The first evening and morning with the new stove were a definite improvement. Unlike the old one, this one will produce an actual draft. The paint smell wasn’t as bad as I feared; there was no reason to heat it up outdoors. It heats the cabin from an uncomfortably cool state with reasonable speed, and it certainly encourages fire better. I pulled the fire bricks out of the old stove before moving it, and they fit sideways in the new one pretty well. I want to cut one narrow piece so they’ll fit the length of the stove a little better, but they still keep all the fire well away from the iron floor.
The fire can still go out while there’s still fuel, though it seems less prone to, and I wonder if it wouldn’t work better with a grate. Maybe I’ll try to rig one up sometime.
If it is going out while there is still fuel, I’d suspect there isn’t enough net combustion air entering the stove. Either the stack is sucking more out than there is available air to the fuel (too small an inlet) or your domicile is too small or too air tight. Try leaving the stove door slightly open if fire still goes out try leaving a window open a little bit and see what happens. You might need a stack damper to slow down the draft a bit. I’m presuming you don’t get inversions there, which can really screw up chimney drafting.
Btw – a stack damper probably won’t shut off all the air to a flue fire – but it’ll reduce it to a good degree.
Yaay – new toys/things are always fun 😀
We have the same stove. Heats 1500 sq. ft. The grate does help. Also, as first poster said, keep a door or window open a crack at all times. Seems to help. Ours has been running for 3 winters now. BTW, if the temp is above 50, the stove doesn’t work very well – use alternate source of heat until temps drop. We usually have to stoke it 3-4 times in a 24 hour period – not as efficient as the new ones on the market, but its what we could afford. And our wood is basically free. Also, a cast iron dutch oven/w lid and with beans will cook on it in 4 hours…without soaking (after 2 hours, pour water off beans and put in fresh). I’m just saying.
Definitely the grate. Had similar issues with my little cheapy stove and the grate made it work like one of its big boy brothers. Another aspect, though it may not be an option to you is to use the hard woods. I set up two logs of locust in my stove and can head to bed. Getting up 6 hours later, just need to open the dampers and add wood and the fire is back up and roaring in short order. The stove never gets cold except when I want to clean it out or run a brush through the flues. Creosote build up is worse damping back the fires for the night. With my little stove, I have to clean the pipes out at least every other week or the build up gets bad enough to choke the draft. Don’t even want to think about a chimney fire in my little RV: best to stay on top of that.
. It’s amazing how much difference a warm stove makes to ones outlook on winter, no?
. It’s amazing how much difference a warm stove makes to ones outlook on winter, no?
From your lips to God’s ear, Dio.
Hey, Joel, we have been heating with wood for, ah, ever.
Do you have a way to get a fresh air input to your stove? Maybe with an itsy bitsy outside intake line for fresh air? Because if the fire is going out when there is fuel, it probably is oxygen-starved.
Which does not bode well for oxygen-breathing mamals in the house, although it is superb for the house plants.
Alternatively to creating a fresh air intake line, is the opening of the closest window to the stove, just a tiny bit, can also work. Anyway, keep the fresh air flowing for the fire to breathe. And for the inhabitants to have sufficient oxygen as well.
We have two wood stoves here to heat this place, and both require a bit of fresh air from outside, which is supplied through the small openings of windows located nearby.
I do confess I’ve thought about the air supply question. Last winter the cabin was still so full of holes that it never really seemed like an issue, and I went around plugging them with expanding foam with a few misgivings. A space that won’t sustain fire won’t sustain me, and I’d consider that a bad thing. So I’ll try propping a window open a crack, and see what comes of that.
I wonder if the fire brick might not be some of the problem. The stoves I know like that (& I’ve known several) just have a grate & they work fine & dandy. The fire brick may be impeding the draft.
I’ve got one of those high efficiency mega-buck stoves & they have fire brick & no grate, but the basic cast stoves don’t have brick, just a grate. I don’t think they’re designed to work w/the brick.
I’d try it w/out the brick & see what happens. And soon, ’cause it is going to be seriously freezing this weekend!
Juniper/cedar is a very hot burning wood, for those of you not familiar w/it. It’s a tight, dense wood, similar to oak in that way. It makes a very nice bed of coals which last far longer than pinon, pine, cottonwood & russian olive, the other common woods out this way. It’s not the wood that’s Joel’s problem here.
I suspect it’s the use of fire brick. The stoves I know like this–and I’ve known several–all worked quite well at heating up the space, and they had no fire brick, just grates. I think the fire brick may be impeding the draft; I don’t think these stoves are designed to work w/brick, but rather grates. You can always put the brick on the top to get some radiant heat.
So here’s my thinking…take the brick out, build your fire upside-down in lieu of a grate & see if you don’t get better heat. By upside-down, I mean two long thick logs parallel to the long sides of the box so the draft can come in & feed the fire from below; wrist thick pieces across those, kindling on top of them; tinder on top of that, then paper & add flame. The rapidly burning paper creates a strong draft up the flue, the tinder catches quickly & drops hot embers on the kindling. Embers, being hotter than flame, ignite the kindling nicely & it’s pretty simple from there. Also, if you’re using newspaper, rolling a tube & tying it in a know will keep the paper on top of the stack, rather than falling off to the side where it’s useless.
Good luck! It IS going to be devilishly cold this weekend!