nelraq said:
Moisture has varied from around 6% to 14%. I haven't put anything in over 14%. the fire going right now is a mix of fir and pine - the fir was 11%; the pine was 9 %.
Where are you getting wood that tests so low for MC? 6% is usually only achievable in a kiln. In my area (river valley), I could keep wood in a dry shed for 1000 years and it would never get lower than about 12% MC.
Just checked the stove -- the temp is up to 400 degrees after light up 30 minutes ago. That's way better than normal. the stove , however, was still warm from this pm's fire. That does make a difference. Looking forward to lighting a fire in the am when the stove is cold.
This doesn't seem at all right. I can't imagine having a stove that I was happy with when it "only" took 30 minutes to reach 400ºF. And you're not the only one complaining. There must be some common denominator that is responsible for different folks with different flues having the same poor performance.
Has anyone contacted Jotul U.S. for an answer? Maybe it is possible there is some irregularity with the intake air.
Just for giggles, I timed the sequence of yesterday's cold start in my stove. It is very similar in size to the Oslo, but without the firebrick. We slept in yesterday morning, and the house was 72º when we woke up at 10AM. I didn't even bother to look at the stove until almost 2PM, then I decided to go down and fire her up. I pulled the small bed of coals (less than a quart total) over to the side and shoveled out about 4 scoops of ashes. Then I arranged the coals to the front of the air inlet holes, closed the doors and opened the air all the way. I spent about a minute getting together a handful of suitable kindling (from 1/8" to 3/4" thick), then knelt down and opened the doors again. There was a nice tight little bed of red coals. Took the temps with my IR and wrote them down along with the time.
1:40 - Stove was at 110º, flue at 103º. Placed three or four tiny slivers of wood on the coals to get some flame. Two puffs of air and they ignited. Placed progressively larger split kindling. I always use fast burning wood for kindling, split to various sizes and left in open crate to get extremely dry. The wood
de jour yesterday was cherry. After I got the little splits burning nicely, I shut the doors and listened. After about another minute, I could already hear the stove pulling strongly.
1:42 - Stove was at 219º, flue at 205º. Opened the doors to find the small charge blazing away. Put two more small splits (about 2" thick) crossed over the top and shut the doors again.
1:43 - Stove at 260º, flue at 263º.
1:44 - Stove at 361º, flue at 345º.
1:45 - Stove at 370º, flue at 377º. Already almost to 400º after 5 minutes.
1:47 - Stove at 480º, flue at 360º. I could tell that the little charge was already leveling out since the flue temps weren't really rising anymore. I opened the doors again and there was a real nice fire inside. I put 5 fair sized splits of cherry on top , leaving adequate air space for them to develop plenty of flame. Closed the doors again. Ordinarily, this is the way things go up to this point and I go do a few things around the shop while the stove heats up. Yesterday I just watched and timed things.
1:48 - Stove at 462º (dropped a bit because the new wood was shielding the top from the flames), flue at 284º (way down because the new wood hadn't really taked off yet).
1:49 - Stove at 500º, flue at 401º.
1:50 - Stove at 534º, flue at 494º.
1:51 - Stove at 578º, flue at 463º.
1:52 - Stove at 625º, flue at 630º. At this point, I opened the top loading door and it was a regular inferno in there. Air was rushing into the box from the top and feeding the fire, flames licking past the loading door opening and rocketing up the flue pipe (who says top loaders smoke when opened?). I quickly dropped four large hickory splits on top and closed the lid.
2:00 - Temps dropped temporarily after adding the hickory, but steadily climbed back up over the next 8 minutes. By 2:00, 20 minutes after I put the very first match-size pieces of wood on the coals, I had a full stove that was at 610º and the flue at 583º. I shut the bypass damper and heard the groan roar (and she
is a groan at this point in the burn) as the flames changed direction from updraft mode to a horizontal burn across the bottom. Went outside to check the chimney. There was a faint amount of smoke coming out, but nowhere near as much as I got when I tried a full load at the very start. At 2:05, the smoke stopped and all I could see was heat waves. I went inside to find the stove cruising at 583º and the flue at 302º. I took various readings all around the stove and got temps ranging from 400-800º.
Plenty of heat pushing out from the stove.
I don't even have to work at this to make my stove behave this way. I've even had to learn to only start with a small amount of kindling or the flue temps will rise so dramatically that the magnetic thermometer gets pinned at 900º and slides down the pipe. It doesn't take much wood at all to get superior heat from my stove. Are the new stoves that restrictive in load size. I keep reading how they work best with a full load and a complete burn cycle down to a coal bed in between fillings. What if I don't want to burn that way? I can make a flash fire in a cool stove with five pounds of wood and have the stove hit over 500º in no time. Is it all the firebrick in the new stoves that causes this extreme delay? If so, then why are so many folks bragging about the quick heat they get from the Oslo? Do some folks struggle to get adequate flue temps as well. Seems the firebrick would have an advantage there by keeping the inside of stove hotter. Can the Oslo be
that draft sensitive? Or is it something else?
