If after 4 hours (assuming you you have the air control fully closed or nearly so) you have no coals from a full load, and only ash, then there is little doubt that air is entering the stove somewhere besides the unrestricted secondary inlet. You might try the "smoke test" w/ incense or punk stick to try and tell if you can see air being pulled into the stove around any door edges or seams. As well as primary air control or gasket issue, it could be a bad cement seam or defective hinge/door.
Oslo short burntimes
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If after 4 hours (assuming you you have the air control fully closed or nearly so) you have no coals from a full load, and only ash, then there is little doubt that air is entering the stove somewhere besides the unrestricted secondary inlet. You might try the "smoke test" w/ incense or punk stick to try and tell if you can see air being pulled into the stove around any door edges or seams. As well as primary air control or gasket issue, it could be a bad cement seam or defective hinge/door.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
The goal of maintaining stovetop temperatures at 500F all day every day is not realistic from any wood stove There is a cycle to the burn, even more pronounced with your non-cat stoves.
I have a situation similar to yours, in that my house cools quickly, during this waning part of the burn cycle. This was a big part of the reason I wanted a stove with a thermostat, which will attempt to maintain a more constant stove top temperature by opening the air as the stove cools.
Moving to a larger stove will extend the hot part of the burn, but you will still have some cooler part in the last few hours of coaling, lest you're there to open the air and keep the temperature up as coals burn down. You can always do a hot reload, but those coals will just continue to build, and become a serious problem after a few days like this.
The usual advice given here is, tighten up your house. You need to be able to retain the heat your stove generated in the first few hours, through the later part of the burn cycle. My personal solution, as I didn't want to mess with our historic architecture, was two-fold:
1. Stove with a thermostat, which does a very good job of keeping stove temperature constant through a much longer part of the burn cycle.
2. Leave the thermostat on the wall (oil-fired boiler) set to 70F. The boiler will kick and keep the house warm, when the stove can't keep up.
I know that intentionally running the boiler, as part of your burning plan, sounds like sacrilege to many here. But, I'm still saving a ton of money by running the stoves, and the family doesn't get cold when the stove can't keep up.
I have a situation similar to yours, in that my house cools quickly, during this waning part of the burn cycle. This was a big part of the reason I wanted a stove with a thermostat, which will attempt to maintain a more constant stove top temperature by opening the air as the stove cools.
Moving to a larger stove will extend the hot part of the burn, but you will still have some cooler part in the last few hours of coaling, lest you're there to open the air and keep the temperature up as coals burn down. You can always do a hot reload, but those coals will just continue to build, and become a serious problem after a few days like this.
The usual advice given here is, tighten up your house. You need to be able to retain the heat your stove generated in the first few hours, through the later part of the burn cycle. My personal solution, as I didn't want to mess with our historic architecture, was two-fold:
1. Stove with a thermostat, which does a very good job of keeping stove temperature constant through a much longer part of the burn cycle.
2. Leave the thermostat on the wall (oil-fired boiler) set to 70F. The boiler will kick and keep the house warm, when the stove can't keep up.
I know that intentionally running the boiler, as part of your burning plan, sounds like sacrilege to many here. But, I'm still saving a ton of money by running the stoves, and the family doesn't get cold when the stove can't keep up.
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