first secondary burn?!?

[beermann]

As some may know I have recently self installed a new wood stove. Recency i1100s.

Today was the first day I packed the unit to it's max and lit a fire. I noticed that after bringing the air control down to almost closed the fire seems to float above the wood and rolls forward. The secondary chambers look like fire is coming through them.

Is this a proper secondary burn? How long before I turn the air back up? It's been burning like this nice and warm for about an hour.

 

[kennyp2339]

Yes that's a secondary burn, the best bet as far as air adjustment is to get a true stove top thermometer and try to keep the stove near 600def f (give or take) also if you start noticing dirty window glass, smoke coming out of the chimney or a dirty cap then its time to turn the air up and burn a little hotter. Generally dancing flames with no base fire is a beautiful thing, it means that your wood supply is true seasoned / low moisture content. When I ran a tube stove I would get the fire establish and then turn the air down in steps until I achieved secondary's only, I would let that burn like that for 10 min then slightly adjust the air up so I had a mixture of secondary burning and small licking flames coming from the wood in the fire box.

 

[beermann]

Yes that's a secondary burn, the best bet as far as air adjustment is to get a true stove top thermometer and try to keep the stove near 600def f (give or take) also if you start noticing dirty window glass, smoke coming out of the chimney or a dirty cap then its time to turn the air up and burn a little hotter. Generally dancing flames with no base fire is a beautiful thing, it means that your wood supply is true seasoned / low moisture content. When I ran a tube stove I would get the fire establish and then turn the air down in steps until I achieved secondary's only, I would let that burn like that for 10 min then slightly adjust the air up so I had a mixture of secondary burning and small licking flames coming from the wood in the fire box.

Thanks, I will get a thermometer to use like this. very happy to hear it is a sign of well seasoned wood. I was worried mine wasnt going to be ready this year.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like you are off to a good start beerman. You can open up the air a bit if necessary toward the end of the burn to help burn down the coals, but you may find that unnecessary if draft is strong when it gets colder outside.

 

[prezes13]

Just like the other guys said. If find a lot of coals then you know you have to open it a bit more so it can chew through the wood. Secondaries are nice.

 

[RobbieB]

I had a classic secondary burn a few days ago. I don't see it much as I burn short hot fires and add wood as needed. So I was down to coals and wanted a little more so I tossed in a nice flat split about 2 by 6 inches which covered up the coals nicely.

Nothing happened for a while and then I got these cool wispy flames just floating above the wood at the top of the box. 2 minutes later and it just looked like a regular fire. Good to know the tubes really do work -