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Rickant
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 07:56
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This is a silly question I suppose. We are going up to the cabin which has bp it been used since the fall. Is there any issue starting a super cold wood stove? Start with a small fire? I dunno I just have this vision of super cold metal heating up and cracking lol. Leave it to the newbie lol.

Steve_S
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 08:32 - Edited by: Steve_S
Reply 


An Iron Stove when frozen solid is best started with a smaller fire and warmed up but good iron shouldn't be any problem. By default, I always will start a small fire get a coal bed and then put in my burn wood but that's just me. I've only seen one iron stove crack and that was because it was overfired and almost glowing and a dimwit (drunken fool) threw cold water on it. That was not pleasant, luckily, not my place & stove, not my problem but a bit scary nevertheless.

BTW: No such thing as a silly / stupid question except for the one 'not asked'. If unsure or don't know, ask the question lest you become a fool. If someone teases / bugs you for asking, they are the fool.

Kamn
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 08:32
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Have no worries, just light it up and get warm!

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 08:36
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Ok... I'm not even sure what it is made of sine we only had the cabin for a month in the fall and used it once, so I don't remember but duh I just remembered that I took a picture of it !
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Kamn
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 08:46
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Nice little stove
Start your fire and stay warm.
The body of that stove is heavy gauge sheet steel, probably cold rolled and not much you can do to damage it unless you run it over with a tank or load it with explosives

jtamlin
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 09:10
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Often when really cold out I have trouble getting the stove to draw right away. I lay my fire, but then cram the top of the stove with paper. This little bit of heat, from the paper is just enough to push the heavy cold air out of the chimney, and establish a good draw.

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 09:28
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Thanks for the advice! Another stove question... I recall on this stove when I look inside (I wanted to look into the pipe) there is a horizontal plate that is below the chimney pipe that spans across the stove but not completely to the back. I am curious about this...what is it and Is it removable? How otherwise would you check up the pipe?

Greenland South
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 09:41
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That is a baffle plate. It may or may not be bolted in place. Many are welded in and are part of the the stove structure. Depending on the configuration you may have to remove the flue pipe after cleaning the chimney in order to clean off the top of the baffle plate. Keep in mind the Fire Code in Canada states that chimneys must be cleaned and inspected yearly.

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 09:50
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Thanks. This is my first wood stove and want to be safe.. We will get it cleaned in the spring for sure. We might use it to warm up if we go check on the cottage, not sure. We may just have a fire outside... Need to learn about these things to make sure we are safe especially with 4 kiddos.... Coming soon I will probably ask about chainsaws - they terrify me - but I will focus on the wood stove for now lol.

creeky
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 09:54
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It doesn't hurt to find some cheap salt and throw a handful in during a good fire.

It will react with the creosote. for the next few days you may hear some crackling sounds as the creosote falls off the chimney liner.

I do this once or twice a season. I have a short chimney with relatively poor draw as I'm running smaller fires.

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 10:08
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Any kind of salt? Like table salt?

jtamlin
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 11:17
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I don't want this to sound reckless, but short of somebody leaning a combustible on your stove, like a blanket, chair etc. A wood burner is very safe. Distance from the wall is important and I am a huge believer in heat shields. As far as the stove goes currently I have 4 that I heat with at my cabins. The newest one is from the 1950's. Burn quality wood, and don't over fire them. It's tempting when first warming up the cabin to really stoke them up.....this is when things go bad. Once the wood is in and burning its to late to say oops to much! They are, in my opinion both the nicest heat and the safest heat for a cabin. Buy the smallest Stihl chainsaw you find, about a 14 inch. That will cut anything you need. Two small trees are easier then one big one!

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 11:33
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Thanks for the advice! I've read too many stories about chimney fires and carbon monoxide. I want to make sure to keep the family safe. Will definitely follow the great advice. We have tons of wood that the previous owners left but I think it is all soft wood. Will check out the small chain saws and I think there is a chainsaw safety course in Perth that I might look into.

