Drolet Austral 2 problems

[Asdai]

we recently upgraded our stove from a cheap century wood burner to this huge Drolet Austral.
We are however having issues with it and we've tried contacting Drolet, but they don't seem to be very helpful.
Our issue here(And it may be a user issue because this is a very different stove from our basic one) we can't seem to keep a fire going in this beast!
We attempted starting a fire just as we did in our century, and just as we did in the furnace at the old house and it just isn't working.
Damper is wide open, flue is open. We have burn if we leave the door cracked but even after an hour if we close the door (while leaving damper open), the fire dies out quickly.
I know that freezing temperatures are on their way and we can't go through the winter without this working properly as this is our only source of heat.
Any kind of trouble shooting would be greatly appreciated as we are stumped.

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Well, to get the immediate obvious question out of the way first, how dry, or seasoned, is your wood? How long has it been cut, split and stacked and sitting out in the sun for? I have the first generation Austral in my basement (it heats like a beast)....

And by the way, welcome to the forum.

 

[Asdai]

Well, to get the immediate obvious question out of the way first, how dry, or seasoned, is your wood? How long has it been cut, split and stacked and sitting out in the sun for? I have the first generation Austral in my basement (it heats like a beast)....

And by the way, welcome to the forum.

Our wood is well seasoned, hubby is the forestry coordinator here and it was harvested last summer, cut/split, and stacked since then.
We do live in a mini-home/mobile home so our wood is stored in the shed out back (which is actually more of a greenhouse). With that said it may have seen a little condensation, but it far from green and definitely isn't wet

 

[BrotherBart]

By "last summer" do you mean the Summer just ended?

 

[Asdai]

N

By "last summer" do you mean the Summer just ended?

No, the previous summer sorry! It was cut in 2015

 

[husky345 vermont resolute]

I have the drolet classic and love it.

 

[DAN66]

Asdai what is your chime like. how tall how many 90s are in the system and is the pipe triple wall or double wall.

 

[Asdai]

Asdai what is your chime like. how tall how many 90s are in the system and is the pipe triple wall or double wall.

Chimney is well over 12 feet which is minimum recommended. We have double wall inside and insulated the rest of the way. There are no 90's, I do have an adjustable portion though.

 

[Asdai]

Terrible picture I know, I was sitting on the floor

 

[begreen]

Tell us how the wood is loaded (E/W or N/S) and how the fire is being started.

 

[Huntindog1]

I have the Myriad Version One Drolet stove. The Version two stoves which the Australs are same as the Myriads , one is pedestal other one has legs. With this stove having a bypass damper should be very easy to get going. Version two stoves meet newer emissions standards basically having more insulated firebox and I think they went to secondary air tubes instead of the secondary air baffle.

Could be an obstruction some where.
Wood maybe suspect.
Chimney may be too short as 12 feet is pretty short.

This is a bigger stove so you need to load it up at least 3/4 ways on a cold start.

On top of that load put on top some small split kindling thats good and dry.
Add to that a good fire starter or two.

You need the kindling and fire starter to get the heat up in the stove from a cold start
as you have no hot coals to help the startup.

You leaving the door open is not helping build the heat as its flushing your heat up the flue.
with the kindling and firestarter this will let you close the door after a minute or two.

Plus with the short 12ft flue you could be having flue draft issues and the hot fast burning
kindling and fir starter should help that situation. As once you get the flue heated up quickly
the draft or draw of the flue should kick in. So then once the door is shut the draft will be able to
pull in enough air thru the input air of the stove.

Go look under the stove on the bottom in the back where there is the input air port and make sure
there are no obstructions or shipping material stuck in there.

Dont worry about the stove you bought as they make a really good stove.

The reason you need to fill it up pretty good with wood is its harder to build heat in a big stove like that
when its just a big open space with very little wood. Filling it up to like 3/4 ways will leave a small space up
top where your kindling will be placed and the fire starter. This smaller space will heat up much quicker.

Its all about building heat in the firebox and not leaving the door open and flushing the much need heat up the flue.
These stoves are designed to burn with very little input air once the heat is built up in the fire box.

Once your stove top temps gets to about 400 degs F you can start closing the input air in increments of like a 1/4 ways to 1/3 ways.
Then watch as the stove top temps raise more then close the input air another 1/4 ways and so forth till you get to the lowest
setting it will burn with out killing your flame. You want a very slow lazy flame coming off the wood for your lowest setting.
On my stove the lowest setting is reference from the edge of ash lip under the door. I leave it open about 1/4 inch from the
back of the brass knob on the input air rod. Thats if I am using very good dry wood.

You can buy you a moisture meter to check your wood. Make sure its 20% moisture or less.

 

[Asdai]

I have the Myriad Version One Drolet stove. The Version two stoves which the Australs are same as the Myriads , one is pedestal other one has legs. With this stove having a bypass damper should be very easy to get going. Version two stoves meet newer emissions standards basically having more insulated firebox and I think they went to secondary air tubes instead of the secondary air baffle.

Could be an obstruction some where.
Wood maybe suspect.
Chimney may be too short as 12 feet is pretty short.

This is a bigger stove so you need to load it up at least 3/4 ways on a cold start.

On top of that load put on top some small split kindling thats good and dry.
Add to that a good fire starter or two.

You need the kindling and fire starter to get the heat up in the stove from a cold start
as you have no hot coals to help the startup.

You leaving the door open is not helping build the heat as its flushing your heat up the flue.
with the kindling and firestarter this will let you close the door after a minute or two.

