Just bought a Wood Stove

[EddieWalker]

Congrats. I'm also experiencing my first season of having a wood stove for heating my home. I absolutly love it and enjoy every aspect of it. Even cleaning out the ash is simple and satisfying.

Now I'm excited to cut and split more wood and have my wood shed full before it gets cold next year!!!!!

Eddie

 

[clemsonfor]

Congrats. I'm also experiencing my first season of having a wood stove for heating my home. I absolutly love it and enjoy every aspect of it. Even cleaning out the ash is simple and satisfying.

Now I'm excited to cut and split more wood and have my wood shed full before it gets cold next year!!!!!

Eddie

After i posted this i searched and found your post, i posted to it myself today. I really have a wood stove insert, for the fireplace.

 

[Pirate]

I have one of those stoves (inserts) It can be a stove if you add the legs. Mine is an XTEC which I believe was the model right before the 2500. I don't have the side glass, I have nice heat grills, otherwise it looks idential. I don't use mine much as it heats up the living room too much, even with a small fire. I bought a custom screen for the door opening so I can use it as an open fireplace as needed. That stove will heat my entire house 2800 sq ft without a problem, as long as the fan is running. It heats up to around 1200deg when I have it crammed full of wood.

 

[clemsonfor]

I have one of those stoves (inserts) It can be a stove if you add the legs. Mine is an XTEC which I believe was the model right before the 2500. I don't have the side glass, I have nice heat grills, otherwise it looks idential. I don't use mine much as it heats up the living room too much, even with a small fire. I bought a custom screen for the door opening so I can use it as an open fireplace as needed. That stove will heat my entire house 2800 sq ft without a problem, as long as the fan is running. It heats up to around 1200deg when I have it crammed full of wood.

Yea i think XTEC is the parent company and High Valley was created as a stand alone stove company. XTEC also made stove for a company called Bat Cave Stoves in NC, prolly from bat cave. But i think that company was bought out. Yep you can make it a stand alone stove with the legs. Who made your screen? someone local or did you order it from the company?

On the side glass, your not missing anything, they dont have the cold air wash and one day they are so black with carbon you can barely see the flame flicker in them, the front glass remains clear due to the air wash though.

 

[DennisArrow]

On the side glass, your not missing anything, they dont have the cold air wash and one day they are so black with carbon you can barely see the flame flicker in them.

I wonder what happens if you run a REALLY hot fire. Does this carbon burn off? I am thinking that perhaps you are running to cold of a fire or perhaps green wood?.......The Creosote Remover from Rutland truly does a good job on cleaning this stuff.........But really also a HOT fire once a day keeps it down or gone.......

TSC sells a stove pipe/stove thermometer held on with a magnet that does a good job on how hot you are really running........

Just thoughts.........Dennis

 

[Pirate]

Bought my screen from Fireplace Screens, Custom Fireplace Screens, Glass Fireplace Screens, Fireplace Door Screens-Woodlanddirect.com. The screen covers the door opening exactly. I can leave the door open and use the screen.

I have air wash on my stove but it doesn't keep the glass clean. No matter what, mine gets sooted up real easy, no matter how hot the fire is.

 

[clemsonfor]

I wonder what happens if you run a REALLY hot fire. Does this carbon burn off? I am thinking that perhaps you are running to cold of a fire or perhaps green wood?.......The Creosote Remover from Rutland truly does a good job on cleaning this stuff.........But really also a HOT fire once a day keeps it down or gone.......

TSC sells a stove pipe/stove thermometer held on with a magnet that does a good job on how hot you are really running........

Just thoughts.........Dennis

I am burning a hot fire, your will burn the $h!t out of your hand if you touch any of the glass or metal when i get it going. Last night we were in the upper 30's i think outside and i was sweating watching tv in front of it at 77F. The front glass door remains clear. I am burning wood that was cut last year and split in the spring and stacked under my wood shed and has not been rained on since around march. some is older than that, like 2-3 yrs old. This stove i have is a bay window type model. It has a large front door and smaller porthole windows on the sides of the front "bay" like a bay window would have. These smaller windows will soot up black the front remains clear.

Bought my screen from Fireplace Screens, Custom Fireplace Screens, Glass Fireplace Screens, Fireplace Door Screens-Woodlanddirect.com. The screen covers the door opening exactly. I can leave the door open and use the screen.

I have air wash on my stove but it doesn't keep the glass clean. No matter what, mine gets sooted up real easy, no matter how hot the fire is.

Maybe thats a model design difference in the different years?

 

[dmccarty]

I will fire the generator up and then plug the blower and tv in and sit there and watch the tv and satellite till the power comes back on.

The last two power outages we had were due to snow and a bit of ice. We really got lucky, a bit more ice and there would have been wide spread and long term outages.

The snow was a bit wetter yet lighter than usually. Very strange. It stuck on the limbs, and power lines, real well. So well that it blocked the satellite signal for a couple of days. The kids were most unhappy while we did not care so much. :laughing:

Beer cools down really fast the snow. :thumbsup:

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

I wonder what happens if you run a REALLY hot fire. Does this carbon burn off? I am thinking that perhaps you are running to cold of a fire or perhaps green wood?.......The Creosote Remover from Rutland truly does a good job on cleaning this stuff.........But really also a HOT fire once a day keeps it down or gone.......

TSC sells a stove pipe/stove thermometer held on with a magnet that does a good job on how hot you are really running........

Just thoughts.........Dennis

+100 for the thermometer!

I looked here and there for a stove thermometer and eventually found and bought one at TSC. If you burn wood to heat a house you need a thermometer. Seriously. It really helps to know how well the stove and wood is burning.

To clean the glass we have been using the glass kitchen stove cleaner.

If you have wet wood there is more build up on the glass. I have noticed hot fires will burn off some of the build up but not all. I just cleaned our stove glass for the first time this season a week or so back. It needs cleaning again. The wood we are burning is not as dry as what has been burning previously. How do we know? The build up on the glass and the TSC thermometer. The wood is burning in the safe temperature range but if the wood was dryer we would be in the hot unsafe zone around 650 degrees.

I am not sure why the current batch of wood is not as dry. It was split at the same time as the other wood. Best guess is that much of the wood was from dead trees but one tree was only mostly dead. I think this wood was from lower on the tree trunk and was wetter than upper logs.

I am sure the build up on the glass is also related to the stove design. We have side windows on the stove and they blacken up quicker than the front glass regardless of the dryness of the wood. We can still see through the side windows though. Most of the time. I still like the side windows since I can see the fire from the study.

Later,
Dan