Soundchasm
Minister of Fire
Been firing now for just about an hour and 15 or so. Got up temp up to where it just touched 700...FINALLY! No blower turning on, though it did start up between 550-600. Now turned the fan on, and have closed the air intake flow to 1/4-1/3. Insert is stacked with 4 year old maple that is dry as death valley and weighs almost like balsa, but not that light. Got some semblance of flame thrower/gates of hell secondary, but only through maybe a third of the tubes. Now that it shut down a bit and blower on, temp is dropping like a stone and in just the 5-10 mins is down to 500. I can feel and smell that it is hot though, like really hot, as it should be. But again, no secondary burn as you both describe. We'll see how this lasts. I have to take off for a few hours around 6:30.
A2W, I have to believe if the glass is clean that the wood is fine. I can get secondaries, but I have to induce them and they aren't self-sustaining, but they do seem to be the best theoretical burn, I suppose. I have never stuffed my 550 to the gills. And it is frustrating when 2-3 splits in the old beater downstairs gets the job done. I don't blame you one bit in your frustration. You are showing the patience of Job and real diligence towards solutions. I'm watching your progress closely. Here's a vid of some secondaries. At 3:20 there's a quick glimpse of the mini-"flame-thrower" out the tubes.
I have gotten some dramatic ones, and my favorite is called "The Dryer". Flame detaches from the logs and rolls horizontally at the window.