Does anyone know where the air comes into a Lopi Declaration stove? I am running my stove right now and if I keep the doors cracked a bit it runs great. If I close the doors completely the fire is starved for air. I have had a fire going for 2 and a half days now so I have a couple inches of ashes built up in the bottom of the unit. Does the air come into the firebox through the bricks on the floor of the combustion chamber? Does anyone else know why if I crack the doors it runs fine but if I close them it dies out starving for air. Obviously I have all air controls wide open.
Lopi Declaration Starved for air?
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Lots of questions come to mind, including checking to see if some linkage has become disconnected in the draft control. Another would be, naturally, the chimney. Is it perhaps partially plugged? If so, tend to that quickly. Another is the fuel. If it is not dry enough, it simply does not want to burn and needs too much air to keep the fire going. Better fuel is the only answer for that. Good luck.
The first thing that comes to mind is the chimney height. My stove done the same thing in till i added 4 feet to my chimney.
I have the same insert with 28' uninsulated chimney. It takes a good 20 min with a crack open door to create a sustainable draft before I can close the door.
So the problem you have is insufficient draft. It can come from...
1. Not enough chimney height - How high is your chimney? I assume that you have SS flue liner...
2. Tightly sealed home - Try crack open window..
3. Wood not dry enough - That happened to me last season too. You never get the Declaration to take off with wet wood.
4. Blockage in primary air inlet - Make sure that your lower rod is all the way in.
My procedure to start the fire is...
1. Use 2-3 medium split of DRY woods, with sufficient kindling & super cedar.
2. Fully open bypass damper - upper rod all the way out.
3. Fully open primary air - lower rod all the way in.
4. Light the fire - keep door crack open around 15-20 min
5. Try closing the door - if fire can sustain for 2-3 min, close down by pass damper (upper rod all the way in)
Otherwise, keep the door crack open until you can get the fire going.
6. Once the thermometer (Condar...on the front door) reach 350F, adjust primary air for slow burn.
(Pull lower rod all the way out..and push back in about 3/8") The actual temp should be around 450F at this point.
7. Adjust the blower - I sometime manually turn off the blower to help it heats the flue quicker.
Then turn it back on when I see the sustainable fire.
I forgot to answer your question. The primary air mainly comes in from the holes on the front-top of the box (the band with lots of holes you see from the glass door. Also 5-6 more holes in the middle of bottom lip (the small bump in the middle).
Cheers.....Som
So the problem you have is insufficient draft. It can come from...
1. Not enough chimney height - How high is your chimney? I assume that you have SS flue liner...
2. Tightly sealed home - Try crack open window..
3. Wood not dry enough - That happened to me last season too. You never get the Declaration to take off with wet wood.
4. Blockage in primary air inlet - Make sure that your lower rod is all the way in.
My procedure to start the fire is...
1. Use 2-3 medium split of DRY woods, with sufficient kindling & super cedar.
2. Fully open bypass damper - upper rod all the way out.
3. Fully open primary air - lower rod all the way in.
4. Light the fire - keep door crack open around 15-20 min
5. Try closing the door - if fire can sustain for 2-3 min, close down by pass damper (upper rod all the way in)
Otherwise, keep the door crack open until you can get the fire going.
6. Once the thermometer (Condar...on the front door) reach 350F, adjust primary air for slow burn.
(Pull lower rod all the way out..and push back in about 3/8") The actual temp should be around 450F at this point.
7. Adjust the blower - I sometime manually turn off the blower to help it heats the flue quicker.
Then turn it back on when I see the sustainable fire.
I forgot to answer your question. The primary air mainly comes in from the holes on the front-top of the box (the band with lots of holes you see from the glass door. Also 5-6 more holes in the middle of bottom lip (the small bump in the middle).
Cheers.....Som
Thanks for the insight folks.
I think my problem is the wood I just bought. Lesson learned, don't buy wood without going to look at it. I had a cord delivered and it is obvious that it is not as well seasoned as I was promised over the phone.
However, I appreciate your insights. I have about 35' of chimney so I should be good there. I have a 105 year old home so I don't think we are too air tight. It is good to know that you have to keep your doors cracked to get the unit up to speed. I started burning earlier this fall with some ash and cherry that I had gotten and that stuff went way better. Even then I noticed that once the unit is up to a cruising temp it really burns well. I could adjust the air controls down and get a nice long burn with 0 smoke coming out of the chimney and nice flames inside.
I guess I will have to struggle through keeping it going with this wood until I finish it all.
Thanks again.
I think my problem is the wood I just bought. Lesson learned, don't buy wood without going to look at it. I had a cord delivered and it is obvious that it is not as well seasoned as I was promised over the phone.
However, I appreciate your insights. I have about 35' of chimney so I should be good there. I have a 105 year old home so I don't think we are too air tight. It is good to know that you have to keep your doors cracked to get the unit up to speed. I started burning earlier this fall with some ash and cherry that I had gotten and that stuff went way better. Even then I noticed that once the unit is up to a cruising temp it really burns well. I could adjust the air controls down and get a nice long burn with 0 smoke coming out of the chimney and nice flames inside.
I guess I will have to struggle through keeping it going with this wood until I finish it all.
Thanks again.
cos_man . . .
I have a Declaration and what helped the air flow more than anything was cross stacking the wood with the bottom row from front to back.
We never got what I considered a real good air flow for starting a fire or maintaining it good and hot until we started using this technique.
I have a Declaration and what helped the air flow more than anything was cross stacking the wood with the bottom row from front to back.
We never got what I considered a real good air flow for starting a fire or maintaining it good and hot until we started using this technique.
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