Adding firebrick to drolet myraid

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deere317

deere317

New Member
Nov 23, 2014
35
Cincinnati Ohio
First I'd like to say thanks to everyone who have shared there knowledge and experience on this forum. In the past two years many of my questions as a rookie wood burner have been answered by reading this forum.
This fall I purchased a drolet myraid from a box store. The stove has worked great so far but while running it last week I noticed the side was glowing just a bit after a reload. The temp on the stove pipe thermometer was only at 550 which has been consistent with other reloads and normal operation. So my question is since there is only a single row of fire brick in this model will adding a second row on top of the first help or could it potentially damage my stove .
As a side note do airtight stove make more charcoal than other older stoves. Through out the day the stove creates a lot of coals which is great for starting a new fire but not so much while burning all day.
 
Funny you ask this question as I was just talking to another member about this same question adding fire brick for another reason.
I have not had the sides glowing red on my stove.
You need to turn down the input air to control the fire in the firebox so that your firebox temps are a little lower.
Did you take a stove top temp when you took the stove pipe temp?
That is a pretty high stove pipe temp. Not real high but indicates your firebox could be running pretty hot.
As cruising on this stove is like 300 stove pipe and 600 stove top temp.
You want to adjust your input air by pushing the rod in till its only open around 1/2 inch and still have a few lazy flames coming off the wood.

1/2 inch as measure behind the gold tip of the rod referenced to the edge of the ash lip.
 
Last edited:
Need more info. Is the pipe temp a surface reading or a probe reading? What is the stovetop temp running at? I suspect quite high. Glowing parts = overfire = your running the stove too hard. Adding brick will not correct the stove operator.;);lol
 
The temp was taken from a magnetic thermometer. Even with the bye pass damper closed and the air down almost all the way closed (1/2 to 3/4 ) past the ash shelf it runs 450 to 550 for the first 11/2 to 21/2 hrs with good secondaries them cools to around 300-350 for another few hours. I haven't taken a stovetop temp because I haven't bought a inferred thermometer yet.
With the large amount of charcoal the stove creates the new load is about 2 inches above the fire brick.
 
Yeah - joking aside, I think you are running this stove too hard. A surface temp will roughly be double for an internal temp. (i.e. 550F surface ~= 1100F internal). At that kind of stack temp, I would venture a guess (and this is ONLY a guess) that you are running in the 800+ range - and it really could be a substantial plus. It is not uncommon for the primary air controls to be at 90 -100% closed during operation. You CAN'T completely shut off the air with these controls. The secondary tubes have no air controls and will allow air to feed the fire.
Get a method to measure stove top temps (IR gun or thermo). That is essentially your speedometer for the stove and probably more important than the stack temp.
 
I would highly suggest getting the stove operation down pat and seeing what that does for your "coaling" situation. It could be that you are currently operating it in a manor that is producing more coals than normal. It could also be a fuel issue but take it one step at a time.
 
My wood supply is pretty descent mostly white and red oak hedge and ash that's seasoned for one year to ten months. Could a tall chimney Crete to much draft and make the fire burn to hot?
 
deere317 said:
Could a tall chimney Crete to much draft and make the fire burn to hot?
Click to expand...

Sure it can, but with your statement of the primary air control being closed 1/2 to 3/4 - that leaves 1/2 to 1/4 open. Often that is too much primary air being feed to the stove. Until you get to the point that a fully closed primary is still causing high heat, I wouldn't point to the chimney being the issue. It is more than likely the dreaded "learning curve".
 
The air control on the stove opens about three to four inches I meant I close it all the way then open it 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I figure that is 90 95 percent closed.
 
deere317 said:
My wood supply is pretty descent mostly white and red oak hedge and ash that's seasoned for one year to ten months. Could a tall chimney Crete to much draft and make the fire burn to hot?
Click to expand...
Sounds like your oak isn't fully seasoned, that's one of the main culprits for excessive coaling, could be something else too but its real tough to get oak fully seasoned in that amount of time. I need three years in my climate and it makes a world of difference.
 
deere317 said:
The air control on the stove opens about three to four inches I meant I close it all the way then open it 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I figure that is 90 95 percent closed.
Click to expand...

Got it.
Yeah - try the closed primary and see how it works for you. A thermo should still be in the plans, though.
 
Your 1/2 to 3/4 ways closed is not closed enough you need to play around with easing it to about 1/2 inch from being fully closed.
But the stove top needs to be around about 400 and close the input air about half way. Then when the stove top gets closer to 500 close it to about 1/4 ways shut. Then as its approaching 600 close it down to just about 1/2 inch closed as I described above.

