Lopi Revere Temperature Question

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GeeWizMan

Member
Nov 29, 2006
103
Suburbs west of Detroit
Hello everyone...

My wife and I have 2 stoves that we use to keep a sprawling ranch warm in the winter months. 1 of the stoves is behaving differently than it has for the past 4 burning seasons. It is a Lopi Revere. Before I go further I need to also tell you that this is the first burning season that we are burning truly seasoned wood. In years past we were lucky to get enough wood in the summer and fall just before we had to start burning but by working ahead and storing the wood properly, we are now able to burn wood that has been seasoned properly. Our problem is one of temperature. The owner's manual states that we should not let the temperature exceed 800°F and we never have. However, we have come close. It seems that with this drier wood it is more difficult to control the temperature of the stove. Usually, when the temperature is around 500 degrees F we close the flue damper all the way and reduce the amount of air a lot. Sometimes we will even close the air intake all the way. But, even taking away all of the air the temperature will sometimes climb for 20 to 40 minutes and often will approach the over-fire temp of 800°F. We have talked with the installer who said that these stoves run hot and we need not worry. He has a Lopi and he runs it hot all the time. I have never seen any steel getting even close to turning red hot and I do find it somewhat reassuring to hear our installer tell us not to worry, but convincing my wife is another whole story. She is convinced that one of these days the temperature will rise far beyond the 800° F limit after we have taken away all the air and thus we will have lost control of the stove. We had the door gaskets inspected and the door fits very snugly. I did the dollar bill in the door test and I can't move the dollar up or down. Does anyone have any suggestions so I can ease my wife's worries?

George
 
Try closing the air down sooner, maybe around 400F instead of 500F. Larger splits and/or tight packing of the wood in the firebox also helps. And try not to put a fresh load of wood on a large hot bed of coals. Rake the coals to the front and open up the air to burn them down a bit first before reloading.
 
BeGreen is right on the money. My Lopi Endeavor does run in the 600-700 range typically. I don't load till the stove top is down to 250-300 with the coals burned down nicely. Also the larger splits will slow it down, I find loading three or four large splits requires me to actually let the stove have a little air and does not like to be closed down all the way. I shut the air down in three or four stages which starts around 400.

Last year was my first season with the stove and had a bunch of oh boy moments where I worried about it going over 800. Now I shut it down a little sooner, in stages and it helps greatly. Just a few days ago I need to get going and loaded on a big coal bed(400 stove top) and knew it would take off like a rocket. I made sure not to fully load like I typically would and started turning the air down around 350. Even with that I worried for a bit. :)
 
In my experience, the top bi-pass should be closed all the time except for when the door is open. And I have to side with your wife…my Revere reached 700 recently and I experienced a mild freak-out. If it hit 800, I’d have the fire department sitting in the driveway! I agree with BeGreen…close the air (bottom) down sooner and in stages, starting around 400, with your dry wood. I usually let mine cruise to 400-500 before closing down with no problems, but I also only load about 3 decent sized splits. Otherwise, mine gets too hot too fast and I go through wood too fast. I’m not going to overrule your installer, but I just can’t agree that burning at 800 constantly is good for the stove.
 
Thank You All for your responses. My question to all of you is, aren't you concerned about creosote build up in the chimney from incomplete burning? When shutting down around 400°F do you still get secondary burning?

George
 
GeeWizMan said:
Thank You All for your responses. My question to all of you is, aren't you concerned about creosote build up in the chimney from incomplete burning? When shutting down around 400°F do you still get secondary burning?

George

As long as you're burning over 400 (safe, non-creosote zone is 400 - 600'ish), you should be fine. Plus my wood is dry, so the combination of hot fires (not call-the-fire-department hot!) and dry wood makes for the best combination. And I get all kinds of secondary burning with temps in the safe zone...nice, pretty bluish flames that dance around and seem to burn in mid-air.
 
keep in mind that the air control (bottom) on the revere will not completely stop air from coming into the stove, it only controls the primary air. When you close that with the firebox at the correct temperatures, you should often see an increase in the surface temperature of the stove. By restricting the primary air to the stove you force the stove to pull the air needed through the burn tubes, until the draft in the chimney slows down, this will result in an increase of the secondary combustion and often result in a short term increase in the heat. The stove will not fall apart at the "overfire" temperature, this is designed to let you know not to continuously run the stove at those temperatures, since warping of some of the interior baffles may occur. Happy Burning!!
 
The 400F point is just an approximation. This is a judgment call based on your stove, wood and flue. It doesn't mean that the air needs to be closed off all the way either. Try closing it down around 400F to the point where the flames get lazy and waft. Then wait and watch. If the stove is hot enough, the top temp will continue to go up significantly as secondary combustion kicks in. If the fire builds up a lot in intensity, then close the air down some more, say to 75% or where the flames get lazy. With our stove I can close the air down all the way at this point, but your's may or may not be able to. That has to be decided based on what is observed in both flame and temp.

If the wood is dry generally creosote build up will not be a serious problem. Creosote condenses around 250F so it is desirable to keep the exiting flue gas above this temp at the top of the chimney. But this is just during the outgassing stage of the burn. Once the wood is all charcoal, there is no more creosote production. Keeping the flue exit temp above 250F is a goal, but this isn't always possible if the chimney is mostly exterior. Preheating the flue with a brisk morning warm up fire will help a bit.

PS: Your wife may be more comfortable by feeding the stove less wood, more frequently. My wife doesn't like loading it up full and they controlling the full burn, so she works with 2-3 big split fires instead. That's ok. For our situation, once the house is at temperature, a maintenance fire of a few splits seems to work fine too unless it is very cold outside.
 
Thanks again for your help I appreciate it. My wife and I have been burning wood for heat for 15 plus years and I am still learning. I am amazed at all the variables that need to be attended to when burning wood. It sure isn't as simple as adjusting a thermostat on the furnace. The collective wisdom here is a very valuable resource. Thanks. :)

George
 
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