overfiring... what does it do?

[par0thead151]

im wondering what happens when a stove is over fired?
warp the iron?
crack the glass?
crack welds?

i assume a symptom of a overfire that damaged the stove would be shorter than normal burn times?

any other things to look for? i woke up this morning and my air was on full tilt.
it is a very good possibility that i woke up at night and added more air as it was coals, but i cant remember if i did that or not. i have been getting up and taking care of the stove 2-3 times a night some nights as the blower causes vibrations that become very loud, and i need to turn the blower off when this happens and wait a minute and turn it back on.

im sure it is all in my head, but it seems like my burn times are a lot lower than usual. i came home from work today to barley any coals. i have not had that happen in a while... could just have been punk wood too though. lots of variables to take into account.

everything appears to be in working order, and i can damper down the air and it will almost choke out the fire, like usual. so does that mean i am OK?

 

[begreen]

Usually a single overfire (assuming one happened) doesn't damage a stove unless it brings out a flaw or assembly error like a bad weld, casting flaw etc.. It's repeated overfirings that usually shortens a stove's life significantly. The exception would be an extreme overfire where the metal temp got exceedingly hot, but that doesn't sound like what happened here.

 

[bogydave]

Sounds like it's OK. It heated up slowly, then cooled down slow.
Could have an air leak, but not many stove are "air tight". It's not a pressure vessel.
Probably fine. Working OK now right?
I think "you're crying before you're hurt", they're built pretty tough.
Chimney is probably good & clean now.

 

[par0thead151]

Sounds like it's OK. It heated up slowly, then cooled down slow.
Could have an air leak, but not many stove are "air tight". It's not a pressure vessel.
Probably fine. Working OK now right?
I think "you're crying before you're hurt", they're built pretty tough.
Chimney is probably good & clean now.

i have been burning for a little over a month now(just got my insert installed this year)
so my chimney is fairly clean to begin with...
there was only 3-4 splits in there too, so i dont think it got toooooo hot.

 

[cycloxer]

Everyone has over-fired a stove. Manufacturers know this is going to happen. There is a certain safety factor to the design. Just learn from the experience so that you understand how the stove operates and you can characterize its proper operating temperature. The key is not to repeat the experience going forward. It's unlikely that you damaged your stove unless you left it unattended in an over-firing state for a long period of time.