Maxed out the thermometer and could not shut down.

[woodjack]

I was heating leftover turkey when I noticed my woodstove was flaming wildly. I rushed over and checked the thermometer which reached it's limit - 900 degrees.

I shut down the stove damper in hopes of suffocating the fire, but flames continued for several minutes and the secondary fire continued until the coal stage. The fire burned under control cruising at 500 degrees, but never went out (normal burn cycle).

Should a closed damper extinguish a fire?

 

[drdoct]

Mine ran away from me, but not that high. Turned out I had a big leak in the door gasket. I was lucky I had just loaded a big load right before bed and was letting it get started good before turning down. I had just damped it down and for some odd reason gotten busy and didn't go to bed. I heard the stove popping like it was gaining temp. I shut it completely and it got over 700 which is hot for my stove top. Well hotter than I've ever had it. I stayed up until it started going down after about 1 1/2 hours. Going to go ahead and bit the bullet and buy a real door gasket now instead of making my own.

 

[webby3650]

The new EPA stoves will not shut down completely. I had a similar scare one time not 900 degrees but hotter than I feel comfortable, I shut it down and secondary purred until it was out of wood. I have a friend that had a bad window gasket that did the same thing. Might check the gaskets!

 

[Prada]

Yep that is exactly what I was going to say too. Our stove was getting harder and harder to keep in a safe burning range and we changed our door gasket. It helped a lot but we think we still may have to also change our glass gaskets too. We not only have the one main glass in the door but also 2 side Bay windows in the stove and we bought the stove used from our nearby Dealer that had it on Display (burning) for a few years before we got it. But the main point is that it sounds like a lot of air was still getting to your flames even after you shut down etc and it had to be comeing from somewhere.

 

[woodjack]

My damper was fully open at the time, so I don't think I have a gasket problem - or should the stove not get that hot, even with a wide open damper?

 

[webby3650]

My damper was fully open at the time, so I don't think I have a gasket problem - or should the stove not get that hot, even with a wide open damper?

I think this could depend on the wood, I put in some of my "mystery wood"(as posted in the wood shed)and the temp. jumped a lot higher than it has been all evening. Now the front door and a window are open!

 

[mayhem]

Wide open damper, really good draft and a load of hot, dry wood and you can get temps like that...as a dumb kid I usd to regularly get stovetop temps in the 900+ range on my mother's old VC Defiant...more than once I saw sections of that stove's front doors glowing orange.

I think keeping a box of arm and hammer handy is a good idea. Toss it in and shut the damper down...the box will burn and the baking soda will help smother the fire out if you get a runaway. I haven't done this myself, but I've heard its a good way to smother a fire...wait for others here to validate this.

 

[Prada]

Oh Yes with good seasoned dry wood, I imagine that you can build a fire to really get up there if you leave the air adjustment fully open. It's the fact that it wouldn't go down for you is what makes me feel you may have some air leaks. I do know that the new stoves won't shut the air all the way down even when you close it off but I would think that your fire would have gone down quicker than it did if you didn't have any air leaks.

 

[jtb51b]

Prada,
What kind of temps do you see on your buck and where is your pyro located? I have a rutland thermo on the stove top and regularly see 400-450 but I try for no higher since its a double top and I am unsure of the box temps.. What do you do?

Jason

 

[Prada]

We have a Rutland Thermo too and we fire ours up to close to 600 (right to the edge of the safe burning zone) and then start backing it down. We try to keep it anywhere from 300 to 500. Anywhere in the 'Save Burn' zone on the gage. We have double wall pipe and would normally need a Probe Thermo to get an accurate reading, but Hubby put a short single wall piece into the stove collar extending over the starting of the double wall and we put our Rutland Thermo there. You should be fine with your temps I would think.

 

[LeonMSPT]

One of the problems with wood. No way to turn it off... I've had some scary moments with my insert, older VC FPI... it's been 750. I keep the blower on to remove as much heat as I can, and if the door gasket is leaking, aluminum foil can be jammed into the crack enough to seal it temporarily. The white insulation off the back of the blanket insulation put on chimney liners too... just chink the gap to cut the air off. Check everything real good when it cools off.

