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Operating Instructions
A. Over-Firing Your Appliance
Fire Risk. Do not over-fire.
Over-firing may ignite creosote or will damage
the appliance and chimney.
To prevent over-firing your appliance, DO NOT:
• Use flammable liquids
• Overload with wood
• Burn trash or large amounts of scrap lumber
• Permit too much air to the fire
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 Appliance 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 appliance and appliance pipe inspected for
any damage.
- Do not use your appliance until the chimney
professional informs you it is safe to do so.
Hearth & Home Technologies WILL NOT warranty
appliances 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 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.
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WARNING
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 2/3 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 uncovered 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 wood appliances that
surpass the requirements for emissions established by our
governing agencies. These wood appliances, 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 appliance 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 appliance. 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 (212°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.
7037-807C
02/23
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