Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

You won't regret it.

 

I used my chainsaw for the first time today to cut down a couple of oaks at my parents' house and cut them into pieces for them. I won it in a raffle last year.

 

a stihl for free? nice

 

Yeah. I got lucky.

 

Our oil furnace needed to be replaced recently, and it turned into a 3-week-long ordeal for a variety of inane reasons. The upshot was that our wood stove became our sole source of heat for the duration. We went through a lot of wood but were never uncomfortable. So that was good.

The other upshot was that by using it that much I guess we wore out the door gasket. I watched the fire go to a very high level one night last week, seemingly all by itself. Nothing I did would lower the fire until I opened the side door, wide open. So I left it that way until things cooled down a bit, then let the fire go out for the night. And I thought, wow, it is a good thing we were home and had an eye on the stove when this happened! We were lucky.

The next morning I cleaned the stove and disassembled the innards and inspected it, looking for cracks or joints with missing cement. Nada. So I built a small fire in it, and checked for leaks with a small piece of wood that was giving off smoke. I didn't really find anything that way either, which was good and bad I guess; no big cracks or bad seams, but no obvious leak either. The side door gasket didn't look all that great though, so I decided to replace it just on general principle. It seems to have done the trick because I have control over the fire again. It's also the most logical place for a leak to occur because it gets the most use by far; we pretty much never open the front door except to clean the glass.

If there's a moral to the story it is that this stove is a whole lot fussier about leaks than my old one. I'll be keeping a much closer eye on the door gaskets going forward.

 

Possible chimney fire? A sudden flame increase, or flareup can be an indicator, along with a sudden "woosh" sound like a blowtorch, as the fire pulls in excessive air from wherever it can. You may not see an actual fire at the chimney top, since you are typically inside at the time. if none of this occurred, most likely a leaky door gasket. I would still clean the flue, if it hasn't been done lately.

Some creosote buildup is normal. You won't see much, if any inside the stove. In a fireplace, possibly around the damper. It's deposited inside the flue as it cools, on it's way out. Only thing you can do is burn the stove hot, to burn off as much creosote as you can, and clean the chimney at least yearly. Some people clean more frequently. It really depends on your use cycle, quality of the wood, and a building code compliant flue system.

 

I've never experienced one so I can't say. I'd think that opening the door would make things worse if it were a chimney fire, but I don't know.

 

I have thought you have to have an abundance of creosote accumulated in the pipes to have a chimney fire.

 

The new stove was installed with double wall stovepipe all the way up. I have no idea what that means in terms of creosote buildup. (Our installation is a bit unique -- we have ~15 feet of stovepipe inside our heated space after which it immediately exits the structure.) I haven't seen any buildup of note in the stove itself.

 

A chimney fire is usually accompanied by a roaring sound like a locomotive is inside the pipe

 

No sounds like locomotives.

 

My Alderlea T6 had some almost unco trolled fires this fall. I replaced the door gasket and all is well. Took off the door, cleaned out the gasket well/slot, glued in the new gasket.
I remembered afterwards the check that I think Pacific energy told me...Cold stove, no fire, take a piece of paper and shut the door on it. If you can pull it out without ripping it's time for a new gasket.
Once the new gasket was on you could tell by the latching required that it was time for a replacement.

 

Couple months in and a 3/4 cord later. Love wood heat!

 

I've burned probably 1.5 cord so far, but we had to start early this year. Had our first fire well before Halloween and we started burning full time pretty much as soon as November hit.

 

I'm probably closer to two. Started burning first week of October, haven't stopped since. Ofc I also heat my residential with it so I'm saving ~$30-40 a month on electricity for the duration.

My house needs some insulation work.

 

Anyone else have a fireplace wood stove insert? And how do you monitor temps?

I was thinking this on the face:

$30 Inferno Stove Top Meter (3-30) thermometer measures temperatures on stove top

https://www.amazon.com/Inferno-3-30...913NZ3SKP8D&psc=1&refRID=FPJNQZAHE913NZ3SKP8D

or this:

$25 Etekcity Infrared Thermometer 1022D (Not for Human) Dual Laser Temperature Gun Non-contact-58℉~1022℉ (-50℃ ~ 550℃) with Adjustable Emissivity & Max Measure, Standard Size, Blue & Gray

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BV0YMH4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

 

Thanks for the discussion around this. I have a couple of updates.

First of all, it happened again after I had replaced the door gasket. I studied things a bit more this time before shutting it down. When I would close the door, the entire firebox would fill with flame. It was far too much difference in the rate of fire to blame on a leaky door gasket. Also, it was uniform. Nothing indicating a source for the 'leak'.

So I started doing some research. I was surprised by what I found.

My stove is what we 'murcans call an 'EPA stove'. It is designed to reduce emissions. It does a great job too. The main method of reducing emissions is a secondary burn system across the top of the firebox. BUT. The air for this system is entirely uncontrolled. There is a hole in the bottom of my stove the size of a baseball, feeding manifolds that run up the back of the firebox and into the pipes that constitute the secondary burn system.

Just for emphasis: baseball sized hole letting air into firebox. No control system.

I now think that the overfire was due to the secondary air system drawing air in at a very high rate. I plan to make some modifications to the stove so that the next time it happens I will at least have a way to bring things back down to a reasonable burn level.

 

CSA stoves would be the Canadian equivalent to an "EPA" stove and many , like my stove , are sold in both countries , its my understanding that the damper still functions to damp the reburn supply , there is just a minimum threshold it can be damped to , ie with the stove damped as far as it will go it still allows in a prescribed volume of air

quite often the air inlet knockout is 4" to allow for directly connecting ducting for outside fresh air

 

Cold night? Pack that fucker full.

 

Current situation:



But, the house was still 72 when I got up this morning.