I have a 1 year old lopi liberty that I believe is over drafting. When The stove is burning I can hear and feel the stove pulling in a large amount of air. I can't get the stove to burn more than 6-7 hours and it seems like heat output should be a lot better. When I close down the air control all the way the flames don't seem like they slow down as much as they should. I covered both the front and bottom air ports with a glove and I get the lazy flames I'm looking for. The dealer said I may need to put a damper in my pipe. Any ideas or help?
Lopi Liberty over draft
- Thread starter joshf172
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Welcome Josh
Have you checked the gaskets that can have that affect as well. Take a incense stick and go around the doors while it is burning watch for the smoke to be sucked in. If it gets sucked in then it is a bad gasket. If your covering the air ports super draft or not it should not be getting air unless the gaskets are bad. Also go around the weld lines and make sure you don't have cracked welds.
Pete
Have you checked the gaskets that can have that affect as well. Take a incense stick and go around the doors while it is burning watch for the smoke to be sucked in. If it gets sucked in then it is a bad gasket. If your covering the air ports super draft or not it should not be getting air unless the gaskets are bad. Also go around the weld lines and make sure you don't have cracked welds.
Pete
lopiliberty
Minister of Fire
My liberty is just about impossible to slow down once it gets going. Likes to top out between 700 and 750 on a full load You can stand at one end of the living room(25x13) and hear the air entering the stove. I have thought about a pipe damper but I hate them. Gets in the way of cleaning How high is your chimney(Class A or masonary, straight up?) and what are your flue temps and stovetop temps? What temps to you reload? Do you load E/W or N/S
corey21
Minister of Fire
Sounds like you have a air leak maybe bad gaskets or cracked weld it should die when you cover the air vents well most of the time you should not need to.
Welcome.
I had the service guy out earlier in the week. Gaskets are fine and no leaks. The chimney is class A, goes out the wall and up. Once the fire really gets going it's impossible to slow down and I can really hear the draft. I haven't put a thermometer on it yet. I load the wood width not depth.
lopiliberty
Minister of Fire
Like I said mine runs the same way yours does and no leaks or cracks here either. I would recommend you get a thermometer on the stovetop because this thing can run hot, it might be getting hotter than you think. I load most of the time N/S thats why mine runs so hot, but sometimes I load E/W and if conditions are right, its will burn just as hot if not hotter than a N/S load. I have come to realize that this is the nature of this heating monster to run hot and have to be carefull about when I load and how much. You might have to end up putting in a pipe damper to slow her down and if that doesn't work than I'm out of ideas. Also try raking the coals to the front of the firebox then load the wood and load on a smaller coal bed
corey21
Minister of Fire
Shmudda
Burning Hunk
I have a Liberty too, bought it back in February 1996 and burn it from October into April. Good stove, but everything has its problems....
I gave this a lot of thought as to what could be going on. I doubt you have any structural problems with your stove, to new and the quality of the Lopi line is second to none in my opinion.
I would again revisit the gaskets as those are most likely your problems. What looks good, sometimes isn't always functional good. One thing with door gaskets is you have to review them every year.
Couple questions:
1.) Is your glass loose in your door? If it is, then you window gasket is shot and needs replaced.
2.) When your door is shut and handle locked try pushing the door tighter toward the stove? Can you push the door in towards the stove? If you can then you need to adjust the door latch. You do this by taking the door nut off that screws into the end of the handle that holds the interior latch on. Remove the latch dog and you should find 2 or 3 small washers between the latch dog and door frame. Remove one of those washers and put the latch and nut back on. Now close your door again and see if it gets tighter and can't be pushed in. If you can push it in, then do the same thing and remove another washer. Then retest. Keep the washers as when you put a new door gasket on you will need to put them back on too.
3.) If you find that your door gasket is in good shape then I would then begin to look at the ceiling on the interior of the stove. First thing is be sure your ceiling brick are positioned very tight and close together with no gaps. If there are gaps between the brick move them back beside each other to close off the gaps. If your stove is running away like that and burning hot you may have crystalized some of the steel in the roof that holds the brick in place and which also holds the bypass damper in position. Your bypass damper might not be closing the whole way due to this. If that is the case remove the ceiling brick and steel components and inspect. Trust me, this isnt hard to do, so dont be intimidated. Keep the instruction manual close as it will tell you exactly how to put everything back into position.
4.) Last but not least, if you go thru all this and it all checks out good block off one of the two damper holes under the stove with some heat resistant tape and run the stove that way for awhile to see if it makes a difference. If it does, then you have one of two choices, leave the tape on or add a flue damper. I personally would block the air intake under the stove. I too hate flue dampers!
5.) If you need structural steel details for the interior of the stove let me know and I can email them to you. I have rebuilt my stove a number of times so far and have the details for every interior piece except for the bypass damper plate. I redesigned them somewhat to make them last longer and function better. Thats the beauty of doing that for yourself, you can make them to last and not worry about profits over longivity!!
Let me know what you find out, I am very courious here!
Craig
I gave this a lot of thought as to what could be going on. I doubt you have any structural problems with your stove, to new and the quality of the Lopi line is second to none in my opinion.
I would again revisit the gaskets as those are most likely your problems. What looks good, sometimes isn't always functional good. One thing with door gaskets is you have to review them every year.
Couple questions:
1.) Is your glass loose in your door? If it is, then you window gasket is shot and needs replaced.
