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Welcome to wood burning!! You're going to love it! Nothing makes me happier than keeping the stove going from November through March.

Getting the flue swept is a big first step, which you have already done! Nice! You can get yourself a kit like this to do it yourself (if you didn't do it yourself) quickly and save money every year. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N0Q8FG6

Check all the rope gaskets. If any portion of a rope looks loose or deteriorated, replace the entire rope. Its quick and cheap. There are usually gaskets on internal plates too. Be sure to check those. For example, you may have a damper gasket, backplate gasket, throat gasket, etc.

After all gaskets have been inspected and/or replaced, check to see that your access doors are good and tight. Take a dollar bill, and close the door with the bill half in the stove, half out. Once the door is closed all the way, try to pull the bill out. Continue this all around the gasket. If it slides right out, there is a gap. Usually you can adjust this with a threaded stop on the handle assembly which adjust how tightly the door closes. If adjustments don't solve the problem, it could be a warped door that you'd want to replace.

Does your stove have a secondary burn process (catalyst or refractory chamber)? If it uses a catalyst element ... inspect it. Chances are it's shot and needs to be replaced. They don't last long, usually about 5 to 7 years.

Burn seasoned wood!! Do not order your wood in autumn and expect to burn it that winter. If possible, get it a year ahead of time and season it in a place off the ground with a bit of cover and as much wind as possible. If a year ahead isn't in the cards for a few seasons, at least try to get it very early in the spring. Have it cut, split, and stacked before summer to take advantage of the heat to help dry it out.

And, with stacking ... set your self up right from the beginning. Find a good spot that gets good air flow, where you can make some cover for it, and where you can get wood dumped easily to make the splitting & stacking part as painless as possible. Also, think about how far that stack is from where you'd like it to be in the winter. When we get 3 feet of snow .. I definitely don't want to have to snowblow a path to the wood shed. I move a cord or 2 to my covered front porch in early November. All the wood I need in Nov and Dec I can usually go to the wood shed for. Come January, the snow really starts to dump here in the Northeast ... so that's when I love having easy access to a few cords on the front porch. On those nice, sunny (and very cold) January and February days, I'll do what I can to keep the porch topped off between snow storms.

Learn the ebb and flow of your stove. It will take some time, but you'll learn what it takes to get the best heat out of it. Load mixes, load times, air control, etc. You'll get it, but it will take time.

Move air around the house. Place a fan in a far room blowing the cold air toward the room with the stove. This will help cycle warm air through out the house. Don't try to blow the warm air from the room to other rooms .... it's like pushing rope. Doesn't work well. You have to pull the cold air.

I think thats it for now ... enjoy that awesome heat!!

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EDIT: a few more things I thought of

Get yourself some fatwood. It's resin impregnated kindling that lights very quickly and burns for at least 15 minutes to get a fire going quickly.

https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/ed405a54-17c9-4405-8939-f6925b29d463/svn/fire-starters-201274-64_1000.jpg

Along with fatwood ... birch bark is my goto for a nearly instant fire. Birch bark lights up immediately and burns for a few minutes. I have 3 or four pieces of fatwood laying over that and then my firewood stacked over that. I usually have a a roaring fire going in 5 minutes. Then I close the door (leave the damper open) and let that burn well and down to a vigorous bed of red hot coals. Then, I will load the firebox, let that all get up in a good flames, close the damper and enjoy. Usually about 20-30 minutes in to that first *real* burn, I close off the air a bit.

In the very cold months, try to move wood into your home ahead of time (just enough for a load or two) so it gets up to room temperature before going into the stove. Makes things a bit easier and more consistent in the burning cycle.

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My stove is an insert also (Vermont Casting Large Winter Warmer). I have no flue pipe to attach a themometer to, so I keep one on the cast iron of the door. It's not entirely accurate, but it gives me a relative reading that I've learned to use to make adjustments (when to close the damper, when to adjust the air). I would recommend doing that if you don't have visibility/access to a flue pipe.

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Keep a few chimney fire suppressant sticks handy. In my 14 years of nuring, I've never needed it ... but good to have them closeby.

https://www.fireplacedoorsonline.com/images/detailed/23/rutland_chimfex_firestop__98369-600x600.jpg?t=1510395372

Invest in some gloves to keep yor knuckle hairs from burning off ;)

https://jotul.com/us/products/accessories/_image/27406.png?_encoded=2f66666666666678302f30372f3b29333435286874646977656c616373&_ts=14ade90294d

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When cleaning your stove out ... be sure to keep a layer of ash in there. Don't clean out entirely. Maintain about a 1 inch layer of ash in the bottom of the stove.

