How do I use my wood stove?

I bought a wood stove for myself for Christmas (18Wx24Hx30D, with firebrick lining) and now it's all installed per local fire codes.

There are two screw-cap type vents on the front of it, and I burned a small fire in it on Tuesday as a kind of test drive. Armed with that knowledge, I decided to burn a "real" fire in it tonight. I understand the principles of operation of the wood burning stove. However, I'm not sure I understand the 'nuts and bolts' of wood stove use.

Do I light the fire and leave the door cracked until the wood (not kindling) is burning well? I had my vents open all the way and the door closed; the fire just smoldered. I opened the door, smoke got all over the garage, I closed it. I opened it a crack and noticed that the draft was drafting pretty hard, so I left the door open a crack. About 2 minutes later, with a mild, uh, whoosh, flames appeared. I let that burn for a while, then closed the door with the vents wide open. By the way, she was a little warm at this point.

After that, I closed one vent completely and the other about half. When things started to cool down, I started opening things up again, until even leaving the door cracked open wouldn't revive the flames. At this point, I choked it down all the way, and I've been checking on it periodically to see what's happening with the fire. I suspect that the fire will just go out completely (or very close to it) due to lack of oxygen.

Did I do this right? I'm a little worried about creosote, but I'm also worried that the stove is going to, I dunno, explode or something if I burn it *too* hot. If any of you have some insight, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

-Phil Crow

Am I doing this right?

Reply to
Phil Crow
Loading thread data ...

Close the door, slightly open the top vent, and open the bottom, forcing air through the fire.

For the most part you don't want a roaring flame as much as you want a smoldering cinder fire. Slowly burning hot embers=efficient burn=heat. The screw caps on the front are to control the air flow to two separate areas, one above the fire, and one below, or at least they were on my stove. They are like a jet on a carburetor controlling the mix of air through the stove. The more air through the fire will cause a faster burn. I use to have a thermometer on the stack to keep an eye on the temperature of the exhaust. One other thing is if you're worried about creosote, don't burn pine, stick to harder wood, oak, maple whatever.

Dave

Reply to
David Babcock

A few tips:

  • The fire must be hot enough to create a draft in the chimney. It's the hot fumes rising in the chimney that pull fresh air into the fire. After a while, the chimney itself is warm enough to keep the draft going.

  • It takes a while to get the heat into the chimney at first. I usually let the fire run hot for the first 5-10 minutes.

  • You don't want the chimney too hot or you risk chimney fires (although don't be too scared of this - if the fire is that hot, you probably won't be able to get near the stove comfortably anyway). The stove shop probably has chimney thermostats. But, if the fire isn't hot enough you risk creosote buildup. If your firebrick stays clean, the fire is hot enough. If it blackens, it's too cool. This, of course, is long term, ignore the black during startup.

  • In my case, I have no chimney damper. If you have one, open it up and leave it open. Use the front vents to control the fire. Leave them wide open until the fire is well established.

When I start a fire, I do approximately this:

  • one layer of crumpled newspaper. Don't skimp.

  • about 4" of kindling, alternating front-back and side-side. You want lots of airflow space here! This is where you use up all the end cuts from those woodworking projects ;-) Rip them about 3/4 to 1" wide on the bandsaw.

  • two or three small pieces of firewood.

  • block intake on back of stove (else smoke escapes there; it's a two-stage stove).

  • light paper on fire. (Door remains open)

  • relax and watch fire grow.

  • when fire is past the smoky stage and well into the inferno stage, I close the door and unblock the back vent. This gets the second stage running.

  • I keep the front vent wide open for 5-10 minutes to let everything warm up, then I close it halfway and keep it there.

  • When the initial firewood load has burned mostly down to coals, I add more. You want to keep a good bed of coals going at all times; this is actually the heart of the fire.
Reply to
DJ Delorie

Hi Phil,

I will add only one thing to the good suggestions you have already received:

You should never allow a hot fire to burn on an "empty" stove....

By that I mean that many stoves will warp (or worse) if the bottom is not insulated from the fire. Once you have things running, you will have a bed of ash that will provide the insulation. Before that time, you should have some (an inch or more) sand, or some such in the bottom before you do any serious burning...

When you clean out the stove, always leave some ash in the bottom.

(I will also add as an aside, that we heated exclusively with wood for about 20 years here in New Hampshire. Then we moved to a new home that is heated geothermally. It seems that we have gone from the 19th to the 21st centuries in a flash.)

Good luck with your stove,

Reply to
Kenneth

From the Great White North:

The wood stove at my cottage has two vents:

- The first, (usually at the base of the stove), controls the air supply into the stove. It should be fully open when the stove is lit, and you adjust this vent later to cool down the stove (by cutting off the air supply) if it gets too hot. The stove will also last much longer at night if you decrease the air entry to a trickle.

