Section 8: Operating Instructions; Over-Firing Your Appliance; Wood Selection & Storage; Burning Process - Quadra-Fire 5100I-GD-B User Manual

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8
Operating Instructions
WARNING
Fire Risk
Do not over-fire.
Over-firing may ignite creosote or will damage
the stove and chimney.
To prevent over-firing your stove, DO NOT:
• Use flammable liquids
• Overload with wood
• Burn trash or large amounts of scrap lumber
• Permit too much air to the fire
A. Over-Firing Your Appliance
1. Symptoms of Over-Firing
Symptoms of over-firing may include one or more of the
following:
• Chimney connector or appliance glowing
• Roaring, rumbling noises
• Loud cracking or banging sounds
• Metal warping
• Chimney fire
2. What To Do if Your Stove is Over-Firing
• Immediately close the door and air controls to reduce
air supply to the fire.
• If you suspect a chimney fire, call the fire department
and evacuate your house.
• Contact your local chimney professional and have your
stove and stove pipe inspected for any damage.
• Do not use your stove until the chimney professional
informs you it is safe to do so.
Hearth & Home Technologies WILL NOT warranty stoves
that exhibit evidence of over-firing. Evidence of over-firing
includes, but is not limited to:
• Warped air tube
• Deteriorated refractory brick retainers
• Deteriorated baffle and other interior components
B. Wood Selection & Storage
Burn only dry seasoned wood. Store wood under cover, out
of the rain and snow. Dry and well-seasoned wood will not
only minimize the chance of creosote formation, but will give
you the most efficient fire. Even dry wood contains at least
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5100-I ACT WOOD INSERT
15% moisture by weight, and should be burned hot enough to
keep the chimney hot for as long as it takes to dry the wood out
- about one hour. It is a waste of energy to burn unseasoned
wood of any kind.
Dead wood lying on the forest floor should be considered wet,
and requires full seasoning time. Standing dead wood can
be considered to be about / seasoned. To tell if wood is
dry enough to burn, check the ends of the logs. If there are
cracks radiating in all directions from the center, it is dry. If
your wood sizzles in the fire, even though the surface is dry,
it may not be fully cured.
Splitting wood before it is stored reduces drying time. Wood
should be stacked so that both ends of each piece are exposed
to air, since more drying occurs through the cut ends than the
sides. This is true even with wood that has been split. Store
wood under cover, such as in a shed, or covered with a tarp,
plastic, tar paper, sheets of scrap plywood, etc., as uncov-
ered wood can absorb water from rain or snow, delaying the
seasoning process.
C. Burning Process
In recent years there has been an increasing concern about
air quality. Much of the blame for poor air quality has been
placed on the burning of wood for home heating. In order to
improve the situation, we at Quadra-Fire have developed
cleaner-burning woodstoves that surpass the requirements
for emissions established by our governing agencies. These
woodstoves, like any other appliances, must be properly
operated in order to insure that they perform the way they are
designed to perform. Improper operation can turn most any
wood stove into a smoldering environmental hazard.
1. Kindling or First Stage
It helps to know a little about the actual process of burning in
order to understand what goes on inside a stove. The first
stage of burning is called the kindling stage. In this stage, the
wood is heated to a temperature high enough to evaporate the
moisture which is present in all wood. The wood will reach
the boiling point of water (1°F) and will not get any hotter
until the water is evaporated. This process takes heat from
the coals and tends to cool the appliance.
Fire requires three things to burn - fuel, air and heat. So, if
heat is robbed from the appliance during the drying stage,
the new load of wood has reduced the chances for a good
clean burn. For this reason, it is always best to burn dry,
seasoned firewood. When the wood isn't dry, you must
open the air controls and burn at a high burn setting for a
longer time to start it burning. The heat generated from the
fire should be warming your home and establishing the flue
draft, not evaporating the moisture out of wet, unseasoned
wood, resulting in wasted heat.
438-0380E
April 21, 2010