thechimneysweep said:
We've been playing with a Summit the past few months, and here are our observations. The EBT mechanism seems to be actuated by the temperature at the bottom of the firebox, which is much cooler than the +- 1100 degrees in the secondary burn chamber and 400 - 800 degree top plate temps. Evidently, PE's engineers have determined the corresponding temps between the secondary burn chamber and the EBT chamber below, and designed the actuater coil to operate in that lower temperature range.
We've noticed that when we're kindling a fresh fire with the draft control wide open and the secondary burn lights off, the stovetop temperature will soar much more quickly than the rest of the stove: by the time the sensing coil in the EBT mechanism reaches the temp at which it begins to shut down the extra air supply, the stovetop can easily have reached 800 degrees.
Since the EBT only supplies EXTRA air to the fire, operation of the primary manual draft control is an important factor to safe operation. We've found that if we leave the manual draft wide open, the stove can overfire even after the EBT has shut down the extra air. With experience, we've learned to move the manual draft to a lower setting around the time the stovetop reaches 650 - 700 degrees. At this point the secondary fire is blazing, and the stovetop temperature will continue to rise for awhile, until the lack of combustion air brings the fire back under control.
At this point, we leave the draft control on the low setting for the duration of the fire, and let the EBT open and close the extra air intake as needed to maintain the secondary burn as long as the load keeps giving off volatile gases. The result is the longest possible clean burn.
I've been trying to create a graphic representation of the way the EBT works, and have published the work-in-progress on the EBT page in our Sweep's Library at
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/hoebt.htm. Would appreciate input from the Summit owners on the forum.
Tom: All I can say is I shut the air intake al the way down to low at about 400 degrees. Woods dry, airs all the way down. And hour later touching nothing, 600 degrees, an hr or so after that pegged 850+. I realize the front of the insert is thinner teel, But 800+ is 800+ regardless of where it is. If I could reach 500 even 600 shut the air down and it maintain, I would be fine with that. My problem is my Summit rises a good double or more temp from whenI shut down air. It must be getting air from somewhere. Would too good a draft from new liner cause this? Still needs air from somewhere right?
I pretty much do it almost exactly as you described, with the exception of the time I shut the air to low. I do that about 400 and don't touch the door or air afterwards.
Yet it still gets air enough to rise to 800+. I don't think the ETB is causing this. I can see it come on and shut down when it does. I had no serious blaze when it got up to the high temps, it as basically blue flame with very few small org=anges here and there, but mostly blue flame & nothing roaring, more rolling along. The round & big plits I put in were like a round or split that looked like it was almost completely a coal, just intake still. At one point of the 6 pcs I put in, 3 or 4 were still in split form but like a big coal. Dunno if this helps, but thats what I observed. Took about at least 2 hrs to drop back down, then was fine rest of the night. BTW I still got about a 10- 12 hr burn out of it. 10pm fan started going on & off about 9-10 am this morn. Thats what woke me up.
Gunner: As far as you saying you can run to 600, shut the air down and it doesn't rise. Congrats, I know with this insert, I cannot do that. It will continue to rise.
So it narrows down to 2 things, either I am not doing something correctly, or something on the insert is wrong. I tend to lead to me being wrong, and I need to figure out how to stop her from soaring long after I shut the air intake down. If it is by chance something with the insert, well then now I have to figure that out & narrow it down. Gonna let her burn out today, check door gap, don't want to pull the baffle, was thinking maybe in shipping the baffle gasket got pinched, dislodged ect. But she getting air at secondary, and only two places for air to come in other than EBT. The door, or the intake. I'll figure it out, was just hoping someone with same stove might have had similar experiences like mine, and some advice as to how to right the problem.
Some folks have decided to give me sh-t for this thread, yes I am a rookie at wood burnng yet. Good thing I am a fast learner
. Some folks have been very helpful, which is why I posted this. Again, all I can say is yes I am new to this, but I would sure as hell be too paranoid, then wake up to my house blazing away. Or my family burning up. And I am sure many felt the same way when starting out. I am here for help, and thats why I asked.
I rake the coals to front, load front to back trying for the cigar effect. I will say after a day of burning there is a crapload of coals. Sometimes enough that when I pull front, they still cover 1/2 the bottom of firebox. Could this be the problem? Can there be too many coals? Dumb questions I know, and yes I am a pain in the arse with them. But I gotta learn this stuff somewhere, this is the best place I found yet.