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TESTING YOUR WOOD
When the stove is thoroughly warmed, place one piece of split wood (about five inches in diameter)
parallel to the door on the bed of red embers.
Keep the air control full open by pulling on it and close the door. If ignition of the piece is accomplished
within 90 seconds from the time if was placed in the stove, your wood is correctly dried. If ignition
takes longer, your wood is damp.
If your wood hisses and water or vapour escapes at the ends of the piece, your wood is soaked or
freshly cut. Do not use this wood in your stove. Large amounts of creosote could be deposited in your
chimney, creating potential conditions for a chimney fire.
THE FIRST FIRES
The fresh paint on your stove needs to be cured to preserve its quality. Once the fuel charge is
properly ignited, only burn small fires in your stove for the first four hours of operation. Never open
the air control more than necessary to achieve a medium burn rate.
Make sure that there’s enough air circulation while curing the stove. The odors could be smelled
during the 3 or 4 first fires. Never start your stove outside. You will not be able to see if you are over
heating.
IGNITION
After making sure that the stove air intake controls are fully open (completely pull-out towards you),
place several rumpled sheets of paper in the centre of the combustion chamber. Place 8 to 10 pieces
of small dry kindling wood over the paper in the form of a tent. You may also place a few pieces of
heating wood, but choose the smaller ones. No chemical product should be used to light the fire.
Before igniting the paper and kindling wood, it is recommended that you warm up the chimney. This
is done in order to avoid back draft problems often due to negative pressure in the house. If such is
the case, open a window slightly near the stove and twist together a few sheets of newspaper into a
torch. Light up this paper torch and hold it as close as possible to the mouth of the pipe inside the
combustion chamber to warm up the chimney. Once the updraft movement is initiated, you are ready
to ignite the stove by lighting the paper and kindling wood inside the combustion chamber.
We therefore advise you to leave the door slightly opened (1/4") for a 10 to 30 minutes period, under
supervision, in order to allow for good combustion. After this time, you must close the door and
progressively adjust the air control to obtain the desired temperature.
HEATING
Controlled combustion is the most efficient technique for wood heating because it enables you to
select the type of combustion you want for each given situation. The wood will burn slowly if the wood
stove air intake control is adjusted to reduce the oxygen supply in the combustion chamber to a
minimum. On the other hand, wood will burn quickly if the air control is adjusted to admit a larger
quantity of oxygen in the combustion chamber. The air intake control on your stove is very simple. If
you pull on it out completely towards you, it is fully open. If you push on it until it stops the combustion
air is reduced to a minimum. Your Magnolia stove burned between .954 kg\h et 2.556 kg\h. of wood
during EPA testing. Real operating conditions may give very different results than those obtained in
the lab according to the species of wood used, its moisture content, the size and density of the
pieces, the length of the chimney, altitude and outside temperature.
