Firing up EPA woodstove for the first time tonight, any suggestions

[Motodeficient]

Burned wood for the past 4 years in a 20+ year old ashley woodstove. I moved into a new house this year and had an EPA pedestal wood stove installed. I am going to fire it up tonight for the first time (supposed to be in the upper 30's tonight). I have never used an EPA woodstove before, it seems like it will be quite different from the inefficient Ashley that I was used to. Mostly worried about keeping the chimney temp hot enough to prevent creosote but cool enough to be safe.

 

[Chris Crouse]

Looks real pretty but is it really that close to your drywall? I would follow the manufacturer's recommendations for breaking it in if i were you.

 

[laynes69]

As long as you burn good dry wood, burning in an EPA stove it will be hard to get alot of creosote. I do a top down fire, which has the larger stuff at the bottom, then the kindling on top then some crumpled newspaper on top. Light the paper and I normally crack the door for a minute or two. Open the air controls up and let it get burning. After having a couple fires you get your stove going good, normally I see some secondaries burning. At that point you can slowly back down the damper in a couple of stages. At this point it will cruise for a long time and put out good heat. You will get it, but it will take some getting used to. They burn completely different than the older stoves.

 

[Motodeficient]

Thanks for the tips guys. The corner of the stove can be 4" from a combustible wall according to the people that installed it, and the manual

 

[Highbeam]

Modern stoves can be super close to combustibles. That could have been a plywood wall at 4". My soapstone stove can be within 7" of the combustible wall directly in back, I gave it 10".

Going to a new EPA stove you will notice that everything is much better with dry wood. You will also notice that you will be much better off with smaller wood. Split it down to 4 inches or so. Note that shutting the air control to off will get you more heat, there is no way to shut down these modern stoves. These stoves burn clean by allowing plenty of air for combustion all the time. All you are doing with the air control lever is changing the location of air coming into the fire from down in front to up in the air tubes.

They sort of go nuclear on you when everything is just right. No fear though, use your stove top thermometer and don't exceed the overfire temp, usually 800 on a steel plate stove.

 

[Adam_MA]

Like was said before, give it good air until you have the wood burning good, and well charred, then start cutting back the air in stages. Once you get all the way down, you will be amazed at the heat it will start throwing, and how long a load of wood will last.

How did your first fire go?

 

[Motodeficient]

I ended up not having a fire, the house just didn't cool off enough to warrant it. Was looking forward to it, but no need to waste the wood if its not needed!

 

[mrdinks]

I would fire it up before it gets to cold out. It will smell real bad the first few times you heat it up until it gets seasoned. It would be nice to be able to have the windows open and just do a couple short burns letting it cool completely in between until the paint gets baked. You will have to let go of some old habits because these stoves act a lot different than the older ones. Like someone said earlier, crack the door and get some heat built up and don't get in a hurry to shut it down. They don't burn good until you get that fire brick good and hot.

 

[Motodeficient]

I ended up firing it up last night for the first time. It was actually a pretty frustrating experience. I did the top down approach and it worked well, but I had to leave the door cracked open for an hour and a half. Every time I tried to close it the fire would smother itself out and smolder. Seemed like it wasn't getting enough air at all. With the door cracked it would roar to life. In the end I think perhaps my wood is just not dry enough. Eventually I was able to close the door and it burned well enough I suppose. There was a ton of ash left over after the fire went out this morning, far more than I was expecting from an EPA stove. Trial and error will be the key with this.

 

[pipehead]

What size of logs are you putting in? I have found that EPA stoves burn better with smaller splits, rather than with larger chunks (like you might use in an older type stove/hearth). You can get the smaller splits burning hot, and then choke the air off a bit to get a prolonged burn.

 

[Motodeficient]

The splits were about 3-4" max. Unfortunately these are the smallest ones that I split, most of my wood I split thicker than that. This has me slightly concerned, as my wood is probably also not really dry enough. I may have to try and pick up a cord of dry wood somewhere for this year.

 

[pipehead]

I burn eight and ten inch diameter wood in my Jotul.......but it is bone dry. Dry wood is extremely important in the epa stoves.

+1 on the dry wood. It is very frustrating trying to start a fire with wet wood in an EPA. It will smoke and smolder forever.
You have to make sure your fire is "free burning" before you choke back the air, or it will go out on you. I'm not sure of you stove in particular, but you may see the flames "curl" around once it gets buring good. This is what you want to see. You can now play with the air supply. You should only be left with a very fine powder of ash when you are done, and be able to go a good week or so before you clean it out.