- The second vent, (usually above the door of the stove), recirculates the hot air before it escapes up the stovepipe. This keeps the stove hotter than it would be otherwise. But this vent should be closed when the stove is first lit, because the recirculating hot smoke interferes with the starting of your fire and will pour out into the room if the door is open. Once the fire is established and the stove is getting hot, then you can open this vent.

I suspect the "recirculating" vent was bringing smoke back into your stove when you were trying to light it.

Never, never, keep the door open when the fire is on. You will be nice and pink when they find you, but it will be from carbon monoxide poisoning, not warmth!

Do you really have this stove in your garage? I don't think that is code in any country. Be very careful of other inflammable materials.

George (Canada)

Reply to
George

Hi Phil ..

Creosote buildup can be mitigated by using properly seasoned wood. Use whatever means of introducing air into the firebox it takes to get the fire burning, but consider using outside combustion air. Watch your smoke for hints on how to burn efficiently, you want good clean smoke. We heat exclusively with wood / solar (and have for 27 years); on most heating days or nights we burn a hot, fast fire then let it die down and the heated mass take over.

Oh yeah, and buy a hydralic log splitter, it doubles nicely as a clamp :)

Scott

Reply to
Scott Lincoln

Just a few additions to the already good advice.

Get a pair of wool lined leather gloves as used in foundry work. You can lift a burning log if you have to in an emergency. They are even thicker than welding gloves. At some point in your wood burning career, you will be thankful for having them.

Pay attention to what happens and repeat the good stuff, not the bad as it will become apparent that it will not work.

Never try to burn one log even if you only want a small fire. You need at least two to keep a fire going. Be generous with the kindling. Trying to scrimp only makes for more aggravation in the long run. Lay some crumpled paper, then some small kindling, then some larger, then two or three logs about 2" to 4" dia. If you feel a cold draft coming down the chimney, light a sheet of paper and hold it near the flue opening. This will help it heat and reverse the direction of the airflow. Otherwise just light the paper.

Keep the door open for a while until it is burning well. Guard for sparks though.

Now that things are starting to burn, watch the two larger pieces of wood. Notice how the flame goes back and forth between them? As the log heats, it gives off gasses and it ignited by the other log. They feed on each other.

Now you add two more pieces, but still not huge logs. Get them going, then add the larger pieces. Keep the vents wide open until the fire is going good and the logs are heated. Then you can fill the stove and close the air to maintain the temperature you desire.

To prevent the stove pipe and chimney from getting coated with creosote, burn the fire hot twice a day. I like to load up the stove and run it about wide open for a short time. When the cast iron top is 800 degrees, I'll damper it down to the usual 400 that it runs at.

OK, you been doing this for a few days and think you are pretty good about it. The stove is loaded up for the night, air is adjusted just right. Oh, you want to peek inside? NO ! ! ! Don't open the door. You have 50 pounds of hot wood in there, ready to burn, but right now the oxygen is limited. Open the door and WHOOOOSSHHHHHH, you have one hell of a roaring fire.

Over time you will learn how much wood you can put in and how long it will burn. You get feel for it from experience. After a couple of weeks, remove the flue pipe and see if you have any buildup. Check the thimble and feel into the chimney for creosote. That will give you an idea of how long before you need to sweep. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

formatting link

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Depends on the stove. Mine is designed to be burned with the doors open, if desired, just like a fireplace. Read the manual. Ed

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Our stove has a layer of firebrick in the bottom, so that problem is pretty much avoided completely for us :-)

Reply to
DJ Delorie

You've got a lot of good advice, some misinformation. It sounds like you have a standard air-tight stove. Steel or cast iron? most are steel. First get one of those cheap oven thermometer intended to stand up. Set it on the top of the stove next to the pipe. Another thing, look at your single wall stove pipe and see where stuff would run if it dripped down the pipe. If at each joint the upper pipe goes in the bottom pipe, that is correct. If it is the other way, get it changed because some time, stuff will drip down and it will run out on the pipe. The air supply (the screw caps) do different things on different stoves. Sometimes when you have two screw caps side by side they both do the same, just gives more air to open both. Your stove could be different, but the bottom screw cap is always the air.

When you start a fire crumple up several newspaper sheets and put them in first, then add kindling, small sticks and then bigger sticks on top of the newspaper like you would build a log cabin. The bottom vent should be at least 1/2 open. Crumple another sheet of newspaper lay to the side or on top of the pile, and light both. Shut the door. If you get smoke into the room then you need to start the fire with more newspaper to get the stove to draw immediately.

After the stove is going, go outside and look at the chimney. Lots of smoke means that you need to open the air control more; when burning correctly you should see very little smoke. However, it may smoke for a bit every time you add wood. Use any kind of wood you like, just be sure it is dry (seasoned well).

