Stove fitting into everyday life??? First timer... pipe damper use ??

It seems odd to me to be worried about leaving the stove unattended while lit. People don't generally turn off the electricity or the gas supply when they leave the house. My stove has however much wood is in it when I leave. It will burn until it runs out of fuel in a few hours or so. A gas burner is attached to a pipe attached to enough gas to keep if burning for the next 1000 years.

 

I originally had visions of a bucket of water being thrown into the stove.

 

Ha, go easy on me. I am just a paranoid guy in general, back luck follows me at times. I have 3 small kids, wife stays home and is in and out all day.... I am sure I will figure it out after I get comfortable. I will have a camera on it, smoke alarm and high temperature/low temp alarm on the thermocouple and then a couple days when I am around and I am sure I will get used to it.

 

I started burning in 2006 and I'm still learning. The paranoia has diminished.

 

Going on 4 years with mine sometimes I get nervous also. Anxiety is my issue. Dry wood is the key it takes along time to get there but it is worth it.

 

Just keep the homeowners insurance current and paid in full!

 

You'll get past it. It's just like anything else we do - learn to control it and you can stay safe. Natural gas scares me a lot more than a woodstove. Just had an explosion that cratered half a block a bit east of here. Glad there's no NG in the street up here!

 

Not to worry, you will adjust to the new lifestyle.

I remember having the same apprehension when I installed our first stove. Woke up in the middle of the night and would get out of bed to go check on things, and put wood in if necessary.

Biggest concern was the fact that the wife and I worked all day and the dog was home alone.


But, we managed the learning.

It's always good to keep safety in mind though.

Bought a new fire extinguisher this year, just in case.

 

I slept on the couch 6 feet away from our first stove. With one eye open. The entire first winter. When I wasn't on the couch continually monitoring the stove performance, I was crawling around in my attic grabbing my stove pipe to ensure it wouldn't burn my house down. This will pass with time. Not a bad thing to be a bit paranoid in the beginning. Its a fire. IN your houseJust respect it and you will get along fine.

Kind of like the spot on woman analogy already mentioned!

 

More questions... Previous owner had single wall pipe with only 10 inch clearance to ceiling rather required 16”. I had planned on buying a pipe heat shield but I can only find ones that are 23-36” long. Then I thought I would screw a piece of appropriate metal (?) to the ceiling but wasn’t sure what to get. Then I wondered if I should get a piece of double wall stove pipe for that section instead? Thoughts welcome.

 

You may want to check with your home owner's insurance and see what they require. In OH my insurance company wanted to inspect my installation.
10" awful close. When I first had my stove installed, it was a 12" required clearance for single wall. The insurance guy came out and inspected the installation. He actually measured the clearance. I was at 11 3/4 and he let it slide.
If it were me, I would spend the money and get all the pipe replaced with double wall. Also I would get them in adjustable so if you want to get a new stove in the future everything can be reused. Expect to pay a good bit for the adjustable double wall. They tend to be very proud if their pipe.
I am not even sure you could run a 10" clearance with double wall.

 

Single wall stove pipe, will give you 18" clearance from wall or ceiling,
Using the Heat Shield will give you 6" to the wall and 9" to the ceiling.
The heat shield can be trimmed to length .

Using Double wall black pipe will give you 6" from the wall and 8" from the Ceiling.

Then I thought I would screw a piece of appropriate metal (?) to the ceiling - Doing this
would not give you and additional clearance, you need the Air Gap, that is what keeps it cooler

 

Thanks all. Conversion to double wall from Rockford costs me $315 and might change to use two 45 degree elbows instead of my current single 90. I guess for now I will just buy the heat shield and trim it... maybe I can use bandsaw? I dont' mind investing in the double wall, but I would like to use this stove a couple times and see how I like it, how it all goes before I keep putting more money into it.

 

I put a elbow and pipe heat shield on top to get the appropriate clearance to the ceiling. Burnt several times now and still trying to figure this out. My exhaust temps seem to be around 500 and then fall down to 400. This seems low compared to others? Is the number one driver of temps the amount of logs in the stove? At this point I have only had 4 or so in at a time, haven’t filled it up full. Also trying to figure out the draft. This is in a finished basement with a a walkout and the far wall on the opposite side is a bank of all glass doors and window. These seem to be pretty drafty and not super energy effeicient. The stove room will get up to 70 degrees but the room through the hallway by the windows is around 56. I am worried about putting a fan in because I don’t want to reverse the draft and get backdraft??? Also, I have to leave the door cracked for at least 10 minutes to really get the first burn going. Then I shut the door and it will stay going but even with the draft fully open temps are at 394 after about 40 min of burn time here. About 3 decent splits in there with two small ones on top. Lastly, when I lay on the floor in the stove room, I feel a slightly cool breeze coming from the other room. So it seems like the fire is pulling draft through the hallway and warming up this room but not circulating back to the other room. Thoughts or advice? Thanks!!!

 

Yes cold air will go to stove the warm air will replace cold air.

It seems counter intuitive but blow cold air towards your stove. it works better than trying to move warm air away.