high valley 2500 going through wood fast

[Jacyte]

I am trying to see if I can extend my burn times on my High valley 2500 EPA-cat stove. I get about 8 hours of great heat before it tapers off. Cat temps sometimes get a little higher than I want 1550-1600 even shut down all the way. And it will sustain 1000-1400 for the entire night. I did notice I can't shut down all flames. There is always a blue fairly active flame on 1 split while everything else is glowing. I want to know if I should be looking for leaks.

This is with 8 or so medium/small (unknown maple possibly) 4 years down 1 year split dryish wood. It does hiss for about 5 minutes but lights easily.

 

[mellow]

That is quite a bit of active flame in that video, did you have the air turned all the way down when you took that?

Also have you tried loading E/W?

 

[Jacyte]

Yes that is primary and secondary completely closed. The stove was shut down only 20 minutes prior after a fresh load on big hot coals.

 

[Jags]

This is with 8 or so medium/small

Have you tried a mix of larger splits? I can vaporize a pile of med/small splits much quicker than if there is some larger stuff involved. In the interest of keeping the cat fed, I would start will a mix of med to large splits. See if that makes any difference in longevity.

 

[mellow]

My insert is similar, I have found it is better to load E/W and do an air trench in the ash, I push as many of the hot coals as I can to the back of the firebox then load the wood, that way it burns back to front and not all the wood at once, I get longer burns that way.

If you can't snuff out the fire with closing down all the air you might have an air leak on your door gasket or ash pan.

 

[Jacyte]

E/W I had Longer burns with less wood since it is much harder to load it especially on top of a coal bed. It also burned much colder and struggled to break 800s at the cat. It wasn't quite enough heat to keep the house comfortable in cold low teens weather. Unfortunately most of my wood is split to medium size or smaller because it was originally split for a very small zero clearance fireplace with not so great draft.

I think I will buy a new gasket for the door today. It passes the dollar bill test and using a lighter the flame doesn't get sucked in anywhere but I do have some soot build up on 2 areas of the glass. Also the ash pan is sealed shut with High temp aluminum tape. It is only a temporary solution of course because During a power outage without the blower the stove will likely see temps too high for the tape (250-300º+) at the ash door. Right now I don't use it at all. I simply scoop the light ash out completely. I did notice under the stove there is a strong draw of air. I had a hot ember fall out and land on the hearth. A little stream of smoke B-lined directly under the stove. It may be some natural convection going on but I'm not sure. I am tempted to shut it down and remove the firebrick to look for cracks in the bottom.

 

[mellow]

Might want to check your window gasket as well since you have the door off, I would get some good high density gasket to replace both.

 

[Jacyte]

I haven't gotten a chance to change the gaskets yet. Its been pretty cold and don't really want to shut her down until it warms up a bit more. I did try loading E/W with a troth in the ash bed to allow air down the center. It burned a bit too energetically still and went about 7 hours with medium to small splits before it began to drop temp under 800 at the cat. As an experiment I taped over one of the 2 primary intakes and blocked the 2nd about 75% using my aluminum tape. It did slow the burn but did not quite eliminate all flame. I noticed it was cooling down when there were still pool ball size firm black coals remaining. I am wondering if such a large firebox really needs to be packed tight to suffocate the flame completely. Maybe leaking seams and cumulative tiny leaks find enough air to keep a smaller fire going no matter how tight I go aside from going far beyond manufacturer design.

 

[mellow]

Doesn't take much of a leak, I put a new door gasket and window gaskets on mine at the beginning of the season and noticed a change in how it operates, without a tight seal even a small hole will allow more air then you want into the firebox, I think I had a hole in my window gasket as I was not able to snuff out the fire as much as I am able to now.

 

[Woody Stover]

Cat temps sometimes get a little higher than I want 1550-1600 even shut down all the way. And it will sustain 1000-1400 for the entire night.

That's just how my Buck was running; I was afraid of getting too much wood gassing on the reload for fear of cat temp going high. I replaced all the gaskets; Door, door glass, bay windows and ash pan, with OEM gasket. That way, there's no question that you have the right density gaskets for the job. Now I can burn in the reload, run it up to about 1200 and glow the cat, then cut the air to about 1/4" and cruise. I have a tin foil marker on the cat probe, and she hasn't gone high...about 1500 max. Glass is staying pretty darn clean as well.

 

[rideau]

Glass will get dirty in one spot from wet wood, but I'd expect that to burn off during the hot part of the burn, at least mostly.

Looks like that wood is stacked a bit teepee fashion in that video? If so, get the wood down in the coals, without air space under it. Will burn slower and cooler.

 

[Jacyte]

Great idea. The wood does end up with ALOT of air gaps. I usually use the throw it in and run technique because it will cook my arm hair off. Usually the wood is lit before it stops moving so I'm working very fast to get it loaded. Ill try to take more care loading it to reduce the gaps and kind of sink it into the coal bed a bit more. I usually reload between 600-800 degrees after 8-12 hour burns.

 

[mellow]

A set of welding gloves will help with reloads.

 

[Jacyte]

I just noticed that the higher the blower speed the more flames I get. Maybe a crack?

 

[rideau]

So, why are you loading at 600 to 800 degrees? Why don't you wait until the stove cools down to 300 or 350? You are still getting lots of heat at those temps. Any stove loaded at 600 to 800 is always going to be a raging inferno, as far as I know.

 

[Jacyte]

These are cat temps. Stove top is much lower. At 600 it won't keep the house warm. Basically just white ash remains with small red coals underneath

 

[Jacyte]

Maybe it's the weather or my wood supply but suddenly the stove is incredibly controllable. Primary air off will smolder with low heat (cats at 800-1000) 25% open gets a bright glow at the hot spots and small flames and 1000-1200 at the cats. I managed 12 hours on a half load of small splits with good heat. The lady likes the house over 75 though so 8 hours is good enough.

 

[Woody Stover]

Maybe it's the weather

If it's quite a bit warmer, of course your draft won't be pulling as hard and that will sure tame it down.

The lady likes the house over 75

I wish my wife never wore clothes in the house. 75 is gettin' a little roasty for us...

 

[Jacyte]

If it's quite a bit warmer, of course your draft won't be pulling as hard and that will sure tame it down.
I wish my wife never wore clothes in the house. 75 is gettin' a little roasty for us...

I suspect I do have too much draft. While installing the stove I simply held a piece of paper to the pipe and the draft sucked it on pretty tight. The draft would stop and the seal would break, then suck it right back. I left it like that overnight.
As for my lady, shes Dominican and lived in Aruba the last 10 years. This is her first full year in CT. Summer was too hot and now winter is too cold.