Constant smoke when door is open

Wisneaky said:

You shouldn't run it fully open up to those temps. That is dangerous.

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For the stack or for the stove? The stove reaches 800 - 900 deg F on top if I leave it open loaded 1/2 full, after I get it started with kindling.

So I checked stack and it was clean and clear.

Insulation blanket across top seemed OK but I went ahead and removed it to inspect better and reinstalled. I trimmed the front about an inch to make it not hang over the fiber board at all (it was about 3/4 an inch before). Now it's perfectly aligned and mated at the edge.

I doubt it should be able to do this but just in case that blanket under the flue collar was being sucked up when burning (due to strong draft) I placed a small piece of 1/3 inch thick flat sandstone on the insulation (see pic) that weighs about 1/3 pound. A little smaller than the flue collar opening, about 1 to 1.5" all the way around.

I also checked and its perfectly level from back to front and side to side.

I'm gonna burn again tonight and see if it responds the same.

If it misbehaves again, I'm going to tape ALL the joints and see if that makes a difference.

I also attached pic of interior setup. There are 5 joints total. Flue collar, flue collar adapter (2), sliding pipe (1), pipe to ceiling box adaptor (2). They seem tight and I can't here or sense any leaks, but possible I suppose.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

Good news! I've burned for several days and whatever I did seems to have fixed the front door smoke problem. I can leave the door open with a little new or large hot fire and it works fine. Thank goodness. The manufacture was going to require me to have an expert water column test before replacing or repairing. That likely would have cost me $200+. I can't believe those folks suggested that too much draft would cause smoke to billow out the front door. That's ridiculous eh? I'm happy with the burn times. I can go to bed and 7+hrs later the stove top is still 200+ degrees and many hot coals remain. My last EPA stove was horrible. Every morning nothing left and had to start from scratch! Thanks for your help!

Huntindog1 said:

Once you get it burning ok , take note of this, that the stove has a really long burn time for its size. Now most ratings can be thrown out the window but with this stove being 26" deep, if you in the future cut your wood lets say 25" you can rake your coals forward to the front so the only hot coals are at one end of your 25" long splits. This makes for a cigar burn, burning one end then the burn moves towards the back. Should increase your burn times.

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Hi that's a great idea! Over the summer I cut all my wood to 22-25". Another great thing about this stove is splitting isn't required for pieces up to 9" round. Just cut, dry and shove it in. And the logs have no way to roll out like my last stove where the logs where put in with the end left to right.

However I changed it up after trying and put the coals to the rear 1/3 of firebox. That way the coals/fire emit more heat and longer heat to the top of the stove before it goes up the stack (exit port for heat/smoke is at the front, above the door). My theory is it increases burn time a little longer and heats the stove a little longer, for a longer period.

Is the door on yours really tight like mine? I've opened and closed it 300 times and it day so summer closed/compressed. It's still not easy to open for my wife. It's tighter than any stove I've used or inspected.

jatoxico said:

Just in case it got lost in the sauce, you should dialing down the air in increments on the stove as stove top temps start to get north of about 450. Sometimes sooner if you are loading on a hot coal bed and/or on a good draft day. I don't know your stove exactly but shooting for max temps around 650 and cruising at 500-600 give or take is typically about right for normal operation. Regularly hitting 850 will kill the stove and is dangerous, nothing should glow.

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Yes thank you. I was trying to get my stack to 300ish above the stove collar before. I didn't know that double walled pipe required an interior probe thermometer. Now I close the air intake to 50% when stove top reaches 600ish. The stove responds very well to the air control (my last one was horrible and slow responding). I tested it by allowing it to reach 850, then i shut it completely and it was 500ish within 8-10 minutes. Thanks again!

Copper44 said:

I just put one in a barn that I have and it works great. I only have about 13' feet of chimney though.

Wonder if you got a defective unit.

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Is the door on yours really tight like mine? I've opened and closed it 300+ times and it sat all summer closed/compressed. It's still not easy to open for my wife. It's tighter than any stove I've used or inspected. It requires two hands to open, one at the end where the spiral is, and another at the curved part closer to the stove's door. I'm curious if I should loosen the lug that appears to adjust the locking mechanism on the inside of the stove.

I completely removed and trimmed the front piece of insulation. The stone weight was just for added safety. I'm assuming problem was caused by the front insulation being too big, or bunched up.

Temps were the same during my problem and fix time. Temps just dipped to below what they had been for first time, about 26 F for a couple of hours early this morning.

bholler said:

And how long are you drying those 9" rounds? it is going to take a very long time for sure

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I tey to prep my wood a year in advance. If it's not fallen or standing dead and already dry then I let it sit for a year covered or sun. I'm in a semiarid desert so it dries fast. There is like 35-40% average humidity in western CO. Water goes away quickly. Plus I've noticed if I have some non cured wood and mix it with really hot established fire/coals it burns just fine in this boxstove, and likely slows and cools it to my advantage....bc it picks up heat really fast. I'll never go back to the other style stove again that loads sideways. They were both a real pain.

It was a Pleasant Hearth small pedestal unit, supposed to be 81% efficient and good for 1,200 SF. this model HWS-224172MH.

Not a big loss because I got it for $140 at Lowe's. There was a freakist sale or mistake online one night I just happened to be shopping for stoves. I've never seen them that cheap since. Usually $650 to $850.... That is certainly a rip off for that piece of junk.

Before that, a medium sized Vermont Castings catalytic stove was there. It burned fine, so good it had burned a hole in part of the rear heat path and made it basically a log eater.

Previous owner thought the draft was fine too.

I just think the insulation was bunched up blocking half the draft. It would burn fine and hot when closed.

It was warm when it started working correctly. Same temp as before when it was malfunctioning.

I'm sure the splits would burn faster and hotter, and dry even more while sitting, but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. There is a time is money factor involved, as with most efforts. I'm just saying I don't perceive a noticeable difference in the performance of the split verses non split on smaller pieces, so I use that time that would be splitting the smaller rounds for other things. I probably have to split a good 50% of my wood just to get it to fit in the firebox opening. So I mix it all up. Thanks!

Well, I saw it as an added benefit of slowing down the burn off my dryer wood. But I'll get that tool. I basically use a visual and weight judgment to determine if dry enough. But each wood type if different and i burn juniper, lodge pole, cottonwood, and scrub oak mostly. What should the moisture be, and doesn't the wood type matter too?