Pacific Energy Summit NON LE questions, burn time, draft, ability to control fire etc...

[Whimpers Baggins]

Hey all I figured I would start here. I finished building a house and last summer bought the last available non 2020 emissions Summit free standing stoves in my area that I could find.

As I am now past the point of break in and starting to have normal fires I have some questions.

Im single level with a vault in the great room and I figure I probably have 25' of stove vent pipe from top of stove to cap outside.

I feel like the stove while it kicks out some serious heat is tough to damp down. If I start with a small fire to get a nice coal base going things are good. I go to then fill the stove with a few big splits of fir/oak and leave the damper open for just a bit to get things going and get the wood to char. What then seems to happen is once the wood is charred I then go to damp the fire down but its as if I don't get much of any damping effect at halfway or even a quarter of the way and i've just got this raging fire. I can only seem to get a nice lazy burn with the secondaries if I damp the stove down 100%. Maybe this is normal for this stove? It also seems as though the stove goes through wood much quicker than the previous x2 inserts I had at other houses a regency first then the Enviro Kodiak.

My wood is well seasoned and like I said is fir and oak. I have an IR temp gun but question its accuracy as I don't have a stove top stat yet. Last night I tried loading the stove on a small bed of coals and closed the door, damper on H and let it run for a minute or two and I had a raging fire wood was charred. I then damped it down 50% and had virtually no difference in fire intensity and let it run for a bit to see if I would get a change. nothing and the fire was raging. Damped it down to maybe 25% and again nothing. Its not until I completely close the damper 100% that I get the fire to simmer and then get a good secondary burn and fire show.

Is something wrong with this thing? I don't have a stove top thermometer yet. Should be here this evening . ordered one through Midwest hearth as I preferred the color layout to it vs the Condor that has white in the best burn range which seems like it would be difficult to glance at with a white pointer. I do have an IR gun but nothing to compare it too and it gives varying readings often. Last night saw 700 degrees with the damper down at 25%.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Woody Stover]

My SIL has a non-LE T5, and it's similar; l have to cut the air pretty soon, and pretty low to get a lazy burn. Yes, bigger splits will burn slower. If you have a coal bed, you can shove some of it to the back, with a smaller amount under the center of the new load so that less of it gets burning early. A top-down start, no coals under the load, will also tame down the burn.
Loads don't last as long as with the cat stoves I've run, since a faster burn is needed to burn clean in the non-cat, but the stove seems to heat well for a long time in the coaling phase.
With that tall a stack you might try a pipe damper to slow the burn a bit, but excessive draft may not be a problem in your mild climate? OTOH, I have two dampers in my SIL'S stack, and it still draws pretty strong on 15' even when it's not cold out.

 

[redktmrider]

I have the non LE Alderlea T5 insert (2012) in a 22ft masonary chimney with a insulted liner. The stoves are designed to burn cleanly on the minimum chimney length, so with a long chimney with strong draft, they can can heat up very quickly. Get a flue pipe thermometer to measure the pipe temp and use that as a guide to when to start shutting down the air. It will save you a lot of guess work.
I installed a Auber digital thermometer to monitor flue pipe temps and I have to start turning mine down within 5 minutes of starting my fire to keep it from trying to run away.

 

[Hogwildz]

Don't be afraid to close the air intake lever all the way to low. If it still burns ok, that is the goal. I have to close it all the way, and it is just the way the stove here burns with a 27' liner. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Whimpers Baggins]

Thanks for the replies fellas. I suppose there is a bit of a learning curve with the stove in comparison to what I've been burning with for the last 15+ years. I guess if I've got the damper all the way down and my stove top temp is cruising right in the 450-600 range the reality is the stove is doing what it should. I guess I am just use to having a lot of damper control. Part of it could be just realizing I need to damp it down shortly after reload vs letting it run for a bit then trying to knock it back a little. It does kick out some heat which is nice.

I will continue to monitor and try things out. Tonight I started a smaller 3 split fire and let it go for a bit before knocking it down and I was at 425 for a while and had a small coal bed. Threw 3 medium splits on and let it char the wood for a bit then damped it down completely and I had a nice lazy secondary burn going and was cruising at 475 for several hours (not very cold tonight just burning to burn).

I've got a telescoping double wall stove pipe to ceiling support box so I'm not sure how a temp probe in the stack would work?

I'm also not sure yet on a damper on the stove pipe just because it could add another element for the wife to possibly forget.

One thing though is I do have a 4" combustion air intake below the stove that pulls from my ventilated crawl but I'm guessing the stove only draws what it needs so reducing the size of that might not do anything.

Again thanks. I'm excited to see how the stove does when the cold arrives.

 

[heavy hammer]

I have the summit insert and as others have said when it starts to get close to temp start dialing it down. I have had the air all the way down and seen temps at 700. You want a nice lazy burn. You will figure it out but closing the flue down quicker may help.

 

[begreen]

Hey all I figured I would start here. I finished building a house and last summer bought the last available non 2020 emissions Summit free standing stoves in my area that I could find.

As I am now past the point of break in and starting to have normal fires I have some questions.

Im single level with a vault in the great room and I figure I probably have 25' of stove vent pipe from top of stove to cap outside.

I feel like the stove while it kicks out some serious heat is tough to damp down. If I start with a small fire to get a nice coal base going things are good. I go to then fill the stove with a few big splits of fir/oak and leave the damper open for just a bit to get things going and get the wood to char. What then seems to happen is once the wood is charred I then go to damp the fire down but its as if I don't get much of any damping effect at halfway or even a quarter of the way and i've just got this raging fire. I can only seem to get a nice lazy burn with the secondaries if I damp the stove down 100%. Maybe this is normal for this stove? It also seems as though the stove goes through wood much quicker than the previous x2 inserts I had at other houses a regency first then the Enviro Kodiak.

My wood is well seasoned and like I said is fir and oak. I have an IR temp gun but question its accuracy as I don't have a stove top stat yet. Last night I tried loading the stove on a small bed of coals and closed the door, damper on H and let it run for a minute or two and I had a raging fire wood was charred. I then damped it down 50% and had virtually no difference in fire intensity and let it run for a bit to see if I would get a change. nothing and the fire was raging. Damped it down to maybe 25% and again nothing. Its not until I completely close the damper 100% that I get the fire to simmer and then get a good secondary burn and fire show.

Is something wrong with this thing? I don't have a stove top thermometer yet. Should be here this evening . ordered one through Midwest hearth as I preferred the color layout to it vs the Condor that has white in the best burn range which seems like it would be difficult to glance at with a white pointer. I do have an IR gun but nothing to compare it too and it gives varying readings often. Last night saw 700 degrees with the damper down at 25%.

What am I doing wrong?

You will need to close down the air much sooner. Also, consider top-down lighting. I posted a guide for this up in the Sticky section - Starting a fire. This is in the T6 with the same firebox as the Summit. In that thread, I show how stovetop temp lags behind the flue gas temp by quite a lot. The flue temp is a better guide. Note that closing down the air control all the way is fine and common.

Starting a fire and running an EPA stove

Questions about starting a fire and avoiding a runaway stove come up so frequently I decided to document starting our stove. This is a Pacific Energy Alderlea T6 with about a 3 cu ft firebox. The stove is connected to a straight-up, 20' interior flue. The outside ambient temperature is 34ºF. The...

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