Help with my Englander HC-30

[Jersey_Marine]

I have an Englander HC-30 wood stove for about 3 months or so now. In the beginning the stove was burning super hot fully vented and then it would burn just as hot with the vent bar pushed 3/4 of the way in once the fire got burning. Recently the stove hasnt been burning so hot fully vented and definitely not hot 3/4 closed. I doubt the chimney needs sweeping already since its only 3 months and I use only hardwoods for fuel but i guess I cant discount the possibility. Does anyone have any insight? The pipes going to the flue is a 90 degree bend to the outside. If I need to get the chimney swept and the 90 degree bent pipe leading from the stove to the flue cleaned, do i need to remove those styro-foam type plates above the air vent pipes? I used a cleaner log but now im thinking if the creosote falls down its going to stay ontop of the styro-foam type plates? Do i need to remove the plates to clean the chimney and flue pipes? If they arent removed I feel as though the cresote will never fall off into the stove or the sweeper may punch a hole in the boards. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[bluedogz]

Are we talking about a NC-30? I'm not aware of an HC-30 model in the line...

My setup is similar to yours, so before anything else I'll share a few things:
1) How hot is "hot" and "not hot?" How and where is any temperature being measured?
2) The NC30 is sensitive to wood quality. So, if the wood you are burning now is not as dry as that you burned a few weeks ago, that could be an issue. So, what are you burning? How long has it been cut/split/stacked? What other differences exist between today's wood and the wood from a few weeks ago?
3) If a flue cleaning is necessary, a better bet might be to remove the 90 from the stove to the wall, and run a brush up from there. The "plates' you referenced are not styrofoam, but ceramic, fragile, and expensive- the less you mess with them, the better.
4) Speaking of the flue, what does your chimney setup look like? How tall is it? What sort of pipe? What diameter & material?

Of course, if I'm way wrong and there IS an HC-30... well, no, this all still applies...

 

[weatherguy]

Sounds like you were burning drier wood to start, I doubt anything with the set up could have changed to cause this.

 

[Jersey_Marine]

Yes....I made a typo. Its the NC-30. Well here it goes. I looked up the chimney from the outside bottom cap and completely clear. I took out the ceramic plates and brushed them off and got a shop vac to completely clean out the inside of the stove. There was some dry creosote peices that were hanging around ontop of the ceramic plates but not considerable enough to impact a bad draft. By the way as you guys probably already know in order to remove the ceramic plates you need to remove both the center and front upper vent pipes that hold up the plates. The heat made the screws that hold the vent pipes in place brittle and one of the heads snapped off and left the rest of the screw in the hole. Easy fix though. I drilled out the rest of the screw and had another similar laying around in my tool box. I actually replaced both screws so next time the other one dont snap because its a good chance it will next time after another few months of more burning before another maintenance. I had some remaining wood from the last delivery and thought let me try this stuff as opposed to the new delivery. It was the wood all along. It sounds ridiculous that I didnt try the other wood originally but If you see and feel the wood from the new delivery you would think it was completely seasoned. Looks are deceiving I guess cause its not. As soon as I placed the old log from the first delivery on the kindling it went up like an old barn with hay in it on a 120 degree day and sustained burning. I chalk up this issue with inexperience because I had no idea that unseasoned wood can look seasoned and how much of an impact it would have on the temperature it burns at. Even though I found the problem was bad fuel, Im glad I took the time out to inspect the stove and chimney and completely clean out the stove. Thanks for all who replied

 

[bluedogz]

Sounds like someone is buying a moisture meter...

 

[Seasoned Oak]

ONe thing to watch for,it easy to knock the baffle board out of place. you rstove will smoke like crazy and wont burn clean till you discover it and correct it.