Burn time

[begreen]

I thought runaway stoves were a myth?

Point is that many times in the past we've seen or read posts of examples of runaways and counseled on the risks and remedies. Will it do harm? Depends on the temp, for how long, and how frequently. Can't say for sure, but I can't assume that everyone has a great or even proper installation that will stand up to the stress of a major overfire. It might be a DIY where the OP has made more mistakes than just running the stove. They might not know until things start glowing. The topic of overfiring has come up frequently over the years. I like to think we have left enough breadcrumbs to guide and help people avoid the anxiety and the stress involved. Search on 'underpants change', lots of threads. It's more about education, is it the wise thing to do, especially for someone new to burning?

 

[Highbeam]

Couple thoughts, not to argue, I understand your reasons for being overly cautious …

If we must assume that every install is unsafe, improper, etc. then nobody should be burning. Should this site even exist then? Or maybe we assume that all installs meet the minimum requirements and then we advise on how to burn these stoves as designed and directed in the owner’s manual.

I have been lucky or careful to have properly installed stoves so have found that while I can’t always control the burn rate completely, I also can’t actually create a dangerous situation. I’ve honestly tried to overfire my noncat stove just to see what happens and the dang things are just designed to be safe.

 

[begreen]

We must assume that setup for each posting from a new member is unknown, right? With years of burning in EPA stoves, most of the stove geeks here know how to handle an overfire situation. That is not so for all, far from it. Based on past posts you were able to overfire the Heritage and Lopi. I have too, due to spacing out the stove and getting distracted. It's not hard to do, actually.

It's inappropriate to tell a stranger to buck up and go ahead and do something that we may be able to do in relative safety. In the least, the OP is very likely to get smoke rollout if there is still flaming wood in the firebox. Because we don't know how much wood, the thickness, or the dryness of the splits, we have no idea how the OP will interpret putting more wood on a hot fire. We also don't know whether they know how to operate the stove correctly or how strong the draft is on this system. There are other risks like trying to put too much wood in a hot firebox and having to pull it out of a hot stove or having it roll up against the glass in an E/W loader. It's just bad advice.

 

[bholler]

Couple thoughts, not to argue, I understand your reasons for being overly cautious …

If we must assume that every install is unsafe, improper, etc. then nobody should be burning. Should this site even exist then? Or maybe we assume that all installs meet the minimum requirements and then we advise on how to burn these stoves as designed and directed in the owner’s manual.

I have been lucky or careful to have properly installed stoves so have found that while I can’t always control the burn rate completely, I also can’t actually create a dangerous situation. I’ve honestly tried to overfire my noncat stove just to see what happens and the dang things are just designed to be safe.

We aren't assuming they are unsafe. We also aren't assuming they are safe. We just don't know which is why I think it's irresponsible to tell people it's fine to do something that could lead to a problem if they have excessive draft.

Add 10' more chimney to your stack which is very common here and see what happens if you reload mid burn.

 

[begreen]

@aircooledRN , sorry for the hijack of your thread. I hope you got your question answered in the initial responses. There are many posts here on burn time. A search will bring up hundreds.

I'm going to close this thread as answered and off on a tangent. @aircooledRN if you are a nurse, thank you for all that you do. Nurses are always important people, but at this time they are among the most important. Have a good and safe holiday!