https://www.fireplacesandstove.com/products/cleveland-iron-works-erie-wood-stove How to Properly Operate a Woodburning Stove Wood stoves can be a cozy and inexpensive way to heat the home. Smoke from wood stoves can be hazardous to your health. It's important to understand how these appliances function and how to use them correctly. Many modern stoves rely upon a catalytic or secondary combustion to reduce their emissions. Older stoves and open flames release high levels of particulates. is the heart of any fireplace system. It's where you create a fire to heat your home and provide ambiance. It's a simple concept, but there are many important details that must be accounted for to keep your wood burning stove safe and efficient. The simplest way to think of the firebox is that it's an enclosed combustion chamber that has walls and an entrance. Most fireplaces come with a prefabricated metal firebox or a masonry firebox. The kind of firebox you select will depend on your personal preferences and the type of fireplace you have. Most fireplaces with wood burning use a constant air flow to create the flame and burn fuel. Fresh air is pumped into the stove via dampers which can be adjusted inside its doors. This allows the fuels to be burned properly, and reduces toxic gasses that result from burning that is not complete or properly burned. The exhaust gases will be dragged through the chimney and safely away from your home. Modern stoves with catalytic second combustion use a special catalyst that reburns unburned gases to produce additional warmth. This results in a cleaner and less polluting exhaust than traditional wood stoves with no secondary combustion. Modern non-catalytic stoves are also available, but they're typically less efficient than stoves that have secondary combustion that is catalytic. Some wood-burning fireplaces come with backboilers, which can be used for space heating as well as water heating. These stoves are known as "hybrids" or "combination". T