Runaway stove1

[sixman]

Okay I am new to wood burning and have been on here for a while and know what to look out for when loading a stove especially an EPA stove. However I just loaded my Lopi Endeavor with a light load of red coals in the bottom with some good super dry rounds. I had the secondary closed and the primary air shut all the way down after letting a good blaze get going and it just ran away. I am talking 800 when I noticed and made it up to 850 before I said screw it and put on some gloves and took all the wood out. I tried opening the bypass, hoping that it would let some of the wood gas go up the flue but it just kept climbing. With the primary closed, I could not get the fire to stop on the wood. Always before it would snuff the fire on the wood and move it up to the top but not this time. How do I prevent this? This is the place that I have found all my answers and I know it is operator error but a guy has to be able to load the stove before bed without fear of burning the house down and that does not seem possible after this.

 

[mrfjsf]

Silly question but do you have an ask door and pan on your stove? I had the same "sorta" thing happen to me the other day. What happened was a small piece of unburned wood coals from a previous burn got caught in the ash door when I cleaned the stove out, leaving just a 1/4" or less gap in the ash door. This caused my fire to burn out of control. Even with the air shut all the way, it still burned like an inferno. Just a thought...

 

[sixman]

No ash pan or OAK installed. Wondering if it may be the popcorn fart dry wood.

 

[vvvv]

try raking coals forward & load the stove from the back= dont put wood on coals

 

[johnstra]

Check gaskets and seams for leaks.

 

[sixman]

Brand new stove so I think It should be sealed ok but I will look underneath. I looked it over pretty good when I took it off the pallet.

 

[oldspark]

I'm a poor one to be giving advice but size of splits, type of wood and its dryness (popcorn fart in this case) all comes into play for the stove being too hot or not hot enough, you may have to adjust the amount or the size of the wood. I have been going through this with my new PE.

 

[iceman]

Okay I am new to wood burning and have been on here for a while and know what to look out for when loading a stove especially an EPA stove. However I just loaded my Lopi Endeavor with a light load of red coals in the bottom with some good super dry rounds. I had the secondary closed and the primary air shut all the way down after letting a good blaze get going and it just ran away. I am talking 800 when I noticed and made it up to 850 before I said screw it and put on some gloves and took all the wood out. I tried opening the bypass, hoping that it would let some of the wood gas go up the flue but it just kept climbing. With the primary closed, I could not get the fire to stop on the wood. Always before it would snuff the fire on the wood and move it up to the top but not this time. How do I prevent this? This is the place that I have found all my answers and I know it is operator error but a guy has to be able to load the stove before bed without fear of burning the house down and that does not seem possible after this.

Outside of any physical problems with your stove, it is possible that you Reloaded at to high of a temp or let it get to hot before closing it down....if everything is right I need to close my stove down at 350 and it will climb to 700 if I close it down higher it will peak out higher....
Also what kind of wood was it?
And try the dollar bill test it is not uncommon to find stoves that need minor adjusting right off the crate

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Brand new stove so I think It should be sealed ok but I will look underneath. I looked it over pretty good when I took it off the pallet.

Any stove can have some flaws when new. They simply do not inspect every stove so occasionally one will get through with a slight flaw. Case in point: Our wonderful Fireview is a jewel to own and heat with but it still had a slight flaw when new. One gasket had a small gap even before we lit the stove. Of course that was repaired rather easy and Woodstock sent even more gasket material than was needed along with glue. It took only a few minutes to replace the gasket and all was well. While one would not normally expect this sort of thing, it will still sometimes happen. After all, we are all human and subject to making mistakes and I perhaps am number 1 in that category.

 

[Battenkiller]

I tried opening the bypass, hoping that it would let some of the wood gas go up the flue but it just kept climbing.

Yeah, all that will do is let the air come in with less restriction and accelerate the burn. Which is what you found out. That's how we all learned.

Extremely dry wood can be difficult to control. IMO it takes just as much skill and experience as burning wet wood. Try mixing in some less seasoned wood to help regulate the burn.

Personally, I wouldn't go dragging wood out of a hot stove at 850º. I've had my stove top get that hot on numerous occasions and have it suddenly level off. That's not a runaway fire. Sure, it was 100º hotter than recommended, but an episode here and there ain't gonna fry your stove. A good stove should be designed in such a way as to prevent a true runaway fire. It pays to find out just where it will level off. Now, if it gets red and starts going to orange... :ahhh:

 

[Pagey]

What temps are you letting it get to before you start closing the bypass and dialing back the primary air?

