Fireview - Near Overfire 3 times

[Vic99]

Three days in a row my fireview nearly overfired. All have been from a cold-start since we are in shoulder season.

Although I did not have a problem with it in the past, I have been using a lot of pine on shoulder-season cold start-ups. So I cut back to 20% pine, 80% mixed-hardwood.

Also did the dollar bill test last night. A 6 inch area on the door was loose, so I followed the manual's instructions and successfully tightened the door.

Despite all that, stopped a near overfire this morning again by disengaging the cat at 670/680 for a few minutes. Then engaged reengaged the cat and ran at 1.1. Fifteen minutes later stovetop is 620 degrees and slowing falling. Throwing off good heat.

Normal routine from a cold-start. Top down fire usually 50-75% pine. Start wide open for 5 minutes. Then close down to 2 for 5 minutes. Then go to 1.25 and gradually go to .75. Add some more wood ~180-200 degrees to replace kindling and some burn down. Stove is usually 80-90% full from this, but not packed tight. Engage cat at 270 degrees (seems to be more reliable for me than 250). Run at between .6 and .75.

As always, I appreciate suggestions.

 

[chance135]

This is my first post but my third season with the Fireview. I have experienced the exact same thing as you and here's what I have done to remedy the situation. The first thing you can try is to not add quite so much wood after the initial burn-down. The second thing I would try is not to turn the air down so much. This sounds counterproductive so let me explain. If I turn my air down too far the large volume of smoke produced makes my cat converter go ballistic. Using an IR thermometer during one of these cat flare ups I recorded a stove top temp of 650 but the sides if my stove were only 315. All my heat was coming from the cat. If I open up the air intake a bit my stove top temps drop to around 550 but the sides will be running close to the same temp. I now always try to keep some flame in the firebox. I also noticed that in Woodstock's own videos they also have good flames going when running their stoves and I'm pretty sure they know more about the Fireview than me. I hope I was clear enough in my explanation. Good luck and keep us updated on how things turn out.

 

[branchburner]

The first thing you can try is to not add quit so much wood after the initial burn-down. The second thing I would try is not to turn the air down so much. This sounds counterproductive so let me explaine. If I turn my air down too far the large volume of smoke produced makes my cat converter go ballistic.

Welcome, and thanks for a great first post! Good insight into a counter-intuitive solution. It's taken me years to grasp the concept that both smoke and air are fuel, along with the wood itself, and that best burning is always a balancing act.

 

[webbie]

Chimney strength is usually one of the possible causes and solutions here - if nothing else, even a turn damper in the stove pipe allows you to adjust for time periods, wood and weather condition where they chimney draw is too strong.

 

[fire_man]

Chance135 is right, you need a little flame in the firebox after initial startup. I noticed if I load up the stove and damper it down with no flame, the cat can get extremely hot. But if you give it more air until flames start up, some of the smoke that would have been burned by the cat gets burned in the firebox so the cat does not get overloaded. When your stovetop gets above 650, are there flames in the firebox??

 

[Todd]

This is my first post but my third season with the Fireview. I have experienced the exact same thing as you and here's what I have done to remedy the situation. The first thing you can try is to not add quite so much wood after the initial burn-down. The second thing I would try is not to turn the air down so much. This sounds counterproductive so let me explain. If I turn my air down too far the large volume of smoke produced makes my cat converter go ballistic. Using an IR thermometer during one of these cat flare ups I recorded a stove top temp of 650 but the sides if my stove were only 315. All my heat was coming from the cat. If I open up the air intake a bit my stove top temps drop to around 550 but the sides will be running close to the same temp. I now always try to keep some flame in the firebox. I also noticed that in Woodstock's own videos they also have good flames going when running their stoves and I'm pretty sure they know more about the Fireview than me. I hope I was clear enough in my explanation. Good luck and keep us updated on how things turn out.

Right on Chance! I have had a few cat overloads as well and it always happens when there is a dark lack of flame fire box and a beet red cat. Now I always shoot for a little flame and some redness in those coals.

 

[Vic99]

Chance, good suggestion. Thank you.

After I light off the cat, I actually do keep a gradually reducing flame for 15 minutes to an hour before it goes out. I can try to keep the damper open higher to 1.0 or 1.2 instead of 0.6 or 0.75.

