Shagdog
Quintessential Chatty Farker
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2013
- Location
- Grayslak...
My .02 is that your biggest culprit is probably those small splits of cherry. I will just confirm a few things though...
- The wood is burning, yes? Not smoldering
- You have added more and more wood, and even charcoal, and it does not get hotter? what does it do?? does the large fire smolder and smoke?
- I assume you have your fire up on a grate, and off the bottom of the firebox?
- how are you running your intake and exhaust? Both wide open?
- what does your coal bed look like?
My theory is this - dry cherry burns fast. small dry cherry burns faster. Fast enough that you aren't maintaining enough coal bed, and that's really where the heat comes from, not small burning splits. You need the coals. I would suggest this. Take the cherry out of the equation. Dump a chimney worth of lump in it and see what happens.
- The wood is burning, yes? Not smoldering
- You have added more and more wood, and even charcoal, and it does not get hotter? what does it do?? does the large fire smolder and smoke?
- I assume you have your fire up on a grate, and off the bottom of the firebox?
- how are you running your intake and exhaust? Both wide open?
- what does your coal bed look like?
My theory is this - dry cherry burns fast. small dry cherry burns faster. Fast enough that you aren't maintaining enough coal bed, and that's really where the heat comes from, not small burning splits. You need the coals. I would suggest this. Take the cherry out of the equation. Dump a chimney worth of lump in it and see what happens.