How hot is too hot for my lopi liberty

[lopiliberty]

Just curious as to how hot is to hot for my lopi liberty. Manual say 800 degrees is considered overfired but it has never gotten that hot. So far this year (2nd year with the stove) it as been almost impossible to get cruising temps under 700 degrees. The last couple of fires it was cruising at 750 without the fan running and the air control all the way shut. 700 degrees doesn't really bother me but I start to take a little more notice at that temperature. I would like to have it curse in the range of 550 of 650. Yes the gasket is sealing tight. I am thinking of installing a pipe damper to help slow things down because at 750 this thing is putting out a ridicules amount of heat. Understand the stove is not peaking at 750 and slowly coming down but it is running at 750 for hours on end. Anything over 750 and I turn the fan on to cool it down. Just wondering what other knowledgeable people on this site think. I know this stove is built like a tank and can probably handle those temperature but it wasn't a cheap stove, so I don't want to pop any welds to warp the top plate

 

[oldspark]

You must have that thing packed full to get 750 for hours on end, what kind of wood are you using, have you tried having smaller fires?

 

[lopiliberty]

I am using dry oak, locust, and ash. Not really packing the stove just 4 to 6 peices loaded north/south. When I am home i usually only put in 3 peices at a time. Even then it can easly hit 700. When I am not home or for an overnight burn thats when I usually add the 4 to 6 peices of wood.

 

[aussiedog3]

Same with mine. Built like a tank. Just nicely rolling 750-800.

Mine seems fine.

 

[lopiliberty]

How long have you had your lopi?

 

[realstihl]

That's hot!! I start shutin things down at 600.

 

[thewoodlands]

Just curious as to how hot is to hot for my lopi liberty. Manual say 800 degrees is considered overfired but it has never gotten that hot. So far this year (2nd year with the stove) it as been almost impossible to get cruising temps under 700 degrees. The last couple of fires it was cruising at 750 without the fan running and the air control all the way shut. 700 degrees doesn't really bother me but I start to take a little more notice at that temperature. I would to have it curse in the range of 550 of 650. Yes the gasket is sealing tight. I am thinking of installing a pipe damper to help slow things down because at 750 this thing is putting out a ridicules amount of heat. Understand the stove is not peaking at 750 and slowly coming down but it is running at 750 for hours on end. Anything over 750 and I turn the fan on to cool it down. Just wondering what other knowledgeable people on this site think. I know this stove is built like a tank and can probably handle those temperature but it wasn't a cheap stove, so I don't want to pop any welds to warp the top plate

We have the Liberty, what are you measuring your temps by? What temps are you reloading at?

zap

 

[fossil]

I have a mag thermo on the lower step stovetop of my Liberty, and another on my single wall connector pipe just above the flue collar. I generally look to keep the stovetop at around 600°F or so. I don't like to see it at or above 700°F for any length of time. The way the stove puts out the heat, I can't see any reason to run it hard. Rick

 

[lopiliberty]

I usually reload between 300 and 350. Tried to go lower than that but there was not many coals left for an "easy" restart. I usually start shutting things down in stages around 500 and will hold there for maybe 20 to 30 minutes and then things go nuclear. My secondary burn is not the lazy flames you see in videos on youtube. I looks like what I call the blow torch effect. I am using a condar chimgard single wall stove pipe thermometer in the dead center of the bottom plate. If I can remember and figure out how to do it I will post a picture when I have a fire again.

 

[iceman]

Check you gasket...my pe was doing that...I changed my gasket and it still was ... I put on a thicker gasket... Problem solved some how just enough extra air was getting in to send it to nuclear..now it rarely goes 700+ more like 650-700 max

 

[lopiliberty]

Zap I have seen the pictures of your fires and when mine it burning like that the stovetop is almost always above 700 degrees and you can't stand to be in the same room as the stove because of the heat. When your liberty is running at 650 as you say it is in some of the pictures what is your basment temperature? I know you have said before but I can't remember. Also I have decided not to cover my wood this year. It is so dry that I don't think a little rain will hurt it at all. It might even help keep the stove temperature down.

