Oakwood needs constant babysitting

[SIERRADMAX]

I've been burning now with a Harman Oakwood for about 5 seasons. Wood is mostly oak and maple and has been drying for 3+ years covered. So, wet unseasoned wood is not the issue.

I've reluctantly had good secondary burn successes. Even with a good bed of embers, bypass damper closed and air intake damper about 50%, stovepipe temps never get above 300 degF and heavy ash soot accumulates on the interior glass within a 4-6 hour period.

So, I've primarily been burning wood with the bypass damper open and controlling burn times by a keyed flue damper and the air intake damper. Flue discharge out the oakwood is via the top of the stove, not the rear. On two occasions, I've reloaded with wood in the front of the stove, pushing the flame more to the rear and have had stovepipe temps rocket from 400 to 1600 (keyed damper at 45 degrees, air intake at 0%. Obviously, I'm getting fire in the stovepipe. This is alarming because at that temp, smoke is emitting from the stovepipe, quickly consuming the house. It's not burnt fire smoke but rather burnt paint/metal smoke that lingers.

Has anyone else had similar occurrences?

 

[branchburner]

Since the Oakwood has no baffle and is meant to be run with bypass damper closed (to force flames and smoke down and into the rear re-burn chamber) it is very easy to get super-high flue temps when run with bypass open, even with the primary air shut. Even with no primary air, you still have a good amount of unrestricted secondary air fueling the fire and pushing heat into the flue.

If your wood is dry and you have good coal beds, my guess is that you are not getting great secondary burns due to clogging of the combustion chamber. If it has never been cleaned, five years is certainly about the time you might expect ash buildup and/or degradation of the chamber material. It might need cleaning or replacement ($200-300).

Are all the bricks, especially the center shoe brick, still fully intact? The other thing to be sure of is that the bypass damper isn't warped or otherwise improperly sealing, because if it was that might also interfere with getting good secondary burns.

 

[mellow]

OP has had issues with this oakwood for a while, if it was me that thing would have been on CL years ago.

Cleaning a Harman Oakwood
Anyone with an oakwood & top flue discharge..

 

[branchburner]

Oh yeah... forgot he already cleaned it. Wonder if the issues with removing it caused further problems. They can be a PITA, that's for sure.