Steve_S
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 12:02
Reply 


Rick, the one really important thing with wood, DRY ! It must be dry and I am not talking to the touch but split & air dried so there is no sap or even water in it. I cut & split mine, toss it in the Woodshed which is covered and has good airflow and the fresh goes to back and sit's to 2nd year before it sees flame. NEVER burn any "roots" that's where "pitch" comes from and that is pure creosote when burned.

Your stove is a steel plate stove and should be no problem, start small and get used to it and you'll get the feel of the stove.

One thing, an absolute MUST IMO... A Chimney Thermometer !!!
Magnetic or Probe type are both good (I use magnetic one). See link below for an SBI one at HomeHardware can get them anywhere pretty much and not expensive, saves much headache potential. Always good to know how hoot the chimney is and if your reaching over fire.

https://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/Heating-Ventilation-Cooling-Home-Comfort /Heating/Chimney-Supplies/Miscellaneous/Magnetic-Stove-Pipe-Thermometer/_/N-ntil0Z1z1 40i9/R-I5541078

Greenland South
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 12:19
Reply 


Have a look on the back of the stove, you should see a certification label. The make and model will be listed on it. From there you can go on line and download the user manual (I'm assuming you don't have it). There is good info in that document that you need to know about your stove.

jtamlin
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 12:23
Reply 


Good points Steve...totally overlooked the chimney temp gauge, a must have, and cheap. I also have a similar rotation through my woodshed. I cringe when guys are burning pressure treated or creasote railway ties "scrap" wood. It goes without saying that a smoke alarm is a must have in your cabin too. They say a wood stove heats you up several times. Cutting, then splitting and finally burning....that's three times the heat of any other source!!

Steve_S
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 12:37
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@JT you also forgot the other "heat" when something goes wrong while cutting / splitting and you turn the air blue... but that's another kind of heat, so I guess it don't count... LOL. A Shinbone whack is guaranteed to generate "heat".

I'd wager, knowing where Rick is, that the stove pictured is most likely a Drolet / SBI product. Label on the back will give the make & model and all their manuals are available online. SBI owns many brand labels btw.

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 17:23 - Edited by: Rickant
Reply 


It might be a haugh’s or century s135. I checked it quickly and thought
W Hersey was the brand but didn’t know that they were the certifying body.
I didn’t get a great look and didn’t have my phone to take a pic

Cfm Corp?

jtamlin
Member
# Posted: 17 Feb 2018 19:00
Reply 


Lol....figured to leave the blue heat out! Didn't want to overwhelm Rick as he has lots on his plate with four young running around. I looked on the back of my Empire parlour stove from the early 1900's didn't see any sticker. I am not much for people telling me what to least of all the government so I am going to keep burning!

Steve_S
Member
# Posted: 18 Feb 2018 13:27
Reply 


Quite possibly a Century Wood Stoves product (also owned by SBI)
https://www.century-heating.com/en/products/stoves/ and they are marked with CWS or similar (TSC Sells many of them), CFM Corp was the previous owner I believe. The model # should be on the silver sticker on the back If it hasn't been melted or scraped off.

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 18 Feb 2018 13:36
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Going back today so will take a pic this time!

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 18 Feb 2018 18:14 - Edited by: Rickant
Reply 


Well, went back today with hopes of staying the night... I picked up a chimney thermometer, brought carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, got wood, had axe. It was 2c outside. I started a fire and followed the standard approach. 2 hours later it was only 6C in the cabin. My wife found little sheets of black stuff on the ground. I'm assuming some buildup either in the chimney or cap. Needless to say between the blacks stuff and temp we came home.
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itsals1
Member
# Posted: 18 Feb 2018 21:09
Reply 


The black chunk is creosote build up inside of the chimney or possibly corrosion from condensation in the chimney. Did you clean your chimney and stove before you started a fire? It's best if you clean everything in the spring after your done burning, although most of the time I clean mine in the fall before the heating season. You will usually end up with more corrosion waiting until fall for cleaning. Do you know if you have single or double wall pipe? I'm thinking it would be double wall. Many times when you burn a fire hot in cold weather it will draw draft hard enough to pull out the creosote out of the chimney and will land on the roof and surrounding areas. As far as heating up the cabin, did you close down the draft on the stove so the heat was not going all up the chimney? Once you have a good burning fire this needs to be done in order to radiate the heat into the cabin.
Be safe and good luck.

