Leyden secondary burn questions

I have a few questions about this secondary burn operation. I am burning in a Lopi Leyden
1. How hot should the stove be before closing the internal damper
2. How hot will the flue be during secondary burn?
3. How do you know its actually burning in secondary combustion mode?
4. If it isn't burning in secondary correctly, will I be making tons of creosote?

I know my wood isn't seasoned to where it should be. :grrr: We decided in june that we had enough with the pellet stove thing. Exit Thelin Parlour, bring in Lopi leyden. I am excited to burn wood again becuase there is no better heat. I just wish I had more time to season the wood. I bought two cords ASAP in july and stacked them in a sunny spot. I have since made use of a salvage permit with the local timber company and gathered another cord+ of wood that was cut over the winter. This seems fairly dry. I have a moisture meter on order. ;-)


Thanks in advance for all the help.

Thank you. I have seen these videos before. I read on some other posts of hearing the stove roaring when the secondary combustor ignites. I am not hearing this. I am getting the slow almost floating flames. For flue temp, with my magnetic thermo right at the top of the stove pipe, right before it goes into the metalbestos, it settles as high as 275-300 to as low as 175-200. When the bypass is first closed it is much higher. By the time it gets to 175 there is a good bed of coals to load some more wood onto. This is all with the bypass closed.

I have read that creosote forms below 250. I seem to be running a long time below that mark with the stove giving tons of heat. I am afraid of filling the pipe with creosote. I have not gone up on the roof yet. I cleaned it before I put this stove in and I have only burned a couple wheel barrows worth of wood so far. In another week or so I plan on having a peek. The part that scares me is that with a metal roof, I can't go up there once we have snow. (tried it once neighbor got a real kick out of seeing my feet sticking out of the shrubs and me stuck in 6 feet of snow)

Also, the leyden has a "combustion chamber". Would that be different than the englander?

From what I can tell, the chamber is behind the fire box. There are two large holes in the fire brick at the bottom of the rear wall. These feed the gasses into the secondary chamber to be burned again.

At least I think that's how it works.

Maybe it is doing just what it is supposed to, but it blackens the glass rather easily.

I have been burning wood my whole life. The first 18 Years (well, maybe the first 6 or 7 I wasn't much help) I grew up burning wood in a boiler, 10 cords a year. When I got my own place there was a Warnock Hersey (if anyone has had of them) stove in the house. And we used that for 2 or 3 years with excellent results. But I always had a year ahead on wood. We then spent 5 years (and thousands of dollars) in pellet stove world. When we went to get the leyden, I didn't know anything about the combustion chamber and all that. I thought it was a regular stove like the WH. The old stove has been happily heating my garage for the last 5 years.

Im not new to wood burning, just new to this type of stove. I just want to make sure that I am running this leyden the way it wants to be run.

The leyden was new in the crate. The previous owner bought it in a TV fundraising auction, but then never installed it. His insurance company said he couldn't where it was a mobile home. So we picked up a brand new two year old stove for a great price.

I plan on giving it a few weeks then checking it. Usually by mid december the snow is here to stay so hopefully by then I will have a grasp of how this stove works.

I have seen the smoke go completely clear. Just the waves like heat on the asphalt in the summer. That must be a good thing.