2020 Vermont Castings Aspen C3

Back with some questions about the Aspen for anyone who uses one.
We've been using ours every day since the Chimney pipe was installed. Installed in a corner near an outside wall, the pipe goes straight up through the attic of our ranch style house, probably 5 feet of single wall in the room and another 6 feet or so through the attic and up outside. I've been reading that for efficient burning the flue should be between 250 and 500 f as measured on the pipe about 2 feet above the stove. We need to keep the door ajar or lightly latched to get a good fite going. After that we can close the door but even with the thermostatic damper kept at its most open position, we barely maintain 250 degrees stack temp, it is often below that. I try to keep it between 250 and 300, and to do that we have to keep the door lightly latched if at all.
I've made sure the grates and the air intake are clear. I dont believe our house is so tight that it is inhibiting air intake.
The VC Aspen is a small stove. Are the stack temps normal for this stove? Or is there anything else i should be checking?

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VC manual says that model was designed and tested on 16 feet of venting. Sounds like you are considerably short on pipe. Can you add pipe to match the tested length? Roof bracing starts 5 feet above the roof penetration.
Are you using a magnetic temp gauge on the single wall connector pipe above the stove? Magnetic gauges show surface temps. Inside flue temps are considered roughly twice as high.

Have you correctly tested your wood with a moisture meter by chance? Sounds suspiciously wet if you are having to leave the loading door open.

 

The first recommendation I'd make would be to replace the single wall pipe in the room with double walled pipe. Some of the old stoves that were more forgiving didn't use double wall, but with a modern stove and what seems to be tighter tolerances or whatever the best way to describe it, a double walled pipe is what I'd have if it were in my home.
Next I'd like to know what the stove pipe temp was informing you- I've never measured mine, so it might not be something I'm familiar with. I go by my stove top temp and visually check out the stack leaving my house.

 

I estimate the total length of pipe at about 12 feet. The height above roof is short enough not to need bracing. I remember the old adage, if you need more draft, your chimneys too short.
As far as moisture content, I dont have a meter but the wood has been seasoning, cut to length for about a year.
I am measuring flue temp with a magnetic thermometer. Should I add a comp factor to account for the diff between inside and surface temps?
I could go with double wall pipe in the house but i kind of like the extra heat the single wall pipe gives off. The stove is small enough as it is.

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Is your door glass dark after a few hours? If so that would indicate that your wood may be too wet.

After a year of use I have found that our Aspen C3 needs VERY dry wood to be happy.
Even 10% moisture can be too much. But if fed with small dry oak pieces, it will burn happily for three or more hours.
During these burns, all we see are red coals and yellow flames. The door glass stays completely clean.

Try a fire made with really dry lumber scraps (no pressure treated) and see how the stove does.

 

Double wall connector pipe inside will help offset the short overall venting effect a bit by keeping the gasses good and hot and heading up and out. It makes a performance difference. Much less creosote as well.
You should be heating with the stove and not the pipe. No offense but stripping heat from single wall is not good.

 

Full cord??

 

Yeah, about.
My stacks are about 6 ft tall, 48" deep, and I burn about 30 feet of woodpile per season. Is my math correct?

 

That math checks out...
So many variables. Different wood species give off more/less heat and burn faster/slower. When I was brand new to the wood burning habit my wood supply wasn't dry so I was kind of wasting what I had by not letting it dry to acceptable levels. Gotta do what you gotta do though.
Now that I've got a little experience under the belt I'm doing a little bit better, but I also just really enjoy having a fire going.
I'm probably right around the 3 cord a year mark. The wood still isn't the driest it could be, but it will be in about a year or two as I'm catching up on that 3 year plan.
Hard to get a full 9 cords in my .15 acre back yard, but I'm committed.
Not sure how long the OP has been burning, and making no comment about their level of preparedness. I'm in the same boat with usage. Not to keep yapping about myself, but my goal this year was to not have my furnace come on- and so far so good.

 

Why I asked is I burn about 4 cord a year in a 2309 square foot house with 35% vaulted ceiling. I am pretty much on 45th parallel.

 

Weve been using the stove for about a month now.
I'd have to say that.most of my comes from a big oak and a smaller ash that we had taken down last year. It was cut into 16" lengths but not split, and then stacked 2 rows deep in a good sunny spot for about 10 months. Just split about 1/2 of it a month ago. I also have a few dead falls mixed in there as well.
As far as the glass getting fogged, it does happen after a few days. There's a plate just inside the door where the primary air come thru. I need to remove it and clean the ash out from under it every few days or it seems to choke off the intake. That's when i have to keep the door cracked open.

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Sounds like we're in a similar situation. I moved to NC in the Fall of 2019. I bought a fixer upper cabin on half an acre in the middle of a deep forest and I had to quickly get a wood pile for the 2019 - 2020 winter. The cabin uses wood as its only heat source, so anything that was dead, hanging, or leaning all came down, was cut, split and stacked by its approximate moisture content. Wood sheds were quickly built with salvage corrugated metal roofing in a climate that gets over 100" of rain a year. (Go ahead, look it up. I didn't know that either when I moved here. )

So by February 2020, after discovering that I had to replace most of the floors and some joists (yes, I could look though my floors and see snow in January) and build a hearth area, the stove was finally installed and it, well, it kind of sucked. The moisture meter said 10% but the stove never really worked right and the glass was always dirty. But this winter the stove has worked much better because I believe the wood is better quality and drier. Remember I was burning trashy wood last winter since that's all I had. Now I'm into better hardwoods that have aged for an extra year, and I believe that is making the difference.

But as you said, now its the question of, where can I get 5 cords of tree from every year?
I do keep a chainsaw in the back of my truck, and if I see a downed tree near the edge of the road around here, you better believe I'll have the back of the truck full in less than 10 minutes.
I've always been a wood hoarder, even as a kid. Its good to be back in my native environment where trees are abundant and chainsaws and pickup trucks are a way of life.

 

The woodstove is our only source of heat.
The cabin has a lot of glass on the main floor and a loft above and we are at 3500 ft elevation and prone to wind, so its hard to keep the cabin heated.
We figure at full burn, which isn't much, we can stay about 40 to 50 degrees above the ambient outside temperature.
So the stove is pretty much burning from early September to April, and some shoulder season fires to keep the moisture at bay.

My office door was closed last night. The room was 47 degrees when I checked this morning.

 

Living the dream buddy.
Not everyone makes a break for it like that. I love hearing it.
Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll get there. Idk if this would help- but depending on your area - If you jump on FB market place there’s a possibility of getting in touch with a landscaper who could drop wood at your place. That’s how we’ve been getting our wood supply.
Keep plugging along- and if you can please keep updating. I’m interested to learn more about your experience with this stove.

 

Thank you for this information.
You really have to have a good bed of coals going and then place all new logs right near the front air channel (2 -3") to get the burn to happen.
Very efficient stove in the fact that a single 6" split can burn for over 90 minutes once you get the wood and draft figured out, but there definitely is a learning curve.

 

We bought our Aspen used. Im sure its several years old at least. Any way of telling? Serial # or features?

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Very interesting. Thank you for posting.

We bought an Aspen C3 in 2020 and it does not have the tubes with holes in it.
Our stove has a horizontal vent at the base of the front door, and a similar vent at the top in the back.
Looks like our 2020 C3 version may be a newer model.
It works well so long as the wood is very dry.

Thanks again for posting that video.

 

I bought our Aspen C3 in August 2020 and I am still having problems starting the fire and keeping it going unless the door is slightly cracked. The colder the weather gets the harder it is to start. Is there a way to tell if I have one of the over cemented units? Is there a fix for this? Something I or the dealer can correct?
Thanks,
Kevin