Down draft stoves?

[Jclout]

Hi, I'm new to the site, just found it, I'm like one of the brethren already! I just purchased a down draft wood stove, a Tempwood 2. Has anyone had any experience with such a stove. I would like to get any info possible. I know they were made in Mass and that the company is out of business. I have found some info online. Sounds interesting, I'm looking forward to firing it up. I have a small wood stove collection, that doesn't make me crazy does it?

 

[Burn-1]

Use the Wiki.

Tempwood Wiki entry

Of any stoves from the smoke dragon era, that I have seen these burn pretty clean. One of the town halls in Vermont that I went to last winter has one burning all the time during cold weather.

You might want to look at adding an EPA compliant stove to your collection to round it out.

 

[webbie]

These stoves do burn fairly clean, but I found them hard to operate - I guess they need a good chimney to pull that combustion air down.

In terms of definition - we are confusing ourselves a bit - because we usually use the word downdraft to describe a stove which pulls the smoke down through the embers before it goes up the flue - just informal definitions. This is more like Riteways, Vermont Castings (example: Acclaim), etc....and even central heaters like the Tarm and Eko - we call those "downdraft gasifiers"

The Tempwood and Patriot do bring the combustion air down, but then again so do most stoves today - they bring the air in from a channel above the front door in most cases.

Anyway, hope that wiki entry helps you somewhat.

 

[Jclout]

Hay Brothers,
Thank you for all the info. I hope to get it hooked up and maybe fired up soon. I hope it does burn clean. Last year my chimney and surrounding area was a creosote mess. I do use the powder to keep the creosote down but I still had quite a mess. I dont think it reduced the build up, but it did make cleaning the chimney easier. I'm hoping also to get a longer burn time over the Ashley. What are the advantages of a stove like the Tempwood supposed to be? I did read the info on wiki, I know your not supposed to get ashes on the floor or smoke and sparks in your face when adding wood, but why the down draft design over other other draft designs?

Thanks again!
Stove Nut

 

[webbie]

This is real trivia, but one of the main reasons was safety - including those things you mention - ease of loading, no sparks or logs to roll out....

BUT,

another "advantage" is that these stoves tend to be self-limiting in how hot they can get. A stove with air coming into the fire from the side or bottom can act like a forge and overheat, but this design creates a certain turbulence which makes it difficult to over fire the stove.

Also, the late 70's was a time of experimentation. This exact stove design did not end up catching on.....but that was probably just as much due to lack of glass, etc.

 

[Jclout]

Thanks Craig for taking the time to give me that extra info! Lack of a fire view, that makes sense.