On The 8th day the damper has my #

This evening is my eighth fire in my englander. I have know problems getting the fire started. And I know some of my wood is not the best, so i have been supplementing with store bought and dimensional wood. With a about a half load north and south. The fire will rip and cruise around 500 within 30 minutes at full open damper. At that point i begin to damp down in 1/4 increments as I watch the flames. As soon as I see the flames appear to be at a slow dance is when my troubles occur. If I leave the stove, within an hours time or so the flames seem to disappear and I will lose 200 degrees just like that. At that point, I would say the damper is 3/4 closed and there are a lot of fiery coals and some small blue flames. I have to constantly feed it wood 2 splits at a time and play with damper so temp does not drop so quickly.

Is this normal?
My wife says I am constantly tinkering with the stove (for the most part I enjoy the tinkering) just not sure if this is the way it goes.

68 inch of single wall, 48"'of galvanized and 74" stainless and then the cap.mall from metal fab. Straight up from stove no bends. 6" diameter out of an englander nc30.

I seemed to have the problem even if burned straight store bought that I tested it at 14 %, not split checked . I was thinking maybe I cant damp down that far if the monster is not fully fed.

I am getting around 5 hour burn times, is that decent for less than a full load

Sprinter said:

When you say "damper", are you talking about the primary air control, or do you have a key damper on the flue?

Just a couple of thoughts to throw out there: So about 16' of flue? That should be tall enough for decent draft, but it sounds like the draft is weak. I'm wondering why you need to keep the air full open until the stove is 500. I would think that you should be able to start closing the air much earlier than that once the secondaries are burning.

Could your house be too tight to allow enough air to the stove? Unless you have an OAK for outside combustion air, sometimes a stove can be starved even to the point of negative pressure in extreme cases. Especially if you have a bathroom fan or dryer going.

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Thank you for the response. I believe I call it a damper because that's what I grew up with. I am talking about the primary air control. I believe I was just misunderstanding the process on the 8 th day. This evening I used kiln dried wood and as soon as I open the door a crack it sounds like a tornado and the fire rages. I think my problem is wet wood.

I bought a MM today and all the wood that i hit with a hammer on the ends was all over 20%. That trick doesn't work

Do I have to re split all my splits to do determine the moisture?

Sprinter said:

There are ways to handle this problem. My first year I had a mix of wood. Some was under 25% and some was upwards of 30. Some was more. What I would do often was build a good fire with my best wood and when it was hot enough, I would put some of the 30% stuff on top. As long as the secondaries are kept hot and the flue temps are above creosote levels, you can be safe and successful. Like pen suggests, using a compressed wood product like biobricks can be used to supplement, as well as ultra dry material like pallet wood, etc if you don't have enough good wood.

Even though efficiency will suffer, using techniques like that can get you through. I was scared to look at my flue after the first season, but after a cleaning with my Sooteater, all I got was a handful of soot. So it can be done, with care and extra attention.

But do sample what you have with the meter to see where you stand.

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Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

pen said:

Well, as many as you want to. The only way to measure the moisture with the meters is on the face of a freshly split piece.

In all, I'd perhaps consider trying to find some bio bricks, eco bricks, envi logs (I might have those names screwed up) or some other man made fuel that you can get from stores like Tractor Supply or similar, and use them to mix in.

But, splitting the wood you have down smaller may help.

I've been in this boat, I feel your pain. Make plans to get your wood for next year on hand ASAP so that you can do the seasoning yourself and not have to worry.

Until then, do the best you can and keep that chimney clean.

pen

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Thank you for the info. I have a stove pipe thermometer 18" up from stove as well as one on my stove. The one on my stove discolored slightly and the one on the pipe rarely reads above 300 in the creosote free zone. Even when the stove has been cranking at 450+ for 2 or 3 hours. Concerning?

I was under the impression that because I am new to burning wood, and my fuel is not the best I should having small to medium fires and feed it more often. The thermometer on my stove shows 450-550 as optimal, is this wrong? My stove seems to always settle around those temps when I air down to 1/2.

These are my two thermometers.
In real time