First Fire In New Stove Guidelines Please

I am fairly convinced now that until I get the chimney corrected I am not going to be happy using the stove. I love the stove when it is burning fairly hot but this draft problem is taking the joy away. I went to light a fire, crumbled up some newsprint and placed them in the stove. Well, there was enough coals for the newsprint to start smoldering and filling the house with smoke. I quickly just threw the kindling in and shout the door, otherwise the whole house would have been filled with smoke. I can not even keep a smoke detector in place. It smoldered for some time before catching fire. The glass was all smoked up; because there is not enough air flow to do the air wash to keep the glass clean. I don't think it is the stove; I don't think England Stove Works with their reputation would put this stove on the market if these were common problems they had witness in operation.

 

We all come to the light in our own time.

 

Yep, that's what I was referring to earlier regarding being successful. Once you get enough class A, you'll be in business I think.

 

I have had smoke come out of the stove while putting paper or cardboard on coals, but learned not to let it sit there and smolder, as soon as I put it in there, I immediately use my BBQ lighter and light it up, it will light up real quick then you have instant fire ( instant draft) and smoke will not come out.

 

Kimberly
Have you tried to fill the stove mostly full and burn it yet?

 

HDRock.... I swore that I gave up. The flue has been determined to be too short. Two splits won't burn without the door cracked open. Four small splits burn good with the door closed (see page 8 of this thread).






How can it possibly burn better with more wood, with the flue too short?

 

When the chimney and stove are hot I can get some decent burns; I usually don't fill too much because I need to burn with the damper completely open. Also, the poplar is shorter so I can do a N-S load and get better draft through the wood and better burns. I am doing a lot more reloading than I should have to do with this stove. If I had someone here to help, I would have already went to Lowe's and gotten another section of chimney and installed it. I have no health insurance if I fall; and probably I would be dead so it might not matter if I had insurance or not. By the way, the 12 inch section under the tee did not seem to matter; it was the same after I removed it.

I just reloaded with only coals, the stove had cooled down , and I loaded with some of the sweet gum in E-W and now with the damper completely open I am getting a slow burn. I am keeping warm but not getting the full potential of this stove.

 

Sorry, I may have missed it and I am not sure now where it is, OK, dry palms or wet palms and what should the reading be?

 

Try lighting newspaper in the outdoor cleanout to quickly warm the chimney. Suggestions on here to do just that really helped me out because with a cold stove, I have a terrible issue with backdrafts.

For now, just keep loading wood in the stove to keep everything warm. Who cares if you're not getting crazy long burns with your shorter chimney right now? It may improve with more pipe and a better draft but until then, stay warm. There's no way in heck I'd put up with 50 degree temps in my house if all i had to do was burn a little more wood. Load that stove and burn! It doesn't have to be perfect. Load N-S. Fill the box. A couple splits doesn't do a thing for my stove and didn't warm things enough to really draft properly. Good luck to ya.

Also, maybe post a help wanted ad on Craigslist and offer someone a few bucks to help you out with the chimney. Just a thought...

 

You can even get a 5' length of single wall galvanized pipe to stick into the top of the class A to temporarily extend the height. Nothing fancy-it's just for test purposes-could even be 30 ga. Nice and cheap.

 

If ya put more wood in ya get more heat , better draft so maybe you can run it without the air control completely open.
Doesn't that make sense to you ?
Although you can burn small loads in these stoves they are designed to be loaded up good and run ,especially if ya have a weak draft

 

Understand that this is just a temporary test situation. Just to find out. Increasing the draft will always help, but it will also burn faster....

 

Stick the extra 12 inch piece of class A on top of your chimney, it will help your draft a little....

 

I thought about that but I don't think I can reach it; maybe, I will see about climbing up on the roof tomorrow.

 

??????????

Must've opted out?

 

No, I needed more data on moisture meters and did a search and found this thread: Moisture Meter Not Accurate??? | Firewood Hoarders Club. I am going to read through the thread and the PDF posted. Someone cited on the thread that a 1 meg ohm resister can be used to check the meter; that would be more accurate than a palm test. It was also mentioned that temperature of the wood can affect the reading; I did my tests outside; it was not frigid out but not a warm summer's day either.

 

Can you slip the shorter section in the stack of chimney pieces? Instead of reaching to the top of what you have to add that 12" section, take off a 3 ft section, install the 12", and add the 3' to the top. That way you won't be reaching as high up when you're on the roof. Did that make sense?