to keep the rain off (but leave the sides open - cover the top only , don't cover the sides or you will trap the moisture inside). Give it two years to dry covered and outside. Yeah - two years, no matter what the wood guy tells you.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

Hi Rose Lane,

My stove is from 2007/2008, but it should burn essentially the same as yours. I would assume that it burns the same as yours because that is probably true. My chimney is ~12' height from the top of the stove - on the low side. East-West (E-W) means the wood is loaded with the long side going from left-right in the stove. North-South (N-S) means it is loaded with the long side going from back to front of the stove.In a day, I'll burn about 2 cubic feet of wood if I have three fires (early morning, afternoon, evening).

This is my cold-start process and full load start process. The first image shows the initial kindling load and start. I load a bunch of kindling and very small splits as shown, separating the wood to get good air flow during the start up burn. I use a wax fire started and newspaper on the bottom, and maybe a little kindling wood too, if I have it. I use a bottoms-up method for the start, but others use a top-down method (either works). The second image shows it after about 5 minutes and stove top is about 175 degrees. At this point, stove top is low temperature, but fire is raging and it is small kindling pieces, so I cut the air back to 75%. The third image about five minutes later and stove top is 350 degrees - I cut the air back to 50%. The fourth image is about 5 minutes later and stove top 500 degrees. I cut the air back to 25% and just let it go. After about an hour I have the fifth image - a nice pile of coals. It should burn this hot and lively and fast if the wood is dry and small and well-spaced apart in the stove.

Now, I am ready to load my stove for the full load - the full load will start better with the stove already at 350 degrees and the chimney flue warmed up and drawing well, which is why I do that kindling fire first. Push the air control all the way in (100% air again). I pre-stack my pile (6th image) to get a decent sense of what I will put where (this gets pretty intuitive after a while, and I like to have stacked it ahead of time to get the fullest load and not spend too much time with the door open). I rake the coals forward (7th image - those are the long welding gloves I wear when I am loading the stove) and the coals are shown at the front (8th image). I make sure the primary air is again at 100% (full air, handle all the way in). I load the wood into the back (9th image) and create a V groove in the coals (10th image). Then I load the front stack (11th image) and close the door but leave it open just a little (note the handle is not fully pointed down - depending on how tight the wood is, how many coals you had, the outside temperature, how dry the wood is, etc. you might have to leave the door open more or less and for shorter or longer time - but shouldn't be more than 5-10 minutes if you have good coals and your wood is dry). That's shown in the 12th image. Within 5 minutes, I've got decent flames (13th image) so I close the door tight (handle down) and about 5 minutes after that the flames are building nicely (14th image). Now, I'll go through the process of slowly shutting the air down. With dry wood, I'll go to 75% of full air with stove top at 350 and 50% of full air with stove top at 500. (When I first started burning, I would let the stove top get to 500 before I shut down primary air to 75% because my wood was not well dried). I'll shut down the air to 25% when the stove is between 550 and 575 (usually about five minutes after it gets to 500, if the wood is dry), and then I'll shut it down in 1/8th (12% increments) as it allows me to, depending on wood, how cold it is outside, etc.). The 15th image is what it looks as it is gasifying well, probably 500-550 stove top, and the 16th image is it settled into a nice burn at about 550-575 stovetop within about a half or three quarters of an hour of initial load. Note the purplish flames in the last image - that is indicative of a really hot, efficient burn and if you can get a burn like that, then your wood is really dry. If not, you have more moisture in your wood than you should. I don't even get this burn all the time with the purple flames, but the more purple they are the more efficient and hotter the burn. I think I had some nice dry hickory in that burn, mixed in with some maple and ash, so it was burning pretty nicely. Regardless, if you get the flames dancing off the top of the tubes, you are doing the right thing with the burn.

I recall you telling me that you just got a new delivery of wood from a supplier - I can tell you that new deliveries of wood from suppliers are never dry enough to burn well - get a bunch more of that now and stack it up in the open air and top cover it to keep the rain off (but leave the sides open - cover the top only , don't cover the sides or you will trap the moisture inside). Give it two years to dry covered and outside. Yeah - two years, no matter what the wood guy tells you.
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Lopi changed the design of its stove models in 2020 to comply with the newest EPA regulations, so it might run a bit different than a post-2020 model.

 

[bigealta]

Wet wood and that chimney is about 12' tall i would bet. no way is it anywhere near 16'. But the main problem is 98% chance wet wood.

 

[bigealta]

Your fire start should rip like this. If not Wet wood and short chimney would be the main problems assuming there is no blockage anywhere.

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