Any suggestions on training? I bought a new stove last year that has a window. Window was a bad chose. The old stove didn't have the window. My wife thinks if there are no flames the fire is going out. She told me to put some more wood in the stove tonight. The large split that was in there was glowing nicely, but not flaming. I asked if she was cold. "No, but the fire is going out." Attempted to educate her that you don't need flames for heat. Stove was dampened down and the wood was burning nicely. I may have given her a little education, but doubt it. Don't want to discourage her from feeding the stove, but if she keeps on this course I will have to bring some of next year's supply up to the house come mid Jan. She is not completely new to burning. When we first met, her mom was heating the house solely with a coal stove.
Good luck with that! Sounds like you'll have to wear baby gloves. Hard to change the mindset you're up against. Maybe explaining just a little about the combustion process...."so much of the heat in a conventional stove goes up the chimney, the epa stove is designed to capture some of those un-burnt gases and get heat out of them before exhausting them...the trade off is no fire show like we are used to but more heat and the use of less wood" sort of thing.
Calling it training is perfectly fine. Women's magazines constantly have articles about how to train your man. I tried to show the gf and she was on her way to learning. Cat stove btw. She left the lighter on top of the stove after it got started and it exploded. It left a BBQ lighter explosion outline on the top of my one year old Ideal Steel. In her defense she already called Woodstock and had new paint in the mail before I got home. So points for that. I'd let her try again. It's just easier and safer to let her adjust the thermostat if she's cold. Plus I can control the thermostat from my phone in case she bumps it to 75. Lol
I can babble at length about optimum burn and air settings etc, but she gets a glazed look in her eye, and that's okay. I can't expect her to enjoy woodburning and all that goes with it as much as I do. As long as she throws in wood from time to time, and even if the stack temp is 300 and slobbering smoke, or 700 and raging, I don't mind.
