New Lopi Leyden Temps OK?

[mccormickw9]

This is my first wood stove and first year heating with wood. We have been burning steady for a few weeks now. I am still very cautious, I have a stove top thermometer, magnetic on my single wall pipe, and a probe in the pipe. We never have to fully load the stove up. The house seems to hold the temperatures pretty good. My wife is home during the day so by afternoon the house is usually too hot even with 20 deg weather. At night we usually put on a few splits and the stove is just warm in the morning. My concern is that the few times I have put a good load of wood in the stove the flue temps seem high. The stove is a Lopi Leyden, single wall to the ceiling ( 8 ft ceiling ), stainless double straight out the roof another 10 ft. Usually we get the stove up to temp engage the secondary burn and the stove temp maintains 450-500, the flue temp seems to be 600 and the temp on the pipe 300 or so. When I load it up get the secondary going and close down the intake all the way the stove temp gets up over 550, the flue temp creeps up to 900 or more and the pipe temp gets to 400. The reason I get concerned is the temp does not seem slow down with the intake closed all the way. It seems to continue to rise. I am rambling on here. Does anyone have any input for me. I am wondering if the doors are leaking. I checked them with a bill and the right hand door is a little loose but the rest of the doors are very tight. So it concerns me that the temp continues to rise and the flue temp reaches 1000 during a slow burn.

 

[Pagey]

I am burning a Lopi Endeavor, and I commonly cruise with a stove top temp of between 500F to 650F depending on the wood, the size of the load, and how hot I let it get before shutting the bypass damper. For example, I just let the stove get up to 400F before closing the bypass damper. When I closed it, the secondary burn started, and I slowly adjusted my primary air down. Once I got a good secondary burn rolling, the temp increased another 100F easily. Your stove uses "down draft" technology to achieve secondary combustion, if I am right, but the idea is the same - you're getting heat by burning smoke. Once you engage your secondary burn, you WILL see your temps rise for a while before settling in for the duration of the burn cycle.

Edit: here is a thread from a fellow Leyden owner if you wish to PM him.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/27146/

More edit: if addition to the dollar bill test, if you are concerned about leaks, try this: open all your air controls wide open. Place several crumpled sheets of newspaper in your stove, and light them. Once they are involved good, immediately shut down all your air. The fire should quickly begin to smolder and die. If it does not, you have a leak somewhere, more than likely. And keep in mind that EPA stoves cannot be fully shut down - i.e., they are not "air tight". In principle, they always draw in secondary air to burn the smoke. So, with your air "shut down" it's not truly shut down.

 

[mccormickw9]

Yes I have to keep reminding myself of that. The actual flue gas temp that i am reading with the Condar probe is what bothers me. Should it be reading 1000 deg while the secondary is going?

 

[Pagey]

To be completely honest, I have no idea. I just monitor my stove top temps, and I know that as long as I am in a certain range (and using decent wood), I can go out, look up, and see only a heat shimmer as opposed to smoke. I believe the Class A HT rated pipe is rated for a continous 1000F. If that's the case, you're doing fine. Hopefully others will chime in and back me up or correct me. I'm still learning, too!

 

[begreen]

That seems too hot to me and a waste of heat. You might try adding bigger splits to slow down the fire a bit, but ultimately it may need a manual damper to reduce draft. I'd recommend reading up a bit on tradergordo's posts about running downdraft stoves for starters. He doesn't have the Leyden, but the principles are the same.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/22500/

 

[Todd]

There have been many reports of these down draft stoves running hot stack temps. Probably due to the secondary burn chambers location in the back of the stove. 1000 does seem a little high, does it stay there for awhile or just at the beginning of the burn?

 

[Diabel]

When the conditions are right, mine will sit at 1000* (500* magnetic thermo.) for good two hrs. then slowly come down to around around 800* & sit there for another 2-3hrs. I was concerned with wasting energy i.e. too much heat going up the stack but I still get nice long burns 7-8hrs out of 2.1cf box not bad in my opinion. I figured that these downdraft stoves need these flue temps. to sustain the secondary burn. I also believe that smoke burns at 1000*.

On the other hand, I am slightly concerned with the life of my chimney...i.e. am I shortening the operating life of my flue system by running it hot like this?

 

[Jim P]

I am also new -to wood burning and the Lopi Leyden. I have been burning the Leyden about 4 weeks. I have had very successful
burns thanks to what I have learned on this forum.
I have a condar magnetic thermometer on the stove top and a condar probe
18 inches above stove into double wall pipe. I get the stove top to 550 F, and the pipe to 900 F. These temps seem to come up together- while slowly closing the bypass damper with the air control fully open. When these temps are reached I close the bypass
damper all the way and the air control 1/4 to 1/2 open. The stove top will stay around 550 F while the pipe temp comes down to 400 F. After a couple of hours temp on stove top will be 450 F. to 475 F. and pipe 250 F. to 300 F. After 13 hours I still have a nice coal bed to restart. If I see the stove temp drop to 475 F. or less within a 1/2 hour of closing bypass I open the bypass damper
and bring temps up again then close. If pipe temp does not start to drop within a few minutes of shutting bypass damper check that it is closed fully. Jim

 

[begreen]

I forgot to ask if the gaskets had all been checked. If the fire is getting too much air it may get too hot.

 

[mccormickw9]

I have checked the gaskets and the right hand door seems a little loose. Just the top right part of the right door, I can actually see into the firebox where the two doors come together at the top. I tried adjusting the plate at the bottom where the door latches to but that does not seem to tighten up the gaskets. I have called the dealer but they think I am making it harder than it has to be. So what do I do? Live with the higher temps or make them fix the doors?

 

[Jim P]

Please don't just live with it. Is the gasket in place or did it come loose during first burns?

 

[begreen]

You absolutely don't want air leaking into the firebox. If you are able to see into there tell the dealer to deal with it right away. This should not be happening on a new stove.