Normal flame pattern for damped down air?

[TradEddie]

If you think those are fast blowing secondaries, you're going to wet yourself if you ever throw hickory on hot coals on a cold night!
I can get blowtorch-like pressurized jets of flame bouncing off my glass, and that's without trying.

TE

 

[gr8shot]

It doesn't look too bad to me in any of the videos. But someone mentioned loading in more wood, and having it more closely packed together instead of crossed. That will help a good amount IMO. It will slow down the burn of the wood a lot from the way you have it loaded now.

 

[Amin1992]

Thanks all for your support. I ended up taking the covers off and checking out how the air intake and control lever work. Pretty cool! And helps me understand a bit more of how this stove works, rather than just memorizing control lever locations.

Seemed to all be working perfectly and I can't find a leak, so just going with it I suppose.

Only bummer is I got a fire going, got it hot, then dampered it all the way down. Used 5 splits, about 4" diameter. I'm about 2 hours in and the fire is down to coals.

That's 2.5 splits per hour - I used to be able to do 1 per hour! Oh well.

 

[john26]

What model heatilator? Does it have an ACC? if so did u check that?

 

[Amin1992]

What model heatilator? Does it have an ACC? if so did u check that?

It's a Heatilator Eco Choice insert.

It doesn't have an actual acc. However the burn rate control lever controls an air opening just like the acc but simply opens it when fully open, and then closes at any other setting.

All looked good.

 

[john26]

Check your baffle board on top the ones in my napoleon get knocked out of position from time to time

 

[Amin1992]

Thanks pal. I did give it another look and it appears to be flat and in place

 

[Amin1992]

Hey all, just wanted to share an update.

I ended up doing a small modification to my EPA non cat stove.

When adjusting the air control, it basically swivels a metal gate that opens and closes the air intake. Fully open, and it's about 3" wide. Fully closed, it closes to about 3/4".

So I opened up the trim and cover plates to access the air control mechanism and air intake. I used a few layers of aluminum tape to cover up about a quarter inch of the air intake.

So now, fully open went from 3" to 2 3/4" (negligible) and fully closed went from 3/4" to 1/2" now.

In essence, shutting the air 3/4 of the way down is the same size opening was it was fully down before.

My draft is still strong but I'm finally getting some great secondary flames and cooler temps when I want them. Just wanted to share this. Thanks all.

Also attached a video.