 

[jharkin]

Definately check for leaks. Use the dollar bill test on all the gaskets and if that's ok light a small fire and then go all around the stove with an incense stick or a smouldering match looking to see if any air is being sucked in the seams.

 

[sixman]

Pagey and Iceman hit the nail on the head. I let the stove get too hot before closing it down. I had reloaded the stove with a bed of coals, left the draft open to get the wood lit. My chair is in a position that I can not see the stove and I was watching game 2 of the WS, stove was at 800 before I knew it. Closing it down did not slow the temps so at 850 + I started unloading it. Not a fun thing to do but wasn't sure what else to do. The wood that I am burning is oak and mesquite that is at least 5 years old. I have lots more wood that was cut this last spring that seems to be dry enough to burn, I may swicth over to that and save the old stuff for the BBQ/smoker. Can wood be just too dry for a new EPA stove?

 

[iceman]

Pagey and Iceman hit the nail on the head. I let the stove get too hot before closing it down. I had reloaded the stove with a bed of coals, left the draft open to get the wood lit. My chair is in a position that I can not see the stove and I was watching game 2 of the WS, stove was at 800 before I knew it. Closing it down did not slow the temps so at 850 + I started unloading it. Not a fun thing to do but wasn't sure what else to do. The wood that I am burning is oak and mesquite that is at least 5 years old. I have lots more wood that was cut this last spring that seems to be dry enough to burn, I may swicth over to that and save the old stuff for the BBQ/smoker. Can wood be just too dry for a new EPA stove?

Yes and no , if its real dry you must adjust your air accordingly ....mix in some 1-2 year old wood with the 5 year old

 

[Pagey]

I have my bypass damper shut anywhere between 250 at the low end and 400F at the high end. As soon as I close the bypass, I cut the primary air about 1/3 on a load of oak, and 1/2 on a load of pine. I like to make my final (or nearly final) adjustment to the primary air when the stove is between 500F and 600F.

 

[Troutchaser]

I'll bet sixman was watching the bottom of the eighth when that stove got away from him. ;-)

 

[Treacherous]

I'm not sure what happened. Do you have the fan on your stove? I find when mine gets really hot I can drop it 100-150 degrees pretty fast if fan is turned on.

 

[thewoodlands]

Okay I am new to wood burning and have been on here for a while and know what to look out for when loading a stove especially an EPA stove. However I just loaded my Lopi Endeavor with a light load of red coals in the bottom with some good super dry rounds. I had the secondary closed and the primary air shut all the way down after letting a good blaze get going and it just ran away. I am talking 800 when I noticed and made it up to 850 before I said screw it and put on some gloves and took all the wood out. I tried opening the bypass, hoping that it would let some of the wood gas go up the flue but it just kept climbing. With the primary closed, I could not get the fire to stop on the wood. Always before it would snuff the fire on the wood and move it up to the top but not this time. How do I prevent this? This is the place that I have found all my answers and I know it is operator error but a guy has to be able to load the stove before bed without fear of burning the house down and that does not seem possible after this.

We have the Lopi Liberty, last year it shot up around 750 with some dry sugar maple and held.(Had to close the air down) I did two things wrong, the first was not letting the coals burn down, the second was loading more sugar maple in then it needed.


We burn our coals down around 300-350 stove top temperature then load in the wood. This year our wood is dryer so once it gets going after the reload I'll close the air down about 3/4 and it will burn around 650-700.

zap

 

[sixman]

My stove was hot, the Rangers, not so much.

 

[havermeyer]

My stove was hot, the Rangers, not so much.

Hopefully they can turn it around.... Regardless, it was nice seeing them take care of the Yanks!

 

[nate379]

I don't see how 800* is anything to worry about.

Right now my stove is on low burn from a load of wood I put in there this morning, about 6hrs ago and the stove top temp is 450*.

I have gotten stoves and stove pipes hot to the point they were cherry red before. No, not on purpose, but that for sure was way over 800*!

 

[ispinwool]

I don't see how 800* is anything to worry about.

Right now my stove is on low burn from a load of wood I put in there this morning, about 6hrs ago and the stove top temp is 450*.

I have gotten stoves and stove pipes hot to the point they were cherry red before. No, not on purpose, but that for sure was way over 800*!

wow...I've got some real learnin' to do! 450* 6 hours after loading!! I need to keep reading!--I'm still not doing
something right.