First Fire In New Stove Guidelines Please

OK.

 

How much wood are you putting in the stove?
More wood, hotter fire, better draft

 

This brings up another thought. When you have left the fire go out, do you have just ashes left, or is there some bigger black chunks of unburnt wood? If you have black unburnt stuff that is a sure sign of wood that was not really ready...maybe dry on the outside, but still wet on the inside

 

Yes, I just put a couple of pieces in and with the door fully close it is burning well. Trying to understand how to regulate the burn. I need to watch more videos.

 

The poplar I have burned went completely to a white powdery fluffy ash. I will find how about the sweet gum when I let it burn out tonight.

 

Put in a couple more

 

After loading the stove with a full firebox of fresh wood, it is important to operate the unit with
the air control in the full open position to properly char the wood load and drive off the initial
moisture in the fresh wood. Once the wood has been properly charred and is completely
ignited, the air control can then be set to the desired heat output level.
o Air Control range: If the air control is pulled fully out, the stove is in the Low Burn setting.
Pushed approximately ½ way in is the Medium setting, and with the air control pushed all
the way in, the stove is in the High setting.

 

Basically, once you load the wood and get the wood charred and the stove good and hot (10-20 minutes?) you should be able to start to decrease the primary air with the control lever (in or out, I dunno about that on your model) If you do it in 3 or 4 small increments, with a few minutes in between, you should be able to get it set up to "cruise" for the rest of the burn. This is if everything is working correctly...you may not be able to quite get there yet.
If you cut back on air to much, and the fire dies off, just open it back up and try again after a bit. Until you learn that stoves characteristics, in your setup, it it hard to say if you will be able to cut the air clear back or not, on my stoves you can, some don't like it, each install is a little different.
Basically, just find a happy place in the way it is burning and roll with it. Generally, the more you can cut back on the primary air lever, the longer the fire will last on a given amount of wood. and if you have good dry wood, often times the stove temperature will actually go UP (to a point) when you cut the air back because it is kicking in that famous secondary burn (less primary fire down on the wood and more flames floating around in space above the wood)
I wouldn't go to bed with a full load of new wood and the air full open though, even with wet wood...you can get into overfire territory pretty quick there if things decide to take off

 

Her stove is kinda backwards, air fully opened is pushed all the way in

 

I buy components and materials from all over the world as my profession. I use both, depending on my audience.

For things like firewood length, wheel sizes, and general lengths, weights, and temperatures, I'll use SAE, or the is system.

If I'm talking motorcycle settings, dimensions, bolt sizes, etc, then I'll use metric.

 

15-SSW02 Madison Manual

 

You're seeing what you should with the poplar.
Once you have the stove warmed up with some poplar, try reloading poplar n-s on the coal bed(raked forward) and add gum splits on top e-w, burn with air control open until you have full ignition and then slowly cut back the air until it's still burning but slowly

 

Just refer to the manual on building the first few small fires. Every stove is a little different. There is always a curing process and you need to expand the metal slowly and let it contract. Different metals are different and require slightly different methods.

 

Eric VW ; you asked about the trees. There are trees surrounding the house. On the right side of the house the trees are only a couple of meters/yards from the house. We ran out of time setting up the house and I hurt my back and Dad's saw broke. Those trees should have went down before the house was set up.

 

I most certainly have a draft issue.

 

Yes; however, I am too scared to try and drop any of it, I would have to get a professional to come in.

 

I was not too happy standing near the edge of the roof when I put the chimney together, now I have to try and take the top to sections off and add another; doubt if I could lift 7 feet of chimney in place.

 

That is some great temps there for sure, Kimberly.
I'd be satisfied with that.

 

I know when my stove pipe was plugged, my draft sucked. The house would quickly fill with smoke if I opened the door, the stove backpuffed smoke and I couldn't ever get a hot fire going. Now that it's clear, all those problems went away, I don't even smell smoke in the house ever. All this to say that I think once you improve your draft you're going to be really pleased