 

[lopiliberty]

Did the bollar bill test(didn't actually use a dollar bill I used a peice of paper) clear around the door and wasn't able to pull it out without ripping it.

 

[fossil]

When my Liberty gets to really cookin', I see an amazing "waterfall" of secondaries pouring forth from the tubes beneath the baffle toward and down the window. This is (obviously) when the stovetop temp really starts to climb. I find that I can then throttle the primary air such that I still get a nice secondary burn display without all the drama and worry about temps. Rick

 

[thewoodlands]

I usually reload between 300 and 350. Tried to go lower than that but there was not many coals left for an "easy" restart. I usually start shutting things down in stages around 500 and will hold there for maybe 20 to 30 minutes and then things go nuclear. My secondary burn is not the lazy flames you see in videos on youtube. I looks like what I call the blow torch effect. I am using a condar chimgard single wall stove pipe thermometer in the dead center of the bottom plate. If I can remember and figure out how to do it I will post a picture when I have a fire again.

Get yourself a good IR gun that reads above 700, I think you will find that you might be over firing your Liberty. The magnetic thermometers usually are off by 50 -75 degrees.


zap

 

[thewoodlands]

Zap I have seen the pictures of your fires and when mine it burning like that the stovetop is almost always above 700 degrees and you can't stand to be in the same room as the stove because of the heat. When your liberty is running at 650 as you say it is in some of the pictures what is your basment temperature? I know you have said before but I can't remember. Also I have decided to to cover my wood this year. It is so dry that I don't think a little rain will hurt it at all. It might even help keep the stove temperature down.

The warmest we had the basement was 81, we are burning cooler this year compared with previous years. We plan on burning 600 or just above, like they said it's not good for the stove over a period of time to burn like that.

When I shut the air down (pull it out) I have good control over the fire, we burn cherry and reload at 200. (stove top temp)



zap

 

[lopiliberty]

Most of the time my secondary burn is confined to the middle air tube right in the middle of the air tube if that makes any sense. When looking in to the stove it looks like it is right under the thermometer. Going to try different positions for the thermometer and see what temps are. I will get an IR gun and take a reading. I guess I am just going to have to have smaller fires and more frequent reloading which doesn't bother me if it is going to save my wonderful stove from any damage.

 

[lopiliberty]

Zap I have seen the pictures of your fires and when mine it burning like that the stovetop is almost always above 700 degrees and you can't stand to be in the same room as the stove because of the heat. When your liberty is running at 650 as you say it is in some of the pictures what is your basment temperature? I know you have said before but I can't remember. Also I have decided to to cover my wood this year. It is so dry that I don't think a little rain will hurt it at all. It might even help keep the stove temperature down.

The warmest we had the basement was 81, we are burning cooler this year compared with previous years. We plan on burning 600 or just above, like they said it's not good for the stove over a period of time to burn like that.

When I shut the air down (pull it out) I have good control over the fire, we burn cherry and reload at 200. (stove top temp)



zap

I have good control over the amount of flame on the wood I can dasically put the wood out, it is just the secondary burn I have a hard time controlling. I am going to try loading, let it burn for a while and shutting it down before the secondaries kick in and let them kick in on there own. I read something about this somewhere on hearth.com

 

[thewoodlands]

Most of the time my secondary burn is confined to the middle air tube right in the middle of the air tube if that makes any sense. When looking in to the stove it looks like it is right under the thermometer. Going to try different positions for the thermometer and see what temps are. I will get an IR gun and take a reading. I guess I am just going to have to have smaller fires and more frequent reloading which doesn't bother me if it is going to save my wonderful stove from any damage.

If your getting that hot then I would start shutting the air down earlier, have you checked the set screws on the bottom of the door ( if they come loose it will allow for some play between the shell & the door retainer that holds the glass and the gasket.

