Trouble keeping fire established in wood stove

[lknchoppers]

It's your wood. Before you do a bunch of stuff go buy a moisture meter (General Brand in Lowes take 9 volt batteries) and split a piece of wood and measure. That stove burns good with 15% moisture content firewood. pallets and kiln dried lumber usually runs about 10%.

 

[MountainHigh]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Englande...291302_slid_&gclid=CM7z4e6i_M4CFRSVfgod9ZILwA
Its an englander stove. . took the advice in here and burned some pinewood boards. they burned absolutely fine with no problems staying lit. no wind and realtively cool outside.
3. started a fire and kept burning kindling with the door open to try to heat the chimney. after about 10 minutes threw a seasoned (i think) piece of red fir on there and it burned vey well until i shut the door. went out almost immediately. it had rained all night the night before and was very humid/damp air.

the glass on the door is also getting dirty very quickly.

Your Englander has a good reputation and should keep you toasty warm.

Yes, your glass getting dirty fast is clear sign of inadequately seasoned wood. Also a hot burning fire on dry pine boards with closed door (if I read you right), suggests there is nothing wrong with the stove.

As others have stated, get some dry wood (15% moisture is good). If you don't have access to any, load up on some dry palettes or mill ends and burn 50/50 with your existing inadequately seasoned wood.

Modern EPA approved stoves are fussy and will only burn great if you feed them well seasoned wood. Anything less and it takes longer to get a chimney up to temp and therefore the fire struggles until the moisture is burned off.

Only reason to get a blower on the stove is if your home needs the air moved around more than it can do on convection alone. Some homes need a blower, others do not. Get used to burning the stove as it is and over time, you'll know if you need a blower or not. In my home (2 story 2500 sq. ft.) I never use one.

 

[Marine5068]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Englande...291302_slid_&gclid=CM7z4e6i_M4CFRSVfgod9ZILwA
Its an englander stove. used not new, i just moved into a house that was built in 2014 so its not very old. 6 inch chimney that runs straight up and out of the roof (2 stories). not sure of the diffrent types of flue caps but it looks like a mushroom cap with about a 6 inch gap. the screen has been taken off. im not sure what to look for for back puffing? also not sure how to check if the air inlet is blocked, i looked through the owners manual and stuck my hand underneath the stove to try to feel where the inlet is but i havent found it yet. Ill have to clean my stove out and keep looking. ive attempted 3 fires so far and here are the results...
1. had to keep the door open or it would die, after about 45 minutes of this it finally began to burn with the door shut and small flames but it did keep burning. it was a pretty windy day
2. took the advice in here and burned some pinewood boards. they burned absolutely fine with no problems staying lit. no wind and realtively cool outside.
3. started a fire and kept burning kindling with the door open to try to heat the chimney. after about 10 minutes threw a seasoned (i think) piece of red fir on there and it burned vey well until i shut the door. went out almost immediately. it had rained all night the night before and was very humid/damp air.

the glass on the door is also getting dirty very quickly. it was just cleaned and is pretty black now. not sure what this could be a sign of?
the previous owners left about a cord of what i thought to be seasoned red fir.. its at least a year old and is stacked on pallets in an open wood shed. the wood feels very dry but i dont have much of a feel for what it should be yet. some of the peices have what looks like crystalized pitch on the outside...not sure if thats really what it is.

also wanted to ask...my stove doesnt have a blower on it. Its supposed to come with one but the previous owners said they never put it on because they didnt need it and that the stove got the whole place nice and warm (they couldve been lying) its 1600 sq feet downstairs and 600 upstairs with the stove right in the middle of the first floor basically. Just wanting to get everyones opinion on getting a blower.

thanks for all the help!

That sounds like wet wood to me.....If dry kindling is burning fine then "bam" wet wood put in.....you'd get that effect and soot on glass.
Just a few things to know about burning wood....
You can effectively burn anything lower than 20% moisture (around 10% is better) and you can buy a meter for about $20-$30 to do spot checks on wood splits.(don't tell Spider though...ha,ha)
If you buy firewood, ask when it was split and if recent, stack it outside in air and full sun for at least a year before burning. This is called seasoning firewood. Oaks and harder, denser woods like Elms or knotted pieces make take two years.
That's it really.

 

[greenskeeper]

As mentioned your house could be very tight. Before starting the next fire try cracking open a window near the stove. If the draft is much better then you may have to crack the window at least until the fire is burning enough to pull air.

