Question about EBT

OK. Ive got a total of about 7 hours on the T6 now. As I said in a previous post, I burner hard for a couple of hours this monring and then reloaded and cut the air back. After a few hours it started to look like the coals were going out. Lots of smoke from the chimney too. Also, the glass smoked up some. going to need cleaning I think. I opened the air back up some to get it going again and I am now letting it burn down since the outside temp has hit 60. Is this normal for the EBT? Should it be allowing more air in? Should I not close the air all the way down?

Good point. There does seem to be a lack of draft this afternoon. I was in the yard and the smoke was coming right down to ground level. Another question answered on hearth.com Thanks.

OK T6 owners. Temps are down in the 30s, I seem to have good draft and I have tried to close the air down completely at night. First I get a good fire going and temps up to sustain secondary burn, flue temps about 450F. Once I close the air down the flames gradually die down until only glowing coals remain. The flue temp drops to about 200 within the hour. Is this how the stove should burn with EBT? I'm worried about creosote build up overnight. Should I leave the air open enough to maintain a flame?

My wood is very dry. I have tried this with hardwood (about 20% moisture) and some cedar that has been in my basement abut 10 years (less than 15% moisture). Perhaps I am not getting the stove hot enough. I ordered an IR thermometer so I will check stovetop temps once it arrives. My stove pipe goes 3 feet up to a 90 then goes directly into an interior chimney that is about 30+ feet high (from the stove pipe entrance). The house isn't unusually tight and I have a fan blowing into the room with the stove (a trick I learned here for moving the heat around). the splits are releativly small since they were cut for my old cookstove but I am trying to use the larger ones for night burns.

To be honest, I'm getting pretty good burn times (8 hours) its just that I need to leave the air open about 25%. It seems EBT should alow you to shut it completely. maybe I could be doing better.

Not sure about my chimney diameter. I will measure it tomorrow. It seems like it is at least 6 inches square. I have about 16 inches of horizontal pipe that has no pitch to it. Could that be a problem?

I'll give it a try and report back. Thanks.

Be Green, are you anywhere near Centralia? I sometimes get out to the Transalta power plant for work. beautiful country out there. good salmon at a place in olympia. can't remember the name of the place. Near some falls though.

I adjusted my horizontal section. My chimney is clay tile lined and it is rectangular shaped. It measures 4 inches by about 6.5 inches. i measured from the cleanout since it is raining here and I have a high, steep, roof. I looked with a mirror and everything looks clean and clear (as near as I can tell). I have a scheduled cleaning on November 1st so we will see if that helps any. I suppose any build-up on the sides could reduce draft. Does any one see a problem with those flue dimensions?

I will try again tonight to see if anything has changed with the horizontal adjustment.

Perhaps my measurements are wrong. The cleeanout is hard to access. It sure looks bigger when looking at it from the ground. The stove is on the middle chimney which has the liner protruding out of it. When I open the cleanout door, there is a ton of draft, almost sucked me up the chimney. The doorwas slightly loose, there are no gaskets on it. I would imaging that air leakage at the cleanout would reduce draft at the stove.

Cleanout is in the cellar at the very bottom of the chimney. No other spots for leaks. I do have the lever to the left when starting and usually begin to close it after the surface magnet thermommeter on my stove pipe measures around 400F. This takes about 20 minutes of full open air with a load of hardwood. I sometimes leave the door unlatched, especially if I am starting the stove from cold. I then start to close it off incrementaly until i get down to about 1/3 to 1/4 open. Thats when I start to lose my flame.

The house has been staying at 67 today so I let the fire go out from this morning. I will be trying again this evening with a tightly sealed cleanout door. As Be Green said before, I want to fine tune everything so I am getting the best performace possible this winter. This stove is a Ferrari compared to my old cookstove, I want to get it going as good as it can get.

BTW, I am building a programable overtemp alarm for my stove pipe so my wife doesnt melt the stove while I am away. I will post pitures once its complete.