Had a scary one yesterday

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Butcher

Minister of Fire
Nov 2, 2011
530
N. central Ia.
We've been having extremly high winds here the last few days. Sustained winds at 30 to35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. I was almost afraid to start a fire yesterday because you could here the air being sucked thru the stove and up the flue like there was a fan in there or something. I did anyways just making sure I didnt overload the stove. First 2 loads were no more than 4 splits 4" in diameter and all was well. Since alot of heat was being sucked up the chimney due to the high winds, the forth load I placed a large split on the top of some VERY dry wood in addition to the 4 smaller splits hopein for some more heat. Well, I got it. After an hour the stove top temp was 750° and stack temp on 20ga. single wall pipe was at 600°. Probably not as high as many of you have seen but with the winds we were getting I thought I better get it under control before things really got bad.
Question is, did i do this right?
I was afraid to crack the side door to let some cool air up the stack so I didnt touch it. I closed the primary air all the way down and of coarse immediatly opened the portals of hell in the stove. That didnt sit well with me so I opened the primary to where the fire looked as calm as I could get it. Then I shoved a ball of tin foil into the main air supply. In about 10 minutes the temps all went back to normal operating temps so I removed the foil. All was well the rest of the burn. The next load before bed I went back to the 4- 4" split loading and had to more trouble. Is there something eles I shoulda done or not done? Thanks.
 
That's why I like my damper, I can keep a handle on it.
 
That can always be a bit concerning :wow:. You mentioned turning the air all the way down. What was your air set to prior to closing it off? In windy situations when its wicked cold, I still load my stove to the gills. I just run the air much lower (90% closed opposed to 75-80% closed) and let her heat away.

Although 750 degrees is high, its not going to break the stove by any means. For being uncomfortable with the situation you did right by shutting down the air (tin foil may have been a bit excessive but I wasnt present to witness the fury!). Definitely DO NOT open the side door to add "cool" air in. All that will do is feed the fire and allow it to burn even faster in those conditions.
 
oldspark said:
That's why I like my damper, I can keep a handle on it.

+1, forgot to mention that. Thats the only time ill utilize mine. I'll shut the air 90% as mentioned and if its real bad out ill set the damper just a hair.
 
mikepinto65 said:
oldspark said:
That's why I like my damper, I can keep a handle on it.

+1, forgot to mention that. Thats the only time ill utilize mine. I'll shut the air 90% as mentioned and if its real bad out ill set the damper just a hair.

+2, I don't need the damper very often at all unless I make a mistake or have weather like you are talking about.'

Sounds like you did just fine. Curious, what did using the foil do that closing the air down couldn't? Must be that stove doesn't shut the air off all the way huh?

Just curious. Glad things are safe now.

pen
 
oldspark said:
That's why I like my damper, I can keep a handle on it.
A damper without a handle would be pretty useless. ;-P

In the pre-EPA days, we would put in a damper that was too large to turn 360° and we would hang a weight on the base of the handle to hold it open or on the top of the handle to hold it shut. The last thing we wanted was for the damper to fall open through the night and the stove to go cherry.

I don't need no stinkin' damper now. I modified the zipper air to be able to reduce it. I also put a positive shutoff on my OAK that will cut the air the EPA mandated notch will not.

It is prudent with an EPA stove to have a plan on how to deal with a runaway, be it a ball of tinfoil, a magnet, or whatever.
 
Sounds like you did just fine. Curious, what did using the foil do that closing the air down couldn’t? Must be that stove doesn’t shut the air off all the way huh?
No, it just shuts down the dog house. It still gets air thru the bottom rear that I assume goes to the burn tubes. I still havnt figured out why the dont put a type of damper on the main air supply kinda like what is on a Weber grill that could ge adjusted alittle more.
Thanks for your replies folks. I dont scare easily but when you have 50mph winds and the stove looks like it is going to go nuculer on ya it kinda gave me the hebe gebe's. I think the main problem was the 8" split I threw on the top of the load finally caught good and went ballestic on me. It was from a Linden tree I cut down at work I think so it was about like puttin 10lbs. of last years newspaper in the stove.
 
