Regency not putting out heat

[YeahGuy]

I have a Regency 2500 in it's third season. Past couple of weeks the stove is having a hard time putting out heat. After a couple of hours I need to fully open the damper and the wood just isn't burning down, just a layer of four inch bed of hot coal. This normally would've made the house 72.
After overnight, still plenty of hot coal but no heat output. I cleaned the fan and it only helped for a couple days. The chimney was swept in October, and I checked the cat and it looked clean but I vacuumed anyway and cleaned the airtubes. The wood is around 14% to 18%. I burn by their recommendations and haven't changed anything. Any ideas?
Dogs are missing the hot fire.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

How are you verifying the moisture content of your wood? Excessive coaling and low heat are signs of high moisture.

 

[YeahGuy]

How are you verifying the moisture content of your wood? Excessive coaling and low heat are signs of high moisture.

I'm burning from the same cord pile from the wood shed and it burned fine earlier this season. But figured maybe the source of why I'm getting these burns so grabbed several logs from different spots from the shed, split them and used moisture meter all giving me those readings. I suppose meter could be off, but woods been dry and seasoned a year.
The fire rips fast and hot when starting and I have no creosote or smokey fires.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Were the splits room temperature when you split and measured?


Depending on the species it can take longer than a year to season. For instance, pine, poplar and soft maples are fine after a year while denser woods such as oak, black locust, and hard maple take closer to 3.

Different species also coal differently. Pine really doesn’t coal much at all whereas hickory seems to immediately coal and stay there until the end.

One other thing that comes to mind is the cold weather that recently dropped on us might make the previous stove temp seem cold with the house’s new need for heat. What temp is the stove running at now and earlier this season?

 

[YeahGuy]

Room temp tested and meter shows around 17%, mixture of hardwoods. In Maine so I've been burning since Oct. It's my primary heat source for the past three years including some serious cold days and we haven't real cold days. It's 25 right now. Not new to burning, just with this stove.
I paid attention to all the temps and times today. Restarted fire at 10:50am and had to reload at 3:15. It used to be a 7am and 4:30 restart.
I noticed the flame almost died right out after turning draft down after an hour. I adjust first to 75% down then to 50%. At 50 flames stop and temps drop.
Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[stoveliker]

measured after resplitting the piece so you can measure on the inside?
Hardwoods, if oak - it won't be dry enough in 1 year.

Turning down after an hour seems late (lots of BTUs gone up the flue by then).
Your observations can also suggest poor draft for some reason.

Check for a leak in a seam in the flue - that would steal your draft if room air is sucked in there rather than thru your stove?

 

[YeahGuy]

measured after resplitting the piece so you can measure on the inside?
Hardwoods, if oak - it won't be dry enough in 1 year.

Turning down after an hour seems late (lots of BTUs gone up the flue by then).
Your observations can also suggest poor draft for some reason.

Check for a leak in a seam in the flue - that would steal your draft if room air is sucked in there rather than thru your stove?

Yes, split and tested at room temp. Reloaded and once box is full, burn on high for about twenty minutes then turn down gradually. I've always tried to burn by their recommendations. Today burned wood from a different source that is over three years old. Same results.
Possible leak in seam I guess. I'm going to keep trying things throughout this week before I need to call for service.
The only other thing I can think of is the cat had some small 'valleys' when I checked on it. It was clean though. Attached photo of it

 

[stoveliker]

That cat does look like a cat that has seen excess air leaking into the stove.

So do check the seals of the stove.