New Enviro Kodiak 1700FPI too much draft?

[thefuzz4]

Good Evening Everyone,

I just had this stove installed today and compared to my old 1990's Country Stove that was in the house when we bought it this thing is amazing. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is if I have too much draft. Our chimney is over 20' tall. The installers today removed the old solid pipe that was inside the chimney and put in the SS flex pipe liner. Oh this stove is an insert as well. The old stove I could never get it to burn right I was constantly adjusting the damper on it, and I think it was because whoever installed that one built a box on top of the unit to connect the stove to the flue so the smoke had to do 2 90degree turns to get up the chimney. So we've had this thing burning since they installed it so about 10 hours now. I've just been burning some scrap wood that I got from a carpenter. All wood was clean, nothing stained, lacquered etc. But the thing is I can throw in a few chunks into the box, close the damper all the way down, watch the tubes light up which compared to my old stove with its tubes, this thing is just mesmerizing to watch. The problem is it just continues to get hotter and hotter, I have a thermometer for it that I got off of Amazon that is magnetic and I put it on the front right above the door. The owners manual says that the top plate of this stove shouldn't exceed 800, I'm assuming that, that is the temp of the very top of the stove, the piece that is above the blower vent? I just want to make sure that I don't need to have my installers come back out and put some sort of a restrictor plate in, which from everything I've read will void the warranty. I'm really looking forward to running this on Sunday since we're supposed to dip down to the teens so it couldn't have been installed at a better time. Come Sunday I'll put 4 logs in there and we'll see how long it burns because we really want a stove that will burn over night.

 

[begreen]

Welcome and congratulations. Construction scraps as you see burn quite quickly. Cordwood is much better. This insert will burn very differently. Forget most of what you knew from the old stove except burn only dry wood. The stove will go into secondary combustion as the air control is closed. That is normal. The trick is to turn it down much sooner. With good draft you will find that you will be able to burn thicker splits, packed more tightly. Take first fires in steps until you have the hang of running the stove confidently. Don't worry about overnight burns until you have done a few full loads in the daytime. That will help you gain confidence and predictability.

As soon as the fire is burning well, turn down the air until the flames start to get lazy and waft over the wood. As soon as the fire strength builds again, turn down the air some more. If the fire is strong, turn it down all the way. The secondary burn will be intense at that point as the wood gases boil off the hot wood and are ignited. That show can last an hour or more.

 

[thefuzz4]

Thank you so much @begreen I appreciate your info and tonight we will be burning with actual logs, just waiting for the outside temp to drop down some more before we light her up for the evening. We're sitting just under 50 out there right now so no need to fire it up yet but in a few hours we'll be on our way into the 20's with snow in the forecast and then teens over night so we're ready for it

 

[begreen]

That's too cold too soon. The chill is on.

 

[thefuzz4]

Getting this new stove figured out. Raked all of the coals to the front of it after the fire is lit and my kindling burns down. Then stack the logs across the bottom left to right (east to west?) behind the coals, I don't layer the logs I just put 4 of them behind the coals and pack them in as tight as I can and shut it up and let it go. I've been playing with the damper on it trying to figure it out.