That looks like an ok system, the brush looks like it’s meant to spin from a drill. Typically i would use something like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Rutland-Products-16906-Chimney-Cleaning/dp/B000FKDMLO

As for the rods you can get button lock or ones that screw together, both work fine. Make sure the rods will fit the brush, if they’re screw- together rods they are typically two sizes, 3/8” and 1/2”, just make sure the brush head is the same size threads. Example of type of rods I use below.

https://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Hearth-Fiberglass-Chimney-18-Foot/dp/B0778XH959/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540224460&sr=8-1-fkmr1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=chimney+rods+1%2F2%E2%80%9D

As far as cleaning the chimney yourself that’s fine. Many people do it themselves. As long as you have a basic understanding of how things are set up and what is safe (or unsafe) you should be ok. Like if I come to clean your chimney I’m looking everything over to make sure it’s all still connected properly, nothing has decayed or been damaged and everything is installed to code. I look for the type of soot that I’m getting out of it, is it creosote or powdery? As this will tell me about your wood quality and burning habits. So IMO you should have it swept professionally at least every couple of years if you are not sure. But if a sweep has already inspected the chimney and no issues were found you are probably fine to clean your own chimney. Really up to you and how comfortable you are with the venting system.

A firewood log cart would help him get the wood inside. He doesn't have to fill it up:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N7HLP4V


Or a wagon like this might be easier:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BECQBZ0

As others have said, make sure he's wearing welder's gloves near the stove.


Good luck & best wishes. Thank you for caring enough to post this

well that's interesting. Good stuff. I will say that I've never had smoke or anything backup into the house WHILE the fire was burning. It burns great and never smells bad during a fire. It's only while it's cold. You can open the door and feel the cold air rush down the chimney. I got a flue blocker and it kept the air from rushing down the chimney but it did not fix the smell. That's why we then though it was coming through the seams in the flue pipe. Turns out the smell was coming out of the fresh air intake. Once we plugged it we never had another problem.

So I may be completely wrong about this but at this point I tend to think that if I can get the fresh air intake through the wall I could at least reduce the smell during a cold backdraft so I don't have to plug it every time while also improving the efficiency during burning. I will also point out that this stove is not top-of-the-line. It's a Summer's Heat brand from Lowe's. They are technically made by England Stoves so I believe the quality should be pretty high considering the price. But we did not buy the stove as a primary heat source. It's really only for super cold days and power outages so we were not really in need of something high-end. Especially since we bought it during an already expensive house construction; but that's another story.

Anyway, I really appreciate all of the advice. I do have a moisture meter. I have checked all of my wood and it's all under 20% some around 10%. I chopped a big maple a few years ago and have been pulling from that pile so it's well seasoned. Additionally, I can guarantee the guy that installed the stove is as you described: an old timer trained by an old timer. So I completely understand what you mean there. If the problem with the smell continues or if we experience any other problems I'll get in touch with a professional that knows what they're doing before making any big decisions.

I have always been amazed by stirling engines. I would love to get a stirling fan for my stove but could not pay that much for a fan. One something like this.

http://www.amazon.com/Vulcan-Stove-Fan-Stirling-Powered/sim/B002Y4UOYM/2

Ha! Yeah, my question wasn't as articulate as I thought. I was wondering if heat/air was escaping straight out of a not-air-tight conversion of the chimney. But like you said, there's no air gap around it and it's all blocked off. Sounds like we're all set in terms of that type of heat loss.

Your setup is obviously getting decent combustion from your photo, and you have control over the air flow, so I'm just wondering where all those BTUs are going. From my experience, that chair in your photo should be uncomfortably hot to sit in, and that paper/cardboard collection would also be on fire. I'm stumped on where your heat is going.

For reference - Years ago, I got one of those IR laser-pointed thermometers. Super fun to see the temps of the stove with one of those (and how cold certain walls/floors are in the house, yikes!). Anyways, the glass on my stove easily gets to ~750 F degrees, top of the stove ~700 F, stove pipe near the stove is ~450 F. Ceiling above the stove is ~100 F (cat's a toasty ~95 F on the couch 10 feet away). Even the center of a little coal pile after a long fire still max out the thermometer past ~1000.

