Saturday, February 16, 2008

12 plus Hour Burn on my Sedore

Almost full chamber of split oak, mostly dry, 11:30 Friday night. I went to bed and woke up 7:30 AM Saturday, a bit worried to find only 1/3 of the wood consumed. The wood got caught up on the sides and the solid fuel was burning on the side, like a cigarette. Good heat on the top, maybe 300 degrees, lasted until well past noon. At 1:30 I put in more wood in a verticle position with lots of room to look down between the logs. Then I cracked the lid and let it rest until air rushed in from the down draft, ignited the new fuel (maybe 15 minutes), closed it, and reexamined the burn chamber about 7:00 PM. Four logs were charred in the corners and I put in two new pieces of split oak.
My theory is that I'll get more heat from wood in that if the burn heats the top and all the sides of the burn chamber without a dense mass of corn, pellets, acorns, or cherry pits insulating the sides of the top like fire bricks do in conventional stoves. If the things are not tightly packed together, more heat gets radiated, corrugated steel or not.
By the way, I've burned for 3 weeks now and I have only emptied the ash bucket twice. That should leave me time to wash my plate glass window and go to church on Sunday.

Bob

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like this stove, but can't find any reviews on them. Can you make any comparison on amount of wood the sedore consumes vs. a regualar epa wood stove? Is it difficult to control the Btu output. Say when its mild out or very cold out and you need less or more BTU's?

Thanks

Jennifer at Purposeful Nutrition said...

When you need less heat you rely primarily on the coals rather than the logs burning. And you slow down the draft so less air intake is coming into the burn chamber. I put my finger into the circle inlet, slide the bar into the closed position until it is tight with my forefinger and let it do its job of a slow burn. Then I check on it every once in awhile.
The trick is with a slow burn in a slow draft stove sometimes to check on the fuel you end up with smoke in your face.
The Sedore is much more efficient with the wood than a regular epa wood stove. We burned a Napoleon EPA rated wood burning 1400 series pedestal stove all last winter. That stove would never had been able to heat our whole house in anykind of crisis. The Sedore is doing that consistently for 3 days now. The Sedore 3000 does what it says; heats 3000 square feet. Yes, we need some ceiling fans to spread the warmth around, but it is working. We are very glad we bought the 3000 size right now and not a smaller one!

Anonymous said...

How is the creosote buildup with the Sedore stove? I have just made the purchase of Sedore stove in Canada although it has not yet been delivered. The manual states there will be little to no buildup but another source is telling me they produe alot of buildup. What is your opinion?

Thanks