A question regarding air and tweaking.

[whlago]

Hello all you efficient burners out there! I have a question about draft and it's relation with combustion air. I will explain the world (inside the stove) as I see it and would appreciate hearing whether I am full of baloney or correct in my assumptions:

The draft controls the volume of air allowed through the system. Not having a maganhelic gauge at the moment I can only guess at whether or not the draft is set correctly based on my visual of the flame. On my stove I have a tweaking mechanism for combustion air (setting possibility's 1-5) that I can adjust and makes a notable difference in the health of the flame.

Am I correct in assuming that (for various pellets and heat settings) if I can adjust my combustion air such that the lower limit will give me a flame that is too short and brisk and the upper limit will give me a flame that is too tall and lazy (the assumption being that the perfect flame at a setting somewhere in between) that there is no need to do anything to the draft? In other words is the combustion air setting a way to tweak the draft within the limits of the combustion blower?

Can you tell I really don't want to mess with the draft setting?

 

[DMZX]

I have found that there are many variables that effect the quality of the flame; the pellets, the condition of the burn pot, the amount of ash collected in the ash traps and vent chambers, the auger settings, even source of the draft.

I can be a bit AR about the flame and the draft adjustments to the point of Zen like dedication to efficiency, constantly seeking the perfect flame.

Not really, but I have learned to intuitively tweak the draft to get a good flame and keep a good flame.

There just is no "set it and forget it" mode with pellet stoves. At least not for me.