Mansfield question,MSG?

[struggle]

I put a stack dampner on the stove pipe and I am on the first burn with it. After the wood was well charred I closed down the dampner and closed the stack dampner almost completely.

Now the stove is at 500 center top but seems to want to climb much higher. The wood is somewhat spread out in the box so that might be making it burn hotter.

With the stack damner closed completely the stove went to 550 and the secondary burn was going like mad. There was even a dancing row of flames on the glass. Almost all the secondary tubes had fire on them.

This concerns me that the stove is going to run away on me. The splits are on the somewhat smaller side which maybe contributes to the crazy burn?

Does the Mansfield not completly close air down when flap is moved all the way to the right?

My first impression was the dampner was going to work great but now it still looks like the stove going to completely burn out in a couple of hours still.

Here is two pictures one of the current fire and one of post burn the next day. I am having an insane amount of left over coals to the point of having to shovel them out to get the next fire going, which I was hoping the stack dampner was going to help slow the burn down to help reduce the amount of coals. Stack temp above the dampner was at 600 deg with a surface thermometer. It has now dropped off to 350-400.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/struggle_/DCP_2160.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/struggle_/DCP_2158.jpg

The flame picture does not really do it justice. It was completely blazing. I have dollar bill test the door and it is tight. I am going to check the ash door now.

 

[Andre B.]

Do I remember you having a chimney fire a few weeks ago?
If so is this the same setup?


There probably is not any standard but seems all the stoves I have run pushing the draft control to the right was full open.

With the coal pile in your second pic in my stove I would stir it up some, pull it forward, close the door open the draft and let it burn down some. Then when there is room put a stick or two on the back and keep the draft 1/2 to 3/4 open.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

he relined it to 5.5"
The reason for the heat increase with the damper is that its holding the smoke longer in the firebox and giving it a chane to combust. If its all the way shut, it should stay at a pretty constant temp. If your using a bunch of small splits to bank it then it will burn hotter. I use a few large rounds or splits to bank mine up. My stove has been going all day on about 30 lbs of wood. When you engage the damper, your stove temp should rise and your flue temp should drop.

 

[Shane]

Check to make sure your stove top thermometer is absolutely accurate. Today I was doing a test to see the rough difference between internal & external flue gas temps. I have a probe thermometer and took my normal stove top thermometer and stuck it next to the probe thermometer on the flue pipe. For grins I took a brand new one off the shelf and stuck it on the other side. Both stove top thermometers read the same when on the flue pipe at 250 degrees with 500 degrees on the probe. When I stuck both of the stove top thermometers on the stove top though I noticed that the one I have been using read 200 degrees higher than the brand new one. Obviously indicating that my old one was fatigued and innaccurate at higher temps. Just to make sure I popped another out of the package and tested it. The two new ones were consistant.

 

[struggle]

Do I remember you having a chimney fire a few weeks ago?
If so is this the same setup?

Yep I did have one not by choice though. What the fire did though I could not accomplish on my own which was it completely cleaned the chimney. Nothing but clay tile showing after that.

I lined it with a 5.5" 316 liner. There was some concern about how well a mansfield would do on the smaller liner. No problems at all. I am sure I could push the stove to 700 easily if loaded and left air control wide open. That is why after this first week of burning it I put a dampner further up the stack pipe to slow the stove down a bit.

I have to temp gauges and did put them side by side on the stove top and they both read the same. I am going to get a temp prop guage in the next couple of weeks ordered.

Today now the stove has been working perfect. I load three medium splits on the coals and it will hold 450-500 for several hours. I have noticed it does seem to be bunring the coals down a bit more as well.

I am raking them to the front and stirring/turing them over about every other load.

It is 13 degrees out now and we are not supposed to get much higher than 5 degrees the next 4 days with lows in the -15 range and it is currently 74 upstairs and 85 +/- in the basement. I must say though with this soapstone in place it does put a much more even heat than the Vigilant did. Basement is still very warm though but does not seem to create the intense heat waves.

When I pulled the pipe for the install of the dampner after one week of burning the liner has a very fine powder/ash on it. Nothing shiney.

 

[DriftWood]

he relined it to 5.5"
The reason for the heat increase with the damper is that its holding the smoke longer in the firebox and giving it a chane to combust. If its all the way shut, it should stay at a pretty constant temp. If your using a bunch of small splits to bank it then it will burn hotter. I use a few large rounds or splits to bank mine up. My stove has been going all day on about 30 lbs of wood. When you engage the damper, your stove temp should rise and your flue temp should drop.

Is the damper you are talking about the stove at work? Do you have a damper in your home stove set up? I guess this is the first time I have not herd about a vent damper on a slow to draft epa stove. You guys have me thinking about installing one.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

mine at home has no damper, but i only have a 22' chimney at 9000'
the one at work has to have a damper because its on a 30' 8 inch chimney at 5000'
hard to draft epa stoves are only hard to draft on minimal chimneys. On tall chimneys the work alot less efficient because the draw sucks the smoke up the chimney instead of burning it.
Draft works both ways, you can have to little, and you have have to much. Too little draft is much more common because most ranch style houses dont need much more the 14' to meet the 10/2/3 rule.

 

[struggle]

For those that want to know more about our set up it is this.

Concrete outside chimney and the wood stove is in the basement. We have 8' 1/2 finsished basement fully underground and the chimeny from top to the bottom of the stove is 28' long. The max length for this stove is to be 30' becuase of pull I guess.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

can you imagine that stove on that big 8" chimney? talk about burning through the wood fast..... It would be a inferno in there on that 8x8
New stoves take some getting used to. sounds like your getting your dialed in.

 

[struggle]

Ohh it would have vaporized the wood then for sure.

I am using less wood than we did with the Vigilant for sure.