Over firing

[zhitch41]

I have a Harman tL 2.6 and I'm new to burning stoves. I've been playing around with it for about a month now. I recently got thermometers on the the top loading door of stove and on the flue. Since then, I have been able to see that the flue is heating up way faster than the stove and where the flue meets the stove it's starting to white.. can someone help me. How do I get my stove hot but not my flue?

 

[TheRambler]

Have you tried cuttig the air back sooner?

 

[WiscWoody]

Are you burning very dry pallet or crate wood to start your fires. A little will do you To start good dry cord wood if you are. And small pieces of wood will fire quickly and burn hot making them hard to control even by cutting off all of you controllable air.

 

[zhitch41]

I'm burning ash. I start my fire the damper is wide open and door cracked. Then when the fire is burning up I close the door but don't latch it. So there is a sliver of space so air can feed the fire and heat the stove. The stove heats slowly but the flue rapidly

 

[BradleyW]

I think you are giving the fire too much air. If i am having draft issues I will sometimes leave the door cracked to get the flames started, but by the time the stove is full of flames the door has already been closed completely for at least five minutes. When the stove top reaches 450-500 degrees, start shutting the air control down in stages.

 

[Sprinter]

The others are right. There's usually no need to keep the door open or even cracked open for more than a couple minutes. In fact, I never have the door open at all after lighting the fire.

Your best technique is going to depend on the fuel and load, but in general, watch the fire after lighting it. The fire should get going with the door closed and the air control turned fully up. Then watch the fire and the chimney output. As soon as the secondaries are burning, then start turning the air down in steps. That may be with the stove top as little as 200-250F, but watching the chimney for smoke output is the best indicator. By this time the flue should be hot enough to prevent creosote.

Then keep turning the air down in steps. making sure the secondaries stay burning.

The sooner you can allow the secondaries to take over the better, and that means getting the air turned down. I think you'll find that the stove will get hotter quicker that way, while conserving fuel. This is the way these kinds of stoves are designed to operate.

 

[Cockshutt]

 

[begreen]

Fail!

 

[BrotherBart]

In the first place that is a downdraft stove. Leaving that door cracked open is defeating the whole concept. Not to mention dang near melting it into a puddle on the hearth.

 

[prezes13]

Wow I get nervous when I read over 450 with IR gun above my door which I think is equivalent of true 650-700 top temp.