brianbeech said:
I left the air open fully for more than an hour (as I sat in front of the stove and only went away for 10 minute intervals) and my temp stayed at 300-325f. I'm imagining most of the heat was going out the flue, so I put another few small splits on it and gave it a few to let those catch. Once they did, I turned the air down to almost nothing and bingo! I finally made it into the 400f mark. I put a larger split on there and opened the air to let it catch, then turned the air back down. I never did get above 425.
I'm guessing my wood has a lot to do with not getting very hot as well as not having a flue damper? This wood is a year old, but it was just cut and stacked, not split. Most of the pieces could be put on without being split as their diameter is only around 6"-12" (I'm splitting the 12's). Any suggestions? Oh, and I assume there are 'nice' flue dampers and 'junk' ones; care to suggest one?
My stove was a Taiwanese clone, but operationally it was identical in every way. I never had mine burn out of control. In the beginning of the last year I owned it, a big chunk of gasketing came off the door. I couldn't get out to get a new gasket, so I decided to try to keep a fire going with the air control closed and just letting air seep in from the missing gasket area, but it just went out. Even under those conditions, it needed about a 1/4" opening or it would smolder. The pipe damper was only used because mine was fed into a very unrestrictive 8"x8" tile-lined flue. Once that flue got real hot, the pull was stronger than the stove was designed to need. The damper did help to hold more heat in the stove, but it tended toward creosote if I choked it down too far.
As far as a good one to get, call around to a few old hardware stores. These things aren't the big seller they once were. They may have some nice old American-made stock. I believe all the new ones are made in China.
Opening the air all the way did seem to send a lot of heat up the chimney, and the stove was cooler then as well. Here's a sequence I shot a few years ago that shows what happens with a good fire in there as you stop down the air. Each time I closed the air halfway, the fire intensified and the intake velocity increased. It's hard to tell through the bottom opening because the camera sensor blows out the highlights beyond a certain level, but the opening at the top shows how the fire got more intense with each reduction in the opening.
That doesn't mean it's getting much less air, it's just coming into the stove at a much higher velocity. You can hear it whistle real hard at a certain point, and that seems to be the sweet spot. The increased velocity creates a lot of turbulence inside the box, which means better gas mixing and much cleaner combustion with less excess air. At a smaller opening (about 3/8" here), you can take a pinch of fine ash and sprinkle it it a few inches away from the inlet and watch it arc into the stove from the pull of the draft. Try it, it's fun.
Like Precaud, my stove seemed to like smaller wood. 4" was a big split for me. Once I got it going, though, it would burn anything I could fit through the door. A very athletic little stove.