 

[Adam_MA]

My first year burning was spent splitting the wood smaller, and stacking it all around the stove to get it dry enough to burn. It would burn good with the door open, but like your experience, would choke out when I tried to close the door. It might be that your wood is too wet, but one thing I found with my stove, is that it likes everything in stages. I close the door in stages, and I cut the air back in stages.

Once the fire is going, I close the door without latching it, then I close the latch just a bit, then all the way, then I start cutting the air back in about 4-5 stages. The amount of time between the stages will depend on your stove, and you will get a feel for what the fire is telling you to do for it.

Good luck with your stove, and if you can't get some good dry wood, you might want to consider splitting your current wood down more, and hoping for some good drying.

Adam

PS. One thing I just remembered about my first season with not so perfect wood. When the fire is finally going, don't wait until you are way burned down before reloading. Put the new logs in the stove one at a time, and let them get going before adding the next. This will let your established fire dry the wood out for you, while still giving you heat, and not smothering your fire/coals.

 

[Motodeficient]

Thanks for the info guys. I just moved here this spring and cut and split 4-5 cord of tree length this summer. Most of the bark was gone so it is drying pretty well, but not well enough. In my old house with the old woodstove that we had there, it would have burned this wood with no problems at all. I will work through it, and the good news is I should have plenty of good dry wood for next winter, regardless of how this winter plays out.

 

[Marc]

Thanks for the info guys. I just moved here this spring and cut and split 4-5 cord of tree length this summer. Most of the bark was gone so it is drying pretty well, but not well enough. In my old house with the old woodstove that we had there, it would have burned this wood with no problems at all. I will work through it, and the good news is I should have plenty of good dry wood for next winter, regardless of how this winter plays out.

The even better news: once you do have good, really dry wood to burn, you'll never, ever want to use anything but a clean burning stove ever again

At least that was my experience!

 

[Pulp Friction]

Thanks for the info guys. I just moved here this spring and cut and split 4-5 cord of tree length this summer. Most of the bark was gone so it is drying pretty well, but not well enough. In my old house with the old woodstove that we had there, it would have burned this wood with no problems at all. I will work through it, and the good news is I should have plenty of good dry wood for next winter, regardless of how this winter plays out.

First post here on the board. Glad to be here and finally had to register in order to see all of the great pics. What a terrific site!

Anyway, I was forced to accelerate drying one year so I brought 2 stacks into the garage and rotated using a pair of inexpensive 20" box fans on the stack I would use next. This was in the dead of winter and the wood went from sizzling/bubbling to absolutely no indication of this. I used the slowest and most quiet setting of both fan's 3 settings and in about a week and a half of constant breeze through the stack, and moving the fans every day or two was all it seemed to need. I was suprised that it did not require sunlight and heat but the constant air movement seemed to be enough. And that is with an EPA stove also. I'm not sure what your indoor storage situation is like, but if you have an attached garage with room, this worked wonders.

Jim

 

[Motodeficient]

That is a great idea, thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I have no indoor storage at all, my wood is stacked outside on pallets with tarps over the top.

 

[wendell]

Something else that may I help you is to get some pallets, cut them up and mix them in with your wood. It should help you get a better burn.

Good luck!

 

[Beefie]

First post here on the board. Glad to be here and finally had to register in order to see all of the great pics. What a terrific site!

Anyway, I was forced to accelerate drying one year so I brought 2 stacks into the garage and rotated using a pair of inexpensive 20" box fans on the stack I would use next. This was in the dead of winter and the wood went from sizzling/bubbling to absolutely no indication of this. I used the slowest and most quiet setting of both fan's 3 settings and in about a week and a half of constant breeze through the stack, and moving the fans every day or two was all it seemed to need. I was suprised that it did not require sunlight and heat but the constant air movement seemed to be enough. And that is with an EPA stove also. I'm not sure what your indoor storage situation is like, but if you have an attached garage with room, this worked wonders.

Jim

Something else that may I help you is to get some pallets, cut them up and mix them in with your wood. It should help you get a better burn.

Good luck!

Lots of good tips here , The only thing I would add , Doesn't help the op with no indoor storage, Is to use a dehumidifier. I used one In my basement and just hung a tarp from the floor joists to keep it some what contained. I had also used a bow fan for air movement.

If you can bring in a little extra arm load of wood and set it in a basket next to your woodstove. The heat would draw off the damp feel of the wood and might help you lighting your fires better.

Beefie

 

[Stihlman441]

I have never heard of a EPA slow combustoin wood heater before ?.
Does it have a air flow adjustment lever.