T5 pipe damper

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marreque

Member
Hearth Supporter
Feb 22, 2010
110
Fall River, Massachusetts
will installing a pipe damper increase my overnight burn times? and or my burn time day or nite??
 
Probably not unless you have excessive draft. It will increase your opportunities to space out another control. (Don't ask how I know. :smirk: )
 
not sure if its excessive or not, but it seems like if i load up at 10 pm its just bout out by 5am
 
I would expect better. Is the air control being closed all the way? How tall is the flue? What size are the splits being burned?
 
good size splits. and how can i tell if the air is shut down all the way? is it adjustable?
 
BeGreen said:
Probably not unless you have excessive draft. It will increase your opportunities to space out another control. (Don't ask how I know. :smirk: )


I'll just add some more wood and... what the hell is with the smoke?!... oh yeah. :red:

Also, I have a pipe damper on the Vig and the Heritage. I have pretty strong drafts here and the pipe damper slows down the burn on the Heritage with out kicking it in to smolder mode.
 
marreque said:
good size splits. and how can i tell if the air is shut down all the way? is it adjustable?

Flue height is not the issue. That should be fine. What do you call good size splits, how many inches across the face? When the air control is all the way to the right it is shut down as far as it can go.

It would be good for you to describe how you run the stove including the amount of wood, size of splits, loading direction, air control setting at various stages, etc.. It sounds like you are not getting the full benefits of the stove yet. Maybe we can spot something. Also, do you have a stove top or flue thermometer?
 
4-6" across. same with rounds.
i'll let is get going on high then lower down in 3-4 incriments till im all the wat down to the lowest setting.
 
That's fair enough and should work, though you should be able to burn larger splits 6-9" for longer burns. Try with 6" splits tightly packed so that there is little air space between the splits. What type wood do you have this season?
 
so it sounds like your telling me not to install the damper. am i rite?
 
marreque said:
cherry, oak and maple.

What type of burn times are you getting?
 
7 hrs, and thats stretching it to find enough coals to restart a fire
 
marreque said:
7 hrs, and thats stretching it to find enough coals to restart a fire


Sounds about right on a 2 cu ft stove. Adding a damper will not do much in this case.
 
i was really hoping for round 10hrs. live n learn, when u find something that is just rite, get the next size up.
 
if i do decide to put a damper how far up on the pipe should it be? measuring from the stove top?
 
marreque said:
if i do decide to put a damper how far up on the pipe should it be? measuring from the stove top?


It varies. On the Heritage it is only a couple of inches from the flue collar. On the Vigilant it is 24 inches. On my Neighbor's Fireview it is a little further than that and on my father in-law's Heritage it is about 36 inches.
 
marreque said:
i was really hoping for round 10hrs. live n learn, when u find something that is just rite, get the next size up.


I can relate. I have a disconnected Intrepid sitting next to the Encore I just installed.
 
i have intrepid sitting in basement. so how can i find out the distance i need?
 
marreque said:
i have intrepid sitting in basement. so how can i find out the distance i need?


I'm sorry, varies was the wrong way to describe it. "It depends" is more accurate. It depends upon you pipe setup. With the Heritage a few inches above the flue collar was the best option. With the Vigilant I had more space to play with so the damper is more at eye level. With the neighbor and father in-law, they both had bends that they were working around.
 
marreque said:
i was really hoping for round 10hrs. live n learn, when u find something that is just rite, get the next size up.

That's a reasonable expectation. Our next door neighbor regularly gets 10+ hrs on soft maple and fir with his Spectrum. The season is early and often there is a learning curve with a new stove. What stove top temps are you seeing? We had one poster a couple years back that found his T5 door out of alignment. Have you checked the door alignment and gasket sealing with the dollar bill test?
 
i have not checked the door. how does the dollar bill test work? thank you
 
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