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lottabigbluewater OP t1_j6iiie9 wrote

Reply to comment by fergal-dude in who recently got a heating oil bill? by lottabigbluewater

Oh totally! Mine is safe to leave. However it always seems to burn out if I don't tend to it within 4-5 hours - sure, it'll give out residual heat for longer, but not much. Any tips there actually? All I do now it get it going again in the morning but it's always stone cold when I get home from work.

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fergal-dude t1_j6ikrjv wrote

It took me a few years to get comfortable with it, so I understand. I didn't grow up with a wood stove, but we burn about 2 cords a winter these days and it keeps going whenever it's below 32.

So the best thing I ever did was learn that putting a channel in the coals was the best thing for getting the next log started. I just move the coles out of a 3 inche channel, from directly in front of where the air enters your firebox to the back of the stove.

Then lay the biggest, chuncky-est pieces, usually two, on top of that and let it go for 25-30 minutes, then turn the air vent all the way down and let it go. I can usually get a good eight hours if I have some chuncky pieces of wood. 4 small pieces DO NOT equal one large one.

When I'm splitting wood, I leave it as chuncky as possible. Then when I need small pieces, I keep the maul at the end of the garage and split one up. I found that I need need small pieces of wood much less often than I need large ones.

I used to fret that it would go out and try and play with the air vent to get it perfect, now, if it goes out, it goes out. But mostly it doesn't, you can revive some pretty dead coals with small pieces of wood, just move the coals around so the ash fall beneath it, create the channel, put on some small pieces of wood, then blow long and slow until they have a tiny bit of flame. Close the door and you should be good.

I hope this helps. Also, when I started burning wood 20 years ago the biggest mistake I made was not having dry wood wood on hand always. Stack or buy two years ahead of what you need.

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Definitelynotcal1gul t1_j6j0wyb wrote

Don't you get a lot of extra creosote leaving it on low all day long? We just started using wood as a "primary" heat source, but I don't want to leave it smoking all day long, and create a chimney problem due to being oxygen-starved.

And yeah, you can revive anything that's glowing relatively easily. One small piece of paper and a couple bits of kindling and you'll have it back to roaring in a few minutes.

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fergal-dude t1_j6jbt9v wrote

If you have a glass door on your woodstove, you can tell if you are producing creosote. So, occasionally I'll get a blackened glass, but then I just run it real hot after that and it clears up the glass and the stove pipe. We have the chimney cleaned every two years and get good reports on the amount of creosote that gets cleaned out.

You should run you stove hot for 45min-to-an-hour every day to keep the creosote build up down, but we do about every other the past 5 years. Do you have a thermometer on the stove pipe? If you don't, make sure you get one, get it into the burn zone daily if you are worried about it. You make creosote no matter how hot you burn, it's just important to get the wood stove up to temp to burn it off while it's not going to start a chimney fire.

But let's be honest, are you really burning wood if you don't have at least one chimney fire?

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Definitelynotcal1gul t1_j6jel3d wrote

Ha! I don't know, it's our first year with a wood stove. No chimney fires yet! I just took a picture of it and posted it on /r/woodstoving/ a few hours ago.

I've been keeping up with the treatment, so the glass and inside of the stove are mostly grey and not black/glassy. So, I think we're doing okay so far.

We do have a thermometer on both the stove and pipe and we've been keeping them in the burn zone. I'm mostly just concerned with running it long/low when we're either asleep or not home. We can only fit maybe 3 or 4 medium logs in the firebox so I doubt we can get 8 hours out of it. But I'd like to maybe be able to go to sleep and wake up without starting fresh.

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fergal-dude t1_j6jf25t wrote

Take your time. Try what I said about getting it going for overnight or all day, but do it first thing on a Saturday or Sunday morning while you are home and see how long it lasts. I do this when I WFH and don't want to be messing with it all day.

Again, not 3-4 pieces, one or two BIG ones. I try for one large chunk if I can.

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Definitelynotcal1gul t1_j6jfxuc wrote

Thanks for the advice. I think I need to split some bigger logs for next year. We purchased a few cords from the previous owner to get us going. Most of them are about 2-3 inches, very few at 4 or 5. That might be the key.

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fergal-dude t1_j6jfwbl wrote

That thing is pretty unique looking. I don't think I've ever seen a stovepipe curve like that either...

Our stove is now 18 years old but working well https://imgur.com/a/WlgTTyC

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Definitelynotcal1gul t1_j6jgizq wrote

I think it might be an optical illusion because I took it from the front. It's pretty straight, just leaning slightly. The connection makes a 90 degree angle with the wall.

How do you like your stove? We've got a second liner in the chimney for a room in the basement that we're probably going to get a 2nd stove for. So I'm shopping around a bit.

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fergal-dude t1_j6jhvr0 wrote

I like it, it's a Hearthstone but we got it at chimney sweep and I don't think I would buy from them again. A local hardware store sells them and I'd buy from them to keep the business local and keep a good relationship if anything went wrong. Chimney sweep isn't coming out for an hours drive to check into something. That's more important that the best deal or details about the stove. They all have to be built to certain standards these days.

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IndefinableMustache t1_j6jg4x6 wrote

Replace the accessible gaskets on your stove. I did just the door gasket and noticed a huge improvement in how long coals would stick around.

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Dire88 t1_j6j1m1g wrote

Depends. What model stove?

If it's a newer EPA stove they're built to be airtight except for the inlet you're adjusting. Some brands (looking at your Vermont Castings) have an ungodly amount of gaskets. If any one of them leak, your burn time can drop drastically. Same if its a catalytic stove and the cat is clogged or trashed.

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