Hi folks,
Well.....at the risk of sounding like this is a central Mass conspiracy thing, I'm having the same issue. If I may offer my thoughts and suggestions....(wood burning gurus, please correct me if I am wrong in my thinking, I'm still in learning mode).
I have an Englander nc-13 insert, Lowes brand Summer Heat to be exact.
This issue started when the temps dropped into the 20's and lower, at least for me.
I did not notice you saying how your flex pipe is installed, (insulated, all or some, the length, interior/exterior chimney, etc).
I think in my case, part of the issue is the piece of solid, uninsulated pipe I have running out the top of the chimney.
I have a full flex liner, insulated near the damper area up about 2 feet, also insulated at the top of the chimney, under the cap, down the flue about 2 feet. I do not have insulation between those 2 points so my pipe contacts the flue here and there. (Could not fit an 6 inch, insulated pipe in there and there was no way I was going to put a smaller, 5.5 inch, insulated pipe in there with my short chimney length. If anything, I'll fill the flue with perlite or whatever it is, if I think the cold is a huge issue). Exterior chimney. Since I wanted to meet the minimum length of 15', as some here suggested, I added 3 feet of solid pipe to the top of the cap. (I'm thinking that this is remaining quite cold during initial start and that keeps the draft from working at peak efficiency, but, my draft seems to be fine.....
Without going into my complete layout, let me offer this. After reading the suggestions on this post, I changed my starting procedure.
Basically, get that thing up to 500 at the pipe.
Remove the plates around the insert, if you installed them, and stick one of those Rutland temp guages on the pipe. As a backup, (and plus it reacts faster to temp changes), I placed a 400 degree, dial style, meat therm against the pipe. I have it sitting on the lip of the extension where the pipe collar goes into the stove. I do not have it sitting on the stove top at all. (It's an insert, the top plate of the thing is insulated by an air gap. This is where the blower pushes out the hot air, thus cooling the top plate a bit....for those that are unfamiliar with insert design).
Anyway,
1- Put a few small splits in, softwood if you have it, (PINE RULES!!), top with kindling, top with tightly rolled newspaper. The idea here is to get that insert and pipe heated up fast and hot.
2- This is where we may differ in setting since I only have one damper lever. ( I think that some have 2?). I use the door as my primary air control to get things going......
After torching the newspaper, I close the door to an inch, (the door latch resting against the outside of the insert case). I can hear and see the draft work fine. Much like taking a propane torch to the paper and wood.
3- Once the kindling is burning, I close the door to 3/4 inch. (the door latch now resting on the inside of the insert case.
4- Now here is where you need to sit with the stove and figure out what it likes. Once my the primary wood is burning, I close the door to about 1/2 to 1/4 inch, ( turning the door lever about 1/2 the way onto the insert latch). I now watch the temp guages and the flame to see what it wants to do. Sometimes, this extra closing drops the heat and the flame dies a bit. In that case, I open the door a tad, ( by lifting the door lever a bit). If the heat goes up, I leave it this way and see if the heat at the pipe will hit 500. If yes, I will leave it here for a bit then close the door all the way and use my damper to control the air.
If not, I close the door just a bit more, (a slight tap on the door lever). This sounds counter intuitive, but one poster on this thread gave the reason why this works.......I think it was in this thread, and watch the guage and the flame. Sometimes this does the trick.............sometimes not.
If I have to add wood to get the temp up, I do, and will have to play with the door opening a bit to get it firing. Oh, and don't make these adjustments one after the other in quick succession. It takes a minute or two or three for the flame to make adjustments to the airflow adjustment.
5- To keep the temps up, I add wood, hardwood if I've been using pine for the startup, when the coals are about 2 - 3 inches in size, or whenever I can get a couple of good size pieces in there. I do not let the coals go to ash in colder weather. ( Some folks here let their stoves go down to ash or close to it. I can't do that in cold weather because one, the house cools off, and two, it takes too long and too much fiddling to get the stove up to temp again). I watch the temp guage to make sure I am not letting it get to cold at the pipe, 250 or below, while wood is getting to the coal stage.
In the end, try to get the heat up as close to 500 at the pipe, for as long as you can, however you can. It seems to me that once you can warm the room and house up to a comfortable temp, it's easier to maintain the warmth at lower stove temps.
My insert can be a finicky bastard. One day it will get to 500 degrees no problem, another day, same outside temp and conditions, same wood, not so easily. I may have to run the insert with the door open a tad to keep the temp up, sometimes I can close the door and the draft lever down low and keep the temp up. Yeah, you can burn through wood quickly getting the thing at peak performance. That's why I use pine to get things going.
Sorry for the long post and the step by step. I did that for the other newbies like myself that may be reading this. I hope this can help you.
Take care,
Mr_Pither
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). You can put the wood on your hearth about a foot from the stove. After that wood has cooked for a few hours, load em into the stove and see if you get better results.
