Did I overfire my stove?

[maytrix]

I've got the HI300 unit. We've had it since late December. We've been trying different wood alternatives from Envi Blocks, Bio Bricks and Night logs since we ran out of our seasoned wood (a leftover cord we ordered a few years ago when we just had the fireplace).

Tonight, I loaded in a couple of the night logs and they caught pretty quick. The stove prior to inserting them simply had red hot coals on the bottom. I didn't realize quite how much the logs expanded and had to open it up a few times to push back material that was leaning on the glass. At some point in this process I could see inside the air duct above the stove and could see the top was glowing red. I believe this is overfiring, but I really can't see what I could have done to avoid it, aside from perhaps leaving the debris against the glass.

Is this considered overfiring?

Thanks

 

[jadm]

Not sure just what kind of stove an HI300 is and I am not an expert at this at all. Hopefully somebody who does know will chime in here soon to ease your fears.

What I do know is having a thermometer helps monitor the temps. giving you time to adjust air as temps. begin to get too hot.


What I have learned here is that if temps. begin to climb too high shutting down the primary air supply and the damper helps cool things down as well as putting a fan in front of the stove and blowing air onto it. I have no experience with this. I have just read what others have said.

I don't think that material on your glass is too big of an issue. THe glass is made to take high temps. It might just leave a dark spot on the glass that will clean off once stove is cool.

I know red glowing metal is a sign of overfiring your stove. Rest assured you aren't the only one here who has seen red. I don't know if having this happen once is a problem or not.

Sorry I can't be more of a help. If no one else chimes in here you might do an 'advanced search' ( the small white rectangular box above your thread title) by typing in 'overfiring your stove' and see what threads come up that may answer your question and give you some info. that may help.

Good Luck!

 

[begreen]

Was the glowing "air duct" the secondary tubes in the firebox? Hopefully that's all this was. If so, although dramatic, this isn't overfiring.

 

[Pagey]

When I get a strong secondary in my Endeavor, the middle tube and the fire brick in the baffle glow cherry red. However, even when they do so, I have never seen the actual surface of the stove glow. Sounds like, based on your description, that the stove top itself was not glowing.

 

[bokehman]

Since the first signs of iron glowing start at 750ºF and the inside of the firebox needs to be at 1100+ºF for secondary combustion to work it is inevitable that certain internal components are going to glow.

 

[pulldownclaw]

I think I've got the same unit, Hampton HI300. He's talking about where the blower air comes out, you can look in and see the top of the firebox and where the flue collar exits. I've seen mine glowing several times, usually when I walk away from the stove full of oak and have the air all the way open, and don't come back soon enough. :red: I now set a timer when I walk away to remind myself to come back and check. Anyway, it's happened to me, and I think it's considered overfiring (according to the manual), but from others here it doesn't seem like it's a big deal if you don't let it happen all the time. You'll get used to using the stove and know when to keep an eye on it and shut down the air earlier.

 

[maytrix]

Thanks for all the great responses.

Pulldownclaw has it right - its the space between the top of the firebox and the top part of the stove. I never would have noticed it if I hadn't been watching TV in the dark It went away after I left it alone for awhile with the damper closed down. I think had I left it from the beginning, it may not have occurred.

Its a great stove and I've been enjoying it. My only issue is getting stuff to last long enough so its still reasonably warm in the morning. Our only downside is our layout isn't ideal and we need some more fans, but it still does get the heat moved around, it just doesn't last long enough so its always cold in the morning. At least with the nightlogs we got, I still had hot coals, unlike the bio bricks, but its still not enough heat. I guess I'd just have to feed it overnight or just live with it

We have another fireplace in the master bedroom which is directly about our den (where the stove is now). I suppose we'll probably put a pellet stove or something in there at some point to provide more heat upstairs, assuming we can't get it going any better once we get proper fans.

 

[elwing]

We just discovered this lovely color show on our HI300 insert. We're still learning the ropes, but the rutland thermometer on the top was only reading 300 with the fan on low, and as soon as we noticed the glowing and turned the fan on high, the temp jumped up to almost 375F. Our dealer said that we could go up to 450-500 easily, but as it's started glowing, we haven't tried. Any hints for measuring the temps on this stove?