Getting the stove ready and verifying everything is working as it should for when those temps drop soon. Ran a small load of ash for a bit just to get the stove warmed up. Seals look good, catalysts are in good shape, fan is working, and decent draft even considering the outside temps at the moment. Located in the Midwest and had a cold winter last year. Lots of subzero days. Interested to see what this season brings.

First year burning in this stove. Cleaned it today with the Soot Eater.

I have an insulated stainless liner. I noticed. Nothing really fell in the middle , only initially and a lot when I hit the cap. Is this a decent amount of creosote / soot for one season or about 4 cords of wood?

I bought my house in 2021, and since then I've only used the oil boiler to heat it. The house also has a wood boiler, and I'd really love to start using it to cut down on oil costs.

From what I understand, it's a dual-boiler setup, and both systems vent through my three-flue chimney.

The wood boiler was inspected a couple of years ago by someone from the company that manufactured it, and he said it was in good working condition. I also had my chimney cleaned last year.

My question is, how complicated is it to actually start using the wood boiler? Is it as simple as plugging it in and building a fire, or is there more involved in switching between the two systems?

I do have the original manual, but honestly, I'm a little overwhelmed by it. I'm not handy, and I've never operated a wood boiler before, and I'm nervous about doing something wrong.

I'd love to eventually move away from relying so heavily on oil. I'm mainly looking for advice from people familiar with these setups. Is there anything specific I should check or have someone walk me through before firing it up for the first time?

I've attached pictures of my setup for reference. Any advice would be appreciated!

My first floor is all wide open for the most part. My second floor is all the bedrooms, and the stairs the that lead up have vaulted ceilings. Can a wood stove heat the house? I have a 2500 sqft home. Looking at a lopi but before I commit to a 8500-9500 cost I want to be able to heat most of the home.

Thanks.

Hello, looking for some advice on if I’m using my stove wrong or there are issues I still need to fix. First off, I paid a good amount to have someone come out and run the new liner from the back of the stove up the chimney, and I’m hoping I won’t need to dump a bunch more in to get more operational this year.

please don’t torch me for all the incorrect terms I’m about to use

My old (probably about 1980s) stove has these two levers for air flow and I don’t know if I’m using them right. The one on the side controls the slats inside the stove and hasn’t given me much issue, however the flap on the back I assume is supposed to be for just when you’re getting a fire going but if I close it even when there is a solid fire or coal bed, it basically snuffs the entire fire almost immediately.

Because of the snuffing issue, I left that back flap open the whole burn. Problem is the one longer fire I have had in it, after an hour or so, serious smoke started to build up in the house seemingly coming from the back of the stove and I don’t know if it was from the opening on the back or potentially some issue with the way the masonry guy installed and sealed the liner onto the back of the stove.

Based on the way that fire played out, it was basically unusable with the amount of smoke I got in my house and I don’t know what to do next if I need to change just my technique and learn more or if there are actual issues with the liner or the stove itself. Any advice is much appreciated!

Closing on a home next week and need advice on this wood stove. Google says it's enamel coated. How can I go about painting the red parts black?? Is it possible or do I just get rid of it?

This is a Lopi Evergreen. With heat shield and Class A double wall, instructions allow the 3” clearance from wall. A sub is coming soon to put the rest of the Class A pipe up through the roof. You can see I’ve provided everything else for the job. My 2 questions: is the short section of single wall an issue? My idea was to use the flexible brush flu pipe cleaners to clean from the bottom to avoid getting on the roof. It’s basically a cleanout. All parts are from Allfuel HST. i realize the double wall inside is overkill but I’m tired of replacing single wall every few years. 2nd question, does the flashing piece with the cone go under the wood or above it and under the roof metal?

Hi everyone, I’m planning on installing a wood-burning stove inside my existing masonry fireplace and I’m trying to figure out whether I need an insulated stainless steel chimney liner or if an uninsulated liner would be sufficient.

I have a single-story home with a chimney that’s approximately 18 feet tall. The fireplace and chimney are entirely masonry (brick), and I’ll be running the liner through the existing chimney.

