© 2021 United States Stove Company
11
OPERATION INSTRUCTIONS
5.
Waste petroleum products, paints or paint thinners, or
asphalt products;
6. Materials containing asbestos;
7.
Construction or demolition debris;
8. Railroad ties or pressure-treated wood;
9. Manure or animal remains;
10. Saltwater driftwood or other previously salt water-
saturated materials;
11.
Unseasoned wood; or
12. Paper products, cardboard, plywood, or particleboard.
The prohibition against burning these materials does
not prohibit the use of fire starters made from paper,
cardboard, sawdust, wax, and similar substances to
start a fire in an affected wood heater.
Burning these materials may result in the release of toxic
fumes or render the heater ineffective and cause smoke.
Deadwood lying on the forest floor should be considered
wet and requires full seasoning time. Standing deadwood
can usually be considered to be about 2/3 seasoned.
Smaller pieces of wood will dry faster. All logs exceeding
6” in diameter should be split. The wood should not be
stored directly on the ground. Air should circulate through
the logs. A 24” to 48” air space should be left between
each row of logs, which should be placed in the sunniest
location possible. The upper layer of wood should be
protected from the element but not the sides. A good
indicator of if the wood is ready to burn is to check the
piece ends. If cracks are radiating in all directions from the
center then the wood should be dry enough to burn. If your
wood sizzles in the fire, even though the surface is dry, it
may not be fully cured and should be seasoned longer. It
is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you use DRY WOOD only
in your wood stove. The wood should have dried for 9 to
15 months, such that the humidity content (in weight)
is reduced below 20% of the weight of the log. It is very
important to keep in mind that even if the wood has been
cut for one, two, or even more years, it is not necessarily
dry, if it has been stored in poor conditions. Under extreme
conditions, it may rot instead of drying. This point cannot
be overstressed; the vast majority of the problems related
to the operation of a wood stove is caused by the fact
that the wood used was too damp or had dried in poor
conditions. These problems can be:
• ignition problems
•
creosote build-up causing chimney fires
• low energy yield
• blackened windows
• incomplete log combustion
Do not burn manufactured
logs made of wax impregnated
sawdust or logs with any chemical
additives.
Manufactured logs made
of 100% compressed sawdust can be
burned, but be careful burning too much of these logs at
the same time. Start with one manufactured log and see
how the stove reacts. You can increase the number of logs
burned at a time but make sure the temperature never rises
higher than 475 °F (246 °C) on a magnetic thermometer
for installation on single wall stove pipes or 900 °F (482
°C) on a probe thermometer for installation on double wall
stove pipe. The thermometer should be placed about 18”
(457 mm) above the stove. Higher temperatures can lead
to overheat and damage your stove.
TESTING YOUR WOOD
•
When the stove is thoroughly warmed, place one piece
of split wood (about five inches in diameter) parallel to
the door on the bed of red embers.
•
Keep the air control fully open and close the door. If
the wood ignites within 90 seconds from the time it
was placed in the stove, your wood is correctly dried. If
ignition takes longer, your wood is damp.
•
If your wood hisses and water or vapor escapes at
the ends of the piece, your wood is soaked or freshly
cut (green). Do not use this wood in your stove. Large
amounts of creosote could be deposited in your chimney,
creating potential conditions for a chimney fire.
TAMPER WARNING
This wood heater has a manufacturer-set minimum low
burn rate that must not be altered. It is against federal
regulations to alter this setting or otherwise operate this
wood heater in a manner inconsistent with operating
instructions in this manual.
EFFICIENCIES
Efficiencies can be based on either the lower heating value
(LHV) or the higher heating value (HHV) of the fuel. The
lower heating value is when water leaves the combustion
process as a vapor, in the case of woodstoves the
moisture in the wood being burned leaves the stove as a
vapor. The higher heating value is when water leaves the
combustion process completely condensed. In the case
of woodstoves this would assume the exhaust gases are
room temperature when leaving the system, and therefore
calculations using this heating value consider the heat
going up the chimney as lost energy. Therefore, efficiency
calculated using the lower heating value of wood will be
higher than efficiency calculated using the higher heating
value. The best way to achieve optimum efficiencies is to
