reloading the stove - bang !

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rustynut

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
Jan 5, 2008
377
mid mich
loading the stove on a bed of coals with all air open & without a load of paper & kinling to relight the fire, I have experienced a kind of what sounds like mini explosion at the point of ignition (flame on / think ) ???
after walking away
i've heard this a couple of times and not paid too much attention to it...
I'm wondering if this is something that should be avoided as even a mini ignition explosion might generate pressures within the system
high enough to dislodge one of the pipe joints ?
set up is 6ft of single wall & 8ft of class A vertical run
anyone had this experience ?
no problems as of yet - just an observation
something to be concerned about ?
what do you think ?
rustynut
 
Those three screws at each pipe joint are there for exactly that reason. You do have three screws at each pipe joint don't you?

Personally I light a little scrap of paper and throw it in to ignite the stuff.
 
I assume this must be a different sound than say poplar exploding apart? Is the door still cracked open when this happens?
 
You are probably getting a small build up of flamable gasses that accumulate before the reignition. I think Bart's tip will solve the issue. I usually am so slow reloading that I get some ignition before the door is closed.
 
HUH? goes bang just like that...I dunno. That can't be any good though.
 
Saw some posts last year about people with slammers or stubby liners having this explosion blow their surround panels off their insert.
 
Blow there surronds off now id like to see that.haha
 
Sometimes you reload a bunch of splits onto a nice bed of coals and they just sit there, thinking about it for a while. Then they begin to smoke and smolder and think harder about it. If you have the door shut and the air still closed down from the previous burn cycle, you're gonna build up a nice flammable mixture of gases in that box that's just lookin' fer an excuse to burst into flame, big time. Sooner or later, if you do nothing at all, it'll find one. Whenever I reload I watch for a while. If it catches flame right away, shut the door and adjust the air and go about my business. If it doesn't catch immediately, I leave the door cracked and watch it. Sometimes I'll go in with a lighter and get it going...takes nothing. The wood's already outgassing, ready to burn. The more you let that build up in your firebox, the bigger the "whump" is gonna be when it finally decides to combust. If the wood's just sitting in there on hot coals and the box is filling with smoke, it's time to very carefully open that thing up and give it a flame and some oxygen...and I mean carefully. Rick
 
i had it happen to me. i threw in 3 or 4 handfuls of oak floor cut offs on coals before my splits when i open the door to check, poof. almost burnt off my eyebrows. flames came out the door at me.
 
well thanks for the confirmation
yeh screws are in and the class A is twist locked
that bang just surprised me
happened a couple of times
thought it was my imagination the first time
i'll be sure to put the flame to it before i walk away........
rn
 
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