I’ve been using one all season. So far it has greatly exceeded my expectations and I have no plans to even buy split wood this year. I have a Vermont Castings Encore with a catalytic converter, using this pellet basket.

I can’t vouch for the durability of this particular basket as it’s only been in use for about a month. Note that some reviewers report warping and burn through after longer term use.

There is also one called the Pelleteer which I’ll try if I have problems with this one.

As a concept, however, it works very well. You have to monitor the initial fire because the pellets can get very hot very quickly. For this reason I’d think twice before using it if you have any air leaks from bad gaskets or whatever which make it difficult to choke down your airflow.

Once the stove is up to temp - 500-600F - I engage the catalytic element and close the airflow all the way down. One basket holds 16lbs of pellets and lasts ~12 hours until it’s burned down to an inch or so of coals, at which point the stove is still at ~200F and the house is still nice and warm.

During the week I’ve only been burning one fire per day (after work and overnight) and two loads per day on the weekends if the weather warrants it, so between 1/2 and 1 bag per day. Pellets run $5-6 per bag. I haven’t worked out the precise math vs split & seasoned oak, but a pallet of 50 bags at ~$250 should last 3-4 months at this rate whereas oak is ~$300/cord delivered. We go though 3-4 cords in a normal winter so it would seem to be far cheaper to burn pellets, but we’re not into the really cold months yet so the current consumption rate will undoubtedly go up. That said, it still seems favorable to hardwood cost wise.

There is a bit of re-learning required in how to start the fire and it took me a week or two to find a technique that works well every time, but it’s pretty dialed in now. I fill the basket, then mound about 4 cups of pellets on either side and 4 more in front of it, then start it with a few pieces of fatwood or a line of alcohol gel on top of the mound in front. Leave the door cracked and the damper wide open for about 20 mins until everything takes off, though sometimes a bit of bellows or blowing is needed on a cold start.

Thanks. Should note I do my own Chimney sweeping using one of those "sooteaters" weed whacker type drill attachments you feed from the bottom up.. Works great.

Thus my question about what I should look for in my inspection.


this:
https://www.amazon.com/Gardus-RCH205-B-SootEater-Chimney-Cleaning/dp/B0010H5JXA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1550935155&sr=8-2&keywords=chimney+sweep+drill

With a thermometer lol. Either via a digital gun or a metal one. Here’s one you can get off amazon, works well for me. You can get it off eBay for 2-3 bucks, but it’s from China and it’s the typical long weeks shipping lol.


Magnetic Stove Thermometer... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0813KSLS9

Edit: pick up a check moisture meter as well. You can get one for about $10-15. It’ll be accurate enough for what we need. You want your wood under 20%

It doesn't even need to be a big fan. I use one of these on the floor to push the cold air back to the room with my stove. Small and quiet and it does the job.

But like you say, it works better to move the cold air toward the stove than to move the warm air to the other rooms.

Any 3" vent would work fine. It's basically a dryer vent...except you don't want a fancy one with a door that only lets air out

What you're looking for is something like this. Bonus if it has a cage/screen to keep critters out.

Oh, as a chimney sweep, given that I'm fairly handy (do all but the most major car repairs myself, basic home plumbing, interior repair, appliance maintenance, builds PCs, ect.) would you recommend getting something like this and cleaning my chimneys myself? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010H5JXA

Or not a good idea for some reasons I'm not aware of?

Yes & yes! For supporting arguments, read this book.

These are $8 with prime shipping. I'm sure shipping from the UK would put it well over $8.

Are you referring to the white ceramic blanket that's on top of the baffle?

Your stove looks like my QuadraFire 3100, which has those same three secondary air tubes at the ceiling, then a thick (like 3/8 or 1/2") plate steel baffle over those, and finally the ceramic blanket laying on top of that. I kind of looks like you're missing the steel baffle though? It's hard to tell. I've seen some designs where the baffle is accomplished with fire bricks that are laid between 2 or 3 rails.

> You could get some good insulating gloves

I keep a pair of these by my stove.

does is look like this Thermodisc ?

I am using a General Tools moisture meter