Reducing draft for my Quadra fire Isle Royale

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
chadihman

chadihman

Member
Nov 7, 2011
25
South Central Pa.
I have a new Quadra fire Isle Royale wood stove that burns too hot and burns through hardwood too fast. I get only about five hour burn time and 750 + deg fires when the stove is set to lowest burn. I checked all the seals and installed a pipe damper but this does not help. My dealer told me I'm dealing with a strong draft from my 20 ft stainless lined chimney. I was wandering what would be the best way to cut down my strong draft. Has anyone taken a Isle Royale apart? I would like to know how hard it is to get to the air control so that I could possibly modify it.
 
Do you have a stove top thermometer on the stove?

What temperature are you reloading at?

Are you reloading on a Full bed of hot coals?
 
Yes I have a thermometer on top of the top load door and also check with a infrared thermometer. I normally reload on hot coals when the temp goes down to 200 deg. The newly loaded wood lights and then I shut the air down again. The stove slowly climbs to 750+ deg and into a crazy amount of rolling blue flames and the wood is consumed quickly.
 
Chadihman, welcome to the forums. Theres some nice info in here on your heater

......Your draft situation can happen but it seems odd.... Can you also give us your routine to start it up and reload? Let us know what you set your air controls at. I've learned to really let the coals go down before I reload. My IR has an outside air kit that has a damper. However I've never had to adjust it- ever. The main air control on this one can almost put the stove out if its all the way to the right.
 
The OP originally brought up his overdraft issue in another thread involving the Isle Royale and low operating
temps. We encouraged him to start his own thread on the high operating temps.

It sounds like he's doing all the right things and still has crazy draft. This is a new installation.
He's got the primary air totally off at 400, and it still rises to 750. I don't even touch my primary
until it hits 550, and it usually levels off at 600-650 by the time I reach 80-90% closed.

I know you mentioned that your wood is very dry. Are your splits also small/thin? That tends to encourage hotter fires.
Bigger splits slow things down. Also tightly packing the wood and not leaving a lot of air spaces can also slow
things down. You need to find a way to get more control. When the weather gets cold, your draft is going to
get even stronger.
 
What kind of chimney cap do you have? Some can be squished down a few inches to slow down the draft if a pipe damper doesn't help. I know those Quad stoves have air coming in from 4 different places, it would be hard to modify.
 
I have the Quad Yosemite which is the IR's kid brother. Some of my wood like some willow I have seems to want to burn much more freely, "nearly too hot" then other kinds like my locust and oak.

Not sure how your controls work, my linkage fell off the startup air once and I didn't know it. It was in the open position for a day or two which made for some high temp burns. I threaded the end of the rod and put a lock nut on it so it can't happen again. It almost sounds like your drawing a lot of air to intensify the burn from some where. You might check your controls as best you can without disasembly and see if it looks to be opening and closing good. My starup air lever in the back that the linkage hooks up to has a magnet on each side for open and shut positions.

Don't seem like to strong of a draft would cause all of that especially with a pipe damper installed. You'll figure it out. Someone on here has probably had the same trouble before. I'd maybe try some different wood just to rule that out.
 
I also have an Isle Royale that's very robust. I purchased it one year ago and really like it but can't load it up like some on this forum. Once the fire gets going, I can only put two (three max) 3-4" splits without it getting very hot...650º+ (measured on center of top loading door.) Even with the air all the way shut, the temp sometimes continues to climb and would go beyond 700º or even 750º without the fan. I can easily control the temperature by turning on the fan and do that when necessary. I add the 2 or 3 splits every 1 1/2 hours or so after the previous logs burn down. We're used to this and it doesn't really bother us but it would be nice to only load every 3 or 4 hours like some. Forget filling the box and letting it burn all night!

My flu is about 10' and the chimney adds another 7'-8'. Our wood is a mixture of Oak and Pine...the Pine really gets it going!...and is very dry and probably seasoned 2-3 years. This could be one reason for the hot fires.
 
