Lopi Endeavor and secondary issues

[p301]

I realized there is no gasket on the bypass itself the one in the manual shows a bypass gasket on the larger piece of steel but nothing on the actual bypass itself. Its just weird that the flames kind of drift back there instead of being sucked forward infront of the baffle

 

[edyit]

I am assuming i should wait for the secondaries to get going in each stage though before i start closing?

don't get too hung up on secondaries. you have unseasoned wood, you need good dry wood to get decent secondaries, the moisture evaporating "cools" the top of the fire box so you won't get them as much / if at all with wet wood. close the air down till the flames get lazy then wait for it to pick back up then close it some more till they get lazy, repeat this till you get to your cruise setting.

 

[p301]

The problem is as soon as you cut back the air the entire fire cant sustain itself and i keep getting cooler and cooler stove temps. I mean the fire will stay in there and the secondaries may go for a second but the stove keeps getting cooler. Its a very frustrating situation to be in when its 10 degrees outside and your watching all your wood go up the flu. I have closed that thing slow and fast and at different temperatures i even had a chart i was keeping for a while. i have my wifes nail polish marking the push rod for the primary air control at all different distances. i do believe its a wood problem but it doesnt make sense that a few percent different in MC makes such a huge difference that you can barely keep the stove hot. Hopefully the bricks make a difference tonight

edyit are you in the wilmington by whiteface? i have a camp (my wife calls it a shack) up there between saranac and tupper i saw lake clear was well into the 20 below range last night

 

[edyit]

yup i'm literally minutes from whiteface. yes you are correct it is very frustrating with wet wood. have you grabbed some of the pressed wood blocks from tsc yet to mix in yet?

 

[p301]

tonight i will unfortunately (fortunately) i have work right now, but hopefully that tells the story. I remember stopping at fran betters over there a few times for flys, and swimming at split rock, even took my kids to the north pole.... time sure does fly

 

[rdust]

Is your class A 6 or 8 inch?

20'+ of class A that Lopi should be breathing pretty free.

How are you loading the stove? How many splits to fill it?

 

[p301]

6" i've been loading N/S i've tried all different sizes and quantity of splits. Last night i tried a log cabin style and that didnt do any better

 

[ckr74]

Wet wood is wet wood, and unfortunately it's not going to give you the results your looking for. Maybe you could trade someone for some dry wood. It's probably not a good idea to keep trying with the wood you have now. You don't want to be accumulating a bunch of creosote in the chimney.

 

[blacktail]

At 24% moisture, you're 20% over what is considered the maximum for dry wood. People who burn oak say it takes 2-3 years to dry.

 

[p301]

I have a bunch of black walnut stacked and covered that i split in the spring that i will try later i assumed the ash would be better but ill try that next.

The sawdust log worked well i had nice secondaries and seemed to put off decent heat. I guess at a buck a piece it isnt a bad deal maybe ill see how much of a mess i make if i cut them in half and mix them with each loading of wood. Thanks everyone for all the advice i didnt think the little bit extra mc would be that big of a deal but apparently it is. Atleast i can rule out the stove but i wonder how low mc i have to mc i need to get to to burn well

 

[edyit]

did you get the one big block or the little blocks? i found that mixing a couple of the little blocks with a few pieces of not the best seasoned wood worked ok, the wood left enough coals to light off the blocks and wood, just the blocks are kind of a pain to get going from a cold start and don't leave a lot of coals when they're done.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/redstone-wood-fuel?rfk=1 these are what i mean

 

[p301]

They didnt have those ones just the three packs of bigger ones i bought 9 of them for a buck a piece the small ones are nice do they have the small ones in the new tsc in ray brook? I may go do some snowmobiling next weekend so i can get them there if they had them

 

[redktmrider]

The sawdust log worked well i had nice secondaries and seemed to put off decent heat

At least you know the stove is not defective. I just bought half a ton of the bricks myself because I am short on seasoned wood this year.
It can be a real challenge to get ahead of the curve on wood processing.

 

[edyit]

they had a stack of them on display when i was in there the other day actually. can't hurt to call and ask, hate to see ya come this far up for nothing, dress warm if you come.

 

[p301]

Those bricks are nice and way easier for the wife to use. But oil is 137,000 btu per gallon for about 2.60 per gallon. The blocks i bought are a buck a piece at 7 lbs @ 8800 btu per pound = 61,600 btu per block x 2.6 = 160,160 btus for the same price so about 20,000 more btu plus the mess and going to the store to get it. I might as well just turn up the heat if i were burning only blocks, but if i could mix the small ones in it might be a better deal. It was a good test though for the stove and i am glad i did it.

