help! 500 degrees and counting...

begreen said:

I was prepared to do that if things got bad. Looked up the Shelburne and found the OAK connection is in the rear center I think.

Click to expand...

Yup the intake is lower rear center, maybe 3x1 or so

Highbeam said:

I suppose we could have told you to plug up the air intakes. On my old hearthstone there was a single 3" snout for all combustion air and blocking that would have snuffed the stove immediately. Do you know where your intake is?

Click to expand...

I would think (guessing) that you would want to do that more gradually than just cover it all at once. I would wonder if the pressure might create a large backpuff that would be more like a backboom. Just speculating as I have no intention of doing it to prove one of us right or wrong. Snuffing out a regular fire is one thing, an inferno might be like trading one monster for another. Thoughts?

I've done it on all of my non-cats. Lopi, the hearthstone, and the englander. Not always due to runaway but for the sake of experimentation and preparedness.

Stuff an oven mit in the hole, you won't be able to get a good seal but every bit of restriction you cause will greatly diminish the fire. Remember the fire triangle. Without oxygen, the fire will go out. If you then remove seal and allow oxygen to the fire then you do risk a sudden ignition (like the backdraft movie). I would recommend slowly closing off the air to a point that the fire is under control, not a 100% seal.

Don't go and slap a sheet of aluminum tape over that entire 3x1" opening.

I can't believe that one of us didn't remember this while the OP was sweating bullets.

Hi NYCPrincess, I drive 20 mi on the NSP most every day but not today. From your description it sounds like you have a controllable unit which is good. Things that lead to over fire are loading on too big a coal bed and loading lots of small splits (or a leaky over drafting unit).

If that last fire got your attention remember to start cutting air a little earlier before the temps get too high. That tends to limit the max temp you will see. It's easier to stop a stove from getting to hot than to cool an already hot stove.

Really though it sounds like it was a good hot burn. How long did you get from that load?

NYCPrincess said:

I think that's what saved me. I shut it all the way down 5 mins in. It looked like it was going to be a hot one. But it got as high as 550 and hung out there for a while (Saw most of the Karate kid -- wax on, wax off).

Don't really know how long it lasted. I went to bed once it started going down towards 500 again.

Click to expand...

Sometimes that happens where you can just tell the fire wants to take off and cutting air down in stages isn't the best option like it usually is. Probably had a nice warm flue and maybe the wind was pulling more draft. Any way sounds like you did good Danial San-

Hey Guys
First season with my shelburne.
I am having just the opposite from everyone else with this stove.
Hard time trying to get it to burn at a decent rate. I am burning envi 8 blocks. I can get them to burn but very slow. I feel that there is an air intake issue. If I just Crack the ash pan is goes into inferno immediately.
When I close it it's like most of the air was shut off. I hooked up my manometer and was getting .10 draft yesterday.
I'm pretty familiar on how these envis burn. I've burnt tons of them in my regency.
Not sure what going on with it. Any suggestions would be great.

Yes it will pick up with door open a crack.
I did look under with a mirror and it opens and closes.

will start a new post sorry to cut in on this one..thanks