Limit of stove top temperature on NC30

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mywaynow

Minister of Fire
Dec 13, 2010
1,369
Northeast
What is the upper range I should use for stove top temp running this stove? Seeing 650 now, but thinking I should go up. House temp is not picking up like I would like. Stove pipe temps are not exceeding 325 regardless of where the top has been.
 
650* not hot enough! What kind of cold are you dealing with in the "northeast"?

Steel stove with a step I'd wager has a high limit of 800* or so but I wouldn't want to take it there on the regular.
 
I start getting a little nervous at 700. It sometimes does get that high (a bit higher maybe 750)but I am still learning the stove and how much wood to put in it. If you are getting 650 stovetop temps and your house still feels cold, you may need to experiment with some fans to move the air around. There are a lot of threads on circulating hot air here. Utilizing a box fan blowing cold air into the stove room works for me as well as the ceiling fans on low clockwise.
 
Mike has said in the past that 750 for a short time on start-up should be OK but not for continuous burns. I run in the range of 550 to 650 most of the time.
 
BrotherBart said:
Mike has said in the past that 750 for a short time on start-up should be OK but not for continuous burns. I run in the range of 550 to 650 most of the time.

What was the temp in the house when you cranked it up and what is it now. Takes a good amount of time to warm up walls/furniture/knick-knacks and whatever.
 
I did have to let the Defiant burn out middle of the night so it was cool engough to handle this morning. House was down to 66, now up to 68. Seems the 650 stove top temp on the 30 is not pushing heat like the Defiant did at the same temps. Once I put the fan on the unit and ran it on low, the top would not exceed 450. It was getting late in the burn, 3hrs or so, and that did not help either. I will keep playing/learning.
 
BrotherBart said:
Mike has said in the past that 750 for a short time on start-up should be OK but not for continuous burns. I run in the range of 550 to 650 most of the time.

+1

Same here. When the 30 starts creeping over 600, the sweat factor increases with it too as the heat really starts pouring out of the stove.

Bill
 
BrotherBart said:
BrotherBart said:
Mike has said in the past that 750 for a short time on start-up should be OK but not for continuous burns. I run in the range of 550 to 650 most of the time.

What was the temp in the house when you cranked it up and what is it now. Takes a good amount of time to warm up walls/furniture/knick-knacks and whatever.

+1

One of the things I try to hammer around here with my family using the stoves is that heating is about momentum - not necessarily instant heat. So when the temps start going down, we fire a bit hotter to compensate for heat sink of the house.

Also, if only secondaries are driving your stove top, you might need to open the damper a bit for more log flames. Most of my burn is a combo of flames and secondaries. Sometimes lazy and other times very active.

You will need time to learn your stove too.

Great stove you got!

Bill
 
My 30 likes to cruise at 550-600 stovetop and 325-350 stack (single wall) and that gives us enough heat to be more than comfortable with "summer attire." I never just rely on secondaries, I always have some flames coming off the splits.
 
It will take a while to learn the difference in burning from the Defiant. The are very different stoves. Also, the Defiant is a highly radiant stove off of all surfaces. The 30N will be more radiant off of the front and top, so it will feel different even when putting out the same amount of btus as the Defiant. Still, it sounds like you are getting some nice fires already. Pretty soon you will be burning like a pro again.

One big difference, besides the lack of bypass is the manual air control. How are you setting this control at various stages of the fire?
 
I did back down the primary on the first full load, once it hit 500. In trying to get the temps up I turned the fan on and went to full open. The top never exceeded 450 during that period. Loaded a couple larger splits of Hickory/Oak and left the air wide open again. It never got over 500. It has been very windy today, temps around 40. Right now I am trying to burn off the coals in preparation for the overnight load.
 
Full open will make the stove run cooler and will eat up more wood. Once the fire gets fully engaged, reduce the air in 50% stages, each half of the previous one, every 5-10 minutes. The stove top will get hotter because you are cutting back primary air, which will increase draw through the secondary manifold. You want to back down the primary air enough so that the flames just start to get lazy. Then leave it. The fire will regain some steam and secondary burning will get stronger. Many of us run with the air control all the way closed or almost so. And leave the blower off until it hits 600-650, then run on low or medium speed.
 
So once the 500 mark is met on startup/new load, the object is to find secondary burn only? It seemed that when I did that, the secondaries went out and there was no ignition whatsoever.
 
What BeGreen said. With the 30 a lot of us find that where it loves to run is with the tip of the air control either right even with the front edge of the ash lip or either side of that depending on your draft.
 
mywaynow said:
So once the 500 mark is met on startup/new load, the object is to find secondary burn only? It seemed that when I did that, the secondaries went out and there was no ignition whatsoever.

Sounds like it was closed a bit too far too soon. If that happens, reopen the air a little way until the fire reignites. It's ok if there are some lazy flames on the wood too. It doesn't have to be burning only at the secondaries. This will take a little practice, but after a few tries you will find the right setting and it will be repeatable for most fires with the same wood.
 
If your secondaries want to go out at a temp like 500 degrees you might have some wet wood issues.
 
Yeah you close it all the way down you will get the light show for a while and hot stove top temps but when that ends so does everything and you end up with a firebox full of smoldering splits. Until it gets a firebox full of gases and then "boom". You are looking for a balance of flame off the load and burning of the gases up top when you are setting up a large load.

How tall is the pipe on that thing?
 
Single wall off the stove is up 40 inches, over 14 to the thimble and then up 23 feet of double wall insulated stainless.
 
That should give ya near perfect draft for it.
 
BeGreen said:
Full open will make the stove run cooler and will eat up more wood. Once the fire gets fully engaged, reduce the air in 50% stages, each half of the previous one, every 5-10 minutes. The stove top will get hotter because you are cutting back primary air, which will increase draw through the secondary manifold. You want to back down the primary air enough so that the flames just start to get lazy. Then leave it. The fire will regain some steam and secondary burning will get stronger. Many of us run with the air control all the way closed or almost so. And leave the blower off until it hits 600-650, then run on low or medium speed.


I have been getting pretty good performance with my stove but after reading this post I tweaked my stove adjustments just a hair and it has kicked the stove's performance into the stratosphere. The biggest thing is to keep the fan off until you reach 600 and to get the stove blazing with the primary all the way or nearly all the way closed. The stove needs to get to at least 550 before the "turbo secondaries" begin, when the primary is all the way closed and there are lazy but very active secondaries with very little flame on the logs and the temp keeps climbing. I've have this before but it was hit or miss. Now I can get this condition consistently. We're getting our first cold spell of the season in a couple of days, so the timing couldn't be better!
 
I ran a full load at 6 pm last night and let the secondaries run more actively. Loaded coals all to one side and ran logs parallel at base level, then crossed direction and finished filling the box. 7 logs total, with 2 larger on the bottom level. I got good secondaries on the load for 2 hours, then she calmed down a bit. Adjusted the primary to allow more air and let it go. 6 am this morning had enough coal to rearrange and start another burn. Granted the incoming storm brought temps up to 47 this morning, but the house made 73 degrees at 6 am. I feel there is progress there, but am still reluctant to claim victory until I see real cold weather.
 
What was your stove top temp for those 2 hours of good secondaries? Do you know your stove pipe temp about 12-18" up?

Just curious sounds like your getting the hang of it. Good job!
 
Top was 625, flu 410. When it calmed down the top was 450, flu 300. Flu temp is taken 12 inches up.
 
If you house is cold with a 650 stove temp then you either need more insulation/air sealing ect, or a bigger stove. Id go with the insulation.
 
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