Why is this suddenly happening?

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Osagebndr

Minister of Fire
Feb 20, 2014
831
Central Indiana
I've noticed lately that when I shut the ol reg buck down for the night burn my flue temps just go nuts like up to 500-650* like a rocket and stay there for a while . Maybe a half hour to an hour then slowly creep back down and I don't get the burn time out of it at all. I only put like 3-4 splits in the stove and it does this . I'm thinking air leak from somewhere or something any thoughts would be appreciated thanks.
 
Have you checked for cracks, even in the firebox? My buck developed a crack on it's front last year, made it burn hotter.
 
I've been looking for cracks inside and out haven't seen any but I'll go back over it this weekend thought about taking the fan out and shining a flashlight inside to see if there may be one I missed
 
Wouldn't a crack extend the hi temp longer. Maybe your into some higher quality fuel.
 
That's a good possibility gzecc. I know it's well seasoned this year and I've noticed the difference in heat output during the day also
 
Sudden cold snap creating a lot more draft? Could be a possibility if the issue showed up about the time the weather changed.

Also curious you mention shutting the stove down and the flue temps going higher. This seems to suggest you might have TOO much air during normal burn. The excess air doesn't fuel the fire, so it just wafts through the stove and cools things down. As you close the air down, the stove will actually get hotter to a point, after that, you reach a condition where the limited air is actually keeping the fire small and the stove will start to cool again. It may take 15-20 minutes at any given air setting for conditions to equalize and get a true feel for what the stove is doing.
 
I haven't been shutting it down recently just to see if I might have an air leak , which I believe would show up during normal burns. I run my stove with the flue damper open and air at 10-20% open constantly it works well for efficiently running it as in no smoke or very little. Gotta put wood on every 2 hours but it's worth it to me anyway
 
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