Quadra-Fire 4300 Series Installation, Operation & Maintenance Instructions Manual

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Quadra-Fire 4300 Series Installation, Operation & Maintenance Instructions Manual Manual pdf 20 page image

4300 ACT Wood Stove SeriesPage 20 250-7061C December 10, 2004RSTART-UP AIRCONTROLPRIMARY AIRCONTROLBURNING PROCESSIn recent years there has been an increasing concern about airquality. Much of the blame for poor air quality has been placedon the burning of wood for home heating. In order to improvethe situation, we at Quadra-Fire have developed cleaner-burningwood stoves that surpass the requirements for emissionsestablished by our governing agencies. These wood stoves, likeany other appliances, must be properly operated in order to insurethat they perform the way they are designed to perform. Improperoperation can turn most any wood stove into a smolderingenvironmental hazard.KINDLING or 1st STAGEIt helps to know a little about the actual process of burning inorder to understand what goes on inside a stove. The first stageof burning is called the kindling stage. In this stage, the wood isheated to a temperature high enough to evaporate the moisturewhich is present in all wood. The wood will reach the boilingpoint of water (212°F) and will not get any hotter until the wateris evaporated. This process takes heat from the coals andtends to cool the stove.Fire requires three things to burn: fuel, air and heat. So, if heatis robbed from the stove during the drying stage, the new load ofwood has reduced the chances for a good clean burn. For thisreason, it is always best to burn dry, seasoned firewood. Whenthe wood isn’t dry, you must open the air controls and burn thestove at a high burn setting for a longer time to start it burning.The heat generated from the fire should be warming your homeand establishing the flue draft, not evaporating the moisutre out ofwet, unserasoned wood, resulting in wasted heat.The air control on the right side of the stove is called the Start -UpAir Control; it is used during the kindling stage of burning. It mustbe closed (pulled out) after the first 5 to 15 minutes.2nd STAGEThe next stage of burning, the secondary stage, is the period whenthe wood gives off flammable gases which burn above the fuelwith bright flames. During this stage of burning it is very importantthat the flames be maintained and not allowed to go out. This willensure the cleanest possible fire. If you are adjusting your stovefor a low burn rate, you should close down the air to the pointwhere you can still maintain some flame. If the flames tend togo out, the stove is set too low for your burning conditions. Theair control in the center of the stove beneath the ashcatcher, isthe one used to adjust the stove for burn rates. This is called thePrimary Air Control. See Figure 20A.FINAL STAGEThe final stage of burning is the charcoal stage. This occurswhen the flammable gases have been mostly burned and onlycharcoal remains. This is a naturally clean portion of the burn.The coals burn with hot blue flames.It is very important to reload your stove while enough lively hotcoals remain in order to provide the amount of heat needed todry and rekindle the next load of wood. It is best to open theair controls for a short while before reloading. This livensup the coalbed. Open door slowly so that ash or smokedoes not exit stove through opening. You should also breakup any large chunks and distribute the coals so that the newwood is laid on hot coals.Air quality is important to all of us, and if we choose to usewood to heat our homes we should do so responsibly. Todo this we need to learn to burn our stoves in the cleanestway possible. Doing this will allow us to continue using ourwood stoves for many years to come.OPERATING INSTRUCTIONSIMPORTANT - PLEASE READ BEFORE USING STOVESTART-UP AIR SYSTEMThe combustion air enters at the rear of the firebox throughthe rear air tubes. This air supply is controlled by theStart-up Air Control.PRIMARY AIR SYSTEMThe primary air enters at the upper front of the firebox, nearthe top of the glass door. This preheated air supplies thenecessary fresh oxygen to mix with the unburned gases, help-ing to create secondary, tertiary and quaternary combustions.This air is regulated by the Primary AirControl. For moreprimary air push control in, for less air pull control out.OPEN - PUSH IN Rod CLOSE - PULL OUT RodAIR CONTROLSFIGURE 20AOPERATION OF TWO-STEP DOOR HANDLEThe 4300 is equipped with a two-step door handle. Turn thedoor handle counter clockwise and open the door. The doorwill open approximately one inch and stop. This allows forthe air flow to stablize and flow up the chimney and helpsprevent smoke spillage into the room. We recommend thatyou pause at this stage to allow this to take place. Continueto turn counter clockwise and now you can completely openthe door for refueling. See Figure 25A on page 25 for instal-lation instructions.