What should I do? Overfire w/ air control on low.

[good news tuna]

I had the same problem, read this thread

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/86103/

 

[Proud Sub Vet]

I keep a pail of ashes on the back porch so if this were to happen to me I could dump some ashes on the fire to help smolder it.

Wow - that's why you're the minister of fire - excellent idea about the 'pail of ashes' thing!!

 

[Proud Sub Vet]

LOL.... I almost spit my coffee on the computer :lol:

I DID SPIT MY COFFEE ON THE COMPUTER!

 

[mfetcho]

I'm not sure about too much coal after 9 hours. Play with shutting your stove down sooner. I have the T6 and haven't used my ash chute yet and I don't plan to. I think it is hoky. I have been burning since October and I have only scooped out ash once! Shut your stove down at 400 and see what it does.

 

[Charles1981]

I think the ash pan leaking is a good possibility.

On my stove any leak in the ash pan would lead to a massive over fire. I have had the ash pan and door open before and the bellows effect is not created very significantly. But leave the ash pan door open and then close the front doors and WOOOSH the fire takes off. That could explain why the stove actually cooled down with the door open, and why you stove is taking off like that with the front door closed.

I would set off some incense or use a flame and look for leaks around the ash pan. (Can you HEAR the fire roaring?)

 

[loon]

I have the T5 and i know 'Messing" around with a stove isnt for everyone..But i found out after buying it that the air when fully closed left quite a large gap?
Ended up grabbing the Dremal and made a groove to have it shut pretty much tight which works great for dropping the flames down quick.

You will need a mirror and a cool stove and it isnt all that hard to do.

After reading here on the board last year i have never used the ash dump just for the reasons said on your thread plus its quicker just to use a large steel shovel

loon

 

[Beer Belly]

Yep its been mentioned before and works like a champ I guess.

I got this one covered

 

[DanCorcoran]

"Thermo is on the step below the air path. And anyway the IR gun said the same thing.

Dropped like a rock. I have a thermo on the side of the firebox to give me real firebox temp. It has been steady at 525 the whole time."


I agree. My blower is mounted at the bottom rear of stove, blowing air upwards inside the rear heat shield. It causes the stovetop reading, in front of flue collar, to drop quickly. I use the blower more as a safety valve than I do for heating the room (which is to say, i seldom use it).

 

[Nocattom]

I'm still very much a novice woodburner. We've had our stove (Alderlea T-5) for about 2 months. This morning I put in a big hunk of (split) wood and a smaller split. Once it was up to around 500 I cut the air control down halfway. After 5 minutes the temp was still climbing, so I cut the air all the way down. The temp still climbed. It was up to 800 and I couldn't cut the air off any more than it already was. I have noticed that our stove lights much better when the door is closed, so I opened the door wide to let some heat out, and was able to get the temp back down to 600. As soon as I shut the door the temp started climbing again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So my questions are:

1. What could I have done to avoid this?
2. What should I do if this happens again? Was it ok to open the door?

Hay wild one, ya ash door is a joke, dont use it. The T5 is a great stove though. Let her run a full cycle, that is from start-up to coal down. That for me is around 8 to 11 hours. I don't reload until with the coals raked forward, the air control lever opened up half way to get all the heat out of them (this is only right before reloading,last half hour or so)and the IR gun reading on the cook top in the 250f to 300f rang.

I have noticed I get allot more control of the stove with a full load. I believe this to be simply because there is less air in a stove that is full. Use large,med and small splits. To many smalls can be a problem.

I used to many small splits and she was at 750f fast. Used a flat fridge magnet and placed it were loon shows his mod in his pic to slow down the primary air. The stove dose peak in the 700eds some times before a good cruise.

I think you did a great job for the situation you had (probably the ash door?)

get yer wood on!

 

[eclecticcottage]

This thread has brought up some interesting thoughts for me...

So...is an overfire the heat inside the stove, or on the top? With the concern about cooling the top temps it seems like it's focused on the top (run the blower, etc), but what is an overfire effecting? It's really about the whole stove, right?

We run our blower pretty much all the time. Our set up isn't condusive to floor fans (narrow hallway/doorways) and the blower helps move the air down the hall into the kitchen/dining room. So our top temps might stay lower because it's running. I've got the thermo set in the middle but back a little-if you look at the Republic it's got a "second" top stepped back from the front. The blower blows air out of the two sides but not the middle (where the flue is) so the thermo is set so not as much air can blow on it.

Last night it pegged at 800 with the blower on. No glowing at all. DH was concerned. We tried opening the door. It did break the secondaries some, but it also created an even better draft (it was a bit windy and that always makes for a really good draft) and started sucking embers up the pipe. Close the door, it stops. Open the door again, and it's sucking them up. Ok. Not working. So we stuffed aluminum foil in the air intakes and it slowed down. It never did have even the faintest glow.

But...with the blower running...could the inside have been in an overfire state? Or is it really just a top temp issue?

Things that make you go hmm...

 

[bag of hammers]

Something that may (or may not) be interesting to those of us with pedestal stoves. I believe (fyrebug if you're around please sanity check this ) that the Osburn 1800 and 2200 stoves pull all their air from under the pedestal. There is a round opening @4' in the back of the pedestal - unless there's an OAK connected to this, it just draws in room air. An OAK can feed through the floor in which case this round pedestal opening would just be blocked off (there is a round metal plate in the OAK kit to cover this hole, it's fastened on with a couple small sheet metal screws).

I don't have the OAK connected yet, so this opening is still there, pulling air for the stove. If there's a need to kill the fire, maybe just having a small piece of sheet / plate metal or durock or something like that would do the trick - quickly prop it up against the pedestal over the hole and there's nowhere for the stove to draw..?

Of course, if the stove gets tube air from another opening then this theory is crap. I'm honestly not sure.....

 

[eclecticcottage]

Ours also seems to pull from under the stove, via a rectangular opening about half way back. Stuffing some aluminum foil in there last night seemed to slow the burn a bit, although I kind of thought it would react faster than it did. I imagine most stoves are in this place, which is where an OAK would be hooked up if you had one. If you DO have an OAK, you're probably going to have an easier time blocking the air if it's easily accessible outside.