Starting a fire and running an EPA stove

[securekey]

I have a new Vista LE and this thread is amazing. The manual and youtube videos always leave out various details. This is a complete guide.
Thank you

 

[GrammyPammy]

Just what I needed! Thanks for this forum…..I like to study, research, prepare and learn. THIS is the place to do it. I tried to use a wood stove for the past 14 yrs. It needed lots of repairs and manufacturer upgrades - and still didn’t work like it was supposed to. And the manufacturer couldn’t/wouldn’t recommend anyone other then the dealer to make those repairs/upgrades. Even though I explained that the company reps had lied to me numerous times - including two years ago when we went 6 weeks ‘waiting on the part to arrive’, only to discover when they arrived to install it that it was not what was needed at all! I just couldn’t get ‘them’ to come for a service call (even offered to pay extra for the hour drive).

Hope I don’t sound like I know it all…..or believe I am never wrong. I WAS wrong once last year. Will probably happen sometime this year. Oh well! LOL!

All that to say that I bought an Alderlea T6 from another dealer a few months ago. Neither the manual nor their website nor you tube had much info on break in burns, how to load and manage a fire properly. I’ve copied off your whole post on the the T6 burn and feel so much better prepared now. THANKS

I’m reading everything I can find on here that applies to my situation. So please - if anyone has some pearls of wisdom to share with me feel free to do so! This is a journey, not a one and done for me. I’m going from having to reload every 2-3 hrs
(With dry, seasoned hard wood, stored under cover for a year) to the possibility of nice, long burn times without maintenance. Any and all advice and tips will be appreciated!

Happy burning, folks!

 

[Wildflush]

I have a new Vista LE and this thread is amazing. The manual and youtube videos always leave out various details. This is a complete guide.
Thank you

Enjoy your PE Vista. We love ours. Got ours installed in June of 2022 so 2nd season using it. We heat our 1,900 sq ft. Cape with ease. Smaller fire box but house is well insulated so don’t mind the shorter reloads. I would buy this stove again with a house with a similar layout. The forum has been very helpful.

 

[Needhelp123]

I have a heritage 4 woodstove from hearthstone is says in trouble shooting that if I want to monitor the stack temp bo more than 12 inches but I have a condar fluegard that's says 18 inches from stove what should I do

 

[NickW]

I have a heritage 4 woodstove from hearthstone is says in trouble shooting that if I want to monitor the stack temp bo more than 12 inches but I have a condar fluegard that's says 18 inches from stove what should I do

Welcome to the forum @Needhelp123

The stove says "more than" 12", so the 18" recommended for the probe should be good.

Start a new thread when asking questions so folks can see the thread title and respond appropriately to the specific questions.

 

[GrammyPammy]

Question for begreen, please! I’ve watched these vids off/on over the past warm season, and refreshed my study with my first burn this week. I cannot tell where you are placing that stove top thermometer. Last season, you remarked that you were surprised I could get 600 degrees from just 3 pieces of hardwood. It occurred to me this summer, that perhaps your thermometer was placed on top of the grill, rather than below the grill - directly on top of the firebox.

So I now have 2 thermometers. One is directly on the firebox underneath the grill. The other is close to it, but on top of the grill. The lower one reads 750 while the one on the grill is not quite 350. That is with 3 small pieces of red oak and 1smaller piece of pine, from a cold start.

When the thermometer on the grill reads 400-500 it warms the room up nicely and burns much longer than when it reads 600 on top the firebox. I’ve been afraid to try loading it up and doing the top down burn for fear of (you got it!) a runaway stove! Thanks for explaining how that burns less hot! I understand the concept but not ready to try that just yet.

Thanks for being here and helping out! Much appreciated!

 

[begreen]

The stovetop thermometer is always on the stove top, (never on the trivet grate), about 2" in front of and 5" to the left of the flue outlet. I have a second one closer to the front door that I got, just because I am a stove geek. I use it for for cooking temp. This is a couple hours into the burn with a 3/4 full load in the stove. The rear stovetop thermometer is at 500º with a flue temp of 550º. I just opened up the air a bit to goose up the stovetop temp to 550º.

 

[GrammyPammy]

The stovetop thermometer is always on the stove top, (never on the trivet grate), about 2" in front of and 5" to the left of the flue outlet. I have a second one closer to the front door that I got, just because I am a stove geek. I use it for for cooking temp. This is a couple hours into the burn with a 3/4 full load in the stove. The rear stovetop thermometer is at 500º with a flue temp of 550º. I just opened up the air a bit to goose up the stovetop temp to 550º.

View attachment 335445 View attachment 335446

Well dang! That means I’m back to just burning 3 small logs and keeping close watch. Is there a safe way to remove an actively burning log? I want to try adding more logs, but shutting the airflow down sooner. When it gets too hot, I have lowered the temp by separating the 3 logs further apart, but won’t be able to do that with additional logs.