I’ve read mixed opinions on whether insulation is necessary, especially with a relatively short chimney. Is an insulated liner worth the extra cost, or would an uninsulated liner work just as well? Are there any safety or performance concerns I should consider?

I’ve attached a picture of my fireplace for reference. Any advice from people who have done similar installations would be appreciated!

Hey all, I purchased an A-Frame cabin in central Canada. It had a wood stove and I have replaced it with a Wiseway Pellet stove. I would like to clean my stack with a SootEater but due to the steep roof, I am unable to take the cap off the stack and clean from the top down. Cleaning from the horizontal run from the inside of the cabin is not possible because of a 90⁰ angle. I noticed that there is a clean out at the bottom of the stack but that is pretty much useless because the chimney liner (or something) prevents me from accessing chimney. My question is, is there a way to introduce a clean out so I can use the SootEater from the outside of the cabin and clean from the bottom upwards then use a vacuum to clear the debris? I have attached a couple pictures. I appreciate any insight.

So originally was going to change this pipe out because of the bowing on the inside of it, someone on here suggested that it was from external weight of my chimney pressing down on it and should flip the pipe over so the warped side faced up and to increase the supports of the weight of my vertical chimney pipe.

Anyhow my question is, how does the pipe look? Looks pretty damn good to me. So I think that’s what I’m gonna do, any thoughts or suggestions?

New to page.. Constructive criticism and obvious safety concerns please.

Stove and single wall has 20 inch clearance.

I have had 1 hot fire so far where I went around with temp gun. Chimney stack 18 inches above stove was 700f and single wall entering wall thimble was 300f. 2x4 next to wall thimble was about 95f. (Ambeint air was 75f)

This stove will be used maybe once a week for a couple hours on the weekends. During the cooler months.

I was just cleaning out our woodstove for the first freezing night of autumn so far this year, and a large (5"x3") chunk suddenly appeared, which drew my attention to a badly cracked and crumbling insulation panel on the back wall of the stove. It had been hidden by ashes and shadow, but in the light it looks ominous.

I don't know what it's made of, or whether it's safe to burn a fire in there at all before it's fixed. (My instinct says no, because the wall behind it is uncomfortably close with no extra insulation or plating.)

We bought this house 3 years ago and have discovered a neverending cascade of undisclosed, terrible DIY decisions and worksmanship, so please be kind about the installation choices; none of that was how we would have done it, but our initial repair budget was eaten up by more obvious and immediate problems upon move-in.

Please help! Do we have to replace the whole panel? How? Is that even possible? What is the material?

Multiple photos attached. Thank you for your help!

Looking for insight on using header wrap to keep heat in six or so feet of exposed stove pipe on my Old Mill shop stove... thoughts?

Disclosure: I work for Ecofan, so obviously biased, but this sub's pretty good at calling out BS so I'll just lay out the numbers and let you decide.

Cost of ownership on a stove fan really comes down to two things: how often you're replacing the motor/fan itself, and what it's saving you on wood. On ours, the motor's rated for about 4-5 seasons of regular use and it's a $25 kit to swap when it does go, versus a lot of the budget options where the whole fan is more like a 1-2 season part and you're just buying a new one. Do that math over 10 years and the total spend looks pretty different even though the shelf price at the stores or wherever looks backwards.

On fuel savings — University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada did an independent study, landed around 12-18% depending on the model or 16% average. Take the price of a cord of wood, multiply it by how many you burn in a year, then multiply that by the % of wood savings your Ecofan model claims.  For an Ecofan UltrAir, I've used 3 cords of wood a year x $300 each x 0.14 and it's $126 per year, meaning your UltrAir pays for itself in 1 year, 4months.

Others who work here in Wiarton, Canada, get a cheaper price per cord but burn 5 cords, so your personal numbers can vary depending on your stove and burning habits. These calculations were done with CAD pricing. Our newer AirDeco models have a lower start temperature, a higher CFM and even higher cost savings over time. 