Check your manual about taking a washer off so you have a tighter fit with your gasket, I thought ours was good (I did the dollar bill test) but after taking the washer off it was much better. Page 27 of your manual wil show you the washer.

zap

 

[lopiliberty]

Most of the time my secondary burn is confined to the middle air tube right in the middle of the air tube if that makes any sense. When looking in to the stove it looks like it is right under the thermometer. Going to try different positions for the thermometer and see what temps are. I will get an IR gun and take a reading. I guess I am just going to have to have smaller fires and more frequent reloading which doesn't bother me if it is going to save my wonderful stove from any damage.

If your getting that hot then I would start shutting the air down earlier, have you checked the set screws on the bottom of the door ( if they come loose it will allow for some play between the shell & the door retainer that holds the glass and the gasket.

Check your manual about taking a washer off so you have a tighter fit with your gasket, I thought ours was good (I did the dollar bill test) but after taking the washer off it was much better. Page 27 of your manual wil show you the washer.

zap

I have checked the set screws on the bottom of the door frequently ever sense the stove was installed because i have a fear of them coming loose during a fire. No fire tonight so I will remove one washer in the morning before building a fire and see if it makes any difference. Chances are I am wrong and there is probably some air getting in around the door.

 

[thewoodlands]

When we are burning our better btu wood (sugar maple & beech) and the outside temps are at lower (better draft) we reload at 200, helps out big time. We have some four year old sugar maple that will take off like a rocket ready four the colder weather, we had a small gap on the latch side last year so I stopped by the shop we bought it from, they showed me the extra washer I could take off, it's been a tight fit since.


zap

 

[aussiedog3]

Third year with my Lopi. Mine is old.

Burning the best wood I can find, as efficiently as I can.

Infrared Themometer.

 

[kingquad]

This may be a dumb question, but are you raking the coals forward before you reload? My first month with my insert last season, I was loading with the coals spread throughout the firebox. My temps would sky rocket in pretty short order. When I started raking everything forward, my burns became much more controllable and my temps seemed to drop a bit.

 

[lopiliberty]

This may be a dumb question, but are you raking the coals forward before you reload? My first month with my insert last season, I was loading with the coals spread throughout the firebox. My temps would sky rocket in pretty short order. When I started raking everything forward, my burns became much more controllable and my temps seemed to drop a bit.

I am reloading coals spread throughout the firebox as you were. Never even thought about raking them to the front of the firebox. I'll try that with my next fire.

 

[kingquad]

This is a post from BrotherBart that I saved to give to my Dad. He just installed his first EPA stove a couple weeks ago.

He says "Burn it down to enough coals to make a six to ten inch row all the way across the front. Drag’em into that row and place the N/S splits in with the front of the splits on top of the row of coals. Then cigar burn the load. From front to back. If you place a new load of splits on top of hot coals all of the outgassing happens at once and not only wastes heat but is a pain in the butt to try and control.

If you want to burn E/W, do the same coal dragging drill but drag the ash and coals all forward and stack two big splits on top of each other in the back. Then lay a medium to big split according to how thick and hot the coal bed in the front is on the coal bed and give it ten minutes to fifteen minutes to rock and roll and then ease the primary air back in three steps to a steady burn. What you want to do is get the back splits hot and just starting to release gases but just be burning the front one.

With the E/W you are looking for blue flames burning on top of the splits at a steady rate. Not a bunch of fire blasting out of the front of the burn tubes.
I just set up the E/W for the night and it looks like a natural gas log in the thing. And it is gonna sit there and burn at five fifty for a really long time."

Hope this helps.

 

[lopiliberty]

Started a fire this afternoon and did everything that was suggested to me. Checked set screws again on the door and the were tight. I did tighten the bolt on the door handle, and it seemed alot tighter than it was so I didn't remove the washer. I got a good bed of coals and raked them to the front, load two peices of wood into the back the stove and placed two small splits on the coal bed. Long story short, stove peaked at 725 and stayed there for almost 2 hours, now its down to 600 and one BIG pile of coals. I going to really burn this pile of coals down and try it again and see was happens. I think my problem is my wood is too dry if there is such a thing as wood being too dry and my chimney draft too strong.

Just in case someone asks, outside temperature at the time I got the fire going was 60. Currently its 52.