Hi All,
I'm kind of new to wood burning but I'm learning...
I have a Dutchwest 2479 - non-cat stove that is giving me burn problems. It is backpuffing and burning very fast.
First of all I just had the flue and the stove cleaned as it was backpuffing and the sweep found some blockage at the very top of a 3 story 6" SS flue. This resolved the backpuffing and lazy burn for a few days, but now it is doing something similar.
My initial burns start quickly and I am able to close the damper and turn down the air in short order. Once the firehas a nice layer of coals I add 4 -5 pieces of wood, I let it burn with the damper open for 5-15 min. At this point it is fully engulfed in flames. I close the damper and leave the air completely open. After 5-10 I close the air about 1/2. in short time the flames can be seen and are pretty active, then a group of flames rise like a cloud and sort of explode (mild infact). But this situation was leading to the stove backpuffing before I had the flue cleaned. Now I'm thinking it is going to backpuff smoke again. It seems like it is just on the edge of doing so.
Also, the 4-5 pieces of wood burned into red coals in 1 hr 45 min, I'm thinking this is way too fast but if I turn the air down any more the amount of flames that explode just gets larger. This makes me pretty nervous. I'm thinking of calling the sweep back but I'm looking for some opinons.
There seems to be quite a bit of experience here, I'm hoping someone has suggestions.
Thanks
I have attached a couple of screen shots for you to see the kind of flames I am talking about.
I'm kind of new to wood burning but I'm learning...
I have a Dutchwest 2479 - non-cat stove that is giving me burn problems. It is backpuffing and burning very fast.
First of all I just had the flue and the stove cleaned as it was backpuffing and the sweep found some blockage at the very top of a 3 story 6" SS flue. This resolved the backpuffing and lazy burn for a few days, but now it is doing something similar.
My initial burns start quickly and I am able to close the damper and turn down the air in short order. Once the firehas a nice layer of coals I add 4 -5 pieces of wood, I let it burn with the damper open for 5-15 min. At this point it is fully engulfed in flames. I close the damper and leave the air completely open. After 5-10 I close the air about 1/2. in short time the flames can be seen and are pretty active, then a group of flames rise like a cloud and sort of explode (mild infact). But this situation was leading to the stove backpuffing before I had the flue cleaned. Now I'm thinking it is going to backpuff smoke again. It seems like it is just on the edge of doing so.
Also, the 4-5 pieces of wood burned into red coals in 1 hr 45 min, I'm thinking this is way too fast but if I turn the air down any more the amount of flames that explode just gets larger. This makes me pretty nervous. I'm thinking of calling the sweep back but I'm looking for some opinons.
There seems to be quite a bit of experience here, I'm hoping someone has suggestions.
Thanks
I have attached a couple of screen shots for you to see the kind of flames I am talking about.