The long lighters, like they use to light charcoal grills, work real good. Just light it on high, slowly move the flame along the seam or suspected leak. With even a small fire in the firebox, the flame will suck right into the leak... dead giveaway. Could use a candle too I suppose...

The dollar bill test is okay for door gaskets... when the stove is cold close the door and latch it on a dollar. If you can easily pull it out, time for a new gasket.

 

[LeonMSPT]

No access to the pipe with the surround... so a magnetic thermometer stuck on the center of the doors below the latch is all I have to go on... I suspect the stack temperature would likely be scary... might be why the chimney sweep was so amazed when he cleaned it last year. Got about an inch or two of gray/brown dust in the bottom of a five gallon pail out of a 35 foot chimney.

 

[woodjack]

Wide open damper, really good draft and a load of hot, dry wood and you can get temps like that....

Yeah, those were the conditions - big, new load of my "A" wood, good draft, and wide open flue.

 

[woodjack]

The long lighters, like they use to light charcoal grills, work real good. Just light it on high, slowly move the flame along the seam or suspected leak. With even a small fire in the firebox, the flame will suck right into the leak... dead giveaway. Could use a candle too I suppose...

The dollar bill test is okay for door gaskets... when the stove is cold close the door and latch it on a dollar. If you can easily pull it out, time for a new gasket.

I like the idea of holding a candle to outside the glass seam to see if it gets sucked up by the draft. I tried the dollar bill test. I can pull it out, but it's pretty tight feeling. I assume that's okay.

 

[LeonMSPT]

Old mechanic's trick to listen to an engine noise without "outside" noises confusing the location of it...

Take a piece of tubing, 1/4 inch copper or so... flexible. Hold one end near your ear, listening to it... move the other end over where you think the noise is. A loud hissing sound coming at you from the tubing would indicate a leak where the other end is...

Just try it near the air intake for your unit... be surprised how loud it is, even a small vacuum near other other end of the tubing comes through.

 

[Prada]

Wow you guys are full of tricks! Candles and copper tubes. I've often wondered if there was some type of a test out there for glass gaskets. I gotta try this stuff too! lol

 

[LeonMSPT]

Got land, trying to find a spring to drill a well over? Give me a call, I'll come find one for you. Last one I did was 52 feet deep, 10 gallons a minute. All I need is a twig... Don't ask me how it works. Dad can do it, little brother can do it. Find pipes and wires underground too, but still call digsafe... kind of messes with their minds when they arrive and the wire is all flagged with sticks... and it's right. Walk away shaking their heads after they put their flags beside mine.

 

[Cearbhaill]

I have a piece of foil right next to my insert that I use to cover up the air intake if things get too hot, which they do from time to time. With my lever on "off" I cover the lever slot and it seems to help.
I have also turned a fan directly on the door and find that thet helps too, but have often wondered if it is just hitting the thermometer. Either way it helps me feel better.
I have never reached 900º, and don't believe I've even gotten over 750º, but it makes me uncomfortable even at that temp.

 

[brooktrout]

We hit 750-800 every day, twice a day. "Clean-out fires" we call 'em. Run it at that for 15 mins, never have a chimney fire. Of course, if we had an EPA-era stove, we wouldn't have to do that. You know it's hot when the Rutland starts sliding down the front!

 

[NitroDave]

Got land, trying to find a spring to drill a well over? Give me a call, I'll come find one for you. Last one I did was 52 feet deep, 10 gallons a minute. All I need is a twig... Don't ask me how it works. Dad can do it, little brother can do it. Find pipes and wires underground too, but still call digsafe... kind of messes with their minds when they arrive and the wire is all flagged with sticks... and it's right. Walk away shaking their heads after they put their flags beside mine.

Come on over....I'll buy you lunch....I want to dig a pond, but need a spring to feed it. ;-)

 

[JMF1]

I have buried the needle a few times on my insert. If the right load of wood gets rolling too long and begins to "gas" it will take off on you, without air leaks. Brother Bart suggested letting the stove drop down to 300-350 before reloading and this gives you the "cushion" needed to char it and get it up to temp without overfiring during the "gassing stage" of the wood. I've been doing this for a few weeks and it works great, you just need to stay on top of it so it doesn't take off on you. Each load and species of wood and how dry it is makes a difference let me tell you!