30 NC concerns

Also, what is the temp there right now? May be too warm to have good draft. But I'm bettin the main issue is wood is wet...

ruffrider said:

Temp is 50 out now I might have another prob. I went and found some dry wood split and stacked last Oct. And now it looks like the front plate where the door is bowed up. Right in the middle. Stove temp is 600 pipe temp 400. The pipe comes out stove then 90 then pipe to cement wall then chimney

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I have that stove and 19' of all vertical chimney. With popcorn fart dry softwood I can still never close the damper. My low setting is tip of spring even with edge of ash lip.

The front plate is bowed up? I did melt the thin airwash plate at the top of the door but it sagged down.

ruffrider said:

Now pipe is 400 and stove 700 y????????

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Pretty normal. You can now engage the blowers.

A good source of kindling to help restarts on reloads if your wood is subpar.

With a full load of good, dry firewood, the 30 will happily sit between 700-775 for 2-3 hours after a reload, then coast down from there. Just keep the stove top temp under 800 and you'll be fine, it's a stoutly built plate steel stove, but it is picky when it comes to dry wood.

I have my 30 hooked up to a 14 foot chimney with 2 45's and a T, and while my draft isn't stellar, I get strong secondary combustion with the air control mostly closed. I never close it all the way, but usually run it with the spring handle in line with the edge of the ash lip, similar to Highbeam. I think I may closed it all the way once when it was about -10F and windy out.

I struggled my first winter with wet wood and the short stack, but now that I'm in 2 year CSS pine, fir and soft maple, the stove and I are both very happy.

ruffrider said:

Really this stove can handle 700 as a stove temp??? Wow that's awesome. How can I post an image on here? It is saying the image is too large.

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Plate steel stoves are typically limited to 800 degrees stove top temp measured on the hottest spot which is right in the middle of the sloped part of the little step on the NC30. The manuals usually also say something like "no part of the stove shall glow red". I actually have a hard time keeping the stove clean burning AND below 600. It seems to need to be hot to be clean at least until we are down to coals.

If your images are too large then you need to shrink them. I easily post images using the little "upload a file" button.

ruffrider said:

Can someone show me the plate right in the front where door opens right in the middle exactly in line with ash clean out??? It's a plate that runs the width of the stove. And it's really close to the door. Mine looks like it has bowed up.

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At the bottom of the door opening or the top? The plate on the bottom is known to bow up but will lay down when the stove cools.

ruffrider said:

Ohhhhhh OK because that is what it exactly did. It rose up when it got really hot when I left this morning it looked like it went down.

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As long as the welds hold and no cracks form you should be fine. I don't like metal moving like that but I suppose that's the design. You'll also notice that if you shut the door on a hot stove or just verify that it's shut good, when you open that door the next day after the stove has cooled that the door has gotten really tight on the latch. The expansion of the steel stove actually loosens the door latch.

Both the droopy airwash plate and the bowing bottom plate by the doghouse have gotten less apparent as the stove ages. Maybe it sort of settles in.

I do not leave the stove at full throttle for very long. It can be reduced pretty quickly without a change to the fire.