Lopi Rep. 1750 learning curve

[clutch25]

I had probably the 5th fire in the Lopi tonight. Windy day, "cold" wind off the lake all day out of the north (25mph). Came in from working outside all day and the house was a tad chilly, temps getting into the mid 60's.

Decided to have a fire to continue the learning of the stove. Right now I'm just burning wood shop drops of all species and a bunch of pine slab wood drops. I found the thermometer that came with the stove (used Lopi Republic 1750) so now I have two stove top temp gauges.

Got the fire going, loaded it mildly a couple of times and sat down for some grub....left the air open about 3/4 the way and came back to a stove showing 750 on one gauge and 850 on another...HOT either way. House went from ~64 to almost 90 in not so much time.

Couple of thoughts.....

I'm used to a stove were I shut off the air and it STOPS...of course this is old school stuff with the chimney dampener too. My Clayton at home I can almost kill immediately if needed. The Lopi gets the air shut off and it's a good 20 minutes before it's under control. Seems like it almost runs away....

Once you get one of these new EPA stoves hot....SOB...they REALLY will crank out the heat! I am just amazed at how long this thing will stay warm and how little wood it takes.

Tomorrow is supposed to be windy and "cold" too, in the mid 60's....so I might try and burn some wood other than scraps and see what happens.

 

[pyro68]

I'm sure someone on here will explain in more detail than i'm doing but in a nut shell, when you "shut the air off" on the 1750, the chimney is still pulling, forces the stove to pull more air through the secondary tubes, increasing that combustion for a short time, raising the surface temp of the stove. EPA regulations mandate a specific amount of air be able to come into the stove even with the "air control" shut. i've found that if i have the air wide open, fire burning hot, i can increase surface temp by restricting primary air slightly, so much depends on the chimney. Sounds like you're having fun!

 

[joefrompa]

Sounds about right for this stove with a load of dry scraps. Shut the air down all the way and if you feel frisky OPEN the bypass damper. This will starve the stove while keeping secondary combustion to a minimum. It'll also heat the chimney up something fierce as the heat goes straight up. Helps the stove cool faster.

If you have a blower turn it all the way up. If not, get a big fan and crank it onto the stove.

Now u know

 

[rdust]

For burning scraps you may have left the air open too long and too much.

With the Endeavor I can only leave the air wide open for 10-15 minutes and then I start turning it down in stages(usually 3). After the fire is going and the stove top hits about 400 I push the air about half way in, after another 5 minutes or so if the fire is burning nice I'll push the air in leaving it slightly open or fully closed. Outside temps, chimney draft, coal bed, type and size of wood will play a roll in how far I close it down. When it gets too hot with the air open it takes a while to bring it back down to a comfortable temp. so I try to catch it before I'm at the oh boy stage. My stove likes to cruise in the 600-700 range with a full load of wood on a good coal bed.

 

[clutch25]

Thanks for the reply's everyone....

Ya, the stove seemed to spike a bit after getting "shut down". There is no bypass on this model so I can't open that up....

Thanks for the burn cruise temp....this thing seems to run pretty warm...so I don't feel so bad about a steady state 600-700 temp.

Still messing around with the damn snap disk. It wouldn't shut the fan off last night after the stove died, and tonight I had to get out a light and make sure the wires were hooked up and it was tight against the stove bottom. Rolling along good right now at just shy of 600 stove top (center of firebox) on 2 chunks of pine....going to give it a little oak in a bit, after it has stabilized and I take a shower.

 

[Pagey]

Same fire box as my Endeavor. Like rdust says, mine likes to "cruise" between 600-700F. It will occasionally spike to 725F or so on a full, fresh load, but it settles down soon enough. In my first year of burning, I found that I was not shutting the primary air down soon enough. I now start closing it 5-10 minutes before I "think" it needs it. 99% of the time it works out fine. On the rare occasion that I shut it down too far/too soon, I find that giving it just a little more primary air brings things back to life almost immediately. I guess my policy has become that I'd rather snuff the fire and have to "coax" it back for 2 minutes than let it get too far along and risk a "run away".

This post needs more "quotes".