New insert - over fired?

[excessads]

Very excited get the insert and insulated liner installed today. Cured the paint as suggested by manual. Have a hot bed of charcoals going, loaded a log dryer than I thought. The damper is all the way down near closing. This looks okay to you or am I over firing the box?

 

[excessads]

That was a mild panic moment until I turn the air all the way down it finally calm down, now at 1/3 opened, the log is flame is now settling down to a nice control burn. Whew......read more previous posts and ordered an inferno thermometer, will also keep a bucket of cold ash as standby.

 

[saskwoodburner]

A thermometer or two will give you peace of mind. I can't tell if it was considered "overfiring", but maybe it was off gassing faster than you would like. There are lots of stories of guys forgetting to turn down the air or get distracted for a bit and end up with a lively fire.

 

[Sprinter]

You do have to be careful about putting too much fuel on a large, hot coal bed. As said above, the new load can start to off-gas too quickly for the stove to dissipate the extra heat so it overheats, even with the air down sometimes. But you'll get the hang of reloading. I doubt if you damaged anything.

You may want to get an infrared thermometer as well, so you can point it around at different points on the stove. Finding a good place to read the temp on an insert can be tricky.

 

[weatherguy]

That fire looks fine, once you have a thermo you'll be able to tell where your at but it's supposed to look like that. Mine has looked more vigorous than that for 15 minutes and I'm only up to 400.

 

[Dustin]

Don't keep that ash bucket in the house.. Unless you're damn sure it's all the way cold. Coals will live in an ash pile for days, silently burn and emit CO into the living space

 

[begreen]

Looks pretty good from the picture. Enjoy the new heater.