Help!!! Fireview 550 & climbing

[MacPB]

Dennis / Todd / Anyone:

I have the Fireview at about 550 degrees. There are 3-4 medium splits left. Should I add more air by raising the air intake or reduce air?

Should I turn off combustor?

Please let me know asap.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[BrotherBart]

Send them a PM. That sends an email to them in case they aren't looking at hearth.com.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

PM sent. Nothing to be concerned about. Happy burning Mac!


Thanks BB. As I told Mac, I went off line for a bit.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good news. Mac is doing just fine.

 

[Lakeside]

Could you share the remedy?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sure thing Mike. The remedy was to sit back and enjoy the heat. There was nothing wrong at all. What happens with some new folks with the cat stove is when they engage the cat the temperature of the stove can climb quite fast. Mac just got a little excited when it got to 550 but it didn't get much higher. These things will take care of themselves if you just relax....which is sometimes difficult to do with a new stove that you are not familiar with.

We've traded a couple of PM's and all is well.

Mac actually increased the air a little bit and it worked. I usually do not go that route at all but just sit back and relax. I have to admit that one time when the stove was new to me that I got a little excited when the firebox looked like the flames of Hell itself and the stovetop was at 700 and climbing. I closed the draft and it seemed to have no effect. Well, the stovetop finally quit climbing at about 710 or 720 so it was not overfired. Once we understood the stove then all was well.

We've had our stove over 700 several times and it does get pretty warm in the house....but what a beautiful flame you get when it is cooking like that!

 

[Lakeside]

I am new to this wood stove journey and had a similar event this morning.
After using the stove for the last few weeks and learning its burn cycle, I thought I was ready to leave the stove alone for my workday for the first time.
With a full bed of coals left from the overnight burn ,I loaded her up at 5:45am and around 6:30 she was roaring along to 560 + , about that time I started to think it was not going to be good to leave her for the day. But like you said the stove peaked maybe at 580 and started to descend slowly. By 7:10 I was once again comfortable enough to head off to work for the day. When I arrived home my house it was 71 and the stove top 150, with a good bed of coals ready to go. Not bad for 11 hours unattained

Thanks for all the tips, this site has really helped me on my "wood stove journey"

Oh ya so how do I go about cooling her down when she hits 700 ?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sometimes a little shot of Jim Beam might help! lol

No need to do anything when it hits 700 except let it burn. It won't go much higher. I'm sure some have had it higher; I think Todd did once, but although we've been close to 750 we haven't hit it yet. As stated before, that is when we have the draft set around .25 or even shut it off completely for a while although I have not noticed any difference between zero and .25. The fire burns about the same and eventually will just gradually start coming down.

Certainly you would not want to load up with really small splits and pack it, especially with something like pine or soft maple; something that burns hot and fast. Perhaps the stove could handle it but I don't care to be the first to try that out.

But on one of those cold January or February nights when the temperature barely registers on the thermometer and you have a 40 mph NW wind, that 700 degree stovetop temperature feels pretty darned good. And I certainly am not against putting more wood in during the night when those cold winds blow.

 

[Bobbin]

I laughed when I read this thread.

We'd had our stove a month/so and it was a really, really cold day. I'd loaded it up and it was cookin' along. I was putting laundry on the rack in front of it and glanced at the thermometer on top of it... promptly flipped out after noting the temperature was nearing 600 degrees, which says, "too hot" just above the numerical reading on our Condar "stovepipe" thermometer.

I called my husband at work and go the answering machine. With rising panic I kept going over to eyeball the thermometer unsure as to whether or not I should shut the whole thing down. I carefully read the manual to find out about chimney fires (was convinced if we didn't have one we were about to) and saw a reference to the thermometer being placed atop the stove...

Seems the "too hot" reading was a warning if the thermometer was on the stove pipe. I calmed down a bit. And did some more reading, the upshot of which was that 500-600 was primo range for the stove and nothing to be feared, at all. If I recall, the 'phone rang shortly thereafter and the steady, reassuring voice of the husband repeated the same thing I'd just read. but I was pretty freaked out for awhile there. And it was about that time I decided I needed to get serious about the stove and how to use it properly and well.

