Help with Defiant 1610 non-catalytic

[cozyshack]

Hello and thanks for this nice website!! My wife and I just bought a house with a 5 year old Vermont Casting Defiant 1610 non-catalytic woodburning stove. It sits in an enclosed sunroom porch and has a nice 8" chimney. I have lit it twice and overall it heats up well. I read the manual several times regarding where to set the damper and airflow. The stove gets very hot and heats the room and adjacent rooms. That is all we really want it to do.

Here is my question:
1. With the damper closed we smell smoke in the sunroom but can't see it. The wood burns slowly. The CO alarms don't go off. Smoke is clearly visible out the chimney. It's not bad but I would prefer not to smell it. When I open the damper the smoke smell goes away but the wood ignites in a fury and makes me concerned that it will overheat. The airflow knob doesn't seem to make much of a difference in any position. What I would like is to be able to throw three pieces of wood in and leave it alone for a few hours.

I could be missing something. For example, this was on a fairly warm (65) day when I was just testing it. Maybe the draft was insufficient. Also, these were the first pieces of wood in the fire, maybe the coal bed was not yet adequate. I would appreciate any good advice here.

 

[begreen]

The stove prefers a strong draft and dry wood. With that combo, there shouldn't be any smoke coming from the cap burning with the bypass closed.

How tall is the flue on this stove?

 

[cozyshack]

The stove sits on the floor and reaches to an 8 or 9 foot ceiling, then a thimble then about ten feet insulated chimney.

 

[begreen]

If the pipe goes straight up, that should work well burning dry wood and with cooler temps.

From reports here, the refractory assembly on these stoves is somewhat delicate. It might be a good idea to have the stove checked by a VC dealer to determine its condition and clean it out carefully. Has the flue also been cleaned?

 

[schortie]

There is a great deal of information on this stove and other downdraft stoves. Tradergordo has some solid videos.

A couple comments from when we had a Defiant NC.

If it's 65 outside, you're going to have a tough time getting a decent burn with damper closed. Anything over 40 and all you'll see is a lot of smoke from your chimney. Keep the damper open and have a fire. It will do a fine job heating this way until it gets cold. Throwing a few splits in there and letting them burn will be no problem even without closing the damper.

Yes, the air control seems to have little effect on the stove until it really gets cooking in cold weather.

How hot is "hot"? My experience with my Defiant was that it's tough, and nearly impossible, to overheat it. 650-700 stovetop temp won't hurt it a bit. I'd be amazed if you hit that at this point in the season. If you don't have a thermometer, you may want to get one. The manual says to place it in the center of the griddle.