I keep Getting too hot

[Danno77]

I want to be able to load the stove and go to work. I'm having problems figuring out how that will be possible.

Past method was to prep coals, load er up and then wait until things looked to be fully engulfed and then close it down and leave. Total time generally 15 to 30 minutes to get that done.

New attempts aren't working for me. Tonight's latest attemp was loading it up on a hot bed of coals, shutting the door ASAP and then running for about 10 minutes with primary wide open, then closed it fully. That was about 2 hours ago and my temps have slowly climbed and now are around 675-700. I can open it up and cool it down, but this seems to be the standard procedure for me. Opening the door to cool it down is getting old. I won't be able to do this while I'm at work, and to only that, but the room is just too dang hot with this beast running at those temps.

Absolutely solid new stove, no air leaks, and my chimney isn't obscene to get some crazy superdraft.

I've tried leaving primary open, I've tried letting it smolder on coals closed primary from the start, but it still gets to going, eventually. Right now I'm burning two year old oak, a couple of pieces of pine earlier burned ok, but it was like a 3hr burn time and still hit 600 with those two splits on coals.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[BrotherBart]

If you are talking about the 30, are you spreading a hot coal bed or dragging the coals up to the front and not leaving any in the back. How are you loading? N/S or E/W?

 

[Danno77]

If you are talking about the 30, are you spreading a hot coal bed or dragging the coals up to the front and not leaving any in the back. How are you loading? N/S or E/W?

I have been scooping coals into a n/s row in front of the doghouse, then a split on either side, also n/s, then a thin split n/s on the coals unless there are so many coals they are as high as the two splits. Then the rest is e/w on top of all of that.

 

[Dix]

Don't put so much wood into the stove, D

 

[Danno77]

Well, it seems to have leveled out at 700. I'm to horribly worried about that, I can't remember what ESW calls overfired range...anyody?

 

[rdust]

Big steel stove is fine at 700, if you're not home who cares what the temp in the house is!

With my Endeavor I was never able to get things settled in that quickly. I would always tried to give myself 45 minutes to an hour before I left the stove. Sure I could have had it safe enough to leave but for some reason I always like to "know" it was going to be ok. The Endeavor liked to cruise in the 650-700 range.

With the BK I have much more control of the fire than I ever had with my Endeavor. When I turn it down the temp actually goes down!

 

[rdust]

I have been scooping coals into a n/s row in front of the doghouse, then a split on either side, also n/s, then a thin split n/s on the coals unless there are so many coals they are as high as the two splits. Then the rest is e/w on top of all of that.

Why are you going n/s and e/w? I would think loading it all n/s or all e/w would allow the stack to be fit together tighter helping the burn slow down a little.

 

[BrotherBart]

Burn it down to enough coals to make a six to ten inch row all the way across the front. Drag'em into that row and place the N/S splits in with the front of the splits on top of the row of coals. Then cigar burn the load. From front to back. If you place a new load of splits on top of hot coals all of the outgassing happens at once and not only wastes heat but is a pain in the butt to try and control.

If you want to burn E/W, do the same coal dragging drill but drag the ash and coals all forward and stack two big splits on top of each other in the back. Then lay a medium to big split according to how thick and hot the coal bed in the front is on the coal bed and give it ten minutes to fifteen minutes to rock and roll and then ease the primary air back in three steps to a steady burn. What you want to do is get the back splits hot and just starting to release gases but just be burning the front one.

With the E/W you are looking for blue flames burning on top of the splits at a steady rate. Not a bunch of fire blasting out of the front of the burn tubes.

I just set up the E/W for the night and it looks like a natural gas log in the thing. And it is gonna sit there and burn at five fifty for a really long time.

 

[Danno77]

I have been scooping coals into a n/s row in front of the doghouse, then a split on either side, also n/s, then a thin split n/s on the coals unless there are so many coals they are as high as the two splits. Then the rest is e/w on top of all of that.

Why are you going n/s and e/w? I would think loading it all n/s or all e/w would allow the stack to be fit together tighter helping the burn slow down a little.

Valid point. I guess my thinking was that n/s caused a hotter burn on my old stove because the air came in from the front. Well, on this stove, that is true, but only for the primary, which I shut down early on, so I guess I didn't really consider that direction doesn't matter when the air is coming in over three tubes spread out over the top of the stove (until now!)

I will have to try packing a little tighter all in the same direction next time.

 

[Danno77]

Thanks, BB. It all makes perfect sense, but I guess I still haven't learned to think like a guy who considers how and why secondaries work, otherwise my problem solving would have gone that direction first...

Definitely think those procedures make good sense and I'll try them out tomorrow!

 

[BrotherBart]

The sooner you forget that those tubes are up there and just concentrate on building a nice controllable fire the happier you will be. People here seem to wanna try to make a cat stove out of a non-cat. They ought to buy a cat stove.

 

[Danno77]

Ok, in the last 20 minutes I have dropped down to about 550, the flames are blue and lazy.

