Loading wood too high, above firebrick, concern?

[dboone]

Hello everyone. I have been browsing this site for about a week. A lot of great info and have already learned quite a bit. Here is my first question with probably many more to come later.

Still pretty new to my 30-NC. It says in the owners manual

"Add larger pieces of wood as the fire progresses, being careful not to overload. Do not fill the firebox beyond the firebrick area."

It is pretty hard to follow that rule, especially when you already have a couple inches of coals and ash in the bottom. I have been trying to avoid having anything touching the secondary burn tubes, but the wood does get pretty close. Tonight I had a piece that was sticking pretty high up and very close to the ceramic fiber board panels on the top. I noticed a smell and saw where it turned this board black in a small area. The smell kind of resembled the initial metal/paint burn in when I first used it. This occurred right after adding a few logs. Also there was rapid increase in temperature. It went from about 250 to over 400 in maybe 5 minutes. I cooled the fire down and shifted the logs around and the smell quit and the black spot went away.

Would you be concerned about any of the above? Could this be related to loading the wood too high in the firebox?

Thank you

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If the manual says to not do it, then I certainly would not do it! Those instructions are given for a very good reason and are meant for us to follow them.

 

[pistonslap]

Instructions! Is that what those things are for? I thought that was paper they gave you to use for fire starters.

 

[BrotherBart]

No need to be concerned about the stove. The black spot was from gases being cooked out of the piece up there on top and the fire wasn't hot enough to burn them so they stick to the board and then burn off when it gets hotter.

There is no magic answer on loading up to the top or not. A lot of people do it and I did it the first year I burned in my 30. I don't do it anymore. I leave that space between the wood and the baffle to do its job which is to be a combustion chamber for the smoke coming off of the wood. Yeah it means less wood in the stove but I get a much more consistent burn now burning like it was designed to be burned.

I suspect that the smell was the stovepipe getting hotter than it has before from the blast of hot gases coming off of a reload on top of very hot coals in a already hot stove.

 

[dboone]

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't want to intentionally go against what the manufacturer says. In this lawsuit happy world everyone has to C.Y.A. and I thought this might be one of those cases where they were being over-cautious. I am going to attempt to keep the wood beneath the metal bracket on the top side of the firebrick. Thank you.

 

[Todd]

I always filled every stove up as high as I could. It doesn't take long for the load to sink down a couple inches as those coals burn up underneath. Just be carefull loading and wear gloves.

BTW, where have those two Englander reps been lately?