Vermont Casting 2160 manual Conditioning Your Stove, Starting and Maintaining a Wood Fire

Never kindle a fire with colored paper or paper that has colored ink or a glossy surface, and never burn treated wood, garbage, solvents, or trash. All of these may poison the catalyst and prevent it from operating properly. Never burn cardboard or loose paper except for kindling purposes. This can cause smoke to spill into the room and effect the combustor operation. Coal smoke can also poison the catalyst so that it will not operate properly.

In general, the temperature in the stove and the gases entering the combustor must be raised to approximately 800°F (430°C) to ensure that catalytic activity is initi- ated. During the start-up of a cold stove, a medium-to high-firing rate must be maintained for about twenty minutes. This ensures that the stove, catalyst and fuel are all stabilized at the proper operating temperatures.

Even though it is possible to have gas temperatures reach several hundred degrees within two to three minutes after a fire is started, the combustor may stop working or the fire may go out if the fire is allowed to die down immediately. Once the combustor starts working, heat generated by burning the smoke will keep it working.

The best operating range for the combustor is a reading of 1000-1400°F (540-760°C) on a probe thermometer. Temperatures over 1700°F (925°C) may damage the combustor.

To determine whether the combustor is operating, check the probe thermometer in the top of the stove. If it reads 800° (430°C) or higher, it is likely that the combustor is operating. If temperatures are lower than this, increase the intensity of the fire either by adding fuel or by increasing the amount of primary air.

Another way to tell if the combustor is working is to observe the amount of smoke leaving the chimney when the damper is activated and when it is not. This procedure is described on Page 25.

Conditioning Your Stove

Cast iron is extremely strong, but it can be broken with a sharp blow from a hammer or from the thermal shock of rapid and extreme temperature changes.

The cast plates expand and contract with changes in temperature. When you first begin using your Sequoia, minimize thermal stress by allowing the plates to adjust gradually during three or four initial break-in fires following Steps 1-3 below.

Starting and Maintaining a Wood Fire

Wood may be loaded into the Sequoia from either the front or the side. Loading from the front is useful for kindling a new fire or adding an occasional log, but we recommend side loading as the most convenient way of regularly adding several logs at a time.

Dutchwest Sequoia

When burning wood, your Sequoia may be operated with the front doors open, for fireplace-style viewing, as well as closed. The stove damper must be open and the firescreen must be in place whenever the door is open for fire viewing.

WARNING: For safety and greatest efficiency, operate your stove only with all doors fully closed. The test standard when the stove is operated in this mode is UL1482.

Your stove may be operated as a fireplace with the doors opened or removed only when equipped with an 8” (200mm) flue collar and only with the optional spark screen placed correctly in the opening to protect against the possibility of sparks and em- bers leaving the stove. The test standard for your stove when it is operated in this mode is UL737.

Use only the Sequoia spark screen, Part Number 0135, with your Sequoia. Sequoia spark screens are available from your Dutchwest authorized dealer.

1.Open the stove damper, and open the primary air control fully. Open the combustor air control two turns. The coal only air control must always be closed during wood burning.

2.Place crumpled newspaper in the stove. Do NOT use glossy advertisements or colored paper, as they can poison the catalyst. Place six or eight pieces of dry kindling split to a finger-width size on the paper, and on the kindling lay two or three larger sticks of split dry wood approximately 1-2” (25-50mm).

DO NOT USE CHEMICALS OR FLUIDS TO START THE FIRE. DO NOT BURN GARBAGE OR FLAM- MABLE FLUIDS SUCH AS GASOLINE, NAPTHA OR ENGINE OIL. Also, never use gasoline-type lantern fuel, kerosene, charcoal lighter fluid, or similar liquids to start or “freshen up” a fire in this heater. Keep all such liquids well away from the heater while it is in use.

3.Light the newspaper and close the door. Within 10- 15 minutes the fire should be well established and you may gradually build up the fire by adding a few 3-5” (80-120mm) diameter splits. If this is one of the first few “break-in” fires, let the fire burn brightly, and then let it die out.

If the break-in procedure has been completed, continue building the fire until you have a live ember bed about 2” (50mm) thick.

You will soon find out that this stove is HOT WHILE IN

OPERATION! KEEP CHILDREN, CLOTHING AND FURNITURE AWAY. CONTACT MAY CAUSE SKIN BURNS.

NOTE: Some chimneys, especially oversized or exterior chimneys, need to “primed”, or warmed up, before they will draw sufficiently to start a fire. To

2001049 21