Damper and flue temp.

[oldspark]

Any body use a damper to control the flue temp and will it work, my flue temp takes off like a rocket on a reload and was wondering if I could get the stove hotter and the flue cooler by using a damper. I do not have too much draft as I have control over the temps, when I reduce the primary air the flue temps quit rising. I still have some other things to try but the stove likes 600 stove top, I have had it higher but it seems to want to settle at 600. I was thinking the damper might get me a hotter stove top and reduce the flue temp some.
BeGreen, took one side off and it did not make much of a difference, its hotter but nothing like the sides of the old stove when it was running.

 

[begreen]

I tried a damper on the stove and took it off. There was little gain and just one more thing to watch after.

Sorry to hear the stove hasn't worked out for you. Maybe it's time t quit messing with it and reinstall the old stove if it's the love of your life. Or move to FL.

 

[oldspark]

It works great until its gets really cold, just wish I could hit 700 stove top easily with out the flue going through the roof, had a very nice burn e/w a little while ago which surprised me but it was on a good bed of coal. I do not want to reinstall the old stove because it's the love of my life, its about being able to heat the house as good as the old one. All this talk about how good the new stoves are does not take into account how good your old one might have been. I have been reading a lot of posts on here for almost a year and not being happy with the output of the stove is not always the flue or wood. By the way my wood is FINE.

 

[laynes69]

I was using a baro on our furnace, but have bypassed it and I'm using a damper now in the flue. We have no choice with a 32' chimney. If your flue isn't awfully tall, I wouldn't use a damper.

As far as the old vs new, I had a hard time last year trying to convince myself I did the right thing. I found I had a few issues that needed corrected. The main thing was the furnace was right for the house, but the house was very leaky. I airsealed the house, then lined the chimney this summer and am burning seasoned wood. 100% difference this year, not a problem. One thing I had to get out of my head was keeping the house at 80* like I did with the old furnace. We now keep the house when its in the lower teens around 72-73. By airsealing those temps feel better than 80 with cold drafts. I am running off of coals for hours instead of feeding wood to keep flames in the firebox. Yes the old put out a ton of heat, but a shorter period, more creosote, more wood. If I didn't upgrade to the new furnace, I would have never found the house as the problem as well as the quality of wood and a bad chimney. I now realized even though the old furnace did the job, I wasted alot of wood covering up problems.

 

[Todd]

Have you checked your EBT? I think there has been a couple people here that had problems with them or disabled them because they are more rigged to increase the air at high burn rates for the EPA tests than to extend the burn. Could it be the EBT is open on a fresh full load causing those higher flue temps and wasted heat up the stack?

 

[oldspark]

It's different for everyone but I heated the house for 30 years with the old stove, never a creoste problem and the house was much more leaky then, new windows and starting to close off some rooms that I do not need to heat all the time. The new stove is great but it just doesn't have the "top end" the old one had. Still trying to figure how to get it to 700 or so without getting the flue too hot. Maybe it will not happen.

 

[NH_Wood]

It works great until its gets really cold, just wish I could hit 700 stove top easily with out the flue going through the roof, had a very nice burn e/w a little while ago which surprised me but it was on a good bed of coal. I do not want to reinstall the old stove because it's the love of my life, its about being able to heat the house as good as the old one. All this talk about how good the new stoves are does not take into account how good your old one might have been. I have been reading a lot of posts on here for almost a year and not being happy with the output of the stove is not always the flue or wood. By the way my wood is FINE.

Oldspark - I use a damper, but I don't have as good control over my burns using only the primary air control. I have high flue temps as well - often getting to 1100* on the Condar internal probe. I don't know how much faith I have in the probe though. I usually need the damper to keep the stove from wanting to climb above 600*. But, a strange thing - I'm finding that the stove doesn't seem to want to go over 600* as easily now that the real cold has hit. Was definitely an issue when outside temps were warmer. Not sure why this would be the case, thought it would be the opposite with stronger draft at lower temps. Also, I was burning almost 100% N/S. I have quite a few splits that from rounds that I cut too long for N/S (about 19-20"). When I pack the stove E/W, It takes longer to get the wood well charred and ready to dial down, BUT, I find that my flue temps always stay much lower than before - even once the load is well into the burn cycle. Often I don't even need to touch the damper (flue temps at ~ 700-800*). Not sure why this would be the case either. So, lots of mysteries here and probably no good information for you! Cheers!

 

[oldspark]

Have you checked your EBT? I think there has been a couple people here that had problems with them or disabled them because they are more rigged to increase the air at high burn rates for the EPA tests than to extend the burn. Could it be the EBT is open on a fresh full load causing those higher flue temps and wasted heat up the stack?

The experts on here do not think there is any thing wrong with my EBT, plus they think I worry too much about the flue temps but this morning I was at 550 (surface single wall) in less than 10 minutes with the stove top at maybe 300 so I started to reduce the air a little. My stove top does not keep rising like some people report when they reduce the air, maybe some are just over stating how fast it does this. I have read a ton of posts and it does seem like nothing is wrong other than my flue temps rising quicker than I like. With the real cold temps it would be nice to hit 700 or so on the stove top.

 

[Todd]

Have you checked your EBT? I think there has been a couple people here that had problems with them or disabled them because they are more rigged to increase the air at high burn rates for the EPA tests than to extend the burn. Could it be the EBT is open on a fresh full load causing those higher flue temps and wasted heat up the stack?

The experts on here do not think there is any thing wrong with my EBT, plus they think I worry too much about the flue temps but this morning I was at 550 (surface single wall) in less than 10 minutes with the stove top at maybe 300 so I started to reduce the air a little. My stove top does not keep rising like some people report when they reduce the air, maybe some are just over stating how fast it does this. I have read a ton of posts and it does seem like nothing is wrong other than my flue temps rising quicker than I like. With the real cold temps it would be nice to hit 700 or so on the stove top.

There may not be anything wrong with the EBT but it may burn better without? If it were me, I'd PM Begreen and ask him how and why he disabled his EBT and give it a try. I don't think it would be that hard to plug it. Too much air could take more heat up the flue especially with a fresh load and you can't control the EBT or the EPA air settings like the old stoves. If that doesn't work a damper may be worth a try, only about $6 at local hardware store.

 

[oldspark]

Todd-I think I can put a piece of high temp tape over it but I will look into it.
Thanks!

 

[pen]

How are you measuring your flue temps? Are you doing it the same as you did w/ the old stove? Did you go from an 8in flue to 6 in flue? Anything else change.

My stove has a rutland thermometer just 5 inches above the stove top on the pipe (much lower than the 18 recommended) and when it is reading a mere 450 the probe thermometer placed about 10 inches higher than it should be on the stack is reading 1100 (100 degrees hotter than I am safely supposed to go).

Point is, are you CERTAIN that you really are overheating the chimney?

Food for thought.

Here is an example where my bottom two thermometers are 18 inches up the 6 in pipe and the upper one is about 27. According to the rutland, the stove is more than safely firing. According to either probe, this thing is nearing meltdown. It's tough to decide "who" knows what they are talking about.

pen

 

[oldspark]

Yes I am measuring it like the old stove with the same sensor which when checked with the IR gun it is about 30 deg off, I am reducing the primary air before I let the flue temp get too high which is hotter than I ever ran it with the old stove. Those rutlands work better on a flat surface, must be the shape of the sensor but even then they are not as good as the condar. I am just trying to get more heat out of the stove with out running a very hot flue. I taped off the EBT dealy bob and too early to tell but the stove does seem to be burning a little different.

 

[pen]

I vote for installing the flue damper for 10 bucks and seeing what happens.

pen