OAK and Length of Time to Get Fire

[MarkF48]

I don't have an OAK, but the cold snap we had lately got me wondering if drawing sub zero air into the stove slows the ignitor from heating up as quickly and firing up the pellets as it would if the stove didn't have an OAK. Has anyone done sort of a ballpark comparison of this pre OAK and post OAK and noticed much difference?

 

[TimfromMA]

When it get's that cold, my stove never shuts down. My stove turned off today for the first time since last week.

 

[johneh]

When it get's that cold, my stove never shuts down. My stove turned off today for the first time since last week.

X2
To cold to shut down . Today did a full cleaning
Good for the next cold snap

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

I would think that it will make a small difference in the time it takes for the pellets ignite, but since the air temp needed to ignite wood is about 500F, a maybe 50F to 70Fcolder intake air, across the ignitor heating element is small compared to the 500F....so a small increase in ignition time..maybe 10 to 15% longer. My stove takes about 2 to 4 minutes to ignite the pellets from the time the ignitor turns on, and that is with an OAK.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

I would think that it will make a small difference in the time it takes for the pellets ignite, but since the air temp needed to ignite wood is about 500F, a maybe 50F to 70Fcolder intake air, across the ignitor heating element is small compared to the 500F....so a small increase in ignition time..maybe 10 to 15% longer. My stove takes about 2 to 4 minutes to ignite the pellets from the time the ignitor turns on, and that is with an OAK.

Looking around the net, I see your figures are pretty close to the majority I found. Some were saying that it takes 12-14 minutes of exposure at 450-500 f to ignite many wood types. So time does seem to be a factor that should also coincide with the air temps. So if you have 0 or sub zero air coming across the ignitor that runs at a specified temp to ignite pellets within a specified time period, at say 50 degrees f, it should take a while longer to ignite the pellets the colder the incoming air gets.

I just built a small rocket stove for an experiment after watching many dozens of videos on youtube about them. It seems from the videos, that preheating the combustion air is a key component to getting the cleanest burn. So I would think that those OAK setups that a few here have put together that run the incoming air over the exhaust pipe, would be a good option.

 

[TimfromMA]

So I would think that those OAK setups that a few here have put together that run the incoming air over the exhaust pipe, would be a good option.

Theres a entire debate on this subject. Some people say that using your vent to warm up OAK air will, in turn cool down the exhaust gasses causing creosote build up.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Theres a entire debate on this subject. Some people say that using your vent to warm up OAK air will, in turn cool down the exhaust gasses causing creosote build up.

Very good point. I dont know enough about the burning of pellets yet to know how creosote builds up with them. Pellets are dried to a very low, specific moisture for the pelleting process, and as such, no uncured, or so very little uncured wood can be used.

I have a ryobi camera viewer on a flex wand.
Like this.

I've only run about a ton or a bit less thru the north stove which is used the most. Last cleaning, I used the viewer to go as far out the exhaust I could to see the fan and any build ups so far. Now this is still internal and the exhaust air is quite hot at this point, but I was amazed how clean it was. Just a thin layer of grey ash fines. I pulled the cap off the tee on the outside and there was no black or creosote look at all........yet. Just a couple teaspoons of fly ash.

It would be great if someone that has outside air running around the exhaust pipe would reply with their experience.