Dont close it all the way. Play around with that 1/2 inch mark give or take a little , watch the flames leave a few lazy flames a going then stick around for 5 minutes and make sure those flames dont die off on you.

1/2 inch as measured behind the gold tip of the rod referenced to the edge of the ash lip.

If this dont work then your door gasket maybe leaking air into the stove.
 
deere317 said:
The air control on the stove opens about three to four inches I meant I close it all the way then open it 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I figure that is 90 95 percent closed.
Click to expand...

Missed this post , so check your door gasket.
 
I have a pyrometer in flue 18" up from stove set to go off at 900+.. been in 800's flue temps and have never had the side of the stoves glow.. but they will be 500-600 - my experience is the stove sides above the firebrick can be hotter then the top of the stove and radiate a lot of heat

Generally on a reload i get getting going/charred with primary air all the way out, then cut it back to half for a few minutes and then it gets shut back to about 1/2" out.. i will see flue temps around 600... I cant close it completely as that will put it out with my setup

I see coals occasionally too... easy enough when you got to much built up, remove as much ash as you can, rake the coals forward, open primary all the way and burn them down for an hour or two but reload before you burn too far

If you have to keep the primary open 1/2 way I wonder if your wood is too wet??
 
Ok stopped by dads after work and he had a cheap IR thermometer for his stove. Loaded it up got her refired and temps go as
Stove pipe 580
Stove top 550 to 610 depending on location
Sides 315 at bottom 500 on top above fire brick
 
deere317 said:
Ok stopped by dads after work and he had a cheap IR thermometer for his stove. Loaded it up got her refired and temps go as
Stove pipe 580
Stove top 550 to 610 depending on location
Sides 315 at bottom 500 on top above fire brick
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty normal. 500 ain't gonna make steel glow.
 
deere317 said:
mostly white and red oak hedge and ash that's seasoned for one year to ten months.
Click to expand...
The ash is the only wood on that list that has any chance of being dry enough in that amount of time. Most people say at least 2 years on Oak, 3 is better. I had some White Oak that was cut/split/stacked 3 years...burnt that last winter, and it was still boiling water out the end grain! The Hedge should dry about the same, 2-3 years
 
It a little better than it sounds almost all was what I call leaning dead timber. Trees that have fallen and got hung up in other tops must have no bark at all. Plus exterior soft wood is also gone.
 

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deere317 said:
First I'd like to say thanks to everyone who have shared there knowledge and experience on this forum. In the past two years many of my questions as a rookie wood burner have been answered by reading this forum.
This fall I purchased a drolet myraid from a box store. The stove has worked great so far but while running it last week I noticed the side was glowing just a bit after a reload. The temp on the stove pipe thermometer was only at 550 which has been consistent with other reloads and normal operation. So my question is since there is only a single row of fire brick in this model will adding a second row on top of the first help or could it potentially damage my stove .
As a side note do airtight stove make more charcoal than other older stoves. Through out the day the stove creates a lot of coals which is great for starting a new fire but not so much while burning all day.
Click to expand...
I have an Austral which is the same firebox, and yes, I added a row of the denser firebrick placed horizontally atop the pumice firebrick that came in my stove. The reason I did this was similar to you, although my stove has never glowed red on the sides. The manual for the stove indicates not lo load the wood above the firebrick (I assume to allow space for secondary combustion and maximize the stoves efficiency.) I however, in my desire for long burn times regularly loaded my stove above the factory installed firebrick and began to notice that the sides of the stove were warping (obviously from getting too hot.) I installed the firebrick as described above and have had zero issues with this configuration for the last three seasons. ;)

If you want pics let me know and I'll hook it up when I get home tonight...
 
ethanhudson said:
I have an Austral which is the same firebox, and yes, I added a row of the denser firebrick placed horizontally atop the pumice firebrick that came in my stove. The reason I did this was similar to you, although my stove has never glowed red on the sides. The manual for the stove indicates not lo load the wood above the firebrick (I assume to allow space for secondary combustion and maximize the stoves efficiency.) I however, in my desire for long burn times regularly loaded my stove above the factory installed firebrick and began to notice that the sides of the stove were warping (obviously from getting too hot.) I installed the firebrick as described above and have had zero issues with this configuration for the last three seasons. ;)

If you want pics let me know and I'll hook it up when I get home tonight...
Click to expand...

I'd love to see some pictures of the modified stove. How long have you had the stove altogether?

Cheers
 
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