close call???

[mook1302]

Ok.. so ive been burning so so wood this year being its my first year with the stove and wasn't really prepared... but anyways ive been loading on a bigger load of coals then i normally do when i was burning dry wood... well needless to say the firebox took off like it was running a 4.3 40 yard dash... must of picked a couple dry pieces... lol

.. i havent seen flames like that in a while since ive been burning mediocre wood and having been not able to shut it down much do to it.. So i immediately started to get a little alarmed and was able to keep the flames under control by shutting down the air and grabbed my IR gun and shot the normal places i usually do on my VC Montpelier insert which is right above the door and then on the inside of the top air vents... i usually can get above the door in the low 400's and the vent holes around 280 ish (with the fan on medium to high)... this time around i hit 480 above the door and 400 on the vents... so i took the surround off and shot the only place thats not covered by the air jacket which is around the flue collar and i was in the ball park of the mid to high 700's... i monitored it and it never hit 800 so i eventually put the surround back on and by that point i was sweating cause that thing was throwing out some major heat..which i didnt mind since ive been pretty frustrated with the stove this winter due my wood...

.. is this normal operations for this stove if operated with nice dry wood or was that a close call to an overfire?

 

[ddahlgren]

So you finally got it warm is a problem?

 

[Redlegs]

is that a CAT stove?

 

[Nick Mystic]

It sounds to me like you had it burning pretty hot if you shot 700 F on the top of the insert near the flue collar. Good thing you were you around to sense things were burning unusually hot for your insert. I had a similar experience when I was new to wood burning in a stove. Like you, I found myself in a situation where I was having to burn extremely marginal wood. I had just moved up to western NC from Florida into an old wood frame house that had been damaged by a house fire. I was living in the house while I did repairs and the only heat I had was a used Atlanta Stove Works Woodsman wood stove. A neighbor was letting me scrounge dead wood off the ground of a wood lot she owned across the street from my house. Sometimes it was all I could do to get a fire burning. Well, this same woman and her husband knew I was heating with a wood stove and one day she told me I should take home a stack of fire wood they had in their garage. She said it had been there ten years or more, since around the time they stopped burning their fireplace. I loaded the wood up and hauled it home and stacked it out behind my house under the overhang to keep it warm. I would throw a piece in from time to time with the marginal wood I was burning. Then came a hard rain one day and I didn't feel like facing the elements by running out to my regular wood pile, so instead I brought in several of these super dry hardwood splits. I loaded the stove and climbed up in my loft for some reading. It wasn't long before I started smelling that scorched cotton smell that comes from super heated cast iron. I climbed down to check the stove and the elbow coming out the back of the stove was glowing red hot! Talk about a panic attack! As I said, this wood burning was pretty much new to me at the time and that incident really got my attention in the future.

 

[HotCoals]

is that a CAT stove?

My money is on a tube.

 

[mook1302]

is that a CAT stove?

No its a non-cat...

.. i had no glowing so i figured i was good and i hope that is going to be just normal operating temps (maybe not quite as high) next season with dryer wood that i was cut and stacked now...

the stove is in a long room approx 50x12 with a concrete floor and drafty garage below it . I feel that stove should be able to get the room pretty toasty and i feel im struggling to do so (hoping its just the wood)...ive been going around and re-sealing around all the windows cause i did find a few that were a little drafty but i think thats all good now... during this little escapade last night it had that thermostat which is about 35 feet away upto 72...hoping i see better results next year...

 

[HotCoals]

the stove is in a long room approx 50x12 with a concrete floor and drafty garage below it

Man that's a long narrow room!
Yep the drafty garage below aint helping matters...seal it up some!

 

[mook1302]

yea its an older house which i think it use to be a large outside patio that they inclosed a long time ago.. dining room is on one end and the living room is on the other with the fire place it may be close to 13ft... i did go around put insulation board over the windows in the gargae which helped... going to tackle the door in the sprind thats where the majoirty of cold air sneaks in from...

 

[Backwoods Savage]

No its a non-cat...

.. i had no glowing so i figured i was good and i hope that is going to be just normal operating temps (maybe not quite as high) next season with dryer wood that i was cut and stacked now...

the stove is in a long room approx 50x12 with a concrete floor and drafty garage below it . I feel that stove should be able to get the room pretty toasty and i feel im struggling to do so (hoping its just the wood)...ive been going around and re-sealing around all the windows cause i did find a few that were a little drafty but i think thats all good now... during this little escapade last night it had that thermostat which is about 35 feet away upto 72...hoping i see better results next year...

Mook, I doubt you had anything to worry about. With dry wood you can control the stove much easier than with wet or marginal wood. Having a room of that size should be excellent and it seems you should be able to get that room to 80 if you so desire. We keep our house 80+ all winter and love it. Sealing the leaks really helps too. We added insulation and installed new windows and doors and found a huge difference; both in wood consumed and comfort in the home.