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[free heat]

Three people have asked me is your stove ever running in the past few weeks. The country road that I live pretty much everybody has an outdoor boiler. So this morning the temps were in the teens I drove down the road and yes most everybody's boiler creates a lot more smoke than mine. I am not upset that mine doesn't smoke much but just wondering why? My neighbor has a central classic from the late 90's and thing smokes like crazy all the time, and I mean tons of smoke. Any insight would be great thanks! By the way I've learned so much from this forum in the past few months thanks everybody for your posts

[Scott7m]

Three people have asked me is your stove ever running in the past few weeks. The country road that I live pretty much everybody has an outdoor boiler. So this morning the temps were in the teens I drove down the road and yes most everybody's boiler creates a lot more smoke than mine. I am not upset that mine doesn't smoke much but just wondering why? My neighbor has a central classic from the late 90's and thing smokes like crazy all the time, and I mean tons of smoke. Any insight would be great thanks! By the way I've learned so much from this forum in the past few months thanks everybody for your posts

Very likely it has a lot to do with your wood type/quality. 

[hondaracer2oo4]

I believe another big factor is natural draft vs. forced draft. A forced draft unit will get a much hotter fire going much quicker than natural draft causing the natural draft unit to smoke for longer.

[MattyNH]

Well thats cool just about everyone on your road has a OWB..You def don't have to worry about complaints lol!…I would have to agree with hondaracer2004 with the draft issue..A natural daft if you think of it.. Once the draft door opens the fire is gonna sit there a smolder and smolder (smoke) until the gases are hot enough to ignite.. A forced draft does not smoke as long for obvious reason..Your got air blowing right on the fire..All the new boilers have fans that i know of.... Also like Scott said.. Depends on what type and condition the wood is in.. (dry, wet, green, half rotten, specie of wood etc..)

[Scott7m]

There is about a 97% chance tho that his stove is natural draft, very few ridgewoods have forced draft

[hondaracer2oo4]

I would say that he is burning dry split seasoned firewood then. If they have white smoke coming out of their boiler it is the water being burned out of the wood. Blueish smoke is unburned gasses.

[free heat]

Thanks for the posts, it is a natural draft stove, and my wood is well seasoned. I also know that most of my neighbors cut rite by the seat of their pants and have no wood piles to speak of. It just amazes me that most my neighbors don't try to get ahead on abit, they know they are eventually gonna need it!

[hondaracer2oo4]

Not to mention they would use probably 30% less wood or more since they didn't have to first burn off all of that water in the wood!

[automan77]

My ridgewood burns with little smoke  when it's dry wood. I thru in some stuff that's not real seasoned and it puts out a little more smoke.

[Speed]

Seasoned wood makes very little smoke in mine after the first couple of burn cycles. I'm thoroughly convinced that bark gives off more smoke than the wood itself. But then again the wood is also coming up to temp at first so it's just a guess. Those people that throw green wood and garbage in their boilers are the ones that are giving boilers a bad name and getting them banned. Apparently they think green wood is fine because there is no threat of a chimney fire in the house. I bet if they realized all the wood they would save by using good wood(say that three times fast) they might change their ways. Then again probably not, there is a reason they are cutting a pickup load ahead of the stove.

[chillyhiker]

hey speed and free heat I just fired up my ridgewood and was wondering where you set the adjustable plate thats at the bottom of the flue inside the stove, and I was suprised as well at the smoke produced or lack there of I can tell when the stove is ideling or burnng by just looking at the stack. I love tis thing

[free heat]

I run my plate completely shut. That's what I was told to do by ridgewood. The only time you should ever have to change the plate placement is when cleaning the vent pipe. The stove design is meant to have the gasses escape through the back of the stove and out the flue.

[chillyhiker]

ok thanks...i was wondering if it might be a smoke bypass of some sort.but that makes sense.