Quadra-Fire VOYA-GRAND-MBK Owner's Manual

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Quadra-Fire VOYA-GRAND-MBK Owner's Manual Manual pdf 10 page image

10 7075-208 October 14, 2013VOYAGEUR GRANDF. Burning ProcessIn recent years there has been an increasing concern aboutair quality. Much of the blame for poor air quality has beenplaced on the burning of wood for home heating.In order to improve the situation, we at Quadra-Fire havedeveloped cleaner-burning wood appliances that surpassthe requirements for emissions established by our governingagencies.These wood appliances must be properly operated in orderto ensure that they perform the way they are designed toperform.1. Kindling or First StageIt helps to know a little about the actual process of burning inorder to understand what goes on inside the appliance. Thefirst stage of burning is called the kindling stage.In this stage:• Wood is heated to a temperature high enough to evapo-rate the moisture present in all wood.• Wood will reach the boiling point of water (212°F) and willnot get any hotter until the water is evaporated.This process takes heat from the coals and tends to cool theappliance.Fire requires three things to burn:• Fuel• Air• HeatIf heat is robbed from the appliance during the drying stage,the new load of wood has reduced the chances for a goodclean burn.It is always best to burn dry, seasoned firewood. When thewood isn’t dry, you must open the air controls and burn at ahigh burn setting for a longer time to start it burning.The heat generated from the fire should be warming yourhome and establishing the flue draft, not evaporating the mois-ture out of wet, unseasoned wood, resulting in wasted heat.2. Second StageIn the secondary stage wood gives off flammable gases whichburn above the fuel with bright flames.During this stage of burning:• The flames must be maintained and not allowed to go outto ensure the cleanest possible fire.• If the flames tend to go out, it is set too low for your burn-ing conditions.The air control located at the upper right hand corner is used toadjust for burn rates. This is called the Burn Rate Air Control.Figure 11.1 on page 11.3. Final StageThe final stage of burning is the charcoal stage. This occurswhen the flammable gases have been mostly burned andonly charcoal remains. This is a naturally clean portion ofthe burn. The coals burn with hot blue flames.• It is very important to reload your appliance while enoughlively hot coals remain in order to provide the amount ofheat needed to dry and rekindle the next load of wood.• It is best to open the Burn Rate Air and Start-Up Air Con-trols before reloading. This livens up the coalbed andreduces excessive emissions (opacity/smoke).• Open door slowly so that ash or smoke does not exit ap-pliance through opening.• Break up any large chunks and distribute the coals sothat the new wood 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.We need to learn to burn in the cleanest way possible allowingus to continue using our wood appliances for many years tocome.NOTICE: Improper operation can turn any wood appli-ance into a smoldering environmental hazard.