Should I be worried?? picture

[ckarotka]

This is after about an hour into the burn. All controllable air has been shut off 100% The pipe thermo is at 350 and the stove top is at 550. I noticed since the outside temp dropped I have less control as expected but this is one piece of hard wood the rest is soft. Dried to 18-20% Do I have a leak or is this normal secondary burning??

 

[Jack Straw]

How long has the air been shut off? My stove will do the same thing for about ten minutes if you shut the air off all of a sudden. You need to do it gradually. I do it on purpose somtimes cause it looks cool, but it's probably not the best way to burn.

 

[Corey]

Hard to see any secondaries, really...though if the wood is charred well, they always seem to diminish. Even harder to see evidence of a leak. 550/350 is nothing to worry about. ...Well, I might worry that it was burning a little cold and what's going to happen when the real chill sets in late Jan/ early Feb.

 

[BrotherBart]

You can't completely shut the primary air down on a EPA stove. They are engineered to not let you smolder a fire so there are unregulated air intakes in all of'em.

 

[ckarotka]

You can't completely shut the primary air down on a EPA stove. They are engineered to not let you smolder a fire so there are unregulated air intakes in all of'em.

I know there is still air coming in but I have closed all the air intakes that I can control.
I guess it was some premature posting because about ten min after it started to come down some
I am still not used these temps. The last three years I have run this stove wrong until I found this site.
Now I'm running correctly with good wood and monitoring temps. My main concern is when is 5f outside and I fill it full of good hardwood will it runaway on me even if I start turning in down in time. Here's my normal operation:
reload from a good coal base at 250 stove top air open 100%
pipe temp around 300f close to 50% air
stove top climbs to 400f close air to 25%
stove climbs to 450f close air to 0%
sit back and wait to see how hot it gets?
The highest I've seen so far is 575f but the flue stays around 300-350f

 

[begreen]

Sounds like you're getting the hang of it. I'm suspecting that when it's 5 °F outside, you will be happy with a stove top at 650. It's why the emphasis on installing the stove properly, according to or exceeding mfg clearances and with good pipe. That way you don't start sweating till it passes 800. :ahhh:

 

[fossil]

I think you're burning just fine, and I think you're smart to be asking these sorts of questions. The pic looks to me to be one of a very nicely burning split. No worries. Rick

 

[ckarotka]

Sounds like you're getting the hang of it. I'm suspecting that when it's 5 °F outside, you will be happy with a stove top at 650. It's why the emphasis on installing the stove properly, according to or exceeding mfg clearances and with good pipe. That way you don't start sweating till it passes 800. :ahhh:

You just made me go and check the clearances since I installed this when I thought I knew everything :red:
I have more than what they want on both the back and sides, I guess I gave myself some leg room for the Ins Co.
I may have not known how to best operate it, but I didn't skimp on safety. All the Ins Co required was that it was installed per manufacturer specs, which is what I did and then some.

 

[Pagey]

I worry when my stove's not cruising at 600-650F.

 

[pen]

I am a picture junkie as they truly are worth more than 1k words.

Nice fire, nice job, thanks for sharing.

pen

 

[Pagey]

I am a picture junkie as they truly are worth more than 1k words.

Nice fire, nice job, thanks for sharing.

pen

Here you go, then, good sir knight. Some of teh "evil pine" burning in the Endeavor: :lol:

 

[BrotherBart]

I wanna play too. The 30-NC first fire of the 07-08 season.

 

[begreen]

From the maw of the beast! Bwahhaaahaahaa! Click to animate.

 

[pen]

Well, if we are going to leave yellow marks in the snow....

 

[carinya]

pre secondary burn tube machine needed a demon to rev it up

kent tile 86

 

[Hogwildz]

The soft woods will burn faster & hotter, your doing just fine. Enjoy

 

[northwinds]

Settling in for the night at 650 stove-top cruise temp.

 

[greythorn3]

man i wish my stove had a window so i could watch it burn too!

 

[av8roc]

You can't completely shut the primary air down on a EPA stove. They are engineered to not let you smolder a fire so there are unregulated air intakes in all of'em.

Thanks Bart that's good info. Last night I had my first good fire in the new insert and I was able to choke it down all the way with it still burning nicely. I was afraid my stove may have had a leak as well.

 

[lexybird]

From the maw of the beast! Bwahhaaahaahaa! Click to animate.

my thermostat jumped up a couple degrees just by watching that video ,looks like a toasty fire and a real nice flame show

 

[Valhalla]

It is like having the Aurora Borealis in
your stove!

A real light show.

 

[North of 60]

Ahum...And here is a boring CAT stove cruising at 700F with secondaries 1/2 hour into the turndown.

 

[ckarotka]

Thanks everyone. I finally got this operation down pretty good now I think. I seem to be getting the most out of this little stove. Top cruising around 550-600 and the pipe around 300-350 very consistantly for as long as I can.(still on soft wood) I still have to reload at about 4hrs but thats the stove size. I can reload at 6hrs but it has stopped putting out usable heat by then. The side wall only gets to 100f which is what I was concerned with. The back has a heat shield and a larger clearence than needed.
New IR thermo works great. But now I know my milk is to warm but the beer fridge is kickin'. The dog is warm enough after coming in from the cold and the floor is cold and needs insulated under my crawl space. The computer runs to hot and chicken soup is best served at 155.7f.

Happy and safe burning and Happy Holidays from the warm Karotka family