By-passing the thermostat on FPX

[Dmitry]

I have large flush FPX hybrid and it was my first season of burning wood . The thermostat on my insert comes on in 40-50-60 min if it's fully loaded. By the time it's on from the cold start 3/4 of biobricks or wood is gone if I leave the air and bypass open as manual and representative suggests. My dealer said that thermo element is in bottom part and it takes time for temp to reach it. It makes sense, with the layer of insulating ash and cold biobricks on a bottom it will take some time. But why do I need to wait if my temp on a top reaching 500F, I have nice secondaries and cat is engaged like crazy if bypass is closed and air is down. I'm thinking about bypassing it.
Any thoughts?

 

[mellow]

Mine has a manual/auto mode, sometimes I will turn it on manual during a cold start just to start getting heat early, if you are good with electrical and can figure out how to install a bypass switch I would say go for it. I set mine back to auto if I remember later in the burn.

 

[maverick06]

Disclaimer, this is what i did for mine, be careful, no idea if this is still valid, its about 7 or 8 years ago I did this. If you screw it up you could hurt yourself, break your stove, who knows burn your house down. So dont do it, unless you know what you are doing....

I bypassed it thermostat in mine.... different stove, not the hybrid, just the old school one with air tubes up top...

Its easy enough, you have to take the faceplate off and find the thermostat. Mine was at the front right. The thermostat on mine was a snap disk (google it for pictures), cant guarantee yours is, most stoves are, but it could be something else, no idea). You can replace it for one with a lower temperature setpoint, or just bypass it totally. The thermostat is either open or closed when it hits the temp. I am pretty sure that mine was closed when it hit the temp. so I just cut the two wires going to it, and wire tied the wires together. Then the stove thinks its "at temp" so you turn the blower on and off as needed.

Worked fine for me. Cant speak to your peculiar stove. No idea if the snap disk is still normally open or closed...if they even still use a snap disk... no idea. But if you are a bit competent, and have a multimeter, should be easy enough to do.

Disclaimer, if you dont really know what you are doing, or even if you do and they have changed the stove, if you get hurt, break your stove, burn your house down. Thats on you. all i can say is what i have done, for the last 7 years or so its worked great.

 

[begreen]

I have large flush FPX hybrid and it was my first season of burning wood . The thermostat on my insert comes on in 40-50-60 min if it's fully loaded. By the time it's on from the cold start 3/4 of biobricks or wood is gone if I leave the air and bypass open as manual and representative suggests.

Why would one want to continue a burn with the bypass open and full air? The bypass is for starting and reloading. With biobricks I would try closing the bypass after 5-10 minutes and start closing down the air to the point where the flames start getting lazier (medium air?). How many biobricks are you burning in one load?

 

[Dmitry]

The first time my insert was burning for 50 min with no fan on I called the dealer's place. They instructed me that air intake should be fully open and bypass has to be open as well . This way temp will rise quick. At the time I did it, NowIclose my bypass when biobricks are charred with flame .Also he said that sometimes he makes small fire from the start to get bottom of the insert get hotter sooner. The guy said that having ash on a bottom will delay start since it's insulator. I understand that. But if I want to get longer burn time I usually place biobricks compact , so they not on fire all at once.. So, if I put them compact on a 1 inch of ash it takes forever for the fanto kick in. If I place them loose and clean the bottom from the ash fan comes sooner, but burn times are shorter.
I don't understand the whole concept of it. If it's to make sure that people not gonna burn cold fires with fan on, then way at the end of the fire cycle when stove is just warm to touch it still runs. If I'm lucky and can start another fire before its off for good I'm OK. But sometimes when I put a pack of cold biobricks from my garage it's off and I need to shovel ash and get temps very high for 50 min to get it going.
I usually burn pack and a half on a cold days from cold start (and it gets scary when fan is silent after 40 min or so), or just a pack when some coals left.

 

[begreen]

I can not entirely agree with the advice you have been given. The bypass should be closed after the fire has started and is burning robustly. Having an ash bed helps the firebox stay hotter and as you've noted provides longer burns. Has anyone checked to make sure the thermostatic snap switch is making firm contact with the stove body? If not it should be.

For burning biobricks, this might help:
http://originalbiobricks.com/howtoburn