Questions about air control and secondaries

Every load of wood is different. Sometimes I can shut mine all the way, sometimes I can't. You need a hot stove for good secondaries. But, the secondaries will make the stove hot, so it's a bit like chasing your tail. The drier your wood, the better it will work. If you really want to see the secondaries, buy a few eco-bricks or other compressed hard wood.

If you don't have smoke outside, it's working fine. The rest is just about getting the right amount of heat and burn time.

Some people can shut down the air completely, some can't. It depends on quality of wood, draft, and moisture content of the wood. I can't shut the air completely down on my stove, it usually snuffs the fire out. When you have to open the air after the secondaries go out, it usually means you didn't shut the air down slow enough. It happens to me when I try to rush the process. 6-8 hour reload times seem pretty reasonable. My Oslo is usually only coals after 6 hours and I'm burning Sugar Maple and Black Locust.

Outside temp and, IME, atmospheric pressure have an effect. I have to run open to one degree or another mostly. Every now and then I have to shut it down tight.

I try to read flame color some. Too orange and I feed it air till it brightens up.

As mentioned .. . there are a lot of variables. Hot hot is the stove when you start to shut things down, wood species/dryness/size, outside temp and air pressure and how good of a draft you've got going.

I often can shut it down all the way, but my normal operating position for my stove is a quarter closed.

Secondaries can be sustained and look like a portal to hell has opened up in the stove or you may get an occasional fireworks burst (I think of these as the northern lights) which pop into existence for a few seconds and then disappear only to reappear a few seconds later. I personally prefer a more sustained secondary and will open up the air a dite.

Elm and cherry aren't bad wood . . . I burn a lot of these species . .. far more than oak, hickory or locust in fact . . . just aren't a primo firewood is all.

I usually get the best secondary's at about 75% shut down but they tend to happen when the stove is at least 500F or higher. In the 600-700 degree range shut down 3/4 seems to be my stoves sweet spot. I've gotten them with the stove anywhere from 50%-100% shut down but as you see every load of wood is different from the load before and weather and conditions are constantly changing. We've been on a weather rollercoaster here in the Midwest.

I am a long time burner, but only on a second season with my PE T6. I have been having trouble shutting my stove down this year and getting an overnight burn. I rarely have coals in the morning (after 9 hours) that I can use to restart. I shut my stove down completely early in the burn after a reload and often reload with it shut down. If it's still hot with a lot of coals it takes off and gets hot quick! In order to get a long burn, I have to wait until the coals are burned way down before a reload. I have a mix of wood softer woods which doesn't help. I have burned some North Idaho Energy logs mixed with wood and they last almost 24hrs!

Large splits of hard wood are where you will achieve longer overnight burns. Otherwise you have an air leak somewhere, or are running it too hard & hot if you have minimal coals 9 hrs later(with hardwood). Many western softwood burners getting 8+ hours out of softwood no problem.

Osagebndr said:

I've been having trouble getting more than 6-8 hrs of heat. Was wondering if it would help if I left the air open a little tho I know that depends on amount of heat wanted but the summit can hit 700* stove top easily when shut down so not sure

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The more air, the more heat, which also means reduced burn time.

I pack it as tight as I can.

first year wood burning for me. I have an Enviro Kodiak 1200. I have been getting 6-8 hours before reload on ash/cherry/poplar mixes (& an occasional aged dead pine log) when fully loaded. I get 2-3 hours on a smaller criss-crossed load typically I run mine cracked open once up to temps in the 450-500 range, which seems to be when secondaries light (500-550) I cut the air down as soon as I can depending on how the fire looks to try to avoid the 700 temps (I have gotten up to 700-725 a few times now) I check the stove top with stove top thermometer and an IR. IR shows that only a small spot gets that hot. other parts range from 400-690 when stove top reads 700. That being said. I'm personally having trouble getting it down so its a predictable fire. Somedays it works out with good stove temps with air control damper. other days it seems the thing is out of control. Been trying north south loading and east west loading. North South definitely gets a bit warmer, holds secondaries longer. I have a surface stove pipe thermometer on the pipe too for reference (double walled pipe), I double the read out for a rough temp. It seems to run best when it reads 200, so i assume around 400 flue temp. I check the temp where the pipe collar attaches to stove with ir reader and it says 425-450 usually so it seems to be in the ball park. Figured some of this info may give you some relavant stuff to your situation from what i've learned so far, learning more each time I run the stove lol

Yea I hear ya. I wish I had looked into a cat stove more. Doesnt sound like they have the run away (potential) issues/ unpredictability. Check out this link. http://gulland.ca/florida_bungalow_syndrome.htm I found this rather interesting. Especially dealing with the colder temps and increased draft vs how these new epa stoves are designed. I went ahead and made a homemade air intake damper (attached pictures) out of tin and some magnets (so its completely removeable) I find this is an extra level of control when you get a fire that doesnt seem to respond to fully closed air settings. It helps rein in a fire IMO. See what you think. pretty simple to do.

I usually can't shut my air control down all the way and avoid smoldering, but I think I have a poor draft compared to many setups. For my stove the best secondaries occur when there is a little primary are coming in and keeping a bit of flame alive on the wood.

I pack my stove pretty tight for longest burns, looser for a shorter burn or to heat the stove up faster.

I should add, I find that with my stove, when it gets hot enough is when i get almost uncontrollable secondaries that bring it up to the 750 range which looks in my opinion help the run away fire cycle/nuclear reactor. From what i have read, the air control setting only controls the primary burn (at the wood), the secondaries are designed so they are open to unrestricted air flow/oxygen in order to get your smoke burning/efficency. (desireable-but not when its too hot) or in my opinion if you have a chimney fire. There seems to be no option to completely close her down if needed. I'll also add. I believe what happens too, when it gets that hot, the chimney has gotten hot enough that its causing the system to draft harder, thus drawing more air than is desirable. Adding a bit more resistance for a few minutes helps put you back in control.

However, does your PE stove have this feature http://pacificenergy.net/technologies/wood/ebt2 ? Dunno how this works in the real world, so your secondary burn may be different than mine.