Okay, I posted a few weeks ago that I was going through the stove and making sure I was in good working order. This week I have fired up the stove for the first time this year (after replacing door gaskets and fixing ashpan to close fully and having a sweep inspect/clean the pipe).
I feel like I may still have a gasket issue but wanted to ask you guys what you think. Last night I started my fire and got the stove top up to 650ish and cut in the cat. I won't say I saw any 'dancing flames' so to speak but it did seem to slow the fire down a bit. But only a bit. I cut the air down to low (as low as possible) and it still gained in temp. Got over 750. I didn't know what to do other than open the doors and put the fire screen on as I had seen this cool the fire down in the past. I did that and waited till it got to 550 or so and closed it back up. Previously I had checked (by feel only, I can't get behind the stove) that the air control lever was moving the flap behind the stove and it was.
I'm not burning a full stove either, just a few pieces of wood (3-4 max) at a time. So they pieces aren't packed in the stove, more just placed in from the top. Should I be packing it tighter maybe? Wood is mostly oak and c/s/s since last fall (and went through the drought/heat wave this summer).
Should I shut it down before it gets that hot? Is there any way to troubleshoot the gaskets other than just looking? They seem to be okay. I did pull the cat out to look at it but not sure how to tell if it's good or not. We inherited this stove when we bought the house last year but I'm going to assume the stove was put in when the house was built in 2001 and further assume this is the original combustor but I really don't know. How do you know if your combustor is bad? The manual said to replace after 2-6 years and to go outside and observe smoke exiting the chimney. But since I have nothing to compare it to I'm not sure I'd know what I was looking at/for. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I'd like to feel comfortable going to bed with the stove burning. Last night I stayed up till midnight when it finally started running cooler. Thanks guys.
Here's my cat if it helps at all.
I feel like I may still have a gasket issue but wanted to ask you guys what you think. Last night I started my fire and got the stove top up to 650ish and cut in the cat. I won't say I saw any 'dancing flames' so to speak but it did seem to slow the fire down a bit. But only a bit. I cut the air down to low (as low as possible) and it still gained in temp. Got over 750. I didn't know what to do other than open the doors and put the fire screen on as I had seen this cool the fire down in the past. I did that and waited till it got to 550 or so and closed it back up. Previously I had checked (by feel only, I can't get behind the stove) that the air control lever was moving the flap behind the stove and it was.
I'm not burning a full stove either, just a few pieces of wood (3-4 max) at a time. So they pieces aren't packed in the stove, more just placed in from the top. Should I be packing it tighter maybe? Wood is mostly oak and c/s/s since last fall (and went through the drought/heat wave this summer).
Should I shut it down before it gets that hot? Is there any way to troubleshoot the gaskets other than just looking? They seem to be okay. I did pull the cat out to look at it but not sure how to tell if it's good or not. We inherited this stove when we bought the house last year but I'm going to assume the stove was put in when the house was built in 2001 and further assume this is the original combustor but I really don't know. How do you know if your combustor is bad? The manual said to replace after 2-6 years and to go outside and observe smoke exiting the chimney. But since I have nothing to compare it to I'm not sure I'd know what I was looking at/for. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I'd like to feel comfortable going to bed with the stove burning. Last night I stayed up till midnight when it finally started running cooler. Thanks guys.
Here's my cat if it helps at all.