Not sure why but in all the years we've burned wood we've never had a problem with wind. Yes, we've had plenty of high winds but not much effect on the stove.
 
Butcher said:
We've been having extremly high winds here the last few days. Sustained winds at 30 to35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. I was almost afraid to start a "FIRE" yesterday because you could here the air being sucked thru the stove and up the flue like there was a fan in there or something. I did anyways just making sure I didnt overload the stove. First 2 loads were no more than 4 splits 4" in diameter and all was well. Since alot of heat was being sucked up the chimney due to the high winds, the forth load I placed a large split on the top of some VERY dry wood in addition to the 4 smaller splits hopein for some more heat. Well, I got it. After an hour the stove top temp was 750° and stack temp on 20ga. single wall pipe was at 600°. Probably not as high as many of you have seen but with the winds we were getting I thought I better get it under control before things really got bad.
Question is, did i do this right?
I was afraid to crack the side door to let some cool air up the stack so I didnt touch it. I closed the primary air all the way down and of coarse immediatly opened the portals of hell in the stove. That didnt sit well with me so I opened the primary to where the "FIRE" looked as calm as I could get it. Then I shoved a ball of tin foil into the main air supply. In about 10 minutes the temps all went back to normal operating temps so I removed the foil. All was well the rest of the burn. The next load before bed I went back to the 4- 4" split loading and had to more trouble. Is there something eles I shoulda done or not done? Thanks.

who are you and what did you do to the real Butcher!

that must have been throwing some serious heat at 750.
 
who are you and what did you do to the real Butcher!

that must have been throwing some serious heat at 750.
It's really me I swear! And yes I was gettin nad sweatin hot in no time I'll tellya. Not sure if it was from the stove or seein them temps going up like the space shuttle and hearing the wind whistle'n thru the stove at the same time.
I was mistakin on the time frame of last nights excitment. The over burn iffn thats what you want to call it actually started about 15 to 20 minutes into a reload with the air shut down to about 25%.
This is all new to me since us old hillbillies out here in the flatlands are so used ta burnin tars and RR ties along with our wood I got some learnin to do. I'll get it figured out tho and if not? Well, nothin lasts forever do it? :) It would probably help iffn I wasnt surounded by thousands of acres of nothingness. Not much to stop the wind dontcha know. Aint like livin in town or in the middle of the timber.
 
I have similar problems with my Jotul f600. Ther is no way to shut her all the way down. I have placed a pie plate over the air intake just to try and shut it down a bit. It seems that it wants to go thermonuclear sometimes when you back down the doghouse and the secondary combustion kicks in. I hit 550 all the time with the damper all the way to the left. Its scared the crap out of me a few times. Covering the air intake does help though. Just keep some clean underwear nearby.
 
My stove hits 750 fairly often. I don't see the problem.
 
Sounds like the Florida Bungalow Syndrome hard at work. Regardless of shutting down the primary air, good fuel, plus a strong draft in concert with non-adjustable secondary air feed causes the overly high temps.

...or am I completely mixed up?
 
My 30nc hits 750-800 all the time.
never seen any glowing, besides it is the stack temp i watch closer.
Still not a good feeling, been there.
 
Heck's....them's baby winds here in Oklahoma...guess I better get a damper when I put one in??? haha
 
Never had a problem with wind and the woodstove here . . .
 
When the 8 in pipe at the 90 going into the wall is glowing red, is that 750 degrees? Tim
 
That is a great chart,. Thanks Tim
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Not sure why but in all the years we've burned wood we've never had a problem with wind. Yes, we've had plenty of high winds but not much effect on the stove.



Just listning had 35 to 40 mph winds here yesterday did't seem to change anything with my burning
 
cptoneleg said:
Backwoods Savage said:
Not sure why but in all the years we've burned wood we've never had a problem with wind. Yes, we've had plenty of high winds but not much effect on the stove.



Just listning had 35 to 40 mph winds here yesterday did't seem to change anything with my burning
Yeah, same here burned wood my whole life and I have never had the wind effect the stove like I see reports of on this site. We had 50mph gusts all day long where you could literally hear the wind whistle through the chimney cap and the stove just purred along like usual. I wonder what makes some peoples chimney's and stove's so susceptible.
 
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