Too hot plus no over night burn.

[manooti]

I have the US Stove 2000 and having a couple of problems. It gets waay too hot in the house with just half a load I'm at 80 degrees in the house and 75 degrees on the second floor, 350 flue temp. Then I try to damper it down and it smoulders with smoke out the chimney. Have to keep playing with the damper. When I get a good bed of coals or think the wood is ready to be set for over night or prolonged burn I end up with unused chunks of wood.

If I set the damper closed it goes out. If i set it half way its too much air. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I have 1 year old split wood and compared with kiln dried wood. No difference.
I dont know what I missed.

I also checked the flap on the damper control. When its fully closed its very tiny. I'm guessing about 1/8 of an inch gap for air when fully closed. It feels like its completely closed off though. The chimney is about 18 feet vertical with 2 elbows. 1 above stove and the other outside. 3 feet horizontal. Its defintely sucking it up the flue because when i open the door nothing back drafts.

I just ran it hot between 400-500 surface temp and tried shutting it down, same thing. Too hot in house and some smoke out the top. Not like my neighbors smoke dragon though.

Its like my only option is 1/2 way and dont sleep.

 

[begreen]

What happens if you try in between say at 25 or 30%?

What species wood are you burning? Oak?

 

[manooti]

yeah its oak. it seems like its not enough air and smoulders. maybe not enough wood? im afraid to put too much wood because it gets way too hot

 

[rijim]

The place to start is with a meter to check moisture content; take one of your splits, spit it again and test the inside section of the split. You indicated that you have tried kiln dried wood; was that a full load or was it mixed with the 1yr oak?
Jim

 

[kennyp2339]

Manooti - Once you have established your wood moisture content, take a close look at the stove, make sure the door gaskets are still good (yes they can be damaged from the Chinese factory) make sure the ash plug is in tight, make sure your baffle board is moves all the way to the back of the stove.
These stoves are pretty finicky when it comes to burning hard wood, they like wood with a moisture content between 15% and 23% (I use to run its big brother the 2500)
Your chimney setup to sounds pretty good but you may want to experiment with installing a key damper (I did on mine) to slow the draft down a little bit more, especially when it gets real cold out and draft increases.
I'm assuming your close to a tractor supply so if your wood is not up to par you may want to consider mixing in some compressed wood blocks (redstones) That may help with allowing you to shut the air control more than half to keep your burns cleaner, more heat in the stove and longer burn times.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'm curious about the wood MC.

 

[xman23]

Your burning oak, which we have a lot of in PA, It does take 2-3-4 years to make it sweet. But burn what you got, and learn how to do it. Smoldering splits that go out are normally wet wood. But wet wood can be burned. In general, get a real hot stove before thinking about choking it down. Maintaining a bed of coals and hot enough stove should keep the splits burning until there coaling. Keeping the stove running is only half the job. The second half is maintaining a comfortable house. You know you got it when you think a thermostat is controlling the temperature. Both are moving targets as your wood changes and the outside temperature fluctuates. It's the shoulder season so over heating the house is easy to do. And all night burns may take multiple small reloads. Don't get discouraged, It will get easier as the wood get better (next year or two) and you learn how to do it. Experiment.

 

[manooti]

Thanks everyone for the help guys. I wasn't sure about shoulder season. I have a thermometer outside at I try to light it when it's 30s and obviously lower.

The stove is air tight. The wood was seasoned from my supplier which is my neighbour. He gave me his stash and didn't use it last year. I just tested it and it's 11 percent.

I just cut up a tree that fell and that was red oak. Dead and measured 17-23 percent. Fresh splits.

I was just thinking about it and maybe I wasn't getting it really hot when getting started. Takes about 20 minutes for flue to get to 400. Then I back it down.

Should I try loading up with kindling to get it hot then when it's all coals add the large splits?

The procedures are confusing. Top lighting or coals to front. Top light and coals to front. I don't know which to do.

Last night I did coals to front. NS load then WE load on top with kindling on top. Front bottom lit but the kindling on top burst into flames later lol. It was cool to watch but it didn't seem right

I tried separate loads of kiln dried and from wood pile. The kiln dried did light up quicker but still had smoke when damped it down. How much smoke is too much or should be none at all?

