How to Start a Fire in a Cold Soapstone Wood Stove

To start a fire in a wood burning soapstone stove there are a few basic steps. Once you have those details down, you'll get a blaze going in no time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wood burning Soapstone stove such as a Woodstock
• Newspaper
• Kindling splits
• Stove wood
• matches

1. CHECK THE DRAFT - Open the door of the stove and hold a lit match inside the wood box near the flue exit. If the flame is pulled into the flue exit and toward the chimney pipe it indicates good positive
   draft. This is good! Go ahead and light the stove. If the match flame stays vertical without leaning to one side or the other, it indicates neutral draft and may require some help to create positive a draft.
   If the flame is pushed away from the flue exit and the
   chimney, it indicates negative draft. This is a problem.
   You will need to reverse the draft before you light a fire.

2. EQUALIZE PRESSURE IF NECESSARY - If your draft is “negative” (meaning the match pushed away from the flue exit with air coming down the chimney into your house), you will probably have to equalize
   the pressure between the inside and outside. Turn off
   any exhaust fans (the fan over the stove or bathroom exhaust fan). Open an outside door or window in the room where the stove is installed. Wait a few minutes and test with a match again. If the match stays vertical you can ESTABLISH DRAFT (Step 3 below)

3. ESTABLISH DRAFT - Burn several loose balls of newspaper in the stove to prime the flue. Leave the door open a little, and watch the smoke from the paper fire as it burns: keep adding balls of paper until you see the smoke begin to travel up the chimney.

4. GET A KINDLING FIRE GOING - Make a mound of crumpled newspaper balls in the firebox. Over the paper create a tent of kindling sticks. Dry pine or spruce, construction scraps and small splits are ideal. Open the draft all the way and close off air flow through the catalytic combustor. Touch a match to the paper.

5. FEED THE FIRE - Once the kindling wood has started to burn, add
   three or four small pieces of firewood. Once they are
   burning briskly, you can gradually build up the fire to the
   desired size. After about 20 minutes, your fire should be
   burning hot and with only a little smoke and you can bring the draft lever up to slow the fire down a little.

6. ADJUST - Check the thermometer
   that comes with your stove. If the temperature is high enough to close the bypass damper sending air through the the catalytic combustor, do that now. If you aren't sure what temperature you need to reach check with the manufacturer.

7. As soon as you close the bypass damper the flames will get lazy and may even look like the fire went out. This just means that the catalytic combustor is burning all fire byproducts in the wood box. At this point your fire should be fine for the next few hours with minimal attention.

Tips & Warnings

• Dry firewood burns best.
• Follow your stove manufacturer's directions exactly. If you have questions about your specific stove, ask them.

Resources

• Woodstock Soapstone Stoves

[waiting4rain]

on 12/29/2008 DianeNV - the temperature difference between outdoors and inside can cause an issue with the draft. That's why, if it's very cold outside, or if you have a fan on inside, you need to check the draft on your flue. In Nevada it probably stays warm enough outside to not be an issue but if you ever notice smoke puffing in from your stove it may be that you need to correct your draft. Often, what folks do, is just build a bigger fire and the heat from it heats up the stove pipe, creating a greater draft and solving the problem. The catalytic combustor only involves the very last step.

[urfriend]

on 12/27/2008 great!