What happened to my lazy flames

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albertj03 said:
I also have a Super 27 and I've always felt like it gets too much air. At first I thought I just had a super strong draft because I have a tall chimney and the stove is in the basement but after a few years using the stove and seeing other people's stoves with similar setups I think it's a combination of too much air and strong draft. I can't load my stove full because if I do the stove will go nuclear on me. I had to put a damper section in the pipe so I can control it better if it does take off on me.

I've done the dollar bill test, checked for cracks and checked for leaks but haven't found anything wrong. I know two people who have similarly sized chimneys with wood furnaces in their basements and they don't have any problems at all. Of course they are also burning wood that they call "seasoned" which means they have a truck load of tree length wood delivered in the summer, cut it/split it in October and burn it that winter. So who knows what would happen if they were cramming their furnaces with my wood which is all very dry. I was actually told by someone that my wood is too dry, that's why it burns too hot. Maybe they were right, maybe I should start mixing in a few greener splits in.
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I know people are going to want to throw things at me for saying this, but I've done that with a level of success. I just have thrown a green split mixed in with very dry wood to slow it down a bit. This was oak that was super dry, and would go through the roof if loaded without something green. In retrospect if I had split the wood larger I would not have had this problem. Split size truly effects the rate of outgassing.
 
stocker said:
Never loaded mine full yet either. It hits 700 stovetop with just 4 medium size splits, that is when I turn on the blower fan. My chimney is around 16-18 ft from stove to cap and a straight shot and an awesome draft. I can start that baby in no time.
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Pretty much the same thing here only my chimney is like 30 ft tall. I can load 4 good sized splits and have the stovetop hit 700 sometimes. When I have loaded the stove all the way before the stovetop would get up to 900 and I'd have flames blasting out of every hole inside the stove like a blast furnace or something. Now I just load it about 3/4 of the way, keep the air almost totally closed and reload it more often. It does a great job heating but I would never feel comfortable loading it and walking away. I actually put a wireless web cam in my basement so I can monitor the stove and flue temps from where ever I am in the house.

I would love to be able to load the stove all the way, get it going, shut the door and walk off for 8-10 hours and not worry about like so many I know do. Maybe someday I'll find the right stove or I'll go to a wood furnace.
 
Glad I'm not the only one..maybe its just cuz we can SEE whats going on..I actually have never loaded up, only comfortable with 4 maybe 5 on cold, non windy days.
 
stocker said:
cory, how old was your gasket and did you run 24/7?
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I purchased the stove back in October 2010 first door gasket replaced.
 
albertj03 said:
Pretty much the same thing here only my chimney is like 30 ft tall. I can load 4 good sized splits and have the stovetop hit 700 sometimes. When I have loaded the stove all the way before the stovetop would get up to 900 and I'd have flames blasting out of every hole inside the stove like a blast furnace or something. Now I just load it about 3/4 of the way, keep the air almost totally closed and reload it more often. It does a great job heating but I would never feel comfortable loading it and walking away. I actually put a wireless web cam in my basement so I can monitor the stove and flue temps from where ever I am in the house.

I would love to be able to load the stove all the way, get it going, shut the door and walk off for 8-10 hours and not worry about like so many I know do. Maybe someday I'll find the right stove or I'll go to a wood furnace.
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Do you have a flue damper installed? With a 30 ft chimney I would consider adding one. It could extend burntimes, reduce wood consumption and provide you with more peace of mind.
 
begreen said:
Do you have a flue damper installed? With a 30 ft chimney I would consider adding one. It could extend burntimes, reduce wood consumption and provide you with more peace of mind.
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Last year I installed a flue damper and tested it out a bunch. I found that with a full load and the stove going semi-nuclear I have to close the damper about 3/4 of the way to get get any control over it and even then it just seems to keep the heat in the stove causing the stove top to get even hotter, which is not great when it's already 800+ degrees. Plus, it's not a great feeling to leave the house even for a short time with your stove blasting and the damper is the only thing stopping it from taking off. It's easier and safer to go with smaller loads and reload more often.

I did talk to the dealer about it and they had absolutely nothing of value to tell me. When I asked them about changing the baffle gaskets they didn't seem to know what I was talking about.

Don't get me wrong, I think the PE Super 27 is an awesome stove and it does a great job heating my house from the basement with no grates at all in the floor above. I think it's more of an EPA testing issue with these modern stoves that are designed to pass the tests and have super low emissions. Maybe if I had a 15 ft chimney with an insulated liner my stove would run perfectly but I have a 30ft interior chimney with clay tiles.
 
Okay just an update on my flame situation...after playing around with different settings and wood species, I realized that the harder the wood used the more lazy the flames became. I have been trying to use up the pine first just because I had alot and its not that cold yet, but also had my mulberry waiting in the wings. So for the last two loads of the mulberry the stove is operating back to normal. Hate to see how my 3yr old oaks gonna do (NOT) So I thank you all for your input and I will be changing gasket next year if I don't have a foreseeable problem before then...
 
What your experiencing is that the better hard wood has more Btu's of heat. These stoves operate by the heat.

With the better wood putting off more Btu's you can turn your primary air to a lower setting and still keep the stove in an operational temperature range to keep the secondary flames a firing.

Its that lower air flow thru the stove combine with the high temps of burning the better wood giving you the flames your looking for.
 
Take some of that good dry oak and split you a bunch for kindling, like down to 1" thick pieces.

Watch how fast you can restart a stove with that stuff compared with pine. Its amazing.
 
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