Is my Dutchwest burning too hot?

[sullystull]

I thought I was getting the hang of using the everburn system. Tonight, I went through my usual routine before going to bed. I had a good bed of coals, loaded the stove full of fresh splits, waited for them to catch then re-engaged the everburn system. The rumble kicked in and I was reading typical temps. I have a magnetic pipe thermometer, 18" from the collar (top exit) on single wall pipe--it was hovering around 400*. However, when I shut the lights off to go up to bed, i noticed a red glow from behind the heat shield. After further review, it was the stove itself (in the rear) that was glowing from behind the heat shield. Is this normal for this particular stove? I have the primary air shut all the way down and like I said the everburn is engaged and rumbling along as it should. However, anything glowing red isn't good. Is my thermometer bad? Thoughts?

 

[Todd]

Your not the only one that has seen their everburn glowing. I remember some others last year. Try a search on it and look for Tradergordo's threads on "everburn".

 

[Valhalla]

I would place the thermometer on the top, center of the stove. Not only the flue. Is it single or double wall? Also, check the thermometer accuracy on a cast iron pot/pan in your kitchen stove set to mid range of the thermometer say, 450* F. Or some other ways. It is quite easy.

There is a lot in the forums of Hearth.com about stove thermometers and their use.

Good luck and keep researching on this.

 

[Brian VT]

Is your secondary combustion chamber in good condition and exit ports clear of ash ?

 

[sullystull]

I am not sure what condition the chamber is in since I haven't pulled anything apart. From what I can see, everything looks okay. You bring up a good point about the ash...I will give it a good cleaning and see if that helps. Nothing was out of the ordinary last night except for the glowing part. Temps were normal, flames weren't too excessive. I was recording 30+mph wind gusts but the stove did not appear to be over-drawing.

 

[Brian VT]

Not sure which stove you have but the ash I'm talking about is in the sides of the back compartment.
I believe you have a ceramic fiber combustion box back there. The exhaust is drawn into the bottom, ignited, exits out the sides of the box, and then up to the pipe.
These openings in the sides can get plugged from ash buildup. You can probably access these areas by removing the rear firebrick and removing
the metal plates on the left and right. You could also stick a vacuum hose down there from the pipe collar but be careful not to damage the ceramic box.
This may not be related to your original question but it's part of general maintenance. See the "spring cleaning" section of your manual.

 

[sullystull]

I'll read up on that in the manual. I know trader and a few others have discussed the cleaning process for their stoves--I'll reread those posts. I have the Dutchwest Non Cat Large (model 2479) stove.

 

[Brian VT]

My original thought about the glowing was that maybe the back of the ceramic box has some damage and it
isn't insulating the metal from the secondary burn. It's very fragile. You can stick a poker through the intake and damage it.
It's tough to inspect, though. You'd need to remove the upper fireback to (carefully) take the ceramic box out.
I'm not trying to freak you out. Just throwing ideas at you.

 

[sullystull]

I appreciate the suggestions. My hope is that it was a freak thing and will never happen again...but I think that is wishful thinking.

 

[bsa0021]

It could be the fountain is failing. You can inspect it by removing the flue collar and you won't disturb the fragile fountain from here. If you pull the refractory out the fountain may get damaged. I would start w/the flue collar. When I pulled mine off, I found a hole directly over the pipe and it got worse from there.

 

[tradergordo]

This keeps coming up. I hope VC is paying attention.
Anyway, I answered this in this thread:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/29401/

 

[trailblaze]

i have the same problem, let me know what you figure out? for me, i'm just going to keep a closer eye on it...unless i read some great idea that doesn't require me putting in a stove pipe dampener