Air intake on me new stove

[msherer]

I'm still learning my new EPA stove. I wish I would have changed several years ago as I'm going through half the wood. My question is about air intakes. I have a primary and a "high burn" intake. Not really sure how the high burn intake works.

The primary intake is on the front bottom of the burn chamber. The high burn vent is inside the pedestal where the ash pan goes and feeds a tube with lots of holes (much like the secondary burn tubes) at the rear top of the burn chamber. Anyone know how that's supposed to work? One thing I have noticed is that the coals at the back of the burn chamber don't seem to get as much o2 as the rest of the chamber. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Matt

 

[begreen]

Looks like high burn is a startup air control. Only open it when you want to supply maximum air into the firebox.

 

[veemaxx]

I have the same stove and couldn't get that control figured out either. After playing with it I saw the secondaries kick in a little more on start up with it open. I always pitch a little piece of bark on the coals after putting in a fresh load to light the wood gas quicker. As begreen said it is only used at start up to get the smoke burnt faster. As soon as I start shutting down the primary air I close it completely. I usually have to dampen the flue too since my installation has a long double wall pipe otherwise I get major over-draft.