How to quickly get stove temp back down

[jzinckgra]

Noticed my stovepipe probe temp was at 1100F for 5 minutes or so. Walked away a bit too long. I get nervous when it gets that hot and intuitively, I shut the primary air all the way down, but that only increases secondary combustion. This only seems to stabilize the temp but not bring it down like you would think. The only way to bring the temp back down is to crack the door 2-3" to get that primary burn-like fire. It still takes a while to bring the temp down. Just wondering if I am doing it right.

 

[jasong]

You don't say what kind of stove you have. On mine I have put aluminum foil over the main air intake. It chokes it down to no flame in a mater of about a minute.

 

[BrotherBart]

Why don't both of you put your stove in your sig line and share the knowledge?

 

[jzinckgra]

Why don't both of you put your stove in your sig line and share the knowledge?

Sorry, my stove is the hampton H300 free-standing.

 

[stockdoct]

Good Idea, blocking the primary air intake..... but I'm not sure where that would be.

Does anyone know where the primary air intake is on a Lopi Freedom insert? I checked the owner's manual and its not mentioned anywhere.

Mike

 

[BrotherBart]

In a oh #$%^ moment with a insert it is shut down the primary and hang on for the ride. Virtually none of them have the primary or secondary air intakes accessible.

 

[bren582]

Nice.. I had that Oh S%$^ moment earlier today with my Clydesdale.. Loaded it with some nice dry oak and didn't come back in time to damp it down. When I did come back the stove top therm was reading 750 and the therm I have on the collar was at 850!! The thing was really taking off. I've never seen the firebox look like that before, it was reaaly cool looking but at the same time I had this sinking feeling that I was destroying my insert.

I opened the door for a minute to clear the secondary and send some of the heat up the flue, closed the door and closed the damper and turned the fan on full. It took about 20 minutes before things settled down and the tep started to drop a bit. Man the thing was putting out some serious heat. I'm not sure if there was much more I could have done to slow her down. I thought about throwing a wet towel in the fire box but I have to admit I was scared the pire would not take kindly to such a dramatic shock..

I an noticing a big difference in the way the insert behaves with different wood. Semi seasoned oak and dry maple is manageable but put some of the real dry oak and there and watch out. I have to really keep an eye on things..

 

[cycloxer]

Generally speaking, just don't open the door. Close off the primary air. If you have a blower, put it on max. If you have a box fan, drag it out and aim it at the stove. If you can block off the air intake with foil, you can do that too.

Temperature changes won't happen immediately, but these are the safest measures you can take when things get a bit too toasty.

Everyone who owns a wood stove has had this happen. You just don't want to make it a regular occurance.

 

[firefighterjake]

The few times this has happened to me (actually I think it has only happened once or twice . . . once or twice is enough of a motivating experience to change one's habits -- i.e. not take a long shower with the primary air open) . . . I closed the air down all the way resulting in some nice secondaries . . . it takes a bit to reduce the temp in the stack, but it's a safe way of doing this . . . I also ran the fan . . . which had the benefit of moving all that heat off the stove and throughout the house . . . this is one of those times when you just can't worry too much . . . just remember what you did wrong and learn from it . . . and hope and pray no damage was done.