Woodstock Fireview on Low Burn

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

4wheelcycle

New Member
Feb 5, 2012
25
NH
I haven't posted for a while, but this morning when I turned down the burn level after starting up my Fireview I got a really classic low burn flame pattern.

The flames aren't coming right off the wood, rather, the volatile gasses are burning at the top of the chamber before any remaining unburned gasses go into the catalytic converter.

Those of you who burn Woodstock stoves are familiar with this flame pattern, but it was new to me last winter when I got my Fireview and I still find it interesting to note.


Fireview 1.jpg

Fireview 2.jpg
 
I too was intrigued the first time I saw those flames as well.. I love coming back to my stove after things have been closed up and in a darkened room,, now seeing what looks to be a red night light reflecting onto the glass,,look up inside and there's one happy cat eating smoke and making heat!
 
Man,those ARE some gorgeous secondaries. How long do they last?
 
Wow that is really nice.
 
They can last a good while, maybe could even be prolonged with air adjustment but I haven't tried that yet.
Yep, get those in my Keystone Too.
Keystone was the first time I saw 'em, an unexpected bonus. Better than I've seen yet in the Fv. A continuous undulating ribbon of flame. :cool:
Dammit, now I'm having second thoughts about selling the 'stone to my SIL. ;lol
087.jpg
 
Man,those ARE some gorgeous secondaries. How long do they last?

This particular pattern occurred right after I switched over to the cat and turned down the draft. The chamber was full of volatile gasses and the draw from the recently 450 degree flue was still strong, which gave me this great rolling flame pattern across the whole top of the chamber.

The pattern only lasted like this for a few minutes - time to get my camera but not much more. After that the flame pattern is still above rather than right on the wood, but the volume of flame gets less as I adjust the draft down further (and the flue cools). The flame also starts to come and go throughout the chamber depending on which areas of the splits are giving off the most gasses at any one time.

There is another really nice type of flame you can get that some people call a ghost sheet or a ghost curtain. It is a thin veil or curtain of flame that comes right down toward the wood, not a narrow streak of solid flame but a wide, almost transparent, curtain of flame. I 'll post a picture if I can ever get one. It comes and goes so fast it is hard to get a picture.

I just saw that Woody Stover also posted a great picture of rolling flames across the whole top of his Keystone stove! I wonder if these are properly called secondary flames, since they are not coming directly off the wood.
 
You can get these flames to last longer if you burn a little hotter for about 15-30 min before turning it down for a low burn. If I engage the cat at a little over 1 and let it go for 30 min then shut her down to .5 I'll get that flame to last as long as an hour. Some times it goes back and forth from the window into the scoop screen.
 
I wonder if these are properly called secondary flames, since they are not coming directly off the wood.
I would think so; The smoke is igniting in the top of the box...
 
This one lasted for a long time. I finally went to bed. Stove top temperature was over 600 at the time of the video. Sorry about the reflections as I was not careful enough when taking the video.


 
. . .I wonder if these are properly called secondary flames, since they are not coming directly off the wood. . .
You bet! These flames are caused by the air jets on the back of the airwash plate at the top of the glass. Just like a burn tube. Fireview: the original hybrid. ;)

. . .There is another really nice type of flame you can get that some people call a ghost sheet or a ghost curtain. It is a thin veil or curtain of flame that comes right down toward the wood, not a narrow streak of solid flame but a wide, almost transparent, curtain of flame. . .
Purple Haze! My favorite.:)


 
I've been watching the flame patterns in my Fireview since my last post and today I saw some of the veil or ghost sheet patterns I mentioned in an earlier post.

One interesting thing to note is the color difference between the images in my original post at the top of this thread and these new images. Both pictures were taken with the same camera, with no color adjustments to the images. The veil or ghost flames, also coming down from the top of the chamber rather than directly off of the wood, have a much "cooler" red color rather than the hotter yellow color in the initial post. The first images came right after the cat was engaged and the draft was turned down. These images came an hour after the draft had been turned down and the stove was well into a low burn.

Veil 1.jpg

Veil 2.jpg

Veil 3.jpg
 
Looks about right 4wheel. Gives lots of heat like that too.
 
I love that "Purple Haze". I can sit for quite a while watching it.
 
Do these cat stoves have air intake tubes on the top?
 
The air comes in across the front above the glass on the Fireview.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.