I had a bit of a scare late last night with my new 7100. (For those of you not familiar with this model, it is a large high efficiency insert - link below). I've ready a few posts on over-firing, but I wanted to share my situation and ask a few questions. Now, I am fairly new to this, as I've only been burning with this stove for a month or so, but I felt like I was starting to get the hang of this by getting successful all night burns and keeping the house toasty 24/7...until my scare last night.
I had already burned a couple smaller "3 split" fires last night because we had company and we didn't want to completely roast our friends out of the room. Just before they left, and while I still had a very hot fire that was not quite to coals yet, I loaded it up with about 8 splits to run it overnight (this has a big firebox and I could easily have fit a few more). I loaded it up a little sooner in the burn cycle than I had been, but I didn't think much of it, since I was going to shut the combustion control all the way down anyway (gradually of course). So, I shut it down over the next 15-20 minutes or so, but it just kept burning hotter and brighter, with LOTS of secondaries. I mean it was really raging. I just couldn't figure out (and still can't) why the combustion control lever wouldn't knock this fire down. Up to last night it had always worked properly. I even turned off the Outside Air Control (only on or off) and that didn't do anything - weird. This got me very nervous. I waited a few more minutes then decided I needed to cool this thing off now...and please don't blast me for this, I didn't know what else to do...I grabbed a big zip-lock bag of ice, opened the door, tossed it in and quickly closed it. The fire dropped WAY back almost immediately! I was very relieved. It was still plenty hot and after 30 min or so, stirred up the fire, which was a mix of all hot and cold coals now, watched it for another 30 min and went to bed. There was still enough hot coals in the morning (5 hours later) to get another fire going.
I have been using a laser type thermometer to check the stove top and chimney pipe temps and have only seen stove top, but it maxes out at 500 so it's obviously not ideal. I can see right inside the blower vent area to the actual firebox top and heavy steel chimney pipe extension (which is welded to the firebox and extends up about 8"-10" though the rest of the fireplace enclosure to where the double wall chimney connects. I always read the chimney temp about 2-4 inches above the firebox top, inside the blower area and I read the firebox top temps right in front of that chimney pipe. I've only seen temps on the firebox top over 500 a few times and never that high on the pipe (low 400's at most). Of, course I don't know how high above 500, but I was never too concerned since I only got the those readings for short periods and in an area about 4"-5" area right in front of the pipe. Last night I got over 500 on the pipe and a much larger area on the top, but again, I don't know how much over 500. Trust me, I'll be getting a new thermometer today. Nothing was glowing except the burner tubes inside the firebox and I've seen that a few times now.
I think I did 4 things wrong:
- Used a bit smaller splits of oak (only have oak)
- Stacked them a bit different this time and they were more loosely packed
- Added wood before the last burn cycle was far enough along
- Had an inadequate thermometer
Questions:
-Did I actually overfire, or was I about to overfire?
-Where/how should I be getting the temps?
-Any temp suggestions that is getting to the "Over-fire" range on this stove?
-How do you stop an over-fire if the combustion air is already closed off? Somehow, I don't think a bag of ice is the recommended method.
Here's a link the my fireplace if you're interested http://fireside.com/consumer/products/fireplaces/woodFireplaceDetail.asp?f=7100FP&b=QDF
I had already burned a couple smaller "3 split" fires last night because we had company and we didn't want to completely roast our friends out of the room. Just before they left, and while I still had a very hot fire that was not quite to coals yet, I loaded it up with about 8 splits to run it overnight (this has a big firebox and I could easily have fit a few more). I loaded it up a little sooner in the burn cycle than I had been, but I didn't think much of it, since I was going to shut the combustion control all the way down anyway (gradually of course). So, I shut it down over the next 15-20 minutes or so, but it just kept burning hotter and brighter, with LOTS of secondaries. I mean it was really raging. I just couldn't figure out (and still can't) why the combustion control lever wouldn't knock this fire down. Up to last night it had always worked properly. I even turned off the Outside Air Control (only on or off) and that didn't do anything - weird. This got me very nervous. I waited a few more minutes then decided I needed to cool this thing off now...and please don't blast me for this, I didn't know what else to do...I grabbed a big zip-lock bag of ice, opened the door, tossed it in and quickly closed it. The fire dropped WAY back almost immediately! I was very relieved. It was still plenty hot and after 30 min or so, stirred up the fire, which was a mix of all hot and cold coals now, watched it for another 30 min and went to bed. There was still enough hot coals in the morning (5 hours later) to get another fire going.
I have been using a laser type thermometer to check the stove top and chimney pipe temps and have only seen stove top, but it maxes out at 500 so it's obviously not ideal. I can see right inside the blower vent area to the actual firebox top and heavy steel chimney pipe extension (which is welded to the firebox and extends up about 8"-10" though the rest of the fireplace enclosure to where the double wall chimney connects. I always read the chimney temp about 2-4 inches above the firebox top, inside the blower area and I read the firebox top temps right in front of that chimney pipe. I've only seen temps on the firebox top over 500 a few times and never that high on the pipe (low 400's at most). Of, course I don't know how high above 500, but I was never too concerned since I only got the those readings for short periods and in an area about 4"-5" area right in front of the pipe. Last night I got over 500 on the pipe and a much larger area on the top, but again, I don't know how much over 500. Trust me, I'll be getting a new thermometer today. Nothing was glowing except the burner tubes inside the firebox and I've seen that a few times now.
I think I did 4 things wrong:
- Used a bit smaller splits of oak (only have oak)
- Stacked them a bit different this time and they were more loosely packed
- Added wood before the last burn cycle was far enough along
- Had an inadequate thermometer
Questions:
-Did I actually overfire, or was I about to overfire?
-Where/how should I be getting the temps?
-Any temp suggestions that is getting to the "Over-fire" range on this stove?
-How do you stop an over-fire if the combustion air is already closed off? Somehow, I don't think a bag of ice is the recommended method.
Here's a link the my fireplace if you're interested http://fireside.com/consumer/products/fireplaces/woodFireplaceDetail.asp?f=7100FP&b=QDF
