murry said:
Mish you stated before to me you have a sweet spot with your stove before you kick it in to afterburn. If not mistaken you said 450 degrees.
What happens if you get your stove to the right temp and kick it into afterburn and everything is working fine. You go upstairs to sleep and it stalls. The damper is closed, may this present problem??
Thanks
As you operate your stove you will get to know when it has a better chance of stalling.
If it is going to stall it will generally stall within 10-15 of you activating it.
Note: I define a stall as when I have the stove set on the first notch the stove temp drops below 400 and doesn't level off at around 450.
Tips to ensure that it won't stall.
Step 1) Get a good coal bed at least 2 inches, the more the better, 4 inches I would say is optimal.
Step 2) Get the stove up to around 500, maybe 550 if it is above 50 (these temps depends on your installation and the draft you are pulling)
Step 3) When you add wood make sure that you get a good blaze going before you push the lever and activate the afterburn.
Note: Pushing the lever only changes the direction of the flow of the gases, the air control for the stove is on the front of the stove.
The reason for the above tips is to establish a good draft through the afterburn system once that is established you do not have to worry about stalls.
As for your scenario..
What I do is about 1 hour before I go to bed I load up the stove and open the air all the way to right to get a good blaze going and to get the temp around 500. This normally takes around 15 mins depending on how low the wood is and how full I stuff it.
Then I push the lever to put it into afterburn and slowly move the air control to the left down to the to the lowest setting(the first notch), if it kicks off with a roar and I get the dancing flames or the occasional poof of flames this tells me it is activated.
This whole process take at the most 20 mins depending on your draft.
Then right before I go to bed about 30 mins since putting into afterburn, I check the temp if is between 425-500 I know that it is activated and ready for an overnight burn. If it dropped below 400, it stalled and I repeat.