over fire question

[Redman2006]

I am still a little confused regarding over firing. I have a 3100 regency insert. We have been heating this winter with it, and are extremely happy. We did the break-in fire and all was well, no issues with warped or shrunken baffles that I now keep reading about.

Anyway, in the morning, I will rake the coals forward in the stove and mess around enough with it that the ash goes to the bottom with coal on the top. I then load east west with a good sized load of woo. The wood is free, and I am not sure what all is in it, but it is at leas 3 years old and probably 4 or 5. I know there is oak, hemlock, beech, sycamore, and pine, but it is mostly hickory.

After I load, I let it catch for a minute or three with the door open a crack then close it until the firebox is full of yellow flame. I then close it down gradually over the next 10 to 15 minutes. By the time I am done, it is shut 100% and the stove is just showing secondary flames. That is when the temps start to really rise. The rutland magnetic thermometer says over 500 which says that is an over fire. The thermometer is on the rt upper corner of the stove face. This is in the over fire region on the thermometer. I tested the thermometer in the oven to see what it would read, and it seems to be within about 50 degrees.

During this time, we get almost all blue flames with a tinge of yellow. They are very active and almost like a torch from the tubes. In the front of the box, there are whispy thin blue and yellow flames that appear to be secondary burn as well. These are whipping around in all directions. It continues to rise to about 600+. The stove really creaks and pops while all of this is going on. The tubes have only ever glowed one time, and the baffles might have a faint glow to them, but it may just be reflection of the coals. It really is not like any of the videos I have seen of other stoves, so I just want to make sure I am not doing anything wrong.

A load of wood lasts between 6 and 8 hours this way. There is only water vapor from the chimney. There is a grey film on the glass, but no creosote at the end of the cycle.

Am I overfiring? What do I need to do differently?

Thanks for the help.

 

[kennyp2339]

It sounds like your at the upper limits of a normal fire temp wise, I would load up the stove and turn the air down a little quicker, maybe not leave the door open so long either, you must have some nice dry wood.

 

[jb6l6gc]

No that thermometer is meant to be put 18" up on a single wall stove pipe. Also correct me if I'm wrong but 500f should be in the burn zone on that thermometer.

 

[begreen]

Although the thermometer is meant for the flue and not the stovetop, the temp readings are still valid. Does this insert have a convection top or does it only convects out the sides? If convection top, 500F on the stove face could be the equivalent of 650F on the stove top.

 

[jb6l6gc]

The readings would be higher on stove top or face then 18" up on a single wall flue no???

 

[begreen]

Probably, but it is just a thermometer regardless of where it is being used. The scales on it are what are specific to use on the flue.

 

[jb6l6gc]

my point being that if you were reading 500 on stove top or face you could actually be reading on the lower end of the burn zone on your flue temps.

 

[begreen]

Yes, that's possible. Measuring flue temps for an insert is difficult in most cases without a remote probe or contact thermometer.

 

[Redman2006]

So there is some confusion about the thermometor. I was allowing for the error I found when I tested it in the oven. A 500 degree reading 8s at least 550 since it was reading 400 when set on 450 in the oven. The discrepancy seems to be larger the higher the temp.

The wood is probably excessively dry. .

I am not sure what you mean by a convection top, but the air from the fan enters below and comes out of vents between the fire bx and the top.

 

[Squisher]

my point being that if you were reading 500 on stove top or face you could actually be reading on the lower end of the burn zone on your flue temps.

This, is entirely possible. I am going to update my super insert thread as I have been running a magnet thermometer on the 'face' right above the door and that thermometer has gone way into the to hot zone a lot of the time. Yet my chimney effectively plugged up enough to kill draft in about a month maybe six weeks of intermittent burning. I've now moved that same thermometer to the top of the stove and I can view it with a flashlight and I'm going to see where this thing is actually burning at. I was getting what looked like great secondaries off of the super and what seemed like lots of heat. Glass stayed super clean. I'm burning from the same pile in my downstairs summit and have zero creo issue in that chimney and the liner is uninsulated, vs a insulated liner on the insert. So wood is effectively ruled out.

I am no longer trusting 'face' temp readings. Espescially with stoves having a airwash to clean the glass with high temp I feel that monitoring my face temps has been misleading at best.

Just something to consider OP. I know it's an entirely different insert but if you can access your cap/chimney I would check it out.

 

[Squisher]

Here is where I was monitoring my temps, would soar over 500 a lot. Also shows the amount of build up I get on the glass.

 

[rudysmallfry]

I wouldn't leave the door open on a reload. You can probably get away with 1/2 air and closed door with a bed of hot coals.

 

[Sodbuster]

I agree with the others, start shutting it down much, much earlier. If the problem persists, you may need a chimney pipe damper. Others may disagree, but 600 degrees should not hurt your stove. It's going to creak and pop because the different parts are expanding at different rates.