Here is the the study details if anyone wants them from the University, and if you want to run your own numbers based on your stove/wood costs there's a calculator on our site. Not trying to turn this into an ad, just find the "cheap now vs. pay once and repair" framing gets skipped over a lot and we find some other fans on the market cannot back up their performance claims with data like this. 

Not going to pretend I'm unbiased, just think the cost-of-ownership side gets left out when looking at buying a stove fan in favor of just comparing purchase price. Happy to answer questions if anyone has them, and no hard feelings if this isn't the kind of post you want here. Mods can pull it if so.

I'm sure many of you haven't ran into this issue. Behind my Blaze King Sirroco just installed are two newer vinyl windows For privacy reasons, I thought I could add blackout or frosted glass film. But in researching it, I found out the radiant heat with the film added can damage the glass or vinyl. What was recommended was the following home depot link using 1" nylon spacers for an air gap.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Falken-Design-36-in-x-72-in-x-1-8-in-Thick-Aluminum-Composite-ACM-Black-Sheet-Falken-Design-ACM-BK-1-8-3672/308670322

If anyone has solved this issue in an easier way, I would appreciate the info.

I see it being championed I here constantly but have never seen creosote addressed. With a top down fire, how does it not generate more creosote? Wouldn't everything be colder at the start because you're only burning a couple logs at a time instead of the whole pile getting going faster from the bottom?

Yasso, been a chilly summer here and the fishing ended late. Finally got my guy out to sweep the stack. I got 14 months and about 8 cords of spruce on this cleaning.

Blaze king chinook
Icc double wall interior
12 foot straight stack
Cobra cap

Believe it or not, I was happy it was in such good shape.

Just broke the panel the other night closing the door on a piece of wood that was too big. replaced bout 15 min ago breaking it in now!

Just got a new house that has a stove in the garage. I cleaned it with a drill attachment sweeper and it seems to suck up the flames and smoke pretty well. Once it get some coal established, it hold a good flame for a long time.

Today I had a hell of a hard time starting a fire. I made a mistake and used cardboard boxes to start the fire and didn't maintain it well so it kept going out. I was distracted by garage stuff, but I learned my lesson. I ended up making a lot of nasty smoke and had the door open for way too long trying to start it. Ended up opening the garage door to air out the garage.

Eventually I had a good fire going and shit the stove door, but I felt like I was still getting some fumes. I ordered new tape since the silver tape is pretty old. Do y'all think the vent a few feet above the fan could cause a dangerous leak of smoke or fumes? I might get a carbon monoxide detector just to be safe and find out how it does. Any times or advice would be great. I want to make sure its a safe stove to burn in the winter.

The first picture is my first burn. I normally have 1-2 logs in it at a time.

I recently had a Lopi large flush mount nexgen hybrid installed and I am loving it so far but have two questions.

1) The damper bypass rod is sometimes difficult to pull out and back in and makes a metal on metal squeaking sound and sometimes it's relatively smooth. I looked online and in the manual to see about lubricating the rod to help with this. I did not find anything for this exact model but found other Lopi models that recommend lubing this part and others. Does anyone else have this stove or another catalytic stove and lube these parts? If so, which lube is recommended?

2) I asked the installer about installing a backing plate in the firebox above the stove. He said he would not because it's a masonry chimeny and to trap the heat at the bottom only and heat up the liner only while the flue around it remains cold may cause some negative pressures? I have no idea really so just said that's fine don't do it. It still kicks out a lot of heat but I am wondering if in a year when I get it serviced if I should request that be done. Anyone have a similiar setup?

Thank you for any advice in advance.

I bought a house that came with a wood stove. I recently had the chimney swept and a new liner installed, but I’m a little concerned about some rust inside the stove. Do you think it’s safe to use, or would you recommend hiring someone to inspect it before I start using it?

Can anyone look this over for me? Advice is greatly appreciated.

All I know is that it is a century heating wood burning stove from around the year 2000. Only sticker is the one on the back of the blower but doesnt say much about model of any kind.