I have to do this anytime my stove has been out for more than 24 hours otherwise I get a smokey room.

 

[blades]

OK a used Englander 30 or 13 or? Any way it was already there when you bought home so here is something you need to check/do With the fire box empty we want to remove the baffle board at the top of the fire box on the 30 it just lays on the secondary tubes it is two pieces ( careful they are somewhat brittle) again on the 30 you will need to remove at least the front most tube to get clearance to slide the boards out . It is just possible that there maybe a lot of fine ash built up on top of the boards causing an exhaust restriction. Careful as this stuff is finer than flour. The tube is held in by a sheet metal screw on the left hand side ( stainless screw). It might be a bit of a chore to remove it if it never has been done before once the screw is out the tube will slide to the right and with a bit wiggling it can be maneuvered out. The boards have to be over lapped a bit to remove and tipped down so be careful- only one board at a time as there will be the very fine ash on top of it and you do not want to spill it as it will float all over. when replacing the boards the front edge of same should be about even with the first tube- the back edge rests further back than the rear most tube. I do not know the details on the 13 likely similar.

There are a lot of threads on the Englander stoves - 2 things that can be done to get more heat from the 30 one involves the baffle boards and making a small rod to fill the gap on one side when the boards are pushed together and slid to one side or the other. the other is a convection plate located above the top of stove a couple of inches to deflect more of the blower air across the top of stove and out into the room ( basicly an extension the curved area of the rear heat shield). You can also install a second set of boards right over the top of the orginal set ( have take out the first and second tubes to do this) this makes for a hotter firebox and really helps keep the window clean with minimal effect on draft ( so after you get the draft issue or wet wood issue corrected this is something to think about) Personally in my 30 I have 1" thick baffle boards cut to fit very tightly all the way around.

If the blower is real noisy I can tell you how to replace the bearings on it - Which reminds me that is another item too clean.

 

[WhiteMike]

It's an englander 30. I will check above the boards like you described, one of them is cracked already from the previous owners. I just laid to have the stove cleaned and inspected so I lf I do find anything up there it should be a good indicator that they didn't do what they were supposed to. Do you have any idea how to get to the air intake? I tried feeling all around the front bottom of the stove and nothing.

I started stacking the logs sideways and that is making it burn much better. Also going to pick up a meter. Thanks for the help everybody!

 

[MountainHigh]

It's an englander 30.
I started stacking the logs sideways and that is making it burn much better. Also going to pick up a meter. Thanks for the help everybody!

---->
Ya some stoves burn best with north/south loading and others are setup for east/west loading. Side air intakes like the Regency Stoves, prefer East West loads. Front air intakes like my Pacific Energy prefer north/south loads. How you load your stove can make a BIG difference, especially if your wood moisture content is high.

This guy is burning North South in his Englander using very dry wood:

 

[blades]

Main air intake and secondary air intake, Back side of stove below fan if mounted- main is 3"centered, secondary is a small rectangular opening about 1.5" or so off to the door latch side below fan ,on back again. additionally there are 2 very small openings up front bottom for the window air wash. if you have the legs installed then you can likely find those as they are apx behind those- if pedestal can't get to them. IF your out side flue is not an insulated one or enclosed in a chase it can take a bit to get it warmed up to get the draft going well. As I mentioned a bit before sometimes external down drafts can cause problems. 2 floors worth of flue is going to take a bit to warm up. Re- reading the thread , I think you are fighting 2 issues- 1 is a tight house ( 2014 construction) and 2 fuel is not dry enough. An outside air intake ( as mentioned above) will likely solve some of the problems. If you have a basement its not a difficult diy job. wood well only time cures that - you could try some of the compressed wood blocks and see how they burn. if same issues then combination of air supply and flue draft ( there is a very remote possibility that the air control is disconnected- never heard of it happening on a 30) most 30 will run best after fire is established with the damper control about even with the edge of the ash lip. Unless it is a real roaring fire all the way in will just about snuff everything else out.

 

[Streblerm]

Spot on advice from blades and mountainhigh

I will add that a front to back wood arrangement (N\S) seems to burn better for me than left to right (E\W). It starts easier, burns cleaner, and more completely. The primary air comes in from the front.

 

[blades]

As Above- called Dog House- if you stack your fuel with a channel for that air stream open all the way to the back that makes life simpler. I find that if you use 17-18" splits stacked front to back that also is a little better -leaves a gap at the front and the back of the fire box -a little combustion room.