burning wood in a vc vigilant coal stove

[fgb5]

Hello, I currently have a vigilant coal stove that I burn coal in during the cold months but would like to burn wood during the early fall and spring at night. I have been doing this the last few nights, but the stove seems to run away from me. I only put two logs in and I cannot seem to control the temp with the air control. With the damper shut and the air control pretty much closed I am hitting stove temps of 700 degrees. The pipe is staying around 250-300 since the damper is shut. Is this normal? Is there something that I should be doing different? Thanks for any help you can give. RR

 

[webbie]

700 degrees on the griddle is not too bad. You can probably do better by letting a lot of ash build up below the fire because that is where the air comes in from on a coal stove....so limiting it should help.
You can also choose wood which is a bit larger and not quite as dry...to mix in.

 

[fgb5]

thanks, I thought that 700 on the griddle seemed high. What would you say is a normal to high temp range? RR

 

[webbie]

On that stove the fire is elevated so the griddle is closer to it.

Normal temp would be 550 to 750 during a reasonable fire.