Getting a bit confused.. questions plus a video.. and scaredness..

Video's look fine. Not sure what the questions are actually asking.

Only suggestion I have is to make sure you open the draft fully when opening the door and loading fuel to limit smoke in the room. More than likely the paint curing on the stove pipe triggered the alarm. And @ 85 in the house... and your are loading up the stove with more wood?

When the smoke alarm went off had you just opened the stove for any reason? If not, are you sure it was the stove causing it? I can't imagine it was heat if you're comfortable in the room - 85 is a normal summer temp, should not kick off an alarm. I think most smoke alarms only detect smoke, anyway. You're sure it was not the CO detector? Several firefighters on this board, hopefully one will check in. Your fires look nice, and 600 on the flue doesn't look bad to me but I'm pretty new to all this...it's in the "desired" range on your thermometer, right?

Ok so you're doing great. Keep experimenting little by little.

Some advice that may be helpful:

You only have to load the stove when you want more heat. Otherwise just let the coals sit in there. If it's 85 in your house you may be loading a little sooner than you need to. you may want to pick up a stove top magnetic thermometer. That will help guide you as well. If your house is warm and the outside temps are mild there is no need to fully load your stove. If you're experimenting and want to do it during your waking hours then I understand, but 85 I'd be melting. Your stove will stink a bit each time you reach a new high temp. That's nothing to worry about. Soon enough that goes away.

Keep playing around. You're doing well.

Getting a long burn can be tricky in mild temps. Usually if it's mild a quick hot fire gets it done.

The video's look fine.

The alarm could be from the paint baking or it may be co alarm.

Don't be scared, you're doing fine. When I first fired up my shop stove, my smoke detector went off 2 or 3 times...paint fumes was all it was. You're paying very close attention and climbing right up the learning curve. You'll be an old pro at this in no time. Rick

Ok...this is just a thought, but you said somewhere that this is a new stove. You might have been curing the paint still, you mentioned smelling paint. My smoke detector is super sensitive, even when there's no smoke it sometimes goes off, like if I'm seasoning a cast iron pan.

Def get a stove top thermo it's really helpful.

I have the same firebox on my stove as you (Drolet Austral). That being said, these directions should serve as a good benchmark for you to get a good long burn.

1. Make sure you have a large bed of coals (bottom of firebox covered with coals.)
2. Open the bypass damper and air intake all the way.
3. Open door SLOWLY
4. Pack as much wood N/S as you can into that firebox (note: Drolet manual states not to load wood above the firebricks. If you do you risk warping the sides of your firebox ((you will never notice warpage as your stove has side heat shields)) not that you should, but I added another row of firebrick to my stove by stacking them horizontally on top of the factory installed firebrick.)
5. Close door
6. Close bypass damper.
7. Monitor stove carefully entire load of wood may or may not become engulfed in flames. What you want to monitor is your flue or stove-top temp. With mine I let the stove top get to about 500 and then I shut the air intake completely, go to sleep and wake up 8 hours later to a nice bed of coals and a warm house; rinse and repeat. If the stove/flue were hot enough and your wood is seasoned when you shut the air intake completely the secondaries will take over and you will get cool blue flames above the wood.

Remember burning wood is one part art, one part science. What works for me may not work for you, as there are many variables that dictate how a wood burning system will operate. You will get the hang of it just keep at it.
The second picture you posted looks exactly like the thermometer I have and it works fine for a stove top.

85 in your house? Take my wife, I like 70's

Like everyone else . . . I suspect the smoke detector went off due to the paint and possibly the oils used in the manufacturing process. While you may not even see it, these tiny molecules can often be sensed by the detector which is fooled into thinking it is smoke molecules . . . and then it alarms. It should go away eventually.

Kitchen smoke alarm . . . typically we don't recommend smoke detectors be placed in a kitchen. Too many false alarms usually.

I could not say it better than eathanhudson. The load and burn look very good. The nice thing with the Drolet is it has very good air control so don't be too scared about it running away if you don't have an excessive draft, load too much fast burning wood, and stay a couple inches down from the secondaries. You can load it full but you do need a little experience with how it acts and what kind of wood you load. Use the load size and split size to mainly determine the amount of heat you need to the point that you can get the stove top up to the temp you need and then let it coast down. The more wood you load the longer it will hold the running temp. Example would be yesterday it was cool in the morning but I knew it was going to warm up during the day so I put in 6 small splits (about 2-3") on the coals from the night before. Ran the stove up to 500* and let it coast down. This gave me a short warm up run in the morning to bring the house up from 68 to 74* and the house held temp until 8pm when it was back down to 68*. Then did a 4 medium split ( about 4-5") and 1 large split (6-8") load at 8pm and got up at 6am with the house at 70* and coals to reload on. Today is going to be cooler (high of 40 and cloudy/rain) so I raked the coals to the front, loaded 4 large splits n/s (I cut my wood about 16" long) and 3 small splits e/w in the front on top of the coals to get it up to temp quick. This load should keep the house above 70* until 6-9pm tonight.

A couple other things. How much I have the primary open varies on a couple issues. First how cold it is and how much draft I have. Above about 20-25*F I cannot shut the primary all the way with a 15' total chimney straight up. Next is what type of wood I am burning. Softer woods like pine or silver maple need less primary air than say black locust. Also the load size. Smaller loads need more air and a larger loads need less air to maintain running temp. It varies on how much heat I need. The general way my stove runs is about: 1/4" = 500-550*, 1/2" = 550-600*, 3/4" =600-650*, 1" =650-700*. These would be stove top temperatures with a load that is down 2-3" from the top and vary +/- 1/4" depending on how strong the draft is and what kind of wood.

I would guess the smoke alarm is from the paint curing. My stove gave off the paint smell every time I hit higher temps than before. It took several excursions in the upper temp range before it pretty much completely went away. I will also add that due to the reason eathanhudson alluded to I would keep the max stove top temp in stock form to about 650*.

WarmNToasty said:

So I have a non cat. stove EPA.
So if I load up the stove I want to see all the wood I put in onto hot coals.. light on fire?
Just the bottom few?
Then I want to see a lot of flames?
Want to keep my primary air intake out a little when things going well not shut down?
Always want to see flames with load in?

I have just had to close it down because my smoke alarm was going off.. and it's 85 in the house so now a bit scared...

Looked at chimney smoke is looking clear to non..

Am I ok or should I be worried... now i've shut it down the flames arn't on the top of the logs anymore..... I think it's cooling down... phew!

Video before shutting down (excuse me, glass is like a mirror)


Video right after shutting it down,,,


Really not a fan of the smoke alarm going off when I dont' think there is smoke in the house and I havn't opened the stove door... I didnt' know it sensed heat etc too??


Quick update,,, everything cooled nice and quick, the flue temp dropped to where I feel more comfortable and the temp in the house dropped a degree... I have repulled the intake back out to where I had it,, flames are back on top... still concerned about fire alarm.. It could have been still the paint setting as I havn't had it long and only had small two log fires in it.. not a load like this until today..

Click to expand...

Wait those are videos of your unit? Maybe I read this paragraph wrong.

The videos look good to me.

Paint...It happened to me with the Vista....Can't wait for it to happen with the Summit...ugh...