You thermometer should run about 350 to 400. 500 is very hot for a steel stove, so turn the air down. Depending on the wood, stove placement, amount of wood burned, length of stove pipe, etc., creosote build up may or may not be a problem. Buy a brush and poles and clean the stove pipe to avoid fires. I cleaned mine every two months when burning our stove every day (often let it go out at night) during six months. Some people need to clean theirs only once a year. If you do get a chimney fire, you will hear it, immediately close the air valves tight to cut oxygen to the fire.

As one person pointed out, you need to keep a layer of ash (about 1 inch thick) covering the bottom to protect the bricks and improve the fire burn.

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

My father has a pot belly stove in his garrage. He wouldn't have put it in if it wasn't up to code.

Reply to
CW

Uh, CO is the product of _incomplete_ combustion. A good draft fosters complete combustion, creating Carbon _dioxide_ versus the combustible monoxide.

Keep the door closed, after the chimney begins to draw, because you don't want flying sparks to mess up your floor.

Reply to
George

Detached garage may be OK. National fire code forbids the use of solid fueled heaters in attached garages. Our local shoppers paper used to print the code in the ad section for wood/coal stoves. I've posted the particular section here in the past but do not recall the regulations. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

formatting link

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Various posters have made very good suggestions...

Just a point in this one when starting from a cold stove.

Check for the direction of the draft *before* you start filling the firebox with paper/kindling/split stuff. In case you do have to use the method described above to get the draft going up the chimney, it might take a try or two to get things flowing in the correct direction.

If the draft is coming down the chimney: Roll up a regular sized newspaper sheet (the kind when spread out is about

24" x 26"-30") diagonally. With the damper fully open, if there is one, light the rolled up newsprint on one end, and put it up the chimney. Keep a hold on the other end of the roll. As the rolled paper is burnt up, push it up a bit more to keep the flame as high as you can get inside the chimney flue.

Have second rolled up "tube" at the ready in case the first one is consumed before the draft changes direction.

Depending on the force of the downward draft, and it appears to be a function of the difference of the air temp inside and outside, it might get a little smokey until the draft is going upwards.

By not having the firebox already filled with fuel, you get more maneuvering ability during the reversal of the draft exercise, plus removing the risk of the fuel starting in the firebox prematurely (ie, the draft is still going in the wrong direction)

Reply to
Mo' Sawdust

Ever put up a carbon monoxide detector in the vicinity of a woodstove? It goes off all the time.

I don't think you get complete combustion when the fire is starting or when it is dying down.

George

Reply to
George

Ever put up a carbon monoxide detector in the vicinity of a woodstove? It goes off all the time.

I don't think you get complete combustion when the fire is starting or when it is dying down.

George

Reply to
George

Hmmm. This post and the answers got me to thinking. Something that is always dangerous. Grew up with a wood stove and am still using wood. Thing is I'm so use to doing it, that it require effort to actually expalin it. Noticed you got a lot of good advice. One thing though. Make sure to get the chminey cleaned yearly.

D. Mo

Reply to
D.Mo

"Phil Crow" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

I've been heating with wood for 15 years with several stoves and a found a few things common to achieve success. Dry wood is essential - green or unseasoned wood will burn but the stove settings and efficiency will be far different. Dry wood will allow you to close the vents a bit more. I burn only northern hardwood species. The stove needs a source of combustion air. In a small or tight structure the fire will starve for air. Competing air exhausting devices (fireplace, bath and kitchen fans) will kill the draft. My answer for this on the current stove is a duct that carries outside air right to the stove intake. Both of the last two stoves worked best with a layer of ash on the bottom. IMO, this plugged some hard to find airleaks and made the burn rate variable, not just hot and hotter! The current stove (2 story inwall masonry chimney) likes a flue temp at the stove outlet of ~400 degrees F. If you can see through the steel pipe, the fire's too hot! Running a fire hot daily (with dry wood) for 15 minutes or more reduces the chance for creosoting and chimney fires. It will also heat up the flue enough to provide the needed draft. Extended open burning will warp the iron if not lined with brick. Efficiency-wise, you're better off with wood that is split smaller and short, hot fires. Personally, I favor extended burn times and thus use larger pieces. Over the course of the winter, I may have to restart the fire 3 or 4 times total.

The settings that you use will depend on the stove design, and how the air is supposed to circulate within. If you have a damper within the stove for downdraft, opening it initially will allow a free burn.

formatting link

Reply to
Eric Ryder

Your moniker reminds me - make big doobies out of newsprint and lathe/ planer shavings for a good light.

Reply to
George

Didn't say it wasn't there, just iterated the undeniable, that it was the product of incomplete combustion. To minimize, use procedures which favor complete combustion, like proper drafting. When lighting, that means maximum Oxygen.

As to detectors near an open door, I don't protect my stove from CO, I protect my family. In a community where the majority still heat with wood, I've been on two CO poisonings, both intentional, in the last twenty years. Wanna know how many chimney fires from poorly-managed damping?

Gotta be over a hundred.

Reply to
George

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.