I posted about my Dutchwest Everburn setup before (link) and I had nine feet of single wall flue inside my room. I thought the extra long single wall flue would be a good way to capture extra heat. But I believe it was Craig or someone else that warned me this could cause the flue gasses to lose too much heat even if it appeared to be working OK. Also the manual doesn't recommend having more than 8 feet of single wall flue. My chimney cap (which is not a very good design, too small and tight) got plugged twice (spark arrestor is way too tight and small, so I removed it after the second cleaning).
Anyway, long story short - I thought it would be a good idea to change the flue, so I bought another length (2 foot) of double wall pipe, and since I used a long adjustable (slide inside) flue piece, I didn't have to remove any of the single wall pipe, I was able to just slide it down - but this had the effect of adding another 2 feet of double wall (something I didn't really think about before I bought the 2 foot length). So now I have only 5 feet of single wall flue.
I don't know if it was the wood I was burning last night or the change in the flue, but once again the stove surprised me. I have never seen it burn like it did last night. With the primary air turned all the way off, I could not get the flue temp to go below 800. I tried adding what I thought was moist wood to the top of the fire - these were some unsplit logs, bark still firmly attached (but had been drying for a few months). I didn't give them any time to light, just tossed them in, closed the door and immediately engaged the bypass. Even after that the flue temps did not go below 800. It stayed above 800 for hours, everburn rumble going the entire time. House temps went up to 82 degrees. It was still 76 when I got up for work this morning.
Do you think the change in the way that it burned was due to the change I made in the flue or maybe just related to the type of wood I was burning? It seems I'm always burning different types of wood since I scrounged it from so many different sources.
Anyway, long story short - I thought it would be a good idea to change the flue, so I bought another length (2 foot) of double wall pipe, and since I used a long adjustable (slide inside) flue piece, I didn't have to remove any of the single wall pipe, I was able to just slide it down - but this had the effect of adding another 2 feet of double wall (something I didn't really think about before I bought the 2 foot length). So now I have only 5 feet of single wall flue.
I don't know if it was the wood I was burning last night or the change in the flue, but once again the stove surprised me. I have never seen it burn like it did last night. With the primary air turned all the way off, I could not get the flue temp to go below 800. I tried adding what I thought was moist wood to the top of the fire - these were some unsplit logs, bark still firmly attached (but had been drying for a few months). I didn't give them any time to light, just tossed them in, closed the door and immediately engaged the bypass. Even after that the flue temps did not go below 800. It stayed above 800 for hours, everburn rumble going the entire time. House temps went up to 82 degrees. It was still 76 when I got up for work this morning.
Do you think the change in the way that it burned was due to the change I made in the flue or maybe just related to the type of wood I was burning? It seems I'm always burning different types of wood since I scrounged it from so many different sources.
