Hi guys,
First season with an insert - I installed a used VC Montpelier that appeared in very good condition. Now I'm having some problems figuring it out and thought I'd post while monitoring my 685 degree fire that is raging away and going to keep me up for the next few hours. It seems to be cruising at this temp now but I can't go to sleep until it settles down more.
So what happened today was I started a fire from cold. I didn't get a very even start on the wood and the fire never got up to 550 like I wanted. I could only get it to cruise around 450.
Well I reloaded on a full bed of coals, all pine that is about 15% or so, and it took off like a bat out of hell. I had the air fully closed within two minutes or less but the wood just off gasses like crazy and the secondaries were insane. I monitored stove top with an IR gun, most areas read about 650-700 but one hot spot got up to 820.
At this point I ran outside and got a wet piece of wood and threw it in.that helped a bit but 10 mins later it was climbing again...725...740...chit, I better do more. So I fetched the pail of ashes and threw some on. That took it down to about 600 and then it has climbed back to about 685 and has been steady for the last 45 minutes.
So a few questions... What did I do wrong and what if anything might be wrong with the insert?
I've never tried to load for an overnight burn before as the insert is a secondary heat source for us, but I thought I'd try it tonight. I've heard to be careful when loading on hot coals but I turned the air all the way down almost immediately. What else could I have done?
Is it always a bad idea to pack the firebox when you have a lot of hot coals?
Was the issue caused by the wood being pine and being quite dry? I haven't burned any hardwoods yet so am not sure how different they off gas or how much more controllable they would be.
Is the issue possibly something wrong with the insert? I can get it down to a very lazy flame and sometimes even snuff the fire (or at least get it to where all visible flames stop) but only ever after the initial 30-45 minutes of intense off gassing. During that phase it seems like I am at the mercy of the wood. It seems like if I am getting too much air - and I'm not sure that I am - it would be from the secondary tubes and not from the door. The intense action is always at the top of the firebox, when I have small primary flames at the bottom of the firebox they are lazy with the air down, no sign of air leaking in through the door. Not sure if a loose gasket somewhere on the Montpelier's body (it is a full cast iron insert) could be the cause??
So, I guess any thoughts as to what I did wrong or how to tame that extremely volatile initial off gassing would really help. Not sure I can get an overnight load on just pine in this 2.1 SF firebox but I think I should be able to...I've had coals 6 or 7 hours later already and that was only with 4 or 5 small/medium splits in there.
First season with an insert - I installed a used VC Montpelier that appeared in very good condition. Now I'm having some problems figuring it out and thought I'd post while monitoring my 685 degree fire that is raging away and going to keep me up for the next few hours. It seems to be cruising at this temp now but I can't go to sleep until it settles down more.
So what happened today was I started a fire from cold. I didn't get a very even start on the wood and the fire never got up to 550 like I wanted. I could only get it to cruise around 450.
Well I reloaded on a full bed of coals, all pine that is about 15% or so, and it took off like a bat out of hell. I had the air fully closed within two minutes or less but the wood just off gasses like crazy and the secondaries were insane. I monitored stove top with an IR gun, most areas read about 650-700 but one hot spot got up to 820.
At this point I ran outside and got a wet piece of wood and threw it in.that helped a bit but 10 mins later it was climbing again...725...740...chit, I better do more. So I fetched the pail of ashes and threw some on. That took it down to about 600 and then it has climbed back to about 685 and has been steady for the last 45 minutes.
So a few questions... What did I do wrong and what if anything might be wrong with the insert?
I've never tried to load for an overnight burn before as the insert is a secondary heat source for us, but I thought I'd try it tonight. I've heard to be careful when loading on hot coals but I turned the air all the way down almost immediately. What else could I have done?
Is it always a bad idea to pack the firebox when you have a lot of hot coals?
Was the issue caused by the wood being pine and being quite dry? I haven't burned any hardwoods yet so am not sure how different they off gas or how much more controllable they would be.
Is the issue possibly something wrong with the insert? I can get it down to a very lazy flame and sometimes even snuff the fire (or at least get it to where all visible flames stop) but only ever after the initial 30-45 minutes of intense off gassing. During that phase it seems like I am at the mercy of the wood. It seems like if I am getting too much air - and I'm not sure that I am - it would be from the secondary tubes and not from the door. The intense action is always at the top of the firebox, when I have small primary flames at the bottom of the firebox they are lazy with the air down, no sign of air leaking in through the door. Not sure if a loose gasket somewhere on the Montpelier's body (it is a full cast iron insert) could be the cause??
So, I guess any thoughts as to what I did wrong or how to tame that extremely volatile initial off gassing would really help. Not sure I can get an overnight load on just pine in this 2.1 SF firebox but I think I should be able to...I've had coals 6 or 7 hours later already and that was only with 4 or 5 small/medium splits in there.