Edyit i'd only come up if i was going snowmobiling up to the camp. Thank god i have a real wood stove in there. If i had this 500 lb paperweight in there the mice would have a feast when i defrosted. Even when the endeavor is cranking at 650 stove top i can stand next to it, when the old better n bens is cranking it will cook you out of there at 35 below if your not paying attention and you cant be within 6 feet of it

 

[rdust]

Thank god i have a real wood stove in there. If i had this 500 lb paperweight in there the mice would have a feast when i defrosted. Even when the endeavor is cranking at 650 stove top i can stand next to it, when the old better n bens is cranking it will cook you out of there at 35 below if your not paying attention and you cant be within 6 feet of it

Another common comment made from people going from a smoke dragon to an EPA stove. The old stoves offered a face burning heat, new stoves not so much but they have a magical way of still heating without running you out of the space. The Endeavor does an awesome job moving air with its convective, low clearance to combustibles design.

 

[p301]

Another common comment made from people going from a smoke dragon to an EPA stove

That is the benefit of the paperweight that you can have it so close to combustibles otherwise i would not have been able to fit it. If i had the room and was able to i would have gladly paid twice the price that i paid for the endeavor for the smoke dragon and the endeavor was pricey. I am now sitting on a pile of wood that would have burned perfectly fine in an old stove but not good enough for a new stove so i am forced to spend money on seasoned wood and blocks of sawdust

 

[edyit]

like i said before i know its a major pita when first switching over to an epa stove but once you get your wood seasoned you'll see the difference, more heat out of less wood and cleaner burning.

 

[p301]

I'm sure i will im going to bring some of that walnut up this weekend and see if that burns any better. I think i split it in June but it got cut up last January. I have alot of left over KD 2x4 pieces can i burn them?

 

[edyit]

yeah, if they're not treated or painted burn away

 

[p301]

Happy new year everyone! So i managed to get into some better wood and have burned in the last few days the temperature here has been hovering in the single digits i have my heat set to come on at 60 so in the mornings it has been about 60 in the room with the stove. I have been able to get the stove to run consistently between 550-600 on the surface. I am heating about 1000 sf downstairs with a pretty open floorplan and im sure some makes it upstairs too. Does it seem right that it is taking like 3 hours of burning that hot to get the temperature up 4 or 5 degrees in the room with the stove? I hear about people getting the temps into the 80's no problem and i can barely break through 68.. am i doing something wrong how long does it take you guys to raise the heat 5 or 10 degrees? Regardless of my wood a 600 degree stove is 600 degrees. I get about 4 hrs per load even on low maybe 5 if i stretch it.. far from the 10 lopi claims. Just curious about other people experience

 

[rdust]

Happy new year everyone! So i managed to get into some better wood and have burned in the last few days the temperature here has been hovering in the single digits i have my heat set to come on at 60 so in the mornings it has been about 60 in the room with the stove. I have been able to get the stove to run consistently between 550-600 on the surface. I am heating about 1000 sf downstairs with a pretty open floorplan and im sure some makes it upstairs too. Does it seem right that it is taking like 3 hours of burning that hot to get the temperature up 4 or 5 degrees in the room with the stove? I hear about people getting the temps into the 80's no problem and i can barely break through 68.. am i doing something wrong how long does it take you guys to raise the heat 5 or 10 degrees? Regardless of my wood a 600 degree stove is 600 degrees. I get about 4 hrs per load even on low maybe 5 if i stretch it.. far from the 10 lopi claims. Just curious about other people experience

The burn time is probably from match strike till the last coal is out. When I had mine I could reload with regular splits after 10-12 hours. Stove top would be sub 200 and not producing usable heat but it was still the "burn time."

After 4 or 5 hours the stove should be full of coals.

Do you have the blower? My stove moved a lot more heat with the blower, below 30* it was a must have. Is the stove in a basement or main level of the house?

 

[p301]

The stove is on the main level . The windows and insulation could be better, but not the worst either I do have the blower but dont usually use it. I could see if the room i was in was real hot but its not and takes forever to warm up. It seems crazy that even the room with the stove takes hours to rise 7 or 8 degreees with a 600 degree wood stove. The useable heat like is about 4 hours i can still relight from it almost 24 hours later though

 

[rdust]

The stove isn't much for radiating heat, top and front will be it with the convective design it has. Running the blower on low when I had mine was a night and day difference for warming up the stove room and the house. Obviously no two installs work the same but I relied heavily on the blower.

 

[moresnow]

Just a suggestion. Run the blower. Keep it on for a full day/night for a true test. Unless you have?
Made a huge difference getting heat distributed in my place with both of my stoves. I normally run mine at less than half speed to maintain a hot STT. Post your results. Guessing it stays on after that test.