Strange behavior from the stove this morning. Last night's fire went great, took off readily, cruised for a few hours pumping out heat and left me with a complete burn and no clinkers. Loaded up the stove with Box Elder this morning than ranges from 13-16% on my moisture meter, and could not get it to light. I could maintain flames in the "tunnel of love" I build to allow doghouse air to make its way through the stove, but with zero expansion to adjacent pieces or the top of the firebox. I ended up going through more than 1 whole Super Cedar puck and a bunch of kindling before the fire decided to act even vaguely normally. Chimney is very clean as is the cap, and the wood is absolutely dry, so what caused my start up to take 5-6x longer than usual and require vastly more firestarting material? I should clean out the ashes, but the ash bed isn't as deep as I've had it in the past. Could I have somehow restricted airflow into the stove with the well compacted ash bed? Other thoughts. I'm going to clean my cap when I get home from work today after that smoulder fest getting the fire going.
Down draft would have smoke coming into room typically so I would vote for cap restriction particularly if you have the wire mesh type for spark/ember reduction. Those plug up no matter what state of moisture rating your fuel supply is at just because it is at the very top with cold air passing through( until it plugs anyway) A down draft external to the flue could cause you some difficulty in get things lit, I have them at times at my place ( I'm in the middle of a ridge with very tall trees behind , Less than 20 yards to them so sometimes at start up the smoke will travel right down the roof and curl around along the ground until things get up to temp. Got clipped by a down draft in the flue on the basement located wood furnace a few years back 2000 sq ft of very thick smoke in about 1 minute. Took quite a few hours to air out the basement from that little fiasco. ( that was just from the kindling - lucky I didn't have a full load in there.)
Cap screen is clean, as it's easy to visually inspect from the ground. Some blackening, but no real buildup. I have had a clogged chimney cap in the past, so I do stay on top of keeping it clean and inspect it regularly. Outside temp was around 22 degrees this morning. Sluggish on reload/restart this evening as well. I did remove some of the ashes this evening. Once it gets up and running it seems to operate fine, but it's taking an awfully long time to get there. Not sure what could have changed some much in the course of a single load running through the stove. I am inclined to think it may be a localized weather issue causing a weak draft. Lastly, perhaps I should adjust my startup procedures. The last 1/3 of a cord I burned was dry subalpine fir, which thanks to the pitch in the bark lights off extremely fast. Box elder might not be the most stubborn wood to get ignited but it might require a little more kindling to get going.
Still giving me the same troubles with this morning's fire. There are definitely no obstructions in the chimney, the draft is adequate as I can open the door without any real smoke spillage, and the wood is dry. I'm at a loss for what is causing this sudden and dramatic decrease in stove performance. The only other thing that changed is that I am now using the new box of Super Cedars I ordered this year, instead of my leftovers. The new ones seem to burn faster, and will go out in they are even close to a split, they seem to need much more air space around them. I'm going to be pretty pizzed if I spent $70 on a box of substandard firestarters. I need to get this figured out as I won't be able to heat my home for the winter with the stove running like this. It is starved for air but the draft is fine, so how can I determine where the blockage is? I'm currently watching some Box Elder, 1 whole super cedar broken into 4 pieces and a decent sized coal bed smolder and put itself out 30 minutes after loading the stove. Wow, I can't believe the word "pizzed" is auto censored here. I think this will be my last post on this board if that level of moderation exists. That's shameful. If I was going to support Fascism I would have at least wanted to get a crushing defeat for the USSR out of it.
Sure starting to sound like wet fuel. What is the temp out side? 30nc is a bit picky in temps above freezing to get going. and just maybe what you are considering a good draft is marginal at best. Yes, it is possible that a atmospheric inversion could be causing you problems. It has been reported that Super Cedar has two densities of pucks and that one needs to request the denser of the two when ordering. Just of late I have been working with rain soaked fuel, it does take a bit for that to get cranking- 2 reasons- one: I have 1" thick baffles in my unit and two: temps here are hovering 30-45 range 24/7 which is not ideal in a combination with damp fuel. Once it becomes fairly dried out- its ballistic city- Oh and a warning do not fall asleep laying in front of stove( about 3 ft away)with a thin t shirt on when it goes ballistic- got a bit of a sunburn the other day. I was waiting for it to take off so I could damp it down. It must have gotten pretty hot as normally I am in the second row- see avatar.
I'd try a fire with some different wood before you get to carried away. Its highly unlikely anything has changed with the stove.
