Pacific Energy Summit running too hot ?

[Summit2020]

We recently moved into a house with a Pacific Energy Summit wood stove, after trying it out for awhile it seems to run almost too hot, even fully dampened.

The inside pipe probe shows 800F as where it likes to run until the wood is almost at the point of coals. On start up with two 1/4 splits and one 1/2 split (mix of seasoned birch, elm, ash, etc) it will often push into the 900 - 1100 range before settling back to the 800 - 900 range, even with the damper closed down when it reaches 600.

I am wondering if there may be an air leak, but before I start tearing it apart thought I would see if the temps are out-of-the-ordinary for this stove.

Thanks

 

[MR. GLO]

Do you have ashpan or pedestal or legs?

If you have ashpan check that area..


My stove slowly creeps to stt 670 on my high side and 730 on auber flue probe but I usually run it 560 stt and 620 on probe. My draft is high at .14

All depends how cold house is...I regulated with size of wood and number of pieces...but 600 to 700 or so I turn down less than half way..I watch the charring of wood too.

What is your stt?

Your figures seam high with only 3 split logs.

Do you have ir gun to verify?
Describe your chimney...

Check door with dollar bill test too.

 

[Summit2020]

stt normally sits between 550 - 650... right now the pipe probe is 900 and sst 700, but I just added two 1/4 splits and one 4 inch dia round 40 mins ago to a hot ash/coal bed raked forward.

Ash pan is closed, but that is one of the gaskets I am wondering about. It is on a pedestal base.

Chimney is about 20-25ft high... pipe runs up 30 in, right angle, another 24 in to the wall then I presume another 90 deg angle and upwards.

IR confirms sst is over 600 (tester maxs out at 608)... exterior of the pipe reads 325 beside the probe (obviously I can't check inside the pipe).

FYI, the pipe probe is a SBI one.

 

[MR. GLO]

I don't reload until under 300 or max 350 on stt. If I need more heat I'll just run her mid way or more ... or add more wood to a reload and push the 650 or so mark.

A smoke test under the ashpan to see if it's sucking air might help but others might chime in and help since I don't have the ashpan door.

I don't buy stoves with ashpans. Too many issues. I'd use the stove without it. There are extra bricks described in manual to cover it if you decide not to use it.

But if your reloading to early with dry wood you will get those readings.

I'd just add less wood or mix the oak with ash. Fyi that probe is slow so you might want to get auber or time it sooner.

Do you see the flames change when you turn air inlet down?

Since you just moved in.... do you know what type of chimney or liner and year of stove? And last time stove and chimney cleaned? If no I'd set up a pro cleaning then learn how to do it yourself. a bucket of pipe screws, a soot eater, a dedicated drill and vacuum with long house for outside placement makes it easier.

Do you have the plate/cover on rear removed or an OAK?

 

[Prof]

So my Summit can get alarmingly hot on a full load if I'm not on top of things. I have almost 40 ft of chimney. If I put a full load in I need to cut back the air well before the thermometer is in the red. I pay attention to how the fire is burning in addition to the temps. If the fire is blazing, I start cutting the air back a bit. Smaller loads, say half of the stove's capacity are easier to control, but with a full load I can easily see temps like you are reporting. The good news is that I'm on my 7th year with the stove, and it seems to be very well built.

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

25 foot chimney normally draws much more than stove was tested with at around 15 feet.

1- Use