Brand New, Need Help

[rachel.whitehead]

Hi All,
My husband and I bought a brand new Vermont Castings Resolute Acclaim last month and just had it installed on Wednesday. We've used it everyday since then and love it! It really puts out the heat I have several questions but I'll start with this one, I was told to close the pipe damper when the stove reaches 500 degrees. How long should that take? I started my fire at 11:45 this morning and now its 1:45 and I'm only up to 400 degrees -Am I doing something wrong? Any ideas would be very much appreciated!
Rachel

 

[weezer4117]

chances are you are loosing the heat up the chimney the purpose of the damper is to minimze heat from doing this. once you know the exhaust has heated up the chimney and a good draft is established, it is ok to start closing the damper down gradulally. you will notice a big differnce in the stove tepms!! i would suggest that you keep and eye on the appliance until you know what its cappabilities are.

 

[LeonMSPT]

Good advice on watching the critter through a few burn cycles, learn what happens when you make adjustments to various things, and how much. Only problem with wood is, you can't "turn it off". It takes a certain time for an adjustment to take effect. If you run into trouble, "run way fire", close the air and open the damper to let the heat out. Turn the blower on and open the window.

Note... most VC's have a "bimetallic" control on the air supply. So if it should "run away", turn the control knob all the way back and don't open it or the door until the temperature reaches realistic levels.

Don't be scared... if you keep a reasonable eye on it, I don't think you'll have any trouble at all.

This is a VC insert that was made back in the early 80's. No reason your wood burner wouldn't last and work even better.

chances are you are loosing the heat up the chimney the purpose of the damper is to minimze heat from doing this. once you know the exhaust has heated up the chimney and a good draft is established, it is ok to start closing the damper down gradulally. you will notice a big differnce in the stove tepms!! i would suggest that you keep and eye on the appliance until you know what its cappabilities are.

 

[fossil]

The damper on this stove is what's called a "Bypass Damper". The purpose of the damper is to allow direct flow of flue gases up and out of the stove during startup/reloading (max draft), then directing the gases through the secondary combustion flow path after a good fire is established (max burning efficiency). This damper should be either open or shut ("bypassed" or not) No need to ever throttle it. If you've established a fire with a good load of seasoned wood, with the damper in the bypass position and the primary air control wide open, you should have no problem getting to the recommended temperature for closing the bypass, establishing secondary combustion, and then throttling the primary air to achieve the burn rate you're after. Works just like my Lopi Liberty. Rick

EDIT: That stove has a nicely written, comprehensive manual...you do have a copy, don't you?

 

[Brian VT]

500F griddle is a ballpark temp. to switch the exhaust to the secondary chamber. I think that's what you're talking about when you say damper.
When the secondary is reburning the exhaust you'll hear a slight rumble from the back of the stove. If it sounds like a freight train you can lower the primary air in stages. If you lower the primary air too much at once the rumble may go away (stall). The rumble will also go away after the wood has burnt to the point that there are no more nasties to be reburnt. Like I said, 500F is a ballpark. Sometimes a good bed of coals will run the secondary with 350F stovetop and a new load of wood.
If you're not reaching 500F on the griddle then I suspect you have moist wood or poor draft. My stove likes to cruise @ 500-600 in the heart of the burn. Most complaints about this stove are of not being able to keep the heat down and of burning wood too fast. I had that problem when I started. If I leave the stove with too much primary air the stovetop will go +1000F. I've done it by accident and it's very scary.
It'll take a while to learn your new system. I started burning this year and have been mostly 24/7. It took a couple months to get consistent.
Now it seems I kinda "read" each load of wood as it starts to burn and settle in and how the weather is affecting it and adjust accordingly.
I still get a little junk on the glass on rare occasion and I get it too hot once in a while too. That's gonna happen. It takes some time and effort. That's why they invented oil/gas/electric heat...for people that don't want to mess around with a fire.

 

[rachel.whitehead]

I mentioned the problem to my dad -he has had the same stove for 7years. He thinks I'm not loading it up enough. I'm very cautious right now and I think due to that, I'm underloading it. I really only have two logs in there at a time and they are small ones at that. The house is really heating up though 80 degrees in that room (a large family room with cathedral ceilings) and then 78 in the very large kitchen next to it. We would like to install a doorway fan in the kitchen to move air into the rest of the house. Would that help cool down the family room a little? We are getting a little too warm and toasty at 80 degrees. Also, at what height should you place your stovepipe thermometer? Ours is about three feet up. And what temps should you aim for on that? My dad said between 250 and 450 -I can't get it up past 225!
Rachel

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum rachel.

First, it usually takes 3 logs or splits for the fire to burn. If you've ever had an outdoor fire you can see this in action. Put 3 or more on the fire and you have a nice fire. One log or two logs just won't burn worth a hoot.

Set a fan on the floor of that doorway and blow the cool air into the warm room. It sounds backwards but it really works.

 

[Brian VT]

I sometimes run a couple small logs hot to "clean" out the chimney. 2 or 3 splits with the primary air up I can get 800-1000F on the stack thermometer @ 18" up.
A small load can often be harder to control than a full load. Running 24/7 seems easier too. You're not dealing with the ups and downs of a cold stove and flue.
A good bed of coals makes things run much smoother. If you can't get a hot burn your wood may not be dry.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Brian, that is pretty hot in that chimney unless you are measuring interior temperature. If that is exterior on the pipe I'd say it definitely is too hot.

 

[Brian VT]

That's on a probe thermometer in my dbl. wall.
I usually shoot for @ 700F for 10 min. or so once a day. Normal burn is usually @ 400-550F.

 

[cybex]

VT- 1000* griddle? Holy cow! I freak out when mine reaches 750*. -Wes

 

[Brian VT]

VT- 1000* griddle? Holy cow! I freak out when mine reaches 750*. -Wes

Oh, believe me, I freaked out. That was scary as hell. Lots of banging and clanking from the stove and pipe. No glowing metal though. I turned the lights out to check.
I did end up warping my upper fireback, though. I still get a little scared if it heads for 750F but I don't freak out as bad as I used to before I buried my thermometer.
I don't even know how hot it got. My therm. only goes to 850F but it was pegged and seemed like forever to come back down. It could have been hotter than 1000F.
It's times like those that you appreciate having installed everything yourself and you know it was done 100% correctly.