New stove creosote buildup

[begreen]

I have an older version of this stove. The handle on the right controls the air going in the front bottom. The handle on the left controls the secondary air which comes out of the small tubes in the top of the firebox. As others have said, you need dry wood. With dry wood I get very little creosote as long as I don't close the damper in the stove pipe too much. You should be able to see flames coming off of the secondary air tubes which is giving you great combustion and will heat up the top of the stove very well. Once you get the secondary air flames then start closing the bottom air a little at a time. As the stove warms you can keep slowing down air intake, but try to keep the secondary flames going. I can get 4 hours of high heat out of this stove or back it down to medium heat for 6.
Again dry wood is critical. I tried some oak that was only a year old and I had to run it wide open to burn the stuff so I could get dry wood in.
Hope this helps.

Good tips. I haven't run this stove but am fascinated at seeing that it has a manual, secondary air control. The manual shows the primary air control on the left and the secondary on the right. Has this changed from the earlier version?

 

[PA Mountain Man]

Good tips. I haven't run this stove but am fascinated at seeing that it has a manual, secondary air control. The manual shows the primary air control on the left and the secondary on the right. Has this changed from the earlier version?

View attachment 271262

"you're other left dummy!"
No it has not changed. I got em backwards in my description. After 6 years, I just know where to put them based on the wood and the weather.
Good catch!

 

[PA Mountain Man]

Good tips. I haven't run this stove but am fascinated at seeing that it has a manual, secondary air control. The manual shows the primary air control on the left and the secondary on the right. Has this changed from the earlier version?

View attachment 271262

You're right on with the chimney height also. I'm over 25'. When I did the initial burns outside, I had to put 9' of pipe to get the secondary to draft.

 

[begreen]

Yes, some modern stoves need a fairly strong draft to be happy, but once that is taken care of they can perform nicely.

 

[bholler]

Yes it does “cool” the chimney some, but burning seasoned wood keeps things “clean” too! I know plenty of people using them that don’t have problems with creosote. If the person is burning low and with wet wood, you will have the problem, which is why I said the user is causing the problem. Could be a drafting problem also!

If you are running a modern stove anywhere near correctly there will not be enough heat going up the stack to spare. So the heatreclaimer will drop the exhaust gasses below the condensation point creating creosote no matter how dry your wood is.

 

[logfarmer]

If you are running a modern stove anywhere near correctly there will not be enough heat going up the stack to spare. So the heatreclaimer will drop the exhaust gasses below the condensation point creating creosote no matter how dry your wood is.

Maybe it depends what part of the country you are from? 2 people I know have them on their old “smoke dragons”, 3 people with new purchased stoves from last yr that have them and the chimneys on all of them are pretty darn clean. I guess what the difference could be is they do not “smolder” their stoves and still have plenty of heat up the chimney. Do these new stoves only put out 300* temps in the stack, I don’t know I’m using a 30 yr old “cat” stove with a clean chimney with internal flue temps of 450-500* that’s where it settles.

 

[bholler]

Maybe it depends what part of the country you are from? 2 people I know have them on their old “smoke dragons”, 3 people with new purchased stoves from last yr that have them and the chimneys on all of them are pretty darn clean. I guess what the difference could be is they do not “smolder” their stoves and still have plenty of heat up the chimney. Do these new stoves only put out 300* temps in the stack, I don’t know I’m using a 30 yr old “cat” stove with a clean chimney with internal flue temps of 450-500* that’s where it settles.

I am from pretty much the same part of the country as you. Yes old smoke dragons put enough heat up the chimney that a heat reclaimer might be ok. But a modern stove if run correctly does a far better job at transferring the heat from the stove and not sending it up the chimney.

 

[logfarmer]

I am from pretty much the same part of the country as you. Yes old smoke dragons put enough heat up the chimney that a heat reclaimer might be ok. But a modern stove if run correctly does a far better job at transferring the heat from the stove and not sending it up the chimney.

I do know they “put” more heat into the house than up the stack, but it’s working for the people I know so? I don’t know, just interesting how it works for some and not others. But everyone’s house/chimney is unique!