Plus with the short 12ft flue you could be having flue draft issues and the hot fast burning
kindling and fir starter should help that situation. As once you get the flue heated up quickly
the draft or draw of the flue should kick in. So then once the door is shut the draft will be able to
pull in enough air thru the input air of the stove.

Go look under the stove on the bottom in the back where there is the input air port and make sure
there are no obstructions or shipping material stuck in there.

Dont worry about the stove you bought as they make a really good stove.

The reason you need to fill it up pretty good with wood is its harder to build heat in a big stove like that
when its just a big open space with very little wood. Filling it up to like 3/4 ways will leave a small space up
top where your kindling will be placed and the fire starter. This smaller space will heat up much quicker.

Its all about building heat in the firebox and not leaving the door open and flushing the much need heat up the flue.
These stoves are designed to burn with very little input air once the heat is built up in the fire box.

Once your stove top temps gets to about 400 degs F you can start closing the input air in increments of like a 1/4 ways to 1/3 ways.
Then watch as the stove top temps raise more then close the input air another 1/4 ways and so forth till you get to the lowest
setting it will burn with out killing your flame. You want a very slow lazy flame coming off the wood for your lowest setting.
On my stove the lowest setting is reference from the edge of ash lip under the door. I leave it open about 1/4 inch from the
back of the brass knob on the input air rod. Thats if I am using very good dry wood.

You can buy you a moisture meter to check your wood. Make sure its 20% moisture or less.

We will take it all apart today and stt if there is an obstruction anywhere. The chimney IS NOT 12 feet, I said it is at least 12 feet as the manual included says is minimum. We have easy at least 12ft worth of piping before it gets outside to the roof where there is an additional 6ft easy.

And as far as you telling me twice to keep the door shut, what I am saying in the original post is that as soon as the door shuts the fire goes out to zero... zilch...notta. I know by having the door cracked is not allowing it to heat up, but with it closed we have no fire what so ever.

We DID take out a couple of fire bricks from the top of the stove last night and at least managed to get enough of a haul to get enough of a fire going to cure the paint.
I guess I'll just keep screwing around with it until I can get it working the way it should be.

As far as how fire is being started, loads of dry kindling, wood placed on top N/S... same way weve always started them in our other stove and the furnace.

 

[begreen]

Are you starting the stove with the bypass open?

 

[DAN66]

you said at least managed to get enough of a haul to get enough of a fire going to cure the paint. I'm thinking that the bricks might have moisture in them. not sure if that might be the problem.

 

[Slacker]

If you know your chimney is clean of obstructions, firewood is <20% moisture content, be sure your bypass damper is closed and your damper is pulled out all the way in full open position before closing the door. Once you close the door you should be able to work the damper rod in in about 1/4 length increments till you see the flames slow down. At this point you should see your flue temp drop and stove top temp rise. Be sure the fire is going good before you start closing the air damper or the secondaries wont ignite. My Drolet HT2000 has to have a stove top temp around 400f for the secondaries to work.

 

[Asdai]

Bypass is open, chimney was just cleaned before installation, wood is dry.
We removed 2 bricks from the upper portion of the stove and shifted the baffle board and it seems to be working decent now.
I'm not a huge fan of having to reload super quickly to avoid smoke entering the house though, but from why I've read that's just part of these stoves. I guess I'm just used to my old faithful!

 

[Slacker]

Bypass is open, chimney was just cleaned before installation, wood is dry.
We removed 2 bricks from the upper portion of the stove and shifted the baffle board and it seems to be working decent now.
I'm not a huge fan of having to reload super quickly to avoid smoke entering the house though, but from why I've read that's just part of these stoves. I guess I'm just used to my old faithful!

If those baffles shifted forward during shipping then they would block the flow of exhaust gases out of the stove. Be sure they are all the way rearward.

On these style stoves you should burn them in cycles. You should reload when you have a hot bed of coals. This would be the end of the cycle. My stove top is usually down to around 200f by this time. Rake your coals forward and reload behind the coals. Push the coals back against the wood and start the cycle all over again. There is very little to no smoke till you push the coals against the wood.

 

[Asdai]

If those baffles shifted forward during shipping then they would block the flow of exhaust gases out of the stove. Be sure they are all the way rearward.

That's basically what hubby did and it seemed to solve majority of the problem!

 

[Slacker]

Awesome I edited my previous reply on your smoke issues so please read it.

 

[Asdai]

Awesome I edited my previous reply on your smoke issues so please read it.

Ok I see, so it's made for longer burn cycles. It'll be great for our freezing winters, not so great when it comes to the spring & fall!

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Once you have all of the moisture baked out of the bricks and get used to running the new stove you will be fine... sounds like you're almost there anyway... And as for being good only in the freezing part of the winter, nope! You're going to love burning in this baby during all the seasons because it is an awesome heater... You'll just have to adjust the size of your load for the different seasons, with less freqeunt, smaller hot fires in the shoulder seasons. The stove is an absolute beast, and you're going to grow to love it just like I did. Cheers!

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Here's a quick pic of my beloved Austral (Style 1) just getting warmed up this morning.... I love it more everytime I look at it, although I've learned not to stroke it lovingly as I walk by........

 

[Huntindog1]

With bypass open you shouldnt get any smoke in the house. But with a short flue your draw of your flue could be weak.
But like Slacker referred to you do these stoves in cycles. You dont open the door and add wood till the firebox is down to a few coals.
Coals dont have alot of smoke if any. Plus open the bypass damper and open the input air a few seconds before opening the door then open the door slowly, if you still get smoke then your flue must not be drawing very strongly.

 

[husky345 vermont resolute]

Why don't you get rid of that offset ? You don't need it just crimp the pipe


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