Learned a Lesson...just not sure which one

Well, it didn't take long for me to bite off more than I could chew with the Jotul. Itching to see what I could get for burn times with a full load of good wood, I reloaded last night with red oak and beech with a few small splits of cherry. Stove was still at 450-500 and there were lots coals I raked forward, taking up the space of a medium-sized split. Didn't take long for this to get going, and I knocked the air all the way back. At 20-30 minutes into the cycle, I believe what happened is the wood in back (including the beech) finally became engaged and started taking off, which led to stove top temps on a clear runaway path. As it was reaching up to 700 and the secondaries were roaring like a blowtorch, I resorted to opening the loading door (thank you again hearth.com) and letting the fuel spend itself out - this definitely cooled the stove top down, but it took a loooong time to cook off the bulk of that oak and beech before it was controllable with the draft slider. Spent 2 hours babysitting it before I could go to bed, fell asleep for 3 hours and woke up to a stove still full of hot coals and stove top at 400+ The beech split was still in form at the back! So, the good thing is I'm pretty darn sure my oak and beech are dry enough!

But, since I'm now afraid to put any of it back into the stove, I need to figure out what went wrong so I can use that primo stuff once we finally get winter. Splits too small (3-4")? Reload on too heavy a coal bed? Didn't close down air soon enough? Or could my stove have some leaky seams (all new gaskets in door & ash door)? With lighter woods the draft seems to work just right, able to shut it down to a smolder and tick it back up to get it dialed in, so I doubt (hope) it's not the stove body. Any thoughts from the veteran wood-combustors?

pen said:

Sounds like you just had too many hot coals in that stove when you loaded her up.
You'll need to time things better before putting a big load in.
For me, this means I get to put a full load in at 5:15am. A 1/3 to 1/2 load at 4pm, and then a full load again at 8:30 to 9pm. If I overfill that mid afternoon load, I'll shoot to the moon at bed, just as you did.
Keep on paying good attention as you are doing! Too many would have done what you did and just walked away.

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Thanks pen, that's what I was hoping to hear. As a rookie, I just get so worked up watching those embers cook down. I don't have any sense of timing based on load size yet, but I've been studying each load like a hawk so I can start to develop an intuition.

Simonkenton said:

You think the stove is burning too hot, so you open the loading door to cool it down. I don't get it. It seems like you would get an even hotter stove top.

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I've read it on here again & again. When you open the door, and a window like I did, it basically turns into a fireplace with all the heat flying up the chimney.

Lots of great feedback -wouldn't expect anything less from this site! Just think, 2 years ago i thought I could just buy a woodstove & run it up my existing 3" pellet flue. This site makes smarter, safer burners, plain & simple!