ghost flames

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kieth4548

Member
Hearth Supporter
Dec 28, 2007
104
Sardinia, OH
Sorry for the bad title but didn't know what else to call it. I am in my second year of buring and I have a furnace add on. A few times that I put wood in to start the stove after its gone out I will get a lot of fire like it's getting to much air. I will tone it down and I start to get a lot of what I will call ghost flames. It's flames that seam to explode or dance around above the wood from nowhere. It acts like it needs air but if I open the dampers then the flames get entremly large again. Why am I getting these large ghost flames?

Thanks
Kieth
 
I'm no expert but what you're describing sounds like what my Vermont Castings does when it's burning off the wood gases. It's really cool to watch like a bunch of little flash overs.
 
flash overs is what I was thinking. The problem I have is the flames get sucked up the stove pipe and the pipe can get real hot. It seems to me the pipe is getting to hot. I'm afraid that a fire may start in the stove pipe because it gets so hot. It just happened to me when I reloaded.
 
I like it when I see it in my Vermont Castings insert. It only happens hot, and it is burning off... have a damper control or bypass, baffle? I close mine, and it just dances around in there with a magnetic thermometer stuck to the front door at 575 degrees.
 
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