Sierra Guy said:
I also have an Isle Royale that's very robust. I purchased it one year ago and really like it but can't load it up like some on this forum. Once the fire gets going, I can only put two (three max) 3-4" splits without it getting very hot...650º+ (measured on center of top loading door.) Even with the air all the way shut, the temp sometimes continues to climb and would go beyond 700º or even 750º without the fan. I can easily control the temperature by turning on the fan and do that when necessary. I add the 2 or 3 splits every 1 1/2 hours or so after the previous logs burn down. We're used to this and it doesn't really bother us but it would be nice to only load every 3 or 4 hours like some. Forget filling the box and letting it burn all night!

My flu is about 10' and the chimney adds another 7'-8'. Our wood is a mixture of Oak and Pine...the Pine really gets it going!...and is very dry and probably seasoned 2-3 years. This could be one reason for the hot fires.
Click to expand...

Adding wood every couple hrs does not help. Let the stove "cool" a little bit.. Of there is wood still burning and you throw new wood in, then you have Charred wood thats outgassing and then New fresh wood thats not.. The fresh wood will get much hotter, much faster, and outgas quicker. This will produce a slower burn time.
 
I burn locust,oak,hickory,and a little cherry. I split most of my wood to 4-6" pieces. I do try to pack the wood tightly. Both the start up and primary air control linkages seem to be hooked up and working properly. My cap is round and sits right on top of my 6" liner pipe. The cap is about 8" high with a 3" wind shear band in the middle of the screen. I never would have thought that a 20' chimney would cause an over draft but that's what my dealer thinks the problem is. I'm going to weld a draft test fitting onto my stove pipe and check the draft to rule out that problem. This thing better not have a leak somewhere or its going back to quadra fire. I,ll check the draft and let you guys know the outcome. Thanks for all the replies! I will get this figured out and post the final fix and maybe this will help many others.
 
chadihman said:
I burn locust,oak,hickory,and a little cherry. I split most of my wood to 4-6" pieces. I do try to pack the wood tightly. Both the start up and primary air control linkages seem to be hooked up and working properly. My cap is round and sits right on top of my 6" liner pipe. The cap is about 8" high with a 3" wind shear band in the middle of the screen. I never would have thought that a 20' chimney would cause an over draft but that's what my dealer thinks the problem is. I'm going to weld a draft test fitting onto my stove pipe and check the draft to rule out that problem. This thing better not have a leak somewhere or its going back to quadra fire. I,ll check the draft and let you guys know the outcome. Thanks for all the replies! I will get this figured out and post the final fix and maybe this will help many others.
Click to expand...

20 ft of chimney should draft pretty nicely. The IR is an easy breathing stove, but this length chimney shouldn't be an issue. Make sure that the start up air control is working correctly and closes off when it should. A damper in the flue pipe would be the next step, but it first make sure there are no leaks in any of the gasketed openings of the stove.
 
Hi everyone sorry it took so long for my return. I finally got my draft meter hooked up to my stove pipe and tested my draft with many different temperature fires. My manual states .04 to .1 inches of water. My draft reached a high of .11 and went down to .08 when I closed my stove pipe damper. I guess this stove is leaking somewhere because I'm still reaching 750 deg with stove shut all the way down. The dealer tested all the gaskets and blamed it on a strong draft. I guess I'll call them back and tell him I do not have a stronger draft than the acceptable range stated in my manual.
 
I also wanted to tell you all how I tested my draft. I welded a 1/4" pipe coupler to my stove pipe 6" from the top of the stove. I connected a copper tube to the 1/4 coupler and dropped behind the stove to the floor and connected a small rubber hose that connects to my wall mounted dwyer mark II model 25 manometer
 
I am taking it you are measuring below your pipe damper? .11" of water sounds pretty high to me.

Hope things pan out for you, can be frustrating.
 
If possible, it might be time to find the air inlets on the stove and start closing them off one by one until you can get it under control. Played around with doing this on my Englander for a bit - I just used magnets from Lowes. The main thing is to manage the draft, not turn your stove into a smoke dragon.

