Overfired up newbie

[grimrot]

Hi Everyone - I've been reading up on all the overfiring threads and had a few questions that weren't answered there.

Background - Brand new wood stove owner (VC Defiant). I've never had one before and this was my first fire in a brand new stove. I overfired and the Rutland thermometer was pegged at over 800 for a while. Needless to say I was a little concerned.

So I read all my manuals and watched all my videos and talked to all my friends that had a wood stove. I proceeded to put in four logs and lit some fatwood to get the fire going. Air control was set to high heat range and damper was open. Before I knew it the fire was really hot and the thermometer was maxed out. After I noticed that I turned the air control all the way to "low" and SLOWLY the heat went down. It's still measuring about 650 with just coals in there.

Here's what I think I did wrong.
- The wood I had on hand is very dry. Maybe 4 years old. I also think I used too much wood for the first fire.
- I also have a very tall chimney and I was wondering if the draft was adding to the overfire.
- I've read conflicting things about the Rutland thermometer. Someone said that it's not for a stovetop. I thought they were both stovetop and chimney. This is the model.
http://www.amazon.com/Rutland-701-Stove-Thermometer-Each/dp/B000627RGM

Any help would be appreciated. This looks like an amazing forum.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Very strong draft can make a stove hard to control. Did you engage the bypass once the stove was warmed up?

 

[grimrot]

Welcome. Very strong draft can make a stove hard to control. Did you engage the bypass once the stove was warmed up?

I did engage the bypass once the stove was warmed up. I wanted to try that out. It seemed like it killed the fire so I opened it again. The second I did that I got a big flare up and smoke. That was interesting.

 

[grimrot]

I just want to make sure that bypass = damper.

 

[begreen]

Yes, bypass damper is the side control. Is this a cat stove?

 

[grimrot]

Yes, bypass damper is the side control. Is this a cat stove?

Yes it does have catalytic combustion.

 

[Charles1981]

We had a thread about this earlier with a VC encore...basically same stove smaller firebox. (As long at its a new Defiant 2 in 1).

The damper should only be open for 20-30 minutes when starting a fire from cold. The stove top should easily reach 600 degrees in 20-30 minute. Once the temperature hits 600 on your thermometer (mine is a rutland as well) the DAMPER HAS TO BE CLOSED. If you run with the damper open you will over heat the stove and cause damage to the stove.

The flames are meant to die down with the damper closed.

The secondary air control on the right should be open when starting and reloading a fire, once you close the damper/bypass, leave the air control open for 10 minutes. Then start closing it in 1/4 to 1/3 turns every 10 minutes afterwards.

Your goal is to keep the catalyst engaged and get the secondary air control as low as you can without the stove top dropping below 400. You basically want to see almost no flame and a glowing catalyst.

A stove top of 800+ is terrible. avoid this at all costs.

And if you have a nice bed of coals when reloading the bypass really won't need to be open more than 10 minutes at most because the stove top is going to scream back up to 600 in no time with that bypass open. When reloading on coals, open the secondary air control all the way again, open the bypass, reload, wait for stove top to get to 600 again, close bypass and start closing the secondary air control in increment fashion again.

 

[grimrot]

OK so I just added some more logs to the coals and got the stove back up to about 550. At that point I closed the damper. The air control is all the way to high heat. I will turn it down 1/3rd in 10 minutes and see if that regulates things.

 

[Charles1981]

Sounds good. The damper is not meant to be open other than starting a fire and reloading.

Once you close the damper and the air control is fully open you should see nice flames.
close 1/3 and you should notice in 60 seconds or less the flames die down slightly
close 2/3 and you should notice very slow rolling flames
close all the way and you should notice just a hint of flame rolling around and you may not see flame at all.

If this is a defiant 2 in 1 with a full fire box you may not be able to see into the back of stove behind the sea-shell design, but once the wood starts to burn up you want to see flames or a nice red glow in the crease where that sea-shell design lifts out.

If you can't see the glow or flames back there but you stove top is still 400+ I am sure the catalyst is still working. You will know the cat stalled if you close the bypass at 400-500, close down the air control and the stove top drops to like 300-350 very quickly. (It is also easily to tell when it is day time by looking at the smoke stack). With bypass open you will see dark smoke. With bypass closed you should see very little smoke and it should be white and whispy if at all (You really just want to see the heat signature coming out of the chimney top). If you have the bypass closed and still see lots of black smoke and the stove top seems cooler than it should be the catalyst probably stalled. At this point you should open the bypass, re-arrange the wood if necessary and allow it to get up to temp.

550 is good, but I find if you let the stove top get to the 600 degree white line mark right between burn-zone and over fire the catalyst takes off every time and the stove works appropriately. If I engage the by-pass in the middle of the burn-zone range usually the stove is fine, but I have stalled the catalyst in that temperature range before.

 

[grimrot]

Right now the damper is closed and the air control is around medium heat output. It seems like I am cruising at 600 degrees. Knock on wood.

I just hope I didn't do any damage with my initial overfire.

 

[Charles1981]

probably not, but do that repeatedly for a few weeks or months and yea

 

[grimrot]

Thanks for the info Charles - very appropriate and on point. Yes this is a Defiant 2 in 1.

 

[grimrot]

I may be getting greedy but I'm wondering how you get the cool fire visuals while keeping the temp around 600? The only thing I can think to do is turn the air control to high heat. I'm just concerned that the temp will skyrocket if I do that.

 

[Charles1981]

If it gets really cold (teens) you may find yourself burning with the air control on high...

but if you were looking for a stove with nice rolling fire a catalyst stove isn't always going to provide it

 

[grimrot]

OK thanks again Charles. My main focus was getting some more robust heat in the house and cutting my oil bill. I'll just set my tv to one of those fake fires if I want the visuals.

Tomorrow night should be a good time to test out the stove as the lows in Mass will get down to 18. Should be interesting!

 

[Excavator]

I have older defiant encore that I just rebuilt and I have 8 inch liner that improved the draft too much I think.
I have to close damper at griddle top temp at 400 or lower. I have condar digital monitor installed in the small hole in back of the stove and as soon as the damper is closed, the digital monitor climbs from 400 to 1100 degrees in few minutes. So I am suggesting to close the damper sooner and see how it behaves after half hour. When my griddle top temps are at 500 my digital monitor shows 1200 and as high as 1500 and even higher if i dont turn air down with in 20 minutes after closing damper