I shut mine down all the way. Every fire. Never had smoke and it's not like I have super dry wood. I don't think this will be an issue with the production model.
Sooooo you actually think you can make it idiot proof, EPA will sell us good dry wood? Can not take the human element out of wood burning.
Of course, even the EPA can't make it "idiot proof" Nobody can do that. As oldspark said, The EPA tests are done under average conditions and set up. Out in the "wild", who knows what the stove will encounter. Good installation, Good wood, good burning practices, weather conditions, all will play a part in how a stove performs. Many of us have burned old smoke dragons efficiently and safely for years. Then there are others with new EPA stoves, incorporating incredible technology from years of experience and change, who can manage to burn them dirty, have flue fires, burn their house down, gripe that they don't put out any heat, and whatever. The "human" part is the weak link. That said, this place, and the other place have saved a lot of us and will save many more.
That was my point exactly, you cant expect a stove to burn cleanly all by itself. Many threads on different sites prove many still dont understand the basics. There was good info available 35 years ago but not so easy to come by, I bought a book about wood burning and read many articles about the subject and even back then they promoted dry wood.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Heating-With-Wood/dp/B001YVN3XA Larry Gay wrote the book, is that Dennis's pen name?
"That was my point exactly, you cant expect a stove to burn cleanly all by itself." Ding, ding, ding. Lots of people just want a toaster. Or, a light switch. Turn it on, turn it off. Done. Process wood.......WTH is that?
The book talks about getting wood below 20% moisture and drying wood outside for a year and inside for another. A couple of years ago a person (newbie I guess) stated on a fourm that burning dry wood was a fairly new concept, this book was first published in 1974 and I am guessing it was not new information when he wrote it. New Shelter magazine had articles in the early 70's about what caused creosote in the flue, after reading that article I bought a flue temperature gauge and never looked back, one of the reasons I have 30 year old stove pipe still in use. The other forum told me I was basicly lying but starting to think some of those people have head up ash syndrome. LOL
oldspark, I have been burning for 40 years, and it is true that this information has been around a long time, but in my experience it has only caught on in the last 10 years. Back in the 70's, even the stove manufactures advocated things like the slammer install, which is impossible to burn and keep the flue clean. It took many years for these concepts to catch on. And forums like this one, and yes, the other one, IMO, have greatly increased knowledge and acceptance. I can tell you that I for one have learned and incredible amount of knowledge over those 40 years and burn way differently today than I did back then. Even in the last 5 years, I have gotten way more efficient and cleaner burning. It is so many factors combined that make a clean, efficient burn. It takes a while.
Well I burnt wet Elm back in about 1978 or so and it burnt so bad I said never again, not sure why that would not be obvious to any one who burns wood but YRMV.
Thanks, you are right for sure, but I guess I have been a slow learner, 40 years and still learning.....getting pretty damm good at it though, if I do say so myself