Well with all the help I recieved here and from ESW (fantastic customer service) I can duplicate a good long clean burn.
Right now I am getting about 4-5 hours with stove top temps hoovering around 550+- for about 3hrs then they slowly drop.
Still haven't really packed it full but we are getting close. Now I'm working on how to arrange the splits so they cave in on themselves and keep the hottest coals at the foot of the next split to be burned, and not rolling to the front or into the glass.
I fixed the problem with me, myself, and I.
CleanBurnin, I must have read your post a dozen times until it clicked. Thank you, but your not the only one whose posts help, sorry.
I was not letting the stove establish a good draft before shutting her down. I was raking the coals forward and using dry wood though.
Now I let the flue get to about 450 with an IR gun and shut the door a little more and wait about 1 minute then close it completely. I then wait until the flue stabilizes at whatever temp it wants without getting too hot somewhere around 400+ then close the air down 50%, and WAIT. Once it stabilizes again I check the flue temp with the IR because the the mag thermo reacts very slow to the fast changing temps of the thin wall pipe. If it's above 350 I close down the air 50% of the balance in rod movement, and WAIT. Then I then turn the air down in steps until the pipe stabilizes at around 300. I've found with my setup with a pipe of 300 the stove can run and hold 550+- until the fuel is gone. No smoke with a pipe temp of 300 either. I then check from time to time the temp of the mag thermo to see if it starts to climb. Since the the stove is now kinda stable the temps will increase or decrease at a slower rate and the mag thermo can keep up for maintenance checks.
I've also blocked one of the doghouse holes. I found that one open hole is enough to keep a good flame in center to ignite the larger splits in the back of the stove towards the end of the burn.
Thanks to all who had an opinion or solution to my operator error.
Here's a pic of the stove cruising at 550+-, 45min to and 1hr after reload. If you look close the mag thermo is at 300.
Right now I am getting about 4-5 hours with stove top temps hoovering around 550+- for about 3hrs then they slowly drop.
Still haven't really packed it full but we are getting close. Now I'm working on how to arrange the splits so they cave in on themselves and keep the hottest coals at the foot of the next split to be burned, and not rolling to the front or into the glass.
I fixed the problem with me, myself, and I.
CleanBurnin, I must have read your post a dozen times until it clicked. Thank you, but your not the only one whose posts help, sorry.
I was not letting the stove establish a good draft before shutting her down. I was raking the coals forward and using dry wood though.
Now I let the flue get to about 450 with an IR gun and shut the door a little more and wait about 1 minute then close it completely. I then wait until the flue stabilizes at whatever temp it wants without getting too hot somewhere around 400+ then close the air down 50%, and WAIT. Once it stabilizes again I check the flue temp with the IR because the the mag thermo reacts very slow to the fast changing temps of the thin wall pipe. If it's above 350 I close down the air 50% of the balance in rod movement, and WAIT. Then I then turn the air down in steps until the pipe stabilizes at around 300. I've found with my setup with a pipe of 300 the stove can run and hold 550+- until the fuel is gone. No smoke with a pipe temp of 300 either. I then check from time to time the temp of the mag thermo to see if it starts to climb. Since the the stove is now kinda stable the temps will increase or decrease at a slower rate and the mag thermo can keep up for maintenance checks.
I've also blocked one of the doghouse holes. I found that one open hole is enough to keep a good flame in center to ignite the larger splits in the back of the stove towards the end of the burn.
Thanks to all who had an opinion or solution to my operator error.
Here's a pic of the stove cruising at 550+-, 45min to and 1hr after reload. If you look close the mag thermo is at 300.
LOL
