small Masonry Stove not holding heat for long as it should (maybe)

[Lazarus Gordon]

Hi, the masonry stove i have here in my old apartment i'm renting is not holding heat for long.
After the embers get cold and i close all the doors and shaft the heat on the surface of the tiles disappear quite fast. (never counted, maybe 1/2 hours)
I checked with a lighter and when it's closed there is no air pulling action....
The channeling is only the part i marked, that "roof" is empty.
I heat the stove enough to not get too hot.... i mean, as i know, there is a risk to crack the bricks if heated too much so i tend to check with my hand the upper part of the stove's wall if it's very hot (which is on the other side, not visible in the photos).
Should i stop only when all the surface of the wall is super hot?

So why is not holding heat for like at least 4/5 hours? is it because it's too small? or the bricks have been cracked from previous owner because overheating? or there is a problem of air circulating that i don't see and is taking away the heat faster than it should? Or Am I heating not enough and beeing paranoid about cracking the bricks?
Or maybe it is just bad made?


thanks in advance

 

[Todd]

Is your wood dry and burning well? Maybe the heater needs a good cleaning?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

There is also most likely a learning curve figuring out how to use it best. Different regions used different stove designs so there are likely differences in how to run them. Are there any neighbors around with similar stoves that could show you how they run theirs?

 

[Lazarus Gordon]

unfortunatly i'm on my own. even the owner is not a guy who knows about this things at all...
wood is dry and the heater should be clean because the air pull is super strong even if i keep the lower door slightly open

anyway today i checked some videos about how generally use a masonry stove and i try to heat it up much faster and with full loads of wood... 2,5 times because there's not much space for many logs.... (it fits 1,5/2 logs full logs, but i have them chopped in quarters or half)
maybe i found the right balance... 4 hours after i closed the shaft and is still warm.... i guess it will last still 1 of medium warm and 1 decreasing to zero...

my main worry is actually about when do you know you are heating too much and risking to crack the bricks?
should the whole tiles' surface be hot the same? or is it just the last part before it goes to chimney that needs to be checked ?

and does it have sense to remove the last embers and not wait for them to be off in order to close everything earlier and avoiding heat dispersion from the air flow? or should i also avoid opening fully the shaft to the chimney, maybe closing little by little??

 

[stoveliker]

I wonder if you close it off too late; on e the embers are getting cold, the air flow will have cooled down the brick around the channel already.

I would also advise to ask someone experienced to sit through one burn cycle with you to tell you how they'd do it.

 

[Lazarus Gordon]

the embers needs to get cold before closing, right? i mean stopped glowing at all because of the toxicity .... how to say...
or if the last small pieces are still slightly glowing i can close anyway?

ill try to find somebody or do more test little by little

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Different stoves have different designs. Some Finnish stoves have a separate, small flue that you use to exhaust carbon monoxide once you have burnt down to coals and the big flue isn’t necessary. But you need to know when and how to close one and open the other. Assuming that your design has such a feature could be deadly.

Please understand any advice given here has to be very general in nature as we don’t know any specifics about your stove. Is there a stove shop in your area or even a mason who builds them that might be able to give you specific advice?

 

[stoveliker]

Do you have a carbon monoxide detector?
For safety when you try things?

 

[Lazarus Gordon]

thanks for advices!
ill buy also a monoxide detector just to be more safe, yet anyway i always wait for embers to be off before closing the shaft, i would never risk.

ps. anyway the masonry stove is located in Lithuania