Thanks for the reminder of something that really scared me but now makes me laugh. And thanks for putting it out there for anyone else who is nervous or afraid. Knowledge is power, baby!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Bobbin you are very correct there. It is good that these things can be discussed on the forum. I hope the new people will read them and learn from them. And I'm betting you were very, very releived too. lol

I also hope people realize that all stoves are different. What is right for the Woodstock stove is not right for the Heartstone stove or others. Each stove must be learned....even the same types. For example, it is well known on this forum that Todd and I do many things the same yet also do many things differently. That does not make either of us right or wrong. It is what works for each setup.

Of course on any forum there are usually some who will misread or misinterpret what is written the same as there are always those who try to "prove you wrong." On this last, it has always amazed me how some get on their high horse and try to prove scientifically that you are full of beans. Why is it important to try to prove something wrong? I really don't know, but wish I understood it.

For example, on a couple of hunting forums the battle always gets heated when it comes to wearing the carbon type clothing to help hold down the scent. There are so many that seem to spend an enormous amount of time trying to prove how this stuff is junk while others merrily go on and use it to good advantage. Why is it important to those people to try to run down a product? Someday, maybe we'll know and understand.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[Bobbin]

It's been so long since I've operated any stove besides the Woodstocks I know I'd be nervous about a Jotul or Lopi, any other stove, frankly. You definitely develop a "feel" for your stove with time and experience. There is no substitute for "mileage".

I never knew about "top down fires" until a year ago. Know what? they work slick as you please! And if I hadn't stumbled on this site I'd probably never have even given the possibility a try.

 

[Flatbedford]

Help me out here. Less air = more heat? My stove seems to stay around 400. I have the air at about 1. Will it burn hotter with less or more air?

 

[MacPB]

Steve,

I'm still figuring it out myself (it's kind of counter-intuitive at first), but it seems there is a thresh-hold around the "1" mark on the air intake.

After cat light-off at "1" you decrease the air which slows the draft and gives the cat more time to "consume" the smoke gases from the wood. In my case, the splits where all charred, so they were all pretty much releasing smoke and the cat was really working. It got to about 550 and I got a little nervous, considering that I am still new at this, and I had a lot of wood still in the firebox to be burned.

I read somewhere on this forum that someone opened the air up a little to release some of the heat out of the firebox (as well as make the cat run less efficiently - less heat). So I contacted Todd & dennis, but before I read a response, I just went from .75 to 1, waited and the temp let up slightly as well the flue temp went up, so I went from 1 to 1.25. Then I noticed the surface temp was going down even more and leveled off for a while between 450-500.

Maybe it was just a coincidence and 550 would have been the peak anyway. I just did not want to find.

I hope I did not make this confusing. Maybe someone else can explain it better.

Mike

 

[Todd]

Yeah, it's funny how sometimes the conditions are just right and you see no flames or even red coals but the cat is glowing beet red eating away at the smoke and the stove top is climbing above 700. Seems wierd that the stove gets hotter with less air and no flames but that is just the top of the stove because it's right above the cat which is gorging itself with fuel. If I catch the temp above 700 I open the bypass to let the cat cool down for awhile. If you keep some flame in the box you shouldn't see the stove top temp above 700 and you will also get more heat from the whole stove not just the top.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've always realized you could open the bypass to help cool the stove but have never really considered it while at the stove, even with it over 700. Seems to me we got close to 750 one time but I did not panic and all was well as it did not stay there very long.

I have noticed that in the spring and fall that we will leave the draft open a bit further than during the winter months. So, last night we had it set on .5. We put wood in around 8:00 and this morning there was a big bed of coals. I laid 3 soft maples on the coals and it did not take long. Yes, it is nice and toasty in here....but the wife hasn't been removing clothing yet so maybe I'll put in another split.