 

[begreen]

Top lighting with kindling is for a cold start. Coals to front is for reloading. The reload may not need any kindling, or just a skinny split up front on the coals. It depends on the size of the remaining coal bed.

 

[manooti]

here it is at half way but there is smoke. what am i doing wrong? pipe temp was around 400

 

[begreen]

That looks pretty nice. You might be able to cut down the air a bit more, but the secondary combustion looks good.

What do you mean by halfway? Half way through the burn or air control at half way? Are you sure that is smoke and not steam? Is it white colored?

 

[manooti]

Thanks. its half way on the damper control and the smoke is always white. Never had brown or black smoke. Neighbors do but I never saw anything like that from mine.

Steam would still turn to creosote?

 

[begreen]

Try shutting down the air a bit further, maybe to 25%.

Water vapor is present in wood burning. The cap may get a bit tarry if the chimney cools down the flue gases too much, but maybe not. You will know better with your next chimney cleaning.

 

[bholler]

The wood was seasoned from my supplier which is my neighbour. He gave me his stash and didn't use it last year. I just tested it and it's 11 percent.

I see you are in pa. I would like to know how the wood was seasoned to 11% There is no way you will get wood that low simply air drying in PA. Our relative humidity is just too high I have a feeling your meter is wrong or you are testing incorrectly.

 

[kennyp2339]

Thanks. its half way on the damper control and the smoke is always white

White = steam, you know how to use the meter, in case other are reading this you take a room temperature piece and split it in half, on the fresh split face going with the grain insert your meter probes, push them in hard (you want the probes stuck in the wood, but not so hard that you break the meter) and take the reading..if you have a cheapo meter like me, make sure its set to wood and not masonry.

 

[manooti]

Sorry haven't replied. Too much work. I'll check later on in the day and report back. I hope I messed up the reading and don't have a broken meter.

I just lit up the stove and stove top went to 590 while flu was between 300-400. I'm using an ir laser thermometer to check. Flu temps change drastically right above and below flu thermometer. It's a surface thermometer.

Right in front of the flu collar it hit 590 and when I move there is a difference of over 100 degrees. Is that safe? No visible smoke.

What freakin wood is this lol. It's half a load. 25 degrees outside.

 

[begreen]

Those temps sound normal. As it gets colder outside draft strength will increase.

 

[manooti]

when the draft increases does the flu warm up as much as the stove or will the flue never be as hot as the stove and will the stove get hotter?

 

[begreen]

Depends on several factors including the operator and the stage of the fire. Early on the flue temp may exceed or match the stove top temp as the stove top warms up. And then, some stoves run hotter or cooler flues than others.

 

[manooti]

Depends on several factors including the operator and the stage of the fire. Early on the flue temp may exceed or match the stove top temp as the stove top warms up. And then, some stoves run hotter or cooler flues than others.

I see. What is a symptom of bad draft?
I think I have a strong draft because flu sucked up paper napkin when I installed it. A sheet of paper is held on it by draft too.

I'm overthinking it

 

[begreen]

Yup, sounds like strong draft. Weak draft will lead to poor heat. The stove will act like it's starving for air.

 

[brenndatomu]

when the draft increases does the flu warm up as much as the stove or will the flue never be as hot as the stove and will the stove get hotter?

If you are measuring the pipe temp externally just know that it is roughly double that temp internally.
To answer your question, more draft means that very likely the stove and pipe both will be hotter yet

 

[kennyp2339]

Perhaps too strong of a draft, possible key damper needed, also check your baffle board, there pretty flimsy in those stoves, make sure its not cracked and pushed all the way to the back of the stove

 

[manooti]

Thanks for the replies. Its starting to make sense now. Seems like too strong of a draft. Now that its getting colder its harder to control.
I retested the moisture and its roughly the same. Either I didnt let it soak the heat inside long enough or I should stop using harbor freight stuff.

Right now its in the high teens and I cant get the stove to run like in the video. Too much air pushing over the wood/fire/coals. I have it at 1/4 way in to the closed position and its still too much air and then it does a 180 and the fire goes out. At 1/2 way you can see the flames being pushed by the air a lot.

The baffle is glued to the tubes and still seems intact. All the way to the back.

Also got the stovetop to 760 and starting climbing. Flue surface temp was between 400-450. Does that make sense?

 

[begreen]

Close the air down sooner and close it down all the way if the fire is still robust.