Good luck,
Bill
 
Also remember that the Dwyer Mark II is accurate to ±3% full scale, which equates to 0.09in H20. If I understand their accuracy rating correctly, you're measurements could be off double. You are measuring at the low end of the scale too, which is usually not as accurate.

With that aside, i have a love/hate relationship with EPA stoves. Mine definitely drafts too much, and being an insert its difficult to add a damper. I have done a lot of experimenting, and it all comes down to draft. The EPA stoves are designed as a tuned system, but they are all based on normal draft. I have blocked off different inlets (mine has 3:primary, secondary, doghouse) without getting much of a difference or having a stove which doesn't burn as clean. As leeave said, getting the draft under control is what needs to be done.
 
I checked with Dwyer and found that my manometer is 3% accurate through the full scale. So if you were to read 3" of water I could be off +/- .09 or 2.91-3.09 I get a max draft of .11 so 3% of that would be .0033 and this is pretty accurate. My draft goes from .11 to .08 when I close my damper. My draft is tested 6" from the stove and my damper is 16" from the stove. Does anybody understand what the manual means by low burn and high burn? I tested my draft when I start the fire and came up with .05 and then tested the draft with the stove at 700 deg and came up with .11 and .08 with the damper closed. The draft never goes higher than .08 with the damper closed.
 
Hmmm...doesn't sound like you have crazy draft according to your measurements. Also, be aware that 750F on the Isle Royal "ain't no thing". It does it just to scare you (they are directly related to the devil, himself). The initial outgas can/will cause the stove top temp to jump. With mine, the stove will settle back into a 600-650 range for the long haul. Do you see this, or does it stay high?

You might be a prime candidate for a pipe damper. These are not usually advocated for the epa stoves, but on occasion it is the right tool for the job. The IR is one of the easiest breathing stoves that I know of.
 
My stove does not hold at 750deg for more than an hour or so before coming down to 650. If possible I would like to see my temp hold around 500 deg and burn for at least 8 hours. I don't like how my temp spikes and how fast the wood is consumed. My brother has a harman that will burn for 12 hours on a full load. We both burn wood from the same stockpile.
 
  • Like
Reactions: js156
chadihman said:
My stove does not hold at 750deg for more than an hour or so before coming down to 650. If possible I would like to see my temp hold around 500 deg and burn for at least 8 hours. I don't like how my temp spikes and how fast the wood is consumed. My brother has a harman that will burn for 12 hours on a full load. We both burn wood from the same stockpile.
Click to expand...

That is not overly common for an IR (the 500 deg part). They like to run like a stallion. I am leaning even more towards a pipe damper, BUT I have some concerns that getting this stove to do what you are asking is going to negatively impact its burn quality (burn dirty).

500 stove top during the outgas phase of the wood is a bit low (in my experience) to maintain proper reburn tube temps. You are in "cat" territory.
 
OP, try measuring your draft with no fire. Generally it should be at .02" from what I have found. It is nice to know a baseline of chimney draft. With my situation and setup, when the wind is blowing I can see a draft of up to .1" with no fire.

Is your liner a 6" SS? How many elbows and interior stove pipe as well.

Not telling you what to do, but I would contact the manufacture and ask them about their "ideal" draft for a low/moderate burn and high burn range for performance, emissions and temps.
 
With no fire I have a draft of .01 to .03 depending on wind. I have a 6" ss liner. Two foot up from the stove then a 90 into the chimney 2' then another 90 in the chimney and straight up 20'
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

P
Can a broken andiron on a Quadra-Fire Isle Royale be welded?
Replies
5
Views
635
QuadraFire
PaulF
P
J
Quadrafire isle royale maintenance
Replies
6
Views
1K
The Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces
begreen
begreen
P
Quadra Fire Isle Royale flue transition gasket replacement
Replies
5
Views
642
The Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces
phrinda
P
R
Spark arrestor plugged?
Replies
6
Views
607
The Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces
Trevor Tahclep
Trevor Tahclep
R
Do I have a defective stove?
Replies
28
Views
3K
The Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces
Trevor Tahclep
Trevor Tahclep
Top Bottom
Back