Twice the stove got too hot - according to both thermometers! I used a fan on a stand to blow the heat away and it brought the temp down fairly quickly. But that would only affect the external temp, not internal so I don’t want to rely on it.

Again, thanks for your time! I’ve gotten no help from the installer.

 

[begreen]

Loose logs with burn faster because of all the exposed surfaces. A tightly packed mass of wood burns slower.

 

[kborndale]

If the stove is running away on you the problem is probably an air leak. Check your gaskets.

 

[GrammyPammy]

If the stove is running away on you the problem is probably an air leak. Check your gaskets.

Thanks for the suggestion. Had the chimney sweep out to clean and test everything this summer. Gaskets are good.

 

[BigJ273]

Questions about starting a fire and avoiding a runaway stove come up so frequently I decided to document starting our stove. This is a Pacific Energy Alderlea T6 with about a 3 cu ft firebox. The stove is connected to a straight-up, 20' interior flue. The outside ambient temperature is 34ºF. The blower was off all the time for these shots. The firewood is douglas fir at about 17% moisture content. This is a N/S loading. An E/W loading start will follow.

NOTE: as testing will show, the older Condar flue thermometer is reading low. It needs recalibration.

There are 3 instruments shown.

1. A Condar probe thermometer on the double-wall stove pipe.
2. The stovetop temperature on a Sandhill thermometer
3. A digital probe readout for the flue using an Auber AT100

View attachment 255400
Here is the stove loaded with a gap in the middle for a top-down start. 3 balls of newspaper and a few flakes of kindling on top.

View attachment 255401
Fire started, flue temp and stove top temp is <100ºF. Door left open about 1/2".

View attachment 255402
Time to insert a split into the gap then close the door, with the air control wide open. This picture is showing the stove, the Condar, the stove top, and the Auber.

View attachment 255403
Dry doug fir takes off quickly. This is about 5 minutes later, time to reduce the air to 50%. There will be no creosote worry here even though the stove top temperature is still low.

View attachment 255404
Just a few minutes later and secondary burn is getting robust. Reduce air to about 70% closed. Note how stove top temp is still low and the probe flue thermometer is lagging far behind the digital probe. The digital probe reacts almost instantly.

View attachment 255405
After another 5 minutes the fire is going strong, tme to close down air almost all the way, maybe 85% closed. If it was 10º colder outside I would be closing the air all the way due to increased draft. Note the stove top temperature. It's catching up but not fully warmed up yet. This is why stove top temp is not as helpful in a cold start. It takes time to heat up the mass of the stove, while the flue temp is already very high. Unfortunately, the Condar flue probe is sluggish which is less helpful, but combined with the visual cue from the firebox it's obvious that the air needs to be closed down until the flames slow down.

View attachment 255406
Just a few minutes later the fire settles down. Secondary combustion is now robust. No need to change anything. The stove top temp still coming up.

View attachment 255407
The stove has been cruising for 20 minutes and is almost up to temperature. The stove top settled at 625º. The analog probe thermometer is finally catching up to the digital probe.

Note that this is just one example of a N/S load of softwood in a large stove. There are many variations. This load of wood has a lot of young growth and sapwood in it so it is not as dense as old growth doug fir and it burns quicker with less heat. Every fire will have a somewhat unique character depending on firebox size, how much fuel is loaded, how tightly it is packed, outside temperature, and mostly, the operator. If you don't have thermometers, consider one, at least for the flue temp. And use your eyes for visual cues about the stage of the burn.
Hope that helps.

813 would absolutely have me in full panic mode. 😳😳

 

[begreen]

813 would absolutely have me in full panic mode. 😳😳

It's a little high, but this temp is safely within the flue system's operating spec. It's not it's uncommon to hit that flue temp on startup very briefly. This is quite different from a stove body reaching that temperature. The flue temp came down quickly with the closing of the air control.

Note the probe thermometer reads around half that temp due to its much slower response time. The digital probe provides near real-time response and a much more accurate picture of what is happening.

 

[BigJ273]

It's a little hight, but not it's uncommon to hit that flue temp on startup very briefly and quite different from a stove body reaching that temperature. This is well within the flue system's operating spec. Note the probe thermometer reads around half that temp due to its much slower response time.

Oh. Flue temp. I thought it was stove top

 

[GrammyPammy]

Loose logs with burn faster because of all the exposed surfaces. A tightly packed mass of wood burns slower.

I’ve been experimenting….. found the boost air hole and covered it with metal tape. That alone helped keep things in check somewhat. Was able to get a nice burn with the usual 3 small splits without it getting over 700 STT.

Then used larger logs, packed together. The first time I let it go too long before closing the air down and the STT got to 750. Since then I literally sit in front of it doing something useful for 60 min….. keeping an eye on it has kept the STT from going higher than about 725, then it comes down and cruises around 600 for 2 hrs.

Having repairs done here prevented me from being able to stay in the house so I haven’t been able to do more than one small burn in the last 2 days. Hoping to continually improve my handling. Thanks again everyone! What a blessing y’all are!