Tis the season for my questions.....

[Autorotate]

Hello all,

I am going into my third season of burning and what a learning experience thus far. I originally thought just throw some wood in and I am good to go. Well I will admit, one stove pipe fire and three years later that is definitely not the case for me.

I had a couple questions that I have researched, but have seen quite a few different answers.

I have a Manchester 8360 stove and for the life of me I can not get it to burn or stay hot for more than a few hours. Maybe 5-6 at the absolute max! I know you can't believe what you read, but this hybrid soapstone stove is "supposed" to have a burn time of up to 12 hours and a heat life up to 14. I am lucky if I put 4 pieces in at 2am and have enough coal at 7am to even start the next day's fire. How in the heck do people get overnight burns and so long out of their fuel? My pipe is double wall and goes up about 20 feet through a false wall in house and out the roof. Everything is to manufacturers specifications.

I have varied hardwoods that are seasoned well over a year long. At night I try using thicker logs and turn my built in stove damper down half way if not more. However, this scares me as I think my stove pipe fire was caused from burning too cool and then starting a raging fully open fire the next day. I don't want to overload, I don't want to run it too cool, I don't want to run it too hot, but what am I doing wrong!!?

I have a temperature gauge made for that stove and my low burn is 200-300 degrees while optimal is 300-500 and I never go above optimal. I just have had the problem of getting the flames too high which I believe cooked off the creosote.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I guess this is actually two questions in one.

 

[webby3650]

Are you filling the firebox? For instance: it holds a 22" log loaded through the side door right? Most people are using 16" logs, this leaves something like 1/3 of the box unused. Or, some cut maximum length logs, and only 4 logs will fit in at full length, leaving the top 1/3 of the box unused. This stove is an East/west loader, they can be very challenging to fill.

 

[Autorotate]

Thank you for the reply. I try not to fill it completely to the top anymore after the stovepipe mishap. I usually can load around 4 logs comfortably. The log cuts vary, but for the most part take up most of the space.

I could load it with 22" logs until there was any room and no way would I get 12 hours. I am just trying to get enough to have coals in the morning.


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[Niko]

Whens the last time you cleaned out your chimney and black pipe?

You gotta fill it with wood if you want longer burn times. Is that blanket in fromt of the stove fire rated if not please move it.

Burn times are never what the companies say and you have had it for some time to experiment with. Try loading it up full and see what happens.

 

[DrewMal]

I load mine up to about 3 in or so from the secondary burn pipes. If it is on top of some really hot coals I shut my built in damper on my stove soon as I am done loading it and usually close the air all the way. If it isn't quite hot enough I will leave the air open till I get some flames raging and my stovepipe probe thermometer up to around 300-400 deg then shut it down and I can get easy 6hrs of burn that leave hot coals. After say 8 or 9 hours I might have to stir up the coals but it will still be a hot bed of coals after some air gets on it.

Cheers and good luck.

BTW I also have dbl wall pipe. I have 3 ft straight up from the stove then a 90 deg and another 3 ft section to the T then it goes up through a false wall like yours till it exits the roof.

 

[blacktail]

Saying you "load 4 logs" doesn't really say if you're filling it up or not. "Logs" can be any size.

 

[Autorotate]

Whens the last time you cleaned out your chimney and black pipe?

You gotta fill it with wood if you want longer burn times. Is that blanket in fromt of the stove fire rated if not please move it.

Burn times are never what the companies say and you have had it for some time to experiment with. Try loading it up full and see what happens.

I get my entire setup cleaned and inspected twice a year. The last time this was done? Last Tuesday.

The "blanket" is a fire resistant hearth pad made for that area.

When I said "4 logs," that gets me full enough so that I could probably fit one more full size log but it would hit the top of the stove. Most of my logs are split about 18-20" and pretty thick.


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[BradleyW]

1. Check your wood with a moisture meter. Bring a couple splits inside and get them to room temp. Split them and check the moisture content of the freshly cut side. My guess is that your wood is well over 20%.
2. It might help to have a variety of sizes in your wood. I like to have some large and some small so I can fill every nook and cranny of my firebox, especially when it gets below 15 degrees. Smaller splits also dry faster.
3. Your expectations might be a light high also. My stove has a similar size firebox as yours. I can have enough coals to reload after 12 hours, but the bulk of the heating happens in the first four or five hours of burning.

 

[webby3650]

When it's in the single digits I wake to a stove full of huge chunks of coals, often the chunks are still in the form of a log. When the weather is not so cold, I'm on 24 hour cycles. I can't imagine dealing with 4-6 hour burns, not after spending all that money!