I am about to start burning for the winter in my Lopi 1250 non-cat stove. This stove has secondary air tubes at the top of the firebox, and is similar to many stoves from other manufacturers. I have lots of wood in the stacks and access to plenty more that is dying and will rot if I don't burn it. I don't mind the work of processing firewood, but I dislike cleaning the flue, so I think my top priority for this winter is to burn as cleanly as possible even if that means I burn less efficiently and therefore burn more wood. So my question is what is the cleanest way to burn in a non-cat stove? Would that be different than burning to get the maximum heat out of the wood I burn? Maybe the answer is just to burn hot all the time, but if anyone has any thoughts I'd like to read them.
No need to burn all out if you have dry wood. If you don't have dry wood, you have to play with the stove too much and "burn" hot for a while. Get the stove up to temp, turn down the air, and leave it alone until it's time for a reload. That's how I and others do it. Super clean burns.
Dave is right. It sounds like your wood is dry so overall I doubt you have to make any adjustments in the method of burning you are accustomed to. About the only difference between the tube stove and a cat stove is that you can't cut the draft as much in the tube stove. Other than that there is not a huge difference. Naturally, the install has much to do with it; how tall the chimney is, bends in pipe, etc.
You're right, burn hot all the time is cleaner than any other operation style in that non-cat. New fires, cold starts, are a large source of flue junk. Once running, run it hotter for less flue junk and easier to clean flue junk. Smaller pieces of wood will help as well since they are less likely to smoulder. Less starts, hotter fires, make a cleaner flue. Note that this may not be the most efficient way to burn since high stove temps and high flue temps mean you're sending lots of energy up the flue. Think blast furnace or pellet stove. An excess of air and high temperatures create a very lean and clean burn.
Someone recently posted the link from a Canadian video on how to burn cleanly with the top down method. That would be a great place to start.
Maybe. Not all of us like that method. For sure I did not like that video the first time I saw it. There are simpler ways of doing this.
I get it, it's not the only method. Please share your method. I am always looking to learn new methods.
Stove burns cleaner if I open air up some ,after 2 3 hrs , no smoke your burnin clean Does your 1250 have the secondary holes in the back also ,like my 1750 ?
No, the 1250 doesn't have the extra secondary air holes that he 1750 has. Why? In the later stages of the burn I open up the air to keep the temperature up and burn up the coals. I never noticed that opening the air up makes a cleaner burn, since at that stage I am burning all charcoal and that means little or no volatiles gases.
Just wondering about the secondary air holes in the back, so far I think the Liberty has them and my stove as them. As far as increasing the air, I'm not talking about waiting until the stove is coaling, my stove will burn four to four and a half hours before it starts coaling, on a full load
You'll find it here: Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage | Firewood Hoarders Club You can click on the link, "view it here," in that page. Or you can download it in pdf form. The part on starting fires is somewhere around page 10.