I'm perplexed because I'm not doing much different than last year during the shoulder seasons. I cut down the amount of pine and I fixed the slightly leaky door gasket.

Craig, in the past when I had a different set up with a Hearthstone Homestead I complained on this site that my draft was too strong. The height of the flue exit on the fireview seems to have changed that.

The only other thing that was different is the vent pipe. I was able to change my rear pipe angle slightly before the start of this season. Previously it went straight back (plumb to the floor) to the chimney 4 feet before a 90 degree bend up. My flue is about 25 ft tall. This summer I propped the back of the vent pipe up so that instead of plumb, it slopes up about 5-10 degrees. It really is subtle. When I bought the stove, the woodstock folks told me that the flue should angle up, even if just slightly. It's obvious why, so I eeeked out a slight upward angle this summer.

 

[Slow1]

I wonder if your wood is better this year and that could perhaps help explain a change in burn behavior?

Anyway - the "keep flame in the box" solution should work for you based on my experience.

 

[Vic99]

Slow, it's true. Last season a fair amount of my wood was borderline. Last year was great!

This year, it's 2.5 years seasoned.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Three days in a row my fireview nearly overfired. All have been from a cold-start since we are in shoulder season.

Although I did not have a problem with it in the past, I have been using a lot of pine on shoulder-season cold start-ups. So I cut back to 20% pine, 80% mixed-hardwood.

Also did the dollar bill test last night. A 6 inch area on the door was loose, so I followed the manual's instructions and successfully tightened the door.

Despite all that, stopped a near overfire this morning again by disengaging the cat at 670/680 for a few minutes. Then engaged reengaged the cat and ran at 1.1. Fifteen minutes later stovetop is 620 degrees and slowing falling. Throwing off good heat.

Normal routine from a cold-start. Top down fire usually 50-75% pine. Start wide open for 5 minutes. Then close down to 2 for 5 minutes. Then go to 1.25 and gradually go to .75. Add some more wood ~180-200 degrees to replace kindling and some burn down. Stove is usually 80-90% full from this, but not packed tight. Engage cat at 270 degrees (seems to be more reliable for me than 250). Run at between .6 and .75.

As always, I appreciate suggestions.

Vic, I would not bypass the cat at 670-680 even though that is close to the 700. The reason is because many times that is about where our stove temperature will be after loading up. Yes, it can make you a bit nervous but that too can be good. You have received some good information from others and hopefully this will be the cure.

I also wonder about how you are loading. For us, we do use kindling but also place the splits in the box so that we are not faced with reloads before engaging the cat. Just put it in and close the door. From a cold stove we usually have the cat on somewhere between 30-45 minutes. We could do it faster but I'm not so sure that would be good for the stone.

As to where to set the draft, it can vary with each installation. We usually run our draft a bit lower than most but it seems to work good for us. Todd runs his quite a bit higher than us and he does just fine. Also, yes, it does depend a lot on your wood. Not only the dryness but also they type of wood. We burn mainly soft maple and elm during the daytime and have to do a bit different when we load up with ash for nights.

 

[Todd]

I almost always engage new reloads at #1 and if I want a lot of heat I may just leave it there or turn it up, if I'm looking for that long slow burn I will start turning it down after about 15 to 30 minutes til I get the flames to slow down and start to lift off the logs. Usually about .6 air setting for that long slow burn but can sometimes by higher or lower depending on the load or weather conditions. If I were to just engage the cat right off the bat at that .6 setting, the flames may go out on me and chances are good that I will see the so called cat overload and temps over 700. I'm too chicken to just let it go, I did once and she climbed up to 750 before I bypassed.

 

[Vic99]

Thanks, Dennis. When I load from a cold start the stove is filled 2/3 with splits and the rest newspaper and kindling.

When it bumps up to around 150-180 depending on what I'm burning, I'll open up and add more wood to fill the kindling gap.

Reloads are done similar to the way Todd does it. Haven't had any reload problems last year. This year it's only been cold once so far for a reload.

 

[savageactor7]

^in shoulder season we use smaller splits too...there's a skill level to maintaining a 'just enough' fire. You're almost there and will be pleased in being able to master it.