Greenland South
Member
# Posted: 18 Feb 2018 21:12
Reply 


Rickant, something to consider. If you have double wall flue pipe on that stove the stick on magnetic type flue thermometers don't give an accurate temperature reading. If it's double wall flue pipe you should pick up a probe type thermometer. You'll need to drill a hole in the flue pipe and stick it in. It will give you a far better idea of your flue gas temps.

Gary O
Member
# Posted: 18 Feb 2018 22:58
Reply 


Nothing to add, but, nice stove, really nice…and righted the pic



Rickant
Member
# Posted: 19 Feb 2018 05:56
Reply 


We will definitely have it cleaned. I did some quick reading and i guess you can also get some crap building up in the cap. Regardless, it will be cleaned before use. How do I tell if it is double walled? I closed off the air flow quite a lot once it got going but it didn't seem to be heating up the place. Trial and error I guess too.

littlesalmon4
Member
# Posted: 19 Feb 2018 13:33
Reply 


More air = more heat. Leave the draft wide open but watch your chimney temperature. Once you approach max temperature on the chimney start to draft down to maintain safe chimney temps.
Air temp was -32 c on our last trip. Takes a good 8hrs to get the cabin warm and all of the walls and contents really take the better part of 24hrs.

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 19 Feb 2018 13:41
Reply 


Oh ok. We let the temp get to yellow but not sure if the mag thermometer is accurate. I thought I had read to slow down the air so that the stove could burn longer and more efficiently.... In any case we will go up in the morning next time and start the fire right away. It's really only 600sq ft or so, but I guess it still takes hours to warm up.

Steve_S
Member
# Posted: 19 Feb 2018 14:17
Reply 


Your inside pipe most certainly appears to be standard single wall pipe. Damper should be installed at 16" from top of stove, there isn't one. (Ont. Code). It can take a couple of hours to heat the bones of a building up once frozen solid, till then, you are fighting the cold thermal mass of the building.

A small Strove Fan on top would help shift the heat from going straight up into the room, they are on sale presently @ Home Hardware for the better ones, roughly 1/2 price. That stove is setup to have a blower on it's back, a blower kit would heat up the room space much faster, they are usually 120V and a fairly standard one is typically around $120 + pending if it's special / unique (not usually, fairly universal) and easy to install, 3, 4 screws. IF that stove is RV Approved then it may also have provision for external air intake for makeup air, those are not usually installed in a regular building unless they are very air tight (like my build) or if you are using other oxygen consuming appliances (propane/gas appliances or other).

Guess you didn't get the label, make & model # off it.

Suggestion, when you go to install a damper, it would be a good time to split that long run pipe so you can dismantle it for cleaning, the "adjustable" black stove pipes are good for that. There isn't a Damper which is quite a surprising, obviously not installed by a certified WETT installer. Insurance may (and likely will) require a WETT Certification for it prior to insuring the property. Damper is about $7.00 for an iron one to fit a 6" pipe, Adjustable pipe is around $25 if memory serves.

I recall from a previous post (I think it was you anyways), you had said that the chimney goes straight up through the roof, that will add to your cleaning fun, as it means covering up inside and under when dismantling the pipe. NOTE, You can buy a Chimney cleaning / brush kit from Home Hardware as well pretty cheap too and that will have the extensions to go all the way up, messy job, so have a good Shop Vac with a fine filter on it.

Good Luck.

Rickant
Member
# Posted: 19 Feb 2018 14:48
Reply 


Thanks will check into the damper. I will get one if I have to have one but I was under the impression that the air adjustment on the stove was sufficient? The stove is definitely wett certified.
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