Another rookie question.

[NJ_Burner08002]

Am I suppose to believe that if my air intake is wide open. the fire should burn hotter but shorter?
For some reason when I cut the air down to about a third, the temp shoots up another 50-100 degrees. Is this normal? I am new so be easy. Lol.

 

[Fsappo]

I wont get into the science of it but I assure you other folks, including myself have seen it happen. I always guessed that cutting the air down may help the secondary's burn richer and with more reburn happening in the stove. The slight uptick in temp never got me alarmed at all. Now if surface temps on a simple no cat like the century jumped from 450 to 750 after shutting down the air, I'd try to figure something out.

 

[Grisu]

Am I suppose to believe that if my air intake is wide open. the fire should burn hotter but shorter?
For some reason when I cut the air down to about a third, the temp shoots up another 50-100 degrees. Is this normal? I am new so be easy. Lol.

The fire burns hotter with the air fully open but most of that heat goes up the flue. With reduced primary air, you retain more heat in the firebox and the stove will get hotter. There is probably an optimum primary air setting for each stove where it gets the hottest - most likely about 1/4 open. However, be careful not to overfire the stove at that point.

 

[NJ_Burner08002]

Thank you both for your insight

 

[Sully]

Honestly I've seen my stove go from 450 to 850 with the air shut down