I've been playing with the performance of my Harman Oakwood for the last two months and it's been frustrating. Just recently, it's gotten colder and it would be nice to be able to run the stove through the night. However, no matter how I control the stove, I can only get 4 hours burntime at the most. It's a dissapointment at the amount of time and money you spend on a stove and it's install to only hear your boiler turn on in the middle of the night. I don't know if there is something wrong with the stove.
It heats the 2600 s.f. house fine when attended during the day. With the bypass damper OPEN, primary air intake all the way to the left, a 3/4 packed stove will last 2-3 hours depending on the type of wood. Flue temps are between 400-500. I've tried closing the bypass damper witha good 2" amber coal bed (seems to be the most I can get from a long burn) and with the primary air intake in the middle, the stove every so often backpuffs, smoke escapes through the air intake and a flame appears within the stove for a short duration. This "backpuff" really scares me. I do not want to leave the bypass damper closed overnight. I had a successful burn with the bypass closed when it was 10 degrees outside. Flue temps were steady at 400 but this only yielded about 4 hours of burntime.
I thought replacing the ashpan, front, and top door gaskets would help but that didn't.
Should I try blocking the secondary air intake?
It heats the 2600 s.f. house fine when attended during the day. With the bypass damper OPEN, primary air intake all the way to the left, a 3/4 packed stove will last 2-3 hours depending on the type of wood. Flue temps are between 400-500. I've tried closing the bypass damper witha good 2" amber coal bed (seems to be the most I can get from a long burn) and with the primary air intake in the middle, the stove every so often backpuffs, smoke escapes through the air intake and a flame appears within the stove for a short duration. This "backpuff" really scares me. I do not want to leave the bypass damper closed overnight. I had a successful burn with the bypass closed when it was 10 degrees outside. Flue temps were steady at 400 but this only yielded about 4 hours of burntime.
I thought replacing the ashpan, front, and top door gaskets would help but that didn't.
Should I try blocking the secondary air intake?