RSF Onyx doghouse mod

[LLigetfa]

The doghouse on the RSF takes unregulated room air from a 3/8ths inch hole. The Onyx I had in my former home had exceptional draft and too large a notch in the butterfly that regulates airwash and secondary the air. I think the notch was to prevent turning the stove down too much for EPA approval, but that is another story. The result was that it was hard to control the minimum burn with the doghouse injecting unregulated air at the coals so what I did then was reduce the hole to 1/4". The down side of reducing the air through the doghouse was that I had excessive coaling in very cold weather.

That was then and this is now. In my current home I have a much shorter chimney, less draft, and a smaller notch in the butterfly. This resulted in too much coal buildup so I drilled out the hole to 5/8" which helped with the coaling but raised the minimum burn, so I had fewer coals in the morning. I decided to allow even more air to burn down coals and add a control so I could regulate the doghouse air. I drilled the hole out to 7/8" so that I could fit a 3/4" copper pipe into it. I fashioned a sliding valve that I could best describe to be like a piston on a 2 cycle engine. As the piston slides down, it exposes ports on the sides allowing more air in and sliding it up closes them.

I am very impressed with the results and now have much better control over the fire.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

It takes some confidence to alter the stove rathher than chimney, pipe damper, etc- but it may be the most elegant solution. I have controled coaling with juicious use of pine after/with my oak.

 

[LLigetfa]

It takes some confidence to alter the stove...

The first mod was quite reversible. I saw how the doghouse air fed the fire and it was a simple mod to jam a piece of pipe with an OD of 3/8ths and an ID of 1/4" and monitor the results.

Even going the opposite direction on my second stove, was reversible. The drilled out hole could be returned to its original size by shoving a bushing with the appropriate OD/ID in the hole.

BTW, the solution the dealer was proposing involved replacing the butterfly with one that had a different size notch cut out of it. That would have involved removing drywall to get access to the OAK.