Dauntless Air flow

[jsoho802]

Hello all, my partner and I have a VC dauntless stove. Roughly two weeks ago on one of the warmer days of winter, I gave our stove a full clean out. Since the clean out we have been experiencing issues with airflow after getting the fire going. Our start up process is newspaper, kindling, some fat wood, and we open the front door of the stove to get everything burning well. When we close, the front door there doesn't appear to much, if any air flow.

Our flue goes out the back for ~2ft and the 90 degrees up our chimney. We had the liner replaced last year and is insulated up through a brick chimney ~20ft.

Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Eman85]

You cleaned the stove, did you clean the chimney? Air can't go in unless it can go out. Look at the chimney cap and see how it looks, I can see mine easily, it might be clogged.

 

[jsoho802]

You cleaned the stove, did you clean the chimney? Air can't go in unless it can go out. Look at the chimney cap and see how it looks, I can see mine easily, it might be clogged.

We get our chimney cleaned at the beginning of the burn season and when we've had fires going in the last two, we can see the normal amount of smoke coming out of the top of the chimney.

 

[ozarkoak]

Has it been warmer lately? I know when its 5 degrees here I can air down almost totally but when burning at 40 degrees I have to give it more air because draft is weaker.

 

[30WCF]

Did you pack the primary air vent full of ashes on accident while scooping it out.
Describe full clean out please.

 

[begreen]

What was done for the full cleanout other than cleaning out the ash? With the air control set to the wide open setting, is the air intake flap open?

 

[jsoho802]

Last night I did some investigating and after fixing a few things and some babysitting, we were able to get a decent fire going.

There were a few causes to why the fires had not been starting well or maintaining heat. Poor fire construction at start up and not enough accelerant. The gasket for the flue cover had mostly fallen behind the damper door, which caused a considerable gap between the flue collar and stove. Adding big pieces of wood too early in the startup process.

 

[jsoho802]

Did you pack the primary air vent full of ashes on accident while scooping it out.
Describe full clean out please.

On one of the warmer winter days a few weeks ago, we were able to let the stove cool down overnight. It was cold enough to where I could get our shop vacuum into hard-to-reach places for a full ash removal.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Get a flashlight and look around some more. Remove your cat if you have it and clean that as well, clean that entire chamber and feel around for areas that may have soot / ash. You will need to get a small hose like a garden hose piece or silicon tubing and tape it to a shop vac to clean these stoves well enough.

My stove runs hotter and faster the dirtier it is. Shrug

 

[Eman85]

not enough accelerant.

Accelerant???

 

[GrumpyDad]

Accelerant???

Im hoping that means newspaper or starter.

I am getting lazy and just bought super cedars. Im not a fan of them though, very dirty/crumbly. But, 1/4 of one of those between smaller splits and I can generally skip kindling.

 

[jsoho802]

Accelerant???

Newspaper, fatwood, smaller pieces of wood to start out.

 

[jsoho802]

There is a sizeable gap between my flue collar and gasket. Not sure if that could be part of the problem, but I was thinking getting nuts to attach to the screws to tighten that gap.

 

[GrumpyDad]

There is a sizeable gap between my flue collar and gasket. Not sure if that could be part of the problem, but I was thinking getting nuts to attach to the screws to tighten that gap.

im really confused by what you mean by flue collar and gasket in relation to distance here. Are you able to show a picture of what you mean?

 

[jsoho802]

im really confused by what you mean by flue collar and gasket in relation to distance here. Are you able to show a picture of what you mean?

Yeah - I didn't do a good job describing it here. Where the flue collar fits on the rear housing there are two screws that hold it in place. These two screws slide into place without being screwed into anything. This is causing the flue collar to lean a little bit causing an incomplete flue collar seal against the rear housing.

I'll try to get a good picture when I get home from work.

 

[sargeott]

Yeah - I didn't do a good job describing it here. Where the flue collar fits on the rear housing there are two screws that hold it in place. These two screws slide into place without being screwed into anything. This is causing the flue collar to lean a little bit causing an incomplete flue collar seal against the rear housing.

I'll try to get a good picture when I get home from work.

Yes,
Having the pipes all tight will drastically help with drafting out the smoke. Any blockage on the exit side of the stove will cause issues too.
The chimney system pulls air through the stove. If there are gaps anywhere on the exit side of the stove it can't pull air into the stove to work. As the chimney system heats up, it increases the pull of dirty air out and clean air into the primary inlet into the stove.
Many people (myself included) prefer the top down fire starting meathod.
I set a few small splits down in the bottom, add the kindeling and fatwood above it and get that top layer going real well. This heats up your chimney to increase the draft thus getting the machine all going.
As the fire burns down, it will ignite the base layer of wood.
I hope this all helps.

 

[begreen]

There is a sizeable gap between my flue collar and gasket. Not sure if that could be part of the problem, but I was thinking getting nuts to attach to the screws to tighten that gap.

I seem to recall some VC stoves need a little adjustment or trimming at the flue collar in order to achieve a tight fit, especially with double-walled stove pipe. Is there a stove pipe adapter trying to connect the stove or is this with the stove pipe itself?

 

[jsoho802]

im really confused by what you mean by flue collar and gasket in relation to distance here. Are you able to show a picture of what you mean?

This is the gap. That glow is the fire.

 

[sargeott]

This is the gap. That glow is the fire.

View attachment 324444

Yeah, THAT is not normal. It should be fixed ASAP.

 

[jsoho802]

Yeah, THAT is not normal. It should be fixed ASAP.

Any recommendations for how to fix it? I've not ever had much luck with the folks who installed it and feel like I can manage on my own.

 

[30WCF]

Looks like 60 bolts to 54. I would imagine that there is a gasket in place, but I don’t know this stove at all.
If you said earlier that it’s just sitting there with two screws loosely hanging in the holes with nothing to bite to, then probably a new gasket and some nuts and bolts if I was taking guesses.

 

[Eman85]

I'd remove those shields and get a good look at what you have. My Encore has a flue adapter that can be unbolted and used either vertical or horizontal. It has stove gasket sealing it to the stove body. It's a maintenance item when the stove gets new gaskets.

 

[jsoho802]

Update: I bought new bolts and nuts to secure the flue collar to rear housing. There is no gap now and lots of air flow. Initial installation left a lot to be desired.

 

[30WCF]

Was there a gasket? Should there be a gasket? If you don’t have a local hearth shop, tractor supply should have a 2-3 different sizes of gaskets during the heating season.

 

[jsoho802]

Was there a gasket? Should there be a gasket? If you don’t have a local hearth shop, tractor supply should have a 2-3 different sizes of gaskets during the heating season.

There was and it is snug in place now. It was free floating before.