I really do think BB has it right on (as well as rdust) with the idea that I'm just engulfing too much of the wood at once causing massive outgassing that is blowtorching through the secondary air and causing an uncontrollable burn.

At this point in my burn I think I've ditched the massive portion of the gasses, hence the fall back to a nice clean burn.

 

[BrotherBart]

Get it to where all of those gases that "engulfed" are released a a fairly steady rate and you not only get more heat and longer burn times, but you won't get to the end of the driveway and come back three times to check it. ;-)

BTDT

 

[MarkinNC]

I would have some bigger size splits or rounds in there as well.

 

[Danno77]

I would have some bigger size splits or rounds in there as well.

Yep, already on that!

 

[rdust]

One thing that used to make my non cat more controllable was to not load on a "hot" coal bed. I tried to always wait until the stove top was 200-250 but even 300 was doable. If I tried any higher than that it seemed like the wood decided to let all the gasses out at once and go nuclear on me!

 

[BrotherBart]

One thing that used to make my non cat more controllable was to not load on a "hot" coal bed. I tried to always wait until the stove top was 200-250 but even 300 was doable. If I tried any higher than that it seemed like the wood decided to let all the gasses out at once and go nuclear on me!

For sure. Good point.

I was making the assumption that by the time he gets down to the coal bed I spoke of the stove would be down there in the 300 range. But if you do have to "hot reload" dragging that mess forward rather than spreading it and laying everything on top of hot coals gives you a better chance of going to bed in the same underwear you had on when you loaded the stove.

 

[Danno77]

FWIW, It's been down in the 200 range when I've been reloading.
As I reread my initial post, I did say "hot BED of coals." That's not really true. As I posted a couple of replies later, I had been raking them into a row...

 

[rdust]

Either way BB will get you down the right path. On one of these computers here I the saved text from a post that BB made before I ever burned a stick of wood in my Endeavor on how to burn an EPA stove. It really took a lot of the guess work out on trying to figure out how to burn that stove. Most important thing I took away was forget about the "light show" and just burn the stove.

 

[G6 at Snook TX]

BB and Rdust,

For that Jotul Castine F400 I posted about a few hours ago, I have to burn E/W due to the size. Would you recommend pulling the coals to the front, and stacking the splits back to front like you did for Danno?

Thanks.

 

[BrotherBart]

BB and Rdust,

For that Jotul Castine F400 I posted about a few hours ago, I have to burn E/W due to the size. Would you recommend pulling the coals to the front, and stacking the splits back to front like you did for Danno?

Thanks.

Yep.

That is what I do in the Castine's little brothers the F3 CB and the F100 as well as my 30-NC.

 

[pdxdave]

Burn it down to enough coals to make a six to ten inch row all the way across the front. Drag'em into that row and place the N/S splits in with the front of the splits on top of the row of coals. Then cigar burn the load. From front to back. If you place a new load of splits on top of hot coals all of the outgassing happens at once and not only wastes heat but is a pain in the butt to try and control.

If you want to burn E/W, do the same coal dragging drill but drag the ash and coals all forward and stack two big splits on top of each other in the back. Then lay a medium to big split according to how thick and hot the coal bed in the front is on the coal bed and give it ten minutes to fifteen minutes to rock and roll and then ease the primary air back in three steps to a steady burn. What you want to do is get the back splits hot and just starting to release gases but just be burning the front one.

With the E/W you are looking for blue flames burning on top of the splits at a steady rate. Not a bunch of fire blasting out of the front of the burn tubes.

I just set up the E/W for the night and it looks like a natural gas log in the thing. And it is gonna sit there and burn at five fifty for a really long time.

Thank you sir, extremely informative post that I'm looking forward to making use of (e/w).

 

[pen]

Can't remember how tall your chimney is Danno, but another thought might be to put an damper in the flue pipe if you have a strong draft driving this thing.

I don't use mine often, but I think the wife does. She's happy to keep the stove going if I'm not here, but sometimes loading techniques as you guys are discussing fall on deaf ears with her. I consider that thing her brake pedal.

pen

 

[GAMMA RAY]

I am trying to get a handle on this big boy myself. "Chief" is a big bad heating machine...
I had two different stoves last season, and I am a lil impatient trying to learn this one. I get good heat, a lil too much because I need to work on the loading technique that BB explained. (Thanks BB btw). This is the first I heard of the cigar burn, that's what I need to achieve. I think my wood is outgassing all at once and getting too hot and wasting wood.
I will conquer this mother.... :lol:

 

[Danno77]

Well, I would like to note, that in spite of this current load getting pretty hot it still went all night. Room with the stove is still toasty warm and I had enough coals to equal the size of a small 3" x18" split.

Ok, did anybody pay attention to the times? That was 12 hours from 200 to 200. Freaking unbelievable!

I don't expect that I'll always get that long of a burn, but even if I only do 8 hours, that's what my old stove did when it was was at it's best and cranked out ony a fraction of the heat! This thing seems to put off the same heat at 200 as the old one did at 350!