As soon as the door is closed, you will observe a change in
the flame pattern. The flames will get smaller and lazier
because less oxygen is getting into the combustion
chamber. The flames, however, are more efficient. The
flames will remain lazy but become larger again as soon as
the castings have been heated thoroughly and the
chimney becomes heated and provides a good draft.
At this point, the roaring fire that you see when the door is
opened is wastefully drawing heated room air up the
chimney — certainly not desirable. So always operate with
the door fully closed once the medium sized logs have
caught fire.
You can now add larger pieces of wood and operate the
stove normally. Once the stove is entirely hot, it will burn
very efficiently with little smoke from the chimney. There
will be a bed of orange coals in the firebox and secondary
flames flickering just below the top firebrick. You can safely
fill the firebox with wood to the top of the door and will get
best burns if you keep the stove pipe temperatures
between 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius)
and 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 degrees Celsius). A
surface thermometer will help regulate this.
WITHOUT A STOVE THERMOMETER YOU ARE
WORKING BLINDLY AND HAVE NO IDEA OF HOW THE
STOVE IS OPERATING. A STOVE THERMOMETER
OFFERS A GUIDE TO PERFORMANCE.
Can’t get the stove going ?
Use more kindling and paper. Assuming the chimney and
vent are sized correctly and there is sufficient combustion
air, the lack of sufficiently dry quantities of small kindling is
the problem. Thumb size is a good gauge for small kindling
diameter.
Can’t get heat out of the stove ?
One of two things may have happened. The stove door
may have been closed prematurely and the stove itself has
not reached optimum temperature. Reopen the door
and/or draft control to re-establish a brisk fire. The other
problem may have been wet wood. The typical symptom is
sizzling wood and moisture being driven from the wood.
Achieving proper draft
Draft is the force which
moves air from the stove
up through the chimney.
The amount of draft in your
chimney depends on the
length and diameter of
chimney, local geography,
nearby obstructions and
other factors. Adjusting the
B
_
a i r c o n t r o l ( I t e m B )
+
regulates the temperature.
The draft can be adjusted from a low burn rate with the
control fully closed, to a fast burn rate with the control fully
open.
Inadequate draft may cause back-puffing into the room
through the stove and chimney connector points and may
cause plugging of the chimney. Too much draft may cause
an excessive temperature in the stove, glowing red stove
parts or chimney connectors or an uncontrollable burn
which can lead to a chimney fire or permanent damage to
the unit.
Page 9