Does anyone have suggestions on how to keep flue temperature correct when shutting stove down for an overnight burn. I'm new to utilizing wood stove heat as primary source and want to try to do everything the best as possible for safety, least maintenance etc. I have a laser temp probe and getting under 250 Temps when shutting stove down. I do have a magic heat hooked up and thought about turning it off at night but this would depreciate efficiency of my stove by a long shot. Do they have an auto fly damper for wood stove piped that open and close at a set temperature to help? Seems like this would be a great product. Ty for any and all hell and especially Coaly for his informative posts that have helped me modify my baffle prior to burning with this stove.
How to maintain proper flu temp with overnight burn
- Thread starter FisherGrandpaBearNewby
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MongoMongoson
Feeling the Heat
I have never used a Magic Heat, but I ran a stove very similar to yours for about 10 years. The only place I had any significant creosote accumulation was in the stove pipe, not the chimney.... but with that stove I had a LOT more in the stove pipe than I see with my newer stove so I am concerned about the accumulation you will see with the Magic Heat.
I found that I had trouble keeping the flue temperatures high enough without running the stove top up over 800 degrees. That is why I am not totally sold on the improved efficiency of the new EPA stoves over an old Fisher (or in my case, All Nighter). Cleaner burning, yes for sure. More efficient? Maybe.
Anyway, the Magic Heat is not doing you any favors. If you want to move more BTUs out of your Fisher, move air around the stove body and keep the flue temperature high enough to prevent accumulation during the off gassing (lots of flame) part of the burn. Get the Fisher loaded with coals before bed. Rake those coals forward from the back before you go to bed and open the air a little to get them burning hot. Coals don't make much or any creosote so you don't need to be concerned as much about flue temperatures with coals.
The depth of a Papa Bear is awesome for building a large store of coals in the back.
I found that I had trouble keeping the flue temperatures high enough without running the stove top up over 800 degrees. That is why I am not totally sold on the improved efficiency of the new EPA stoves over an old Fisher (or in my case, All Nighter). Cleaner burning, yes for sure. More efficient? Maybe.
Anyway, the Magic Heat is not doing you any favors. If you want to move more BTUs out of your Fisher, move air around the stove body and keep the flue temperature high enough to prevent accumulation during the off gassing (lots of flame) part of the burn. Get the Fisher loaded with coals before bed. Rake those coals forward from the back before you go to bed and open the air a little to get them burning hot. Coals don't make much or any creosote so you don't need to be concerned as much about flue temperatures with coals.
The depth of a Papa Bear is awesome for building a large store of coals in the back.
The magic heat is robbing your flue of needed heat. It will greatly reduce flue temps and increase creosote accumulation.
Is it true a hot opened up burn each morning will help burn odd any possible creosote from the shut down nightly burn or isnthat myth
Yeah long ago I had a Fisher type stove, I think it was a Woodsman. I hooked up a Magic Heat to the pipe and turned my install into an instant creosote factory! I think it did fine if I ran hot but banking down for the night just didn’t work out.
You need to get the stove hotter than 250 degrees. Is your wood dry? Do you have an insulated liner? Leave the damper open longer and slowly turn it down. 80%, 60%, 40%, etc. The more you burn the better you'll know when and how much to turn it down.
If your burning creosote out of the chimney that's called a chimney fire and not good. Get rid of the magic heat
Definitely remove the magic heat. You heat with the stove, not the exhaust. If you keep the magic heat than sweep your chimney monthly.
I get what you mean but I think it has more to do with radiant verses convection heat. The old stoves are thick steel with no shielding in most cases. It just feels better than most of the heavily shielded newer stoves that are more convective. I’m not sure if radiant heat is more efficient than convection heat but it sure feels like it to me.
MongoMongoson
Feeling the Heat
That is a valid point. We have bright galvanized sheet metal 1.5 inches off the walls with top and bottom air gaps still in the corner where the All Nighter was. The Summit radiates from the front and top. The All Nighter radiated from the back and sides too, and all that reflected off the bright steel into the room.
ctreitzell
Feeling the Heat
I've thought the same thing regarding slumbering. Seems it would be great to have a way to keep the flue hot enough to draw after closing the air intake down to get choked embers smoldering to prolong overnight/ sleep time burn so that when the air intake is reopened to reignite the choked embers the flue remains warm enough to draw.
In my case, I had a couple CO alarms because the flue was too cool to draw and the gases flowed into the house via the air intake during relighting. I had another CO alarm due to the window seal needing replacement.
Then I read up on slumbering on the HETAS site and decided slumbering isn't eco-friendly, and is potentially dangerous and I have stopped slumbering.
So, even if users have a method to slumber and keep the flue hot enough to draw; the air intake would best be served by a sealed connection to outside the dwelling. That said, a leaky stove/ appliance would still allow harmful gasses into the dwelling...the leak doesn't have to be much to be dangerous. Users might well have no idea their appliance is leaky! I did not realize it until I inspected.
I should think Outside Air connection could certainly allow smoke to escape more safely if poor draw on smoky cold starts, too, if users struggle with that. (I was struggling with that, but have changed my cold start procedure to a very low smoke ignition...that's another topic...)
In my case, I need a bigger firebox than what I have now to get the longer overnight burn times and a stove rated for longer burn times. Even though the manufacturer of my appliance claims burn times of up to 12 hrs, a user is only getting those burn times if they slumber. I could still slumber and allow the flue to cool below draw and just re-heat the flue before opening the air intake.
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