Got my first "Holy S**T!" burn from the Encore tonight.

[BrowningBAR]

Back panel shot up to 830° with the griddle at 700°.

I was still in the process of shutting down the air so it was at 40% open.

I had a super strong draft going. I opened up the air all the way and opened the damper. Fire went berserk. Closed the damper again, waited briefly, adjusted air, waited, adjusted, waited, adjusted. Air is now closed. Back panel is at 650 and dropping.

This would have been avoided if I operated the stove like I normally do, but we had heavy rain this week and I had a lot of wood that held onto the rain this time. So, my fires have been a little slower, thus me operating procedure changed a bit. Apparently the wood finally dried based on tonight's results. You take the good with the bad, I suppose. :lol:

Positive was, since I did my home work on this stove, I knew what the issue was and how to correct it. All is right in the world again and it was easy to resolve.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

You should add that to your sig list Browning....

Amount of holy chit moments 1
Or
Number of pause and reflect moments 1
:lol:

 

[woodmiser]

I guess you have to be careful with the cat. If it was non-cat you could throw in a small green ugly. That settles mine down pronto.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I guess you have to be careful with the cat. If it was non-cat you could throw in a small green ugly. That settles mine down pronto.

It's more of a Vermont Castings "feature" than it is a catalytic issue. :lol:

 

[jharkin]

Welcome to Encore land... Have you had anything glow red yet?

From time to time getting a full load fired I get glowing Andirons when it touches 700 griddle. Ive learned the hard way that if I try to shortcut and shut the damper on a full load too early the cat gets overwhelmed and struggles to light off. So on the overnight load Ive learned not to be afraid to get it really hot (in front) before shutting down and the stove seems to be able to take it.

What does get me worried, as you are, is too much heat in the back of the stove. Especially the glowing upper fireback of death, which others have figured out happens when its get hot enough for spontaneous secondary combustion before the cat. I don't have a back panel thermometer but I do have the cat probe and the rare times I had that problems the cat probe was off the scale at 1800+. I'd bet with a back panel temp of 800+ you were close so good thing you got it under control.

I had another odd problem this year, first few fires everything was fine, then strangely one somewhat mild (30s/40s) day I found that suddenly shutting the air down all the way wouldn't stop the flames in the box. Stove ran hotter than usual and it was hard to keep the living room from overheating. I got really worried wondering if it would go out of control when the cold nights hit. After checking everything I figured it out - the ash pan door was latched, but not all the way super tight allowing a little extra air in. If the doors aren't tight enough to rip the dollar on the dollar bill test I get this problem. Tightened up the nut and its back to normal.


I do like this stove but it certainly has a learning curve.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Welcome to Encore land... Have you had anything glow red yet?

Nope. I monitor the stove pretty well and hit the back of the stove regularly with the IR gun. When I came into the room I heard the draft roaring. Already knew that the back of the stove was too hot before I check.

From time to time getting a full load fired I get glowing Andirons when it touches 700 griddle. Ive learned the hard way that if I try to shortcut and shut the damper on a full load too early the cat gets overwhelmed and struggles to light off. So on the overnight load Ive learned not to be afraid to get it really hot (in front) before shutting down and the stove seems to be able to take it.

What does get me worried, as you are, is too much heat in the back of the stove. Especially the glowing upper fireback of death, which others have figured out happens when its get hot enough for spontaneous secondary combustion before the cat. I don't have a back panel thermometer but I do have the cat probe and the rare times I had that problems the cat probe was off the scale at 1800+. I'd bet with a back panel temp of 800+ you were close so good thing you got it under control.

I do not have a cat probe, and probably won't this season. The stove is partially inserted into a tight fitting fireplace. I would have to disconnect the stove and pull it out to get this done. I just make sure the back of the stove isn't spiking. It's not a surefire way to determine cat temps, but I hope it is good enough for this season.

I had another odd problem this year, first few fires everything was fine, then strangely one somewhat mild (30s/40s) day I found that suddenly shutting the air down all the way wouldn't stop the flames in the box. Stove ran hotter than usual and it was hard to keep the living room from overheating. I got really worried wondering if it would go out of control when the cold nights hit. After checking everything I figured it out - the ash pan door was latched, but not all the way super tight allowing a little extra air in. If the doors aren't tight enough to rip the dollar on the dollar bill test I get this problem. Tightened up the nut and its back to normal.


I do like this stove but it certainly has a learning curve.

Agreed. I bought the stove used this summer and I tore it apart and did a partial rebuild on it. Redid all the gaskets (including but not limited to; the back panel, ash pan casing, and damper), re-cemented areas in need, cleaned and tightened bolts.

This really sped up the learning curve for me. It's been running like a champ.