Dear Community!
Looks like my pre-winter drills don't go as smoothly as I thought it would be... I'm a bit concerned, if to be honest.
I would like to share my third burning experience and ask you to please let me know what did I do wrong. Long story short, my issues were:
So, here is my detailed report. Outside temperature was about 52F (11C). I went outside and picked up my kindlings with few logs. My plan was to set up a top-bottom fire for the first time. So I put the biggest logs at the bottom and smallest at the top (under some newspaper). Then I lit the newspaper with fully opened flue, air intake and the door. After igniting I left the door crack open and it looked like this:
I worried about the secondary tubes a bit, because after about 20 minutes they were a very tiny bit glowing... But I don't know how this can be avoided in a top-down... Do you?
Anyway, it looked good to me and after about 7 minutes I closed the door and the flue, leaving air intake fully open. After about 10 more minutes I closed the air intake to 1/2 and it looked okay at first. So after another 10 minutes I closed it about 25% more. And again it looked okay with blue fire and secondaries working at first, but then after some time the fire started getting less and less until it disappeared, leaving only glowing coals.
I then fully opened air intake, but it dit not help. I closed the flue and opened the door, then after 5 minutes the fire started again. I waited about 5-7 more minutes and closed the door and the flue. At that moment it looked like this:
I thought that it's enough for me to shut the air intake for at least half way, which I did. The fire began to dwindle once more, leaving only the right side alight, where some thinner pieces of wood remained:
As you see, the left side was done completely for some reason...
After I left it for an hour or so, that thin wood was finished and mostly only glowing coals remained:
Heat output was much lower... From here I left it for some time and when came back saw this:
Again, this was with 1/2 air intake open. So I opened it fully, but it dod not help. Then I just went to sleep leaving it like this. And in the morning (after about 7 hours) I found the stove barely warm with this inside:
And even despite struggling to maintain the fire, there was a lot of soot on the glass:
So, it did burn! But why it was so hard to get the fire going? Is it only because the wood might have not been dry enough? OR can it be because the logs were too thick? Or maybe it's my first time top-bottom method? Or something else? If you ask whether or not there was smoke from the flue - I did check it few times. During all the stages there was smoke. Even during that last glowing coals stage there was a steady semi-transparent, but very visible smoke coming out. That might be pointing to the wood condition?
If this is the wood and not my way of doing things, I have another question: is the only way out to burn whole night with open (or almost open) air intake, so that there is fire? I know from another thread that I have to look for the blue fire, but it's not there when the air is rushing in... So I guess I would just be burning much more my first year?![Down :( :(](/talk/styles/default/xenforo/smileys/downer.gif)
Please share your suggestions! Thank you very much in advance!
P.S.: I have a Lopi Large Flush Wood Fireplace Insert w/o cat with 30ft insulated liner in exterior chimney.
Looks like my pre-winter drills don't go as smoothly as I thought it would be... I'm a bit concerned, if to be honest.
I would like to share my third burning experience and ask you to please let me know what did I do wrong. Long story short, my issues were:
- mainly I could not maintain the fire even with half open air flow (sometimes even fully open did not help, so I had to open the door and blow through).
- soot on the viewing glass
So, here is my detailed report. Outside temperature was about 52F (11C). I went outside and picked up my kindlings with few logs. My plan was to set up a top-bottom fire for the first time. So I put the biggest logs at the bottom and smallest at the top (under some newspaper). Then I lit the newspaper with fully opened flue, air intake and the door. After igniting I left the door crack open and it looked like this:
I worried about the secondary tubes a bit, because after about 20 minutes they were a very tiny bit glowing... But I don't know how this can be avoided in a top-down... Do you?
Anyway, it looked good to me and after about 7 minutes I closed the door and the flue, leaving air intake fully open. After about 10 more minutes I closed the air intake to 1/2 and it looked okay at first. So after another 10 minutes I closed it about 25% more. And again it looked okay with blue fire and secondaries working at first, but then after some time the fire started getting less and less until it disappeared, leaving only glowing coals.
I then fully opened air intake, but it dit not help. I closed the flue and opened the door, then after 5 minutes the fire started again. I waited about 5-7 more minutes and closed the door and the flue. At that moment it looked like this:
I thought that it's enough for me to shut the air intake for at least half way, which I did. The fire began to dwindle once more, leaving only the right side alight, where some thinner pieces of wood remained:
As you see, the left side was done completely for some reason...
After I left it for an hour or so, that thin wood was finished and mostly only glowing coals remained:
Heat output was much lower... From here I left it for some time and when came back saw this:
Again, this was with 1/2 air intake open. So I opened it fully, but it dod not help. Then I just went to sleep leaving it like this. And in the morning (after about 7 hours) I found the stove barely warm with this inside:
And even despite struggling to maintain the fire, there was a lot of soot on the glass:
So, it did burn! But why it was so hard to get the fire going? Is it only because the wood might have not been dry enough? OR can it be because the logs were too thick? Or maybe it's my first time top-bottom method? Or something else? If you ask whether or not there was smoke from the flue - I did check it few times. During all the stages there was smoke. Even during that last glowing coals stage there was a steady semi-transparent, but very visible smoke coming out. That might be pointing to the wood condition?
If this is the wood and not my way of doing things, I have another question: is the only way out to burn whole night with open (or almost open) air intake, so that there is fire? I know from another thread that I have to look for the blue fire, but it's not there when the air is rushing in... So I guess I would just be burning much more my first year?
![Down :( :(](/talk/styles/default/xenforo/smileys/downer.gif)
Please share your suggestions! Thank you very much in advance!
P.S.: I have a Lopi Large Flush Wood Fireplace Insert w/o cat with 30ft insulated liner in exterior chimney.
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