I have read that before, not a lot of Birch for me but I did have a little that I left in rounds and it did not rot but it might have been different then yours, I really like it as it took fire easily and burnt hot. For the most part I am just taking in generalities.
Any of those headaches can be very easily cured. I purchased an epa stove in 2007 and have never looked back. Yes, it took just a little adjusting to learn the new stove but that was a very easy and quick learning curve. Worth it? I'd say so especially with decrease in the amount of wood we burn, which is about half and we stay a lot, lot warmer now. No way would I want to go back to the older stoves now.
Dennis you are right been 2nd season with mine and my wife would not change! Apparently I am less cranky with sleep! who knew...
I am sure I could make it happen and make it work. I just love my big beast wood furnace and love cutting wood to feed it. Hope it all comes together for the guy that's struggling.
Now this thread here is a great example of why this forum is hands down the best!!!!! Nice job folks. Proud to be a member.
Problem solved I hope. At least getting heat out of it now. The Tech found 2 problems. 1) The hole where the incoming air enters the firebox was plugged. I don't believe that to be the major problem. The stove wants be loaded N/S but the firebox is only 11" deep. All my wood is cut to 16" for the old stove. I am not going to cut down all my wood. I started crisscrossing the wood today I am getting a much better burn. 2) All my heat was going straight up the chimney. I will try and explain. The smoke goes out a hole in the top of the firebox and then into the flue. There are 4 bricks that are suppose to sit on top and cover the first opening. The bricks are suppose to divert the heat and smoke to the secondary burn system. My bricks were all slid to the side giving me a direct opening up the chimney. With the bricks in the proper position, I am getting secondary burn and much more heat out of it. Heck I could hold my hand against the side of the stove before. Now you wouldn't want to touch the sides. My stove was a floor model and he said they now put a baffle in instead of laying in the bricks. It is something we may want to put in the back of our minds if someone else complains about the Buck FS-21. We raised the temperature in the adjacent room from 52 to 57 degrees with in an hour of striking the match and that was not even a hard burn. At least I am more satisfied. We will see what it does when we return to the teens or single digits. Thanks all
Interesting. As we said, these EPA stoves are finicky. It's great to see you're getting heat out of it now.
Good to hear they got things sorted out...too bad they didn't check things when they did the install (seems pretty basic to me) As for the wood length, you could just cut some of your wood down shorter, then use the shorter pieces on the bottom leaving a gap in the middle (anybody know if this stove has a "boost air" nozzle at the bottom?) and then stack your 16" pieces in E/W on top. Another option is to let the ashes build up a bit (that's a good idea anyways with most EPA fireboxes) and then dig a N/S trench right down the middle. This will allow the air to go under the wood to the back...makes for a nice burn. Some call that the "tunnel of love". Works great on my E/W loaders...
Glad you got it figured out, If you want to try some good stuff I would be glad to give you some good stuff to try out. I have plenty of good dry wood from maple to locust. You would be amazed what dry locust would do in a good secondary burn stove.
Buck FS21 a 1.6 cubic foot fire box. You will have to really load your firebox with good hard woods to get a 7 hour burn cycle. I wouldnt criss cross the wood if your wanting max burn time. Load east west for max burn time.
His wood sounded like it should be dry enough, it's not always about the wood. Glad you found the problem. "all the heat going up the flue" sounds like what my Summit was doing but I could not see any thing wrong in the stove, having a hard time picturing in my old feeble mind the bricks covering the hole you speak of.