2.) When your door is shut and handle locked try pushing the door tighter toward the stove? Can you push the door in towards the stove? If you can then you need to adjust the door latch. You do this by taking the door nut off that screws into the end of the handle that holds the interior latch on. Remove the latch dog and you should find 2 or 3 small washers between the latch dog and door frame. Remove one of those washers and put the latch and nut back on. Now close your door again and see if it gets tighter and can't be pushed in. If you can push it in, then do the same thing and remove another washer. Then retest. Keep the washers as when you put a new door gasket on you will need to put them back on too.
3.) If you find that your door gasket is in good shape then I would then begin to look at the ceiling on the interior of the stove. First thing is be sure your ceiling brick are positioned very tight and close together with no gaps. If there are gaps between the brick move them back beside each other to close off the gaps. If your stove is running away like that and burning hot you may have crystalized some of the steel in the roof that holds the brick in place and which also holds the bypass damper in position. Your bypass damper might not be closing the whole way due to this. If that is the case remove the ceiling brick and steel components and inspect. Trust me, this isnt hard to do, so dont be intimidated. Keep the instruction manual close as it will tell you exactly how to put everything back into position.
4.) Last but not least, if you go thru all this and it all checks out good block off one of the two damper holes under the stove with some heat resistant tape and run the stove that way for awhile to see if it makes a difference. If it does, then you have one of two choices, leave the tape on or add a flue damper. I personally would block the air intake under the stove. I too hate flue dampers!
5.) If you need structural steel details for the interior of the stove let me know and I can email them to you. I have rebuilt my stove a number of times so far and have the details for every interior piece except for the bypass damper plate. I redesigned them somewhat to make them last longer and function better. Thats the beauty of doing that for yourself, you can make them to last and not worry about profits over longivity!!
Let me know what you find out, I am very courious here!
Craig
If your stove runs that hot you either have too much draft or bad gaskets. Putting in a damper will not do anything if it is running hot due to gaskets. Gaskets would be the cheaper thing to try first. If that does not work shorten your chimney or try a damper. In our case we have a damper because we are at a higher elevation than most homes around us. We only use it once maybe twice a year though on very windy days other wise it is useless.
Pete
fespo
Minister of Fire
I have tried everything everything everyone has said. I have a damper, I just put in all new gaskets and my stove can still suck the horns off a billy goat. My draft is so strong nothing I can do about it. My stove and chimney run Hot. Also most all the time stove temp and pipe temp are close in the same.
You take the prize for funniest thing I have seen today horns off a Billy goat
.There are many reasons a stove runs hot. Another I can think of is split size being to small for the box size. Small splits tend to put off large amounts of gas making the stove extremely hot. It could just be a hot stove too.
Pete
Shmudda
Burning Hunk
Fespo, you stated a key fact here about the stove temps vs the flue temps. On mine, the stove temp might be 550 where the flue temp is 350 - 375 or so. I always strive for a 150 - 200 degree difference in stove vs flue temps. But I can control my stove pretty well and it doesnt run off on me. That makes a huge difference.
Craig
Craig
fespo
Minister of Fire
lopiliberty
Minister of Fire
Mines the complete opposite. My stovetop temp can be 750 and flue temp is usually between 300 and 350
Treacherous
Minister of Fire
Me too... assuming my flue probe is correct. During high burns the best I can do is equal once I have throttled stove back for quite a while. It usually is a couple hundred higher in my flue.
The coaling stage is the only time flue gets cooler.
EDIT: I can get 500-600 degrees on stove easy but that means I am running with 700-800 degrees in flue.
I haven't had a chance to really do anything with the stove yet, but I do have a question. Is the air port underneath the stove supposed to have a cover on it? I was flipping through my manual this morning and came to the section on the optional outside air boot. It said remove knockout if applicable. Wasn't sure if it's supposed to be covered up with the cast legs.
Treacherous
Minister of Fire
I think they knock them out at the factory now. I asked about this on my Endeavor and it was normal for it to already be knocked out even though I don't have an OAK.
corey21
Minister of Fire
josh and fespo, how tall are your chimneys? From the sounds of things it seems like a key damper would be a reasonable next step.
PS: I'm assuming you're seeing these temps with the bypass closed (pushed in), correct?
PS: I'm assuming you're seeing these temps with the bypass closed (pushed in), correct?
24ft total, but with a couple 90s in the smoke path. It should do well. Do you always close the bypass after starting the fire?
Is that the same technology that harman is using with the firedome/AB or am I confused with the leyden? You could rule out how much your chimney is drafting (pressure differential) by measuring draft with a manometer and call up Lopi and ask how many inches of water they certified the stove at or what is optimal draw for the setup.
I have one mounted on my chimney and use it to set my key damper on cold and high wind days.
I have one mounted on my chimney and use it to set my key damper on cold and high wind days.
fespo
Minister of Fire
I do have a damper installed, I only use it when it's real cold. I have about 25ft or so all on the interior. Maybe 2 1/2 ft above the roof line right in the center of the roof hip.
corey21
Minister of Fire
Just an update, the dealer ordered me a damper and I'm waiting for it to come it. I took a video with my phone of my liberty burning, completely shut down. What do you think? I also bought a pipe thermometer, I usually run around 200 degrees unless I have the stove stuffed full, then it runs between 325-350
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