Drolet 1200 series not enough air

[Harpspiel]

I just got my Drolet Deco Nano set up with a new Duravent chimney system, and it's drafting beautifully. The problem is, I have to run the stove with the door cracked - if I close the door, the fire quickly damps down to just embers. It seems like the air intake control lever doesn't do anything, the stove does get a little bit of air but if the lever is all the way to the left it gets no more air than if it's all the way to the right.

The stove arrived with the firebricks in a complete jumble, and I had to make some guesses when reassembling. It's possible that I have blocked some internal air intake holes, although I followed a very simple exploded parts diagram when deciding which firebricks to put where. I contacted Drolet a few days ago, no response.

The firebricks do currently cover the bottom front of the firebox, all the way forward, and I know some models have holes there. There's no room to push them further back. I'll be trying to locate all the holes next time I'm at the property, but in case I miss something, does anyone have this stove series (Escape 1200, Fox, Spark II, Deco Nano) and know where all of the different air intake holes are located? Or have a picture/video of where the firebricks go? Any similar experiences? Thanks!

 

[Harpspiel]

Just saw the SBI section, if a mod could move this over there and delete this comment, that would be ideal

 

[Harpspiel]

Got in touch with Drolet (called and sat on hold for a while), their customer service says there aren't air holes on the bottom of the firebox at the front in the 1200 series so I'm probably not blocking anything, but that I'm likely building too small of a fire before closing the door. I need roaring, hot fire, especially right up at the front, to drive cold out of the firebricks and allow the transition from flames at the rear to flames at the front when the door is closed. I was only building smaller fires to cure the stove up until now, so I'll try those suggestions this weekend.

 

[EbS-P]

Try a top down fire with more kindling than you think you need.

 

[bholler]

Got in touch with Drolet (called and sat on hold for a while), their customer service says there aren't air holes on the bottom of the firebox at the front in the 1200 series so I'm probably not blocking anything, but that I'm likely building too small of a fire before closing the door. I need roaring, hot fire, especially right up at the front, to drive cold out of the firebricks and allow the transition from flames at the rear to flames at the front when the door is closed. I was only building smaller fires to cure the stove up until now, so I'll try those suggestions this weekend.

How tall is your chimney? What moisture content is your wood at? What pipe temps are you seeing? How much wood are you loading?

 

[WoodStoveGuy]

I just got my Drolet Deco Nano set up with a new Duravent chimney system, and it's drafting beautifully. The problem is, I have to run the stove with the door cracked - if I close the door, the fire quickly damps down to just embers. It seems like the air intake control lever doesn't do anything, the stove does get a little bit of air but if the lever is all the way to the left it gets no more air than if it's all the way to the right.

The stove arrived with the firebricks in a complete jumble, and I had to make some guesses when reassembling. It's possible that I have blocked some internal air intake holes, although I followed a very simple exploded parts diagram when deciding which firebricks to put where. I contacted Drolet a few days ago, no response.

The firebricks do currently cover the bottom front of the firebox, all the way forward, and I know some models have holes there. There's no room to push them further back. I'll be trying to locate all the holes next time I'm at the property, but in case I miss something, does anyone have this stove series (Escape 1200, Fox, Spark II, Deco Nano) and know where all of the different air intake holes are located? Or have a picture/video of where the firebricks go? Any similar experiences? Thanks!

I'm having the same issue with the Drolet Escape 1200 stove I just installed. When Iclose the door the fire dies down (even with a large fire going). Were you able to fix the situation for your stove?

 

[Harpspiel]

I'm having the same issue with the Drolet Escape 1200 stove I just installed. When Iclose the door the fire dies down (even with a large fire going). Were you able to fix the situation for your stove?

I was! It came down to two things: first, my chimney was not tall enough for my elevation, I had received a bent section that I had to return and hoped I could get away with 12' but when I installed another 3' section to bring me up to 15' that made a big difference. Even though it was pulling well enough to keep smoke out of the room with the door open, it wasn't pulling well enough to keep the fire going with just the tiny bit of air that the damper allows.

Second, I spoke to Drolet customer service. They said there aren't air holes on the bottom of the stove box right in front of the door like there are with the larger Drolet models, so there was no chance I was blocking anything. The air washes down across the door from above. But they said I have to get the firebricks warmed up before closing the door, or essentially all of that cold metal and brick sucks the heat out of the fire. This takes a little while if you're heating the stove up from completely dead, sometimes 30-40 minutes. Building a fire that gets up to temp fast is an art form for sure. You want to use your driest wood, definitely splits rather than whole logs (whole logs can go in later, when you have a strong coal bed, but they don't seem to throw off as much heat as splits), and I've been doing a combo of top down and bottom up where I put kindling up top but then some starter material (in our case, we have lots of juniper bark) stuffed in between the bottom logs.

What we've learned about the Drolet specifically is that once the fire is roaring we can close the door, with the handle caught but pointing toward the glass (so not completely shut, air still gets in around the gasket). Once the blower comes on, we can shut the door completely, with the handle pointing left/out from the stove. It's easy to tell you're up to a good temperature if you have the thermodisc/blower, and I strongly recommend getting one if you don't. We have run the stove without the blower during a power outage, and it makes a noticeable difference in heat distribution.