Ashley C85 Smoke Dragon

[GeorgeOrwell]

Go ahead and laugh.
Cant replace stove yet but I initially put most of the money I had in the chimney.
This is fourth season using the old Ashley C85, 1980 model. I use red oak slabs from lumber mill.
Chimney from stove up, 6" double wall 7' , triple wall 7', Damper at 24".

I purchased used, sat in a garage for 25+ years used as a shelf. May have seen a couple seasons light use. I cleaned sanded and painted. No warping anywhere, all the cast iron grates in great shape. I used 4-6 bundles of slabs for 4 months of use, 80-120 bucks, 85 degrees all winter. It cost 900 heating with electric to 76 degrees and still feeling cold. Im in SW Missouri, typically 2-4 weeks below freezing. When I have cleaned the chimney I get a pint or so of soot. The worst buildup is at the cap especially after near zero weather, maybe 20% reduction.

I had been seeing some creosote buildup around the ash door and loading door. I tried that creosote remover by rutland. BAD IDEA ended up with a small pile of powder on the bottom cap of the cleanout T. Snap crackle pop and a glowing orange cap after 3 weeks of use. I have had a couple over fires by my standards, but probably not by a veteran wood burner. Temp at the neck of the T on DW pipe was 550, rutland single wall thermometer, nothing ever glowed red. Stuck a fan on it left flue closed, burned out in about an hour. Same thing happened again 4 weeks later only I think I had a creosote fire in the fire box near the ash door as well as the T. This time about 2 hours at the same temperature.



I cleanup it all up, replaced the door seals (rutland fiberglass) and purchased a laser thermometer and moister tester. Put in some slab oak wood, approx equal to 3 4x4x16, after getting a good bed of coals going, set damper to 1/3 closed, input air wide open and let it burn. Moister on the wood was 11-19%.

Results
650 degrees on the top of the firebox neck, 350 on the double wall pipe out the back where my magnetic thermometer was. The DW pipe was 250 below the damper and above. Ran about an hour load again and ran the way I normally would. firebox neck 450-500, cleanout T 200-250, pipe at dampener 180-200. continued to run for 16 hours. The rest of these pictures are all after this run.

Q1. Redo door seals? The doors were very difficult to close after new seal install, left closed for 24 hrs and was a little easier, but even now I can NOT pull a piece of paper out, when cold! I dont think adj will help as the hinge side seems to leak the most.

Q2. On the cleanout T are the open holes ok? Selkirk engineers say no big deal. Those holes are open to the floor below. looks like poor workmanship to me.

Q3. Purpose of hole in ash door? A controlled leak? Reduce leakage around door?

Q4. Vent outside - 1 and Vent inside - 2. Bi-metal spring seems to stay open hot or closed, whats the purpose?

Q5. Suggestions for Normal operation and temps? I have no documentation whatsoever. I typically fill the bottom with 3-5 slabs on a hot bed of coals. Input air wide open, dampener wide open, ash door cracked about 1/2 in for 5-10 min depending on the amount of coals left. I shut the ash door when I see the temp rising to 200 on the mag thermo on the Cleanout T, input air setting is still full open. I shut the input air to about 2/3 open and the dampener to 1/2 to 2/3 open when I see the jump nearing 300. She settles down to about 250 for 30-60 minutes and will gradually fall to about 150 after 2-3 hours.

Q6. What to do in a over fire?? Shut off input air and open dampener full?

Thanks in advance for all constructive criticism!
George

 

[GeorgeOrwell]

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