Draft control wide open - stove temp drops

[herdbull]

Just wondering if this is normal. I've noticed now that I got stove top thermometer that when I run wide open the stove temp doesn't build. I've left it wide open for almost an hour while keeping a close eye on things. But the stove top (front) temp doesn't seem to rise above 450. The heat output from the blower does go up though. Am I just throwing heat away?

If I totally close the draft control things settle down and the temps really start to cruise upward if I have say 1/2 load or more in it. It will get to 550-600 pretty easily. This just seems a little odd. Could be my "greenness" kicking in. Maybe later today I'll do a half load at about half open and see what happens.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Pagey]

With the primary air wide open, you are sending most of the heat up the flue. What are your flue temps when you do this?

 

[woodgeek]

Um, not sure what you're asking...heat output is a maximum for a 'middle' amount of air. Too much and you get a clean burn with most of the heat going up the flue, too little you get incomplete combustion and send fuel (smoke/CO/wood gas) up the flue. Other way of thinking about it is all that (excess) air rushing in is cooling off your fire.

 

[Milton Findley]

Um, not sure what you're asking...heat output is a maximum for a 'middle' amount of air. Too much and you get a clean burn with most of the heat going up the flue, too little you get incomplete combustion and send fuel (smoke/CO/wood gas) up the flue. Other way of thinking about it is all that (excess) air rushing in is cooling off your fire.

That is the way it works at my house.

 

[Battenkiller]

Um, not sure what you're asking...heat output is a maximum for a 'middle' amount of air. Too much and you get a clean burn with most of the heat going up the flue, too little you get incomplete combustion and send fuel (smoke/CO/wood gas) up the flue. Other way of thinking about it is all that (excess) air rushing in is cooling off your fire.

Yup. It's all about finding the "sweet spot". Different for every stove/flue/draft/wood/load size, etc. Keep playing with it and you'll find the settings that work best. Temps are nice to know, but that window in front tells you an awful lot as well. Coming from a guy who doesn't have one, I can say that things might go easier for me if I could get a good visual sense of the burn at all times.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Just wondering if this is normal. I've noticed now that I got stove top thermometer that when I run wide open the stove temp doesn't build. I've left it wide open for almost an hour while keeping a close eye on things. But the stove top (front) temp doesn't seem to rise above 450. The heat output from the blower does go up though. Am I just throwing heat away?

If I totally close the draft control things settle down and the temps really start to cruise upward if I have say 1/2 load or more in it. It will get to 550-600 pretty easily. This just seems a little odd. Could be my "greenness" kicking in. Maybe later today I'll do a half load at about half open and see what happens.

Thanks for the feedback.

Herdbull, you are making a typical rookie mistake. Most folks tend to think if the draft is set full open that they will get lots of heat. Well, they will, but most of it will just head straight up the chimney. You need to turn the draft down sooner.

It is a bit different from cold stove or reload but from a cold start is the most extreme so I'll use that as an example. When we light a new fire in a cold stove we actually do not leave the draft full open very long at all. We have tried some experiments but it always comes back to the same thing. The stove will warm only to a certain point with the draft set full open. Close it perhaps 50% and suddenly the stove temperature starts rising and sometimes quite rapidly. Even more so on our stove, which has a catalyst. When the stove top reaches 250 then we really dial the draft down. On our draft control which goes from 0-4, we cut back to 1 and later to .75. Sometimes we go right to the .75. When we do, this is just a guess but I'd say the temperature rises at better than double the speed than it had been rising.

On reloads, most times we are turning the draft down within 3-5 minutes! Otherwise the stove just roars and, of course, the flue gets too hot.

As for totally closing the draft, I think there are very few folks who totally close the draft because if you totally close the draft, in most cases it doesn't take long for the flames to die out. That may be okay on a cat stove but not good for other type stoves.

 

[Hogwildz]

Wood might be a tad wet also.

 

[herdbull]

Thanks everyone. I'll catch on sooner or later. I know it's not rocket science but there's some do & don'ts to learn.

I'm finding this stove loves to be dampered down. Even totally shut I get a nice short flame, it's kinda lazy but there's still flame. And the temps hang up there pretty good. Today for instance, 25 degrees out, kinda sunny, no wind. I put 2 smaller splits in and was running with the damper closed. Stove temps hung around 550 for a couple hours.

The wood is very dry. In fact some of it is insanely dry. You just look at it with a match and it goes up in flames - lol. I can see with the knowledge I'm gaining here already that my wood consumption is going down and my house is way warmer than I ever thought I'd keep it with minimal work. No more fuel oil bills for this guy!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Can you describe, "insanely dry?" lol We burn some really dry wood and love it but I'm not sure we have burned any in that category. Someone did tell me though that my wood is drier than a popcorn fart. Is this close to what you are describing?

Having dry wood and using less of it to get the heat you need is the ultimate in wood heating. I know I like to compare our old stove, which we thought was quite good, to our present stove. Now we use half the amount of wood and stay a lot warmer. That is really nice!

 

[herdbull]

LOL, yes drier than a popcorn fart is close. The ultimate goal, use half as much wood and stay warmer.

 

[remkel]

Um, not sure what you're asking...heat output is a maximum for a 'middle' amount of air. Too much and you get a clean burn with most of the heat going up the flue, too little you get incomplete combustion and send fuel (smoke/CO/wood gas) up the flue. Other way of thinking about it is all that (excess) air rushing in is cooling off your fire.

Yup. It's all about finding the "sweet spot". Different for every stove/flue/draft/wood/load size, etc. Keep playing with it and you'll find the settings that work best. Temps are nice to know, but that window in front tells you an awful lot as well. Coming from a guy who doesn't have one, I can say that things might go easier for me if I could get a good visual sense of the burn at all times.

Can relate to your answer. Every once in a while I will open up the damper and pop open the top to get an idea of what kind of burn is going on inside. Window would be nice.