Scary moment last night. Ended up with burnt arm hairs.

[Mr. Jones]

Just cleaned my old stove's ashes out yesterday morning. It's cold here, so I'm running her fast as can be, with really light dry cotton wood, since that's what I have. I seem to have this re occurring problem of coals building up fast since this old lopi isn't very deep. I'm scratching my head at some of the newer models that are even shallower with a simple ash pan. I hate this double door design when it comes to pieces falling against the glass, and me wanting to move it off the glass. Every time, large chunks fall out, and then block both doors. This time, the wood was at it's highest gassing point, all charcoaled out since I was running it super low. Well, I tried to slam it shut when they fell out, since the fire instantly filled the box. I panicked, and got it sort of shut, but not completely by slamming it on the coals blocking both doors. There was still some air getting to the wood/coals. Well, it went down enough to try it again. 3 or 4 large chunks out on the ash pan and in between the doors, filling the room with that charcoal smell.

As soon as I opened the door, WHOOOF. A large fireball blast out at me, singing arm hairs, and blowing some coals out. Jesus. Next time I think I'll just let the wood/coal chill on the glass if it falls toward it. You know, I never once had this problem in my old 82 ish king insert. The ash depth on that thing was like half a foot or more. Also, the door opened from top to bottom, so I never once had a problem with coals or ashes dumping out. I'm thinking of just adding a steel plate in there to deepen the ash pan in my current stove. Any of you done something like this on your newer stoves with single side opening doors?

Another safety tip. I'm going to always have my gloves/mits on while opening the door when there's a lot of coals/ashes built up to be ready for this next time.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like a puffback as the wood gases reignited. I'm glad you weren't injured. Is this an E/W only loading stove? Can you add your stove make and model to your signature line?

 

[Mr. Jones]

Sounds like a puffback as the wood gases reignited. I'm glad you weren't injured. Is this an E/W only loading stove? Can you add your stove make and model to your signature line?

It's the old lopi FL model with double doors, for the time being, until I figure out which stove I'm going with, and save enough dough to get it professionally installed. Thanks for the suggestions last night of the three stoves. I've had it do this before, but I didn't have the immediate danger of not being able to close the doors properly due to ashes on the ashpan. Little panic around midnight. I put this in this forum instead of the older stoves to see if anyone with a newer stove have made a plate like I was talking about to make their ash pan deeper, to avoid this problem that seems like it may be even worse on some newer models with basically no depth whatsoever for ashes.

 

[HisTreeNut]

One thing to keep in mind about the newer stoves, while they do have "less area" for ash if you are burning them correctly, they burn much more thoroughly than older stoves. I have been burning almost everyday since the beginning of November & I have very little ash. I have a 5 gallon ash bucket and I have filled it once and right now it is maybe 1/4 full. I have been burning fires mainly at night and had only a few days where we burned 24/7 [granted, I do live in a milder climate and we are not into "winter" yet so that may change some]. Just something to consider when get to the point of getting a new stove.

 

[begreen]

When looking at new inserts look for those that allow N/S loading (wood parallel to the sides of the stove). That will eliminate logs rolling up against the door.

 

[branchburner]

As soon as I opened the door, WHOOOF. A large fireball blast out at me, singing arm hairs, and blowing some coals out.

Probably because you were trying to burn so slow/low... to avoid this, you want all the unburnt gasses to reignite BEFORE you open the door, so fully open the air supply and/or damper to get active flames and get the fire burning a bit hotter first. Then crack the door open slowly for a few seconds before swinging it wide open.

This sort of backpuff "explosion" can happen with newer or with older stoves, whenever they are run in a manner where the unburnt gasses are allowed to build up... usually by restricting air or draft and burning low.

 

[fire_man]

Does the Lopi FL have andirons that don't work well to keep burned logs from rolling into the glass, or is purely a coal buildup problem?

 

[rwhite]

Looking at your stove manual it seems as though your stove is 2 bricks length wise deep and 5 across. so about 18" D x 20" W. If this is the case I would definitely load N/S. The problem with loading E/W is that the air intake is normally at the front of the stove and burns that log the fastest causing all the others to roll forward.

Also, is this a slammer install that may not be drafting well? You may need to open the damper then the air intake and let it stabilize for a few minutes before opening the doors. Opening and closing doors really quickly will cause most any stove to backpuff. I feel your pain with cottonwood, I have the same issue with white fir. Lot of coals but no heat. I try and only ever put about 1-2 splits and mix with D-fir or cedar so that burns down properly. But if that's all you got then you have to make do.

 

[Mr. Jones]

Looking at your stove manual it seems as though your stove is 2 bricks length wise deep and 5 across. so about 18" D x 20" W. If this is the case I would definitely load N/S. The problem with loading E/W is that the air intake is normally at the front of the stove and burns that log the fastest causing all the others to roll forward.

Also, is this a slammer install that may not be drafting well? You may need to open the damper then the air intake and let it stabilize for a few minutes before opening the doors. Opening and closing doors really quickly will cause most any stove to backpuff. I feel your pain with cottonwood, I have the same issue with white fir. Lot of coals but no heat. I try and only ever put about 1-2 splits and mix with D-fir or cedar so that burns down properly. But if that's all you got then you have to make do.

I pull the damper open before opening the doors, and smoke still comes out sometimes, but not as bad as when I used to forget to open the damper. It's upstairs, so the draft isn't as good as the one downstairs. When loading, I have to only open one door, and only open it as far as I can squeeze a piece of wood in to keep the smoke from filling the room.

 

[Mr. Jones]

Does the Lopi FL have andirons that don't work well to keep burned logs from rolling into the glass, or is purely a coal buildup problem?

It was a coal buildup. I could have just let it go, but I was heading to bed, and was wanting to load it up as much as I could so I'd still have coals in the morning. This cotton wood burns up fast.

 

[fire_man]

The only Cottonwood I ever burned went straight to fine ash with no coaling. Can't even light a new load with the remains.