Wood stove best practices / best results experienced help please

[realunlucky]

So I just returned from a trip to Alaska where my diy wood burning stove gave me pretty dismal returns. Just had it draft very poorly and know there must a different /better way to get performance from it. I tested many times before this trip and while it always drafted poorly until the stack warmed up it was fine afterwards. Looking for thoughts comments on stoves and impressions on what works for you and in what conditions. Thanks

 

[neverquit]

Where's the dampener ?

 

[realunlucky]

Damper fits in the stack bottom and the dampner handle keeps the pipe from falling in the stove. Also sorry that's the picture I currently have of stove

 

[realunlucky]

I have the smaller diameter pipe and an 8' stack wonder if bigger stack would help

 

[colonel00]

You beat me to it

This should be a helpful thread. It may be beneficial for people to disclose that type of stove they are using and details as neverquit asks about the damper.

Coming from a background of smoking meats on smokers and using charcoal grills a lot, I always learned fire control by leaving the exhaust wide open and controlling the fire with the intake. On a smoker or grill, this allows for a "clean" fire with less stagnant smoke buildup. After all, the fire is directly dependent upon the flow of air.

Here are some good discussion topics:

How do you start your fire? Do you start it close to the door or back by the pipe?

How do you load wood both on initial startup and when reloading? Do you load up the whole stove or just add a piece of wood here and there?

Do you find the stove smokes out the tent at times when the fire dies and you open the door to reload?

Do people find it helpful or even possible to get a decent bed of coals?

Perhaps a discussion of pipe length/diameter versus stove size.

Also, I have been debating a simple stove cap idea to use the stove when it's raining. After spending a few days on an island in Prince William Sound in Alaska with constant rain, I wanted to use the stove but I didn't want to have the rain getting in the stove especially in the night after the fire went out.

reanunlucky, one interesting comment you make is your stove works better once the pipe is warmed up but does that mean you have to keep it glowing pretty hot the whole time? I know in my usage, if my stove was as hot as in you photo, it was way too hot in the tent and it would be blazing through wood way too fast.

Also, a couple photos of my setup

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

I assume you were burning willow branches?

Mine wasn't great either but it worked and kept us warm just less efficient.

 

[realunlucky]

That picture is of my first burn just giving the pipe it's memory,but would have loved that in Alaska after falling in the river.

1. After getting the fire started and getting smoked out the stove will start to draft. I've always assumed that's happened after all the cold air has left the pipe. I could mistaken.

2. I can't use my dampner at all anything less than full open will smoke out the tent under even the best conditions. I've considered using no dampner just a stright rod to hold the stack up

3. Mine burns best with door open but as you suggest that uses a lot of wood and is hard to control temperature

 

[realunlucky]

I assume you were burning willow branches?

Mine wasn't great either but it worked and kept us warm just less efficient.

No it wasn't willow and we did also bring some 2x4 pieces with us but neither would burn worth a crap. Spent time drying wood on the stove body also. We discussed many times if it was worth breathing the smoke to try and keep it going. It did heat some rocks to thaw out my boots.

Craig what's your setup

 

[bbrown]

My DIY stove has done pretty well but seems like it is either on or off and not much in between. Its still worth the effort if you are expecting bad weather and as an added bonus its a great form of entertainment after the sun goes down.

- I like to start the fire as close to the pipe as possible with the damper wide open. That seems to help minimize any smoke escaping.

- After starting with the small stuff on the initial start up I still like to feed it slowly to try to minimize the

- Feed it slowly to keep from getting burned out. I will load it up before going to bed but that still does not last long.

- Never had a good bed of coals like you can get on the heavier stoves like used in a wall tent or cabin. Pretty sure the small size of the wood required for these stoves causes it to burn up too fast. Burning crap wood does not help either.

I have been curious about the stove pipe diameter as well: TiGoat uses 2-3/8" diameter only, Ed T uses 3" (I think), Lite Outdoors uses 3" and Kifaru uses both 3 and 4" pipes depending on the stove size but 100% sure.

I am still messing with a few mods and tweaks. Just built a couple more with exchangeable ends to make the stove bigger and also think I figured out some better legs. I can post up some pictures of the new parts tonight.

 

[realunlucky]

What size stack are you running bbrown ?

 

[bbrown]

7' but I am playing with a 2' extension so I can run the same stove in my Kifaru 8 man. Will be messing around with that this weekend.

 

[Stid2677]

I'm in no way a stove expert, never built one, only used a couple Kifaru made ones. That said I have used mine a lot above tree line and fuel makes a difference.

First off, on these light stoves, with all the air leaks, IMHO a stack dampener is useless. You can't really load it up without it running away and if you dampen the stack smoke will backup and leak from all the air sources.

I believe some of your issue may be stack length too short, stack length seems to make more draft.

I try to keep a steady fire, slowly feeding it as needed. Can't really stuff it full without it getting too hot.

I try to always have some sort of starter,, compressed fire logs like dura-logs cut into small pieces work best to get it going and then add whatever I can find to burn. I bring fire paste or lint soaked in vaseline, I have even used charcoal. All this stuff burns and does not fly out so if I have weight I bring in all I can.

I line the bottom with gravel to hold heat and like you mentioned use the top to warm and dry the next load to burn.

You have to remember that almost all the fuel except spruce or birch is garbage and does not burn well at all.

A couple tools makes a huge difference, for one when breaking up your wood using a large rock to lean your wood against and another to lift over your head and break the wood near the brace rock is very effective and much easier than sawing or using your knee.

A straw, tube, pipe etc.. to use to concentrate fresh air into the stove to stoke it. Using the tube you can slowly blow air in and get it blazing again. I use my small micro fan to do the same. This little fan is for blowing up air mats but is awesome for stoking the fire.

Some river here have natural coal and that stuff works great if you ever find any.

 

[realunlucky]

Stid is that a 3 or 4 inch diameter pipe?

 

[realunlucky]

7' but I am playing with a 2' extension so I can run the same stove in my Kifaru 8 man. Will be messing around with that this weekend.

What is the diameter of your pipe thanks

 

[JG358]

I have the smaller diameter pipe and an 8' stack wonder if bigger stack would help

How small is small diameter?

 

[realunlucky]

How small is small diameter?

Tigoat 2 3/8 I'm pretty sure

 

[bbrown]

mine is 2-3/8" made from the 10" material.

 

[JG358]

Tigoat 2 3/8 I'm pretty sure

Sounds awefully small for such a long pipe. I'm running a 4" on large box stove for my 8 man and rarely have any drafting issues. Get a little smoke out the door every now and then but nothing serious

 

[realunlucky]

What's the box measure on the large. I think your right diameter might be to small causing a back up.

 

[realunlucky]

mine is 2-3/8" made from the 10" material.

Sounds like our setups are pretty similar. It's like I followed your write up or something. I might try a 3 pipe to see if it performs better