Fireside
Formerly Wakefield Stove
JohnDebar@gmail.com
783-6054
The flash combustion of smoke!
Helpful Info
Fireside's Unique Flash Combustion Stoves
Flash Combustion Performance Tips
Why Folks Prefer The Country Brand
Fireside’s Unique Flash Combustion Stoves
The ‘air tight’ & ‘catalytic’ wood stove is virtually extinct. This is the era of the ‘flash combustion’ stove, and Lennox has perfected it with the ‘Country’ stove line.
Many customers report a clean chimney despite burning sappy wood such as pine. Pine is often free wood others reject, pallet wood etc, so heating for some is free. The flash combustion of smoke also results in a beautiful flame display viewable through the self cleaning glass. Half the wood is now consumed if the smoke fuel is burned rather than sooting the chimney. This means not only half the cost, but also half the work and double the burn duration. Savings soon pay for the stove.
With an indestructible Lennox stove, low end control is never lost. In the past, ‘air tight’ stoves would soon leak, and this excess air intake led to too much heat. This is why stove pipe dampers were always installed. Stove pipe dampers are no longer allowed by code, so today’s leak prone stoves should be avoided. Another reason to avoid these stoves is that a hairline leak causes a catastrophic three fold loss in the stoves’ overall performance. This is one of many eye opening demonstrations provided in Fireside’s educational showroom.
With heat control and the long burn times of a Lennox stove, near even heating of upper stories is achieved by allowing heat to spread 24/7. With Lennox, 24/7 burning is now half the work, and much more rewarding, due to half the wood cost and stunning fire views. Most customers report the furnace stays mostly off, and the stove pays for itself in savings the first year. All of today’s new stove brochures promise essentially the same performance from the UL testing of the new stove but most revert to behaving like the stoves of the past, and are not easily repaired.
Here’s why:
All cast iron stoves have non-metal seams and poor quality door components. Most of these are the trusted brands of the past. These faults were tolerable then, but not now with flash combustion echnology. Then, a burnt out seam meant just over firing and more stove pipe damper use. It wasn’t a big headache back then. Repair was possible for about $600. That’s not the case with today’s new cast iron stoves with triple the labor to repair due to triple the parts. It now costs over $1000. Add this cost to the uninstall, re-install, and shipping both ways and repair is far more than it’s worth. The warranty is worthless since you over fired it... a total loss!
Why is that so? Leaks now mean a big loss in efficiency, heat control, & burn time. Furthermore, wood handling, ash removal, and chimney cleanings greatly increase. This is demonstrated with the burn model. As a result, my last few cast iron ‘Jotuls’ and ‘VC’s’ wouldn’t sell even at wholesale! For the same cost, folks overwhelming prefer a stove that’s easier to use, cheaper to install, with more features, including a lifetime guarantee even if over fired!
I’ve long wished other stores would demonstrate this as well. Shop around and see. Most unknowingly mislead. So do brochures. Too many make a poor choice based on out dated criteria. A demonstration goes far beyond this article, and serves as proof beyond any doubt. Since you are best served by having me provide the demonstration, help me to help you by calling to let me know when you are on your way. Please provide at least 30 minutes notice. This gives time to call my assistant to start the display stove, and walk over from my office to be there when you arrive. There won’t be a hint of pressure to buy. Those who visit and shop around always come back, and as a result, I am Lennox’s largest volume dealer in the USA.
At Fireside, discounts on quality stoves come with a low price guarantee on both the stove and all of the options. Please call John Debar to any time for a demonstration.
John Debar, Owner, Fireside Stove, 52 Main St, Wakefield. 401-783-6054
Flash
Combustion Performance Tips
Simple instructions to insure heating economy and reduce smoke
issues.
