Overfiring Stove

Load on too big of hot coal bed.
Load high in the front as partially blocking smokes exit path to flue seems to do it.
Packing stove really full with high btu wood.
Not getting it shut down soon enough.

I think if you load the stove with the coals raked forward as only the front half of the stove has coals to load on and you an load the back half of stove all the way to the bottom of the stove on no coals, that this is a safer load.

Stacking high in the front seems to create a little burn chamber for the smoke gases to heat up really hot and burn with not a good exit path up and out of the stove so heat builds up, I have done this a couple times by mistake when I was learning these type stoves.

2. Some have used box fans pointed at a stove experiencing higher than normal temps to help cool it down, that coupled with closing down the air supply and adjusting your chimney damper help to get it back under control.

I shoved over 25 cords of wood through a hearthstone heritage with a 600 degree reline temperature per the manual. This non-cat stove will do some funny things on you when it gets really hot. The biggest thing is that it won't cool off when you slam the damper shut. In fact, that will just tick it off more and it can run away on you. But do shut the draft to zero when you feel like it is going nuclear.

The best way to avoid having a non-cat epa stove overheat on you is to avoid loading a stove when it is still hot and burning. Wait until the stove has burned down and completed the cycle. Then avoid loading a full firebox of kindling. Monitor temps and avoid running it really hot all the time. If it is properly sized you should be able to get the job done with reasonably low temperatures like say 500 on the stove.

The stone stove is slow to get hot so that will help.

Best way to overheat a stove is to put on wood that has not seasoned properly. It does not burn that well. So you put a whole load more on. It still doesn't burn properly. So you open up the air intakes to get it going. Then you get sidetracked by something/someone. Then you come back and find the moisture has been driven off, the dry wood is burning like some sort of mad nuclear reactor, and the whole stove smells like it's too hot. Which is one reason why I am obsessed with properly seasoned wood.

At some point it will happen.

corey21 said:

At some point it will happen.

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Not so! That is what we call a positive negative statement. It need not happen.

Oh wait a minute this is a soapstone stove.

My bad.

BrotherBart said:

The Clydesdale is cast iron with soapstone fire brick lining.

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Sorry about messing up the thread.

BrotherBart said:

Tough to monitor stove temps with the Clydesdale. Being as it is a flush fitting insert.

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Bart, the Clydesdale actually protrudes about 7". Is that enough to get a useful top reading?

I'm having one installed on the 31st, so I'm especially curious.

As mentioned above, an external fan blowing on the stove will help reduce the temps. Heat transfer rate is proportional to the thickness and type of material, the surface area for heat transfer, and the difference in temperature between the inside and outside. The larger the delta-T, the higher the heat transfer rate. A fan will lower the outside surface temperature and increase the delta-T, thus increasing heat transfer rate and lowering stove inner temps.

Agreed Bart, just trying to provide some help to someone if their stove goes nuclear.

I have overfired my stove once or twice. I just open the door. Obviously, monitoring it closely. The stove cools off quickly.

if no one minds, i'm gonna chime in here. i had a forum member make me his flue temp monitor. i find that even i know what i'm doing and i watch my stove carefully i do make mistakes from time to time. i can glance across the room and see what temp the flue is at and it's helped me burn better fires by giving me a more accurate reading to go by. there has been a few nights i go to bed and and the fire gets too hot. the alarm goes off and i tend to the stove. it's an easy concept and i'm surprised that there's no commercial unit available and if there is, i'm not aware of it. on an insert, i would guess that one could monitor the stove temp but it would seem to me the flue would be the best to keep an eye on. we just had a fire a couple weeks ago where the guy loaded up his stove and walked away from it and burned his business down. he ran an antiques business and walked into his shop and didn't check on his stove. oops. my fire fighter buddy said he loaded it up, walked away and got on the computer and when he smelled smoke it was too late. like he said, when you have fire inside your house or business, you must treat it with the utmost respect.

BrotherBart said:

The single most dangerous thing that I see here year after year is people saying you need to get those "blazing secondaries" rolling to burn in an EPA non-cat. It just ain't so and if you chase that you WILL end up with an out of control stove on your hands. Especially with a chimney over 16 feet.

Light a nice fire in your stove with good dry wood and enjoy the fire and the heat. Do not get tangled up in worrying about "secondaries". That stuff under the baffle is just there to burn stray stuff that didn't burn in that nice fire you are watching. And a lot of the time, if you are doing it right, they are just "poofs" up around the pipes. Sure in the early stages of a reload there is some of that stuff, but for a steady good burn it should not be going on for long.

That is my story and I am sticking to it.

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That's what i have found pretty much i don't look at the tubes only if i want to play around and that is becoming rare.

BrotherBart said:

I hate to disagree with my more knowledgeable buddy BG but I have tested thermos mounted on the front of inserts, and others did too trying to shoot me down, and found up to 150 degree differences between stove top temps and temps on the front. Not surprising since the air wash comes down over the front. It was even so in the old insert I did the tests with without air wash and on my free standing NC-30 with air wash.

The space between the surround and the top plate of the Clydesdale should give you room to shoot an infrared thermo in there and get temps.

That seven inches is a non-event. The middle of the top plate is where the action is.

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begreen said:

No disagreement here, (nor a more knowledgeable mod). This is why I suggested the laser thermometer. More data needed. Some stoves read pretty closely on the corners and it's the only place to read on some inserts. The numbers may be lower than the stove top, but if they track consistently then you can add the difference and have a pretty good visual cue of how the fire's burning.

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Thanks guys. I just bought a IR thermometer last week, so I'm prepped for action.

I'll shoot around with it and see what kinda differences I see, paying close attention to the space between the surround and the top plate.

Glad I asked, I thought that 7" surface was gonna offer plenty of useful meat...

I'd just bolt or stick a thermocouple to the top of the insert, and feed the wire out thru the surround. Plug it into a thermocouple meter, and voiala! instant stove-top thermometer on an insert.

I actually rigged my cat probe thermometers the same way.