Hopefully the last problem.

[chrisman34]

Here is what I did and what happened. I loaded up the stove (about 3/4) at about 8:00 pm yesterday. Ran stove up to a stack of about 350, closed air down to 1/2, and let it run there until about 9:00. Stack temps were about 400 and stove top was 600 ish. At this point it was mainly glowing coals. I closed the primary air to a 1/4 and let it run for about 30 minutes, stack went down to 250 ish, and stove top was running 500ish. After 15 minutes it started acting up. There was a very small flame coming off the coals and then poof a large secondary burn..last about 5 seconds and go out.....wait 30 to 45 seconds and poof full box of flame for about 5 seconds....repeat... To correct it I pulled the primary air out a little to give it more air, and that corrected it, I believe. I went to bed about 20 minutes later and it didn't do it again before that.

The dealer thinks the stack cooled down and caused a low draft that would cause these events, but didn't offer a solution. Shouldn't I be able to shut this thing almost all the way down for the night? Any ideas on a fix? This has happened a couple times, and it is always when I am trying to close it down for a long burn with a huge bed of coals.

Thanks for your past help, I am burning a lot hotter, and other than this, it sems to be working a lot better.

 

[stoveguy13]

what kind of wood are you burning? it sounds like you are getting a build up of gases and there is not enough air so once the mix becomes right agian the gases are lighting off.

 

[chrisman34]

last night was mainly red oak...maybe some maple. moisture was less than 20%. Some other helpful info, I have single wall pipe, about 6' to ceiling, double wall threw attic and about 6' beyond that. I am thinking about 16' of straight chimney. House is VERY drafty.

 

[BrotherBart]

I find that happening when the fire hasn't had enough time to cook off the moisture in the wood. I bet if you check the chimney when you shut it down you will see a good bit of steam coming out. That moisture is keep the secondary burn from sustaining. Give the burn a little more time with some primary air before you close it down and it should continue to roll.

A good sign is when the fire is burning with primary air open and you see secondary start to light off and sustain at the back tubes.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

sounds like the lower flue temps are causing some stalling in the secondaries, you may not be getting quite enough pull to hold secondaries with that low a stack temp (250 at the first joint of pipe is pretty low) though 16 ft of total stack interior flue is within parameters , its not a long flue and this could affect your low draw. answer this for me if you will , what were the inside and outside temps? weather conditions (rainy or clear, still or windy) how big is the firebox (cubic ft. if you know it) and how long does a normal fire cycle last when damped down in this way? mind you im not familiar with the stove per se but i understand principles well and i may be able to help figure this out, i'll give it a shot anyway if ya help me.

 

[chrisman34]

I find that happening when the fire hasn't had enough time to cook off the moisture in the wood. I bet if you check the chimney when you shut it down you will see a good bit of steam coming out. That moisture is keep the secondary burn from sustaining. Give the burn a little more time with some primary air before you close it down and it should continue to roll.

A good sign is when the fire is burning with primary air open and you see secondary start to light off and sustain at the back tubes.

I know my wood is not the best but I sure would have thought at the state of the coals and an hour and a half with stove top temps around 600 would dry that stuff out. I sure hope that is the problem... I can't wait till next year when I have this fresh red oak and maple seasoned!

 

[chrisman34]

sounds like the lower flue temps are causing some stalling in the secondaries, you may not be getting quite enough pull to hold secondaries with that low a stack temp (250 at the first joint of pipe is pretty low) though 16 ft of total stack interior flue is within parameters , its not a long flue and this could affect your low draw. answer this for me if you will , what were the inside and outside temps? weather conditions (rainy or clear, still or windy) how big is the firebox (cubic ft. if you know it) and how long does a normal fire cycle last when damped down in this way? mind you im not familiar with the stove per se but i understand principles well and i may be able to help figure this out, I'll give it a shot anyway if ya help me.

outside temp was low 30's inside temp at the time was 80!! was running it hot all night. slight wind I am thinking 15mph or so, cloudy light snow. Fire box is 2.2 cubic feet. I don't have the best wood in the world, so times vary a lot. At half to 3/4 open I would suspect the wood I used would be down to 300 cook top in about 4-5 hours. The stuff I used last night was still pretty solid and dry. If I shut primary air to 1/4 there should have been 200 or so in 8 hours.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

looking at your reply to BB , he may be onto somthing i didnt think about , wood (especially dense wood like red oak) takes a really long time to char , you may still have moisture retarding the secondaries , non-cat reburn units can have wild swings in performance with green or less than seasoned wood. as he stated you may need to char longer before banking and with this also you can expect lower long burn cycle temps with unseasoned wood. do ya know anyone you might could bum a load or two of older more seasoned wood to run to see what you are dealing with? might shed some light on the subject , or maybe buy a few "biologs" to burn for this experiment , you would know they were dry and seasoned as they are processed. do not howvere get ornimental logs which burn different colors they are deadly to refractories and will damage the unit. good news is that if BB is right (he's probably grinning at the thought right now) you will have much better luck with the wood you have left over after this season to work with if he is right the setup (which seems fine) and the stove (which is a good unit) are ok, we just got some greenies to get past and will be ok from there

 

[stoveguy13]

if all the joints on the pipe are not sealed you may want to try that to help the draft. it can also happen with wood with low moister try taking wood from a couple diffrent spots in your stack so you get a good mix so you have some with that 20% or less and some that has 25%

 

[chrisman34]

if all the joints on the pipe are not sealed you may want to try that to help the draft. it can also happen with wood with low moister try taking wood from a couple diffrent spots in your stack so you get a good mix so you have some with that 20% or less and some that has 25%

been there done that...thats the good part! last time I had leaks and the smoke blew into the house...this time no smoke!

 

[BrotherBart]

My theory is pretty easy to test. If you have no visable steam coming out of the stack with it burning with 1/2 or 1/4 primary air open, but you do with it closed down, then sufficient moisture hasn't cooked out of the wood yet.

Watch your thermometers. With primary air open, the stack and stove temps are going to go down some when you load it. Moisture is cooling the stove and the stack. When they start to rise at the same air setting the moisture is starting to diminish.