Today's the day....... first fire!

I have never had that happen, is it just a product of engaging the cat too quick?

 

That and an older cat, the cats when new are hyperactive. When they need cleaning the temps they fire off at slowly increases..

 

It had me a bit perplexed last night, and honestly a bit worried that I needed to clean my cat already. Like I said earlier, looking through the glass, it looked pretty normal in there, glad I saw one thermometer had dropped more than I expected and stepped out.

I think I just rushed it, cause got the cat running fine this am and when I got home from work.

 

Eckie what I figured out, we think these stoves are really hard because they’re different. In fact they are pretty simple and us owners are just a little hard headed. My guess you rushed it

 

Who, me? Hard-headed? Nooooo.....
Sometimes I know I'm rushing it. Had no idea last night.

 

I was trying to call myself hard headed. Not be Derogatory to a bunch of people I have not met..
But if the shoe fits

 

No worries...like I said, I'm not hard-headed! Probably not a good idea to bring up the question to my wife though....

 

I've had 5 stoves and they all run pretty much the same way with the common denominator being dry wood.

 

Even the Nashua?

 

For reloads, warm stove with good/decent coals.... Do yall wait for all splits to get charred? If you're adding to a kindling/small fire that's gotten the stt thermos up to 250-300....can you throw the cat before all those pieces get charred? And then just start turning the air down after a bit when you're sure things are still running along?

 

Yes, that was the easiest to run, since i found out what caused creosote i have run every stove by flue temps.

 

I run my stove by flue temps as the manual states, 300 degrees on surface of single wall pipe which puts the stt at 250 and cat temp about 6 or 7 hundred. Works like a charm on new fires or reloads.
Thats when i engage in the cat.

 

So if you've reached that 250-300 stt with a small fire and put more wood in, when do you engage the cat? The stt isn't going to drop that fast to show you anything. Maybe a flue temp/exhaust temp, but I have double wall and no probe. So...if you only had stt and fire visual to go by....

 

I dont build a small fire and then put more wood in, seems silly to me, if i understand you correctly.

 

Buy a probe, you'll thank me later. LOL

 

In the mornings, I've been stirring the coals, banking them to the front a bit then putting some kindling/small pieces on and getting that burning. Seems I can get good fire with that quicker than larger pieces. Also trying to not have smoke roll out...I get more of that when trying to load larger pieces on coals or getting it back to flame.

Flue probe is on my list.....but I'm trying to learn what works/concepts with what I've got now.

 

Also, worth mentioning again...this is my first wood stove experience. I'm quite happy with how it has been going so far. Largely due to the excellent advice and guidance from this site!

 

Ok i understand, i cant be of much help because my chimney must draw better then yours.
I tried to gauge how much wood is charred but for me its hard to tell.

 

Its hard to give good advice in some cases due to all the varibles, our chimney draw being a good example.

 

As far as i can tell we are running our stoves quite differently in some cases, I'm putting fairly good sizes pieces on a low bed of coals and it takes off quickly.