Advice Please

Last night before going to bed I filled the stove full of tulip poplar. I let the fire burn a bit at wide open damper. The flue temp was in the middle of the good range and the stove was cruising around 550 F. I turned the damper all the way down but the secondaries were burning well. When I awoke this morning I had good coals but my door was rather dirty. Is this normal? Is this a result of not enough air wash to keep the glass clean? I moisture tested the wood and the readings were 10% near the centre (after splitting a piece) and 11% out towards the bark which makes since since it can pick up moisture from the air; the wood is covered. Most of the door "crap" burned away today during normal operation.
I sent an email to England Stove Works about the smoking into the room but never got an answer although they have spammed me twice in my email; this is new this month and I don't like any company spamming my email. I am still not certain I have enough draft on the stove even with the added three feet of chimney.

 

The pattern is different, but fairly normal when the air gets turned down for a long burn.
What do you mean, they spammed you?
I get mail from them every once in a great while telling me about the latest gasket kit sale, but it's not spam.

 

Spam is any unrequested emails about any products, sales, etc where I don't agree to get those emails. I never told England Stove Works they could send me these emails. Now, I know that Bush said that we are automatically opted in when giving an email address but I refute that; I call it spamming me. Now of course I can request they stop.

 

Understood; it does look ugly on the door though. I was concerned that I might not be doing something correctly. The door was too hot to try and clean it so I just left it.

 

Oh, I know what spam is.

​

 

That would be an odd pattern for my stove. Normally the build-up would be just in the bottom corners. N/S load im guessing? How close was the wood to the glass? Closing off the primary air will shut off the airwash for the glass. You might just need to leave it open a smidge.

 

It's possible it might need a touch more air, or you never know if a log shifted late in the burn and somewhat blocked the air by the window.

All you can really do is get a load running in the day like you would for overnight, get it settled in, and absolutely leave it alone for the duration of the fire. You should start forming some opinions on if it's set right from that.

 

That was funny...never saw that particular MP skit.
"I don't want any Spam"!

 

I thought everyone had seen Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

No, I split it outside and tested the moisture outside. So I need to make sure the block of wood is at 20C before testing? I guess I could bring in a piece tonight and then test it tomorrow.

 

Yes, it needs to be at room temp.

 

Maybe that stain is normal for the Madison. The 30NC makes a v-shaped pattern on the door when turned down low.

I am new at this as well, and have operated the 30 as you described. It worked great, good heat and burned all night. After 3 weeks, the chimney cap was plugged. So now I will try a bit more air.

I have no problem with smoke into the house as long as my cap is clean. I can tell it is plugging up when smoke starts into the house when the door is opened. My height is about 17-18 feet, floor to cap.

I don't know of any other Madison operators here, who could offer better advice than me, a noob with a 30-NC.

 

I brought a piece in last night and just now split it and tested. The highest reading on the wood was 12.3 %.

 

I asked before about all night burns because I read where others on here does as well. Having to build a fire each morning from start without coals is not as nice as just throwing some small splits on hot coals and seeing the flames start immediately.