1- Insuring great performance year after year requires more than just purchasing a Lennox stove. Because you have a 'flash combustion' stove, the definition of seasoned wood has changed. If it is your first year with a new stove, and you are burning ‘seasoned’ wood you just purchased, NEVER operate the draft control all the way in to low. This is because all recently obtained ‘seasoned’ wood is only halfway seasoned. Instead, pull the control back out an inch or two. This extra air leads to adequate heat to burn smoke. Unburned smoke is wasted fuel that dirties the chimney and lowers the burn time between loading. Adequate heat also provides better draft to reduce dirty glass and back-puffing. Adequate heat reduces wood cost and work by about 40%. Adequate heat on the lowest setting, pushed in, comes from seasoning your own wood. Until then, fill the stove to the ceiling, and turn high for 10 minutes before lowering. The wood remaining after a few hours, from having filled it, dries out and burns more efficiently. Performance is much better when truly seasoned wood is used. Truly seasoned wood doubles the appeal of the stove. Don’t settle for half the performance even if half performance is better than your previous stove. So called ‘seasoned’ wood always needs at least from spring to fall to fully season. Green wood needs two years, split and covered. Note: "off the truck, 'seasoned wood,'" refers to wood that has already been cut AND split at least one summer ago. Wood can't be too dry. Manufacturers of fragile cast iron stoves state this lie. It is in desperation to keep the furnace cement seams and cast iron from cracking, and keep sales up, as well as creating a loop hole to avoid warranty service. Even though very dry wood heats more area and faster, the low moisture is especially important to increase the likelihood smoke will burn as a rule, on the lowest or near lowest setting. This triggers a host of benefits, such as much longer burns, and thus likely to be heating 24/7, and thus much more even heating, and thus keeping the furnace off, thus 5-6 times cheaper to heat. To this, add a 'stay clean' chimney, clean glass, much less wood cost and work, and truly carbon neutral. Add all these benefits, and see why it is a no-brainer to buy 'seasoned' wood long in advance of burning it. It costs a bit less buying in the spring too.
2- When wood burns down quickly, sometimes the firebox is half full of coals. These bulky coals take up much of the space for new logs. Coals can be reduced by pulling the draft control out, and pulling as many red coals forward from the back. Every hour or two, pull the coals forward again where they will get more air and reduce faster. Often coals will heat for half a day. When coals are reduced to ash, your ash removal work is three times reduced because most of the volume can be coals.
3- Homes are getting more air tight these days. Make up air for other venting appliances tries to get in the house down through the wood stove chimney. This is what causes the smoke to come out of the stove, especially when it’s door is opened. It gets worse when all of the other appliances are exhausting at the same time. Examples of other appliances are the furnace, dryer, kitchen and bath vents, and some roof/attic ridge vents. If smoking is lessened by supplying make-up air from a window, then remember to crack a window initially when the chimney draft is weak whenever cold starting.
4- If smoking occurs when first lighting, then initialize the draft. Peel away a single sheet of newspaper. Put it in the stove without folding it tight. Unfolded, it will flare up quickly and go out in seconds. Repeat if necessary. This will get a cold chimney drafting, and greatly lessen the likelihood of smoking. Try this with a window cracked open if smoking persists. Once started, shut the window or door.
5- Initially, the stove is absorbing much of the heat. During this initial half hour, do not turn the draft control down below halfway. Too little exhaust heat from too low a burn and/or wet wood leads to sluggish chimney performance and smoke in the house. It wastes fuel too.
6- Do not turn on the blower/fan unless you are burning the stove hot. Circulating air around the stove when on a low setting cools it below the threshold it needs to burn smoke. If it teeters on this temperature threshold, smoke comes in and out of burning, and blows out as it suddenly combusts.
7- On days over 50 degrees, and when outside & inside temperatures are similar, chimneys perform poorly. The smoke being generated is more than the chimney will pull up. It is on these ‘not so cold’ days that added attention to the above tips is recommended, especially #6, ‘initializing the draft’.
8- If you follow the above recommendations and have problem smoking, verify the stove pipe is clear and not restricted with a build-up of soot. To do so, simply tap the pipe firmly and listen for falling creosote. If the pipe is clear of creosote, adding chimney height to a metal chimney, or a chimney liner to a masonry chimney will greatly reduce smoke issues.
9- Burning recently obtained wood is the main cause of all problems and can double consumption.
Obtain and cover the following year’s wood the summer before this heating season ends.
See www.StoveGuide.com, for more info, and a video of flash combustion.
John Debar / 401-783-6054 / 52 Main St, Wakefield, RI www.FiresideOnline.com
