CB pallet burner backpuffing problem

I have been told that huffing or puffling is due to oxygen coming in and the combustion occurs before it can be replaced by a new batch of air, a cycle then occurs.

If you say your damper is to be closed then I would determine how the air is entering? If you find the answer to that question then you will know why. Perhaps there is too much draft? or leaky seals?

Have the door gaskets been changed or checked to make sure they are good? That would be my first thought, especially since it had not done it in years past.

boostnut said:

Door gaskets were changed a year or 2 ago. They don't really do much since the hinges are not adequate for the weight of the doors. They do not line up correctly and have a good bit of sag to them. I'm sure there is plenty of air getting in around the doors, is this likely to be the issue?

Click to expand...

Uncontrolled air leakage would be my first suspicion... Essentially when you go into idle (a bad thing in the first place, and why we push storage...) you continue to generate wood gasses. If there is little or no airflow, and it is controlled to hit the coal bed first, it just smolders and the wood gasses, which can't burn due to the lack of oxygen, either condense in the firebox and chimney (as creosote) or escape out the chimney (as smoke). If you have air leakage, the air can flow in and mix with the unburned wood gasses until you reach a combustible mixture concentration, which will light off from the embers, and give a puff, until the O2 is consumed, and the fire burns out again, at which point the cycle repeats...

You either need to allow enough airflow in to keep a steady flame, OR restrict it enough that you can't get enough O2 into the firebox to make an explosive mix. This means having control over where the air enters the firebox and feeds into the fire - which is why the gaskets and good hinges (Why am I not surprised that they are lacking on a CB product??? ) are essential...

Presumably your repair will need to involve fixing the hinges, and then looking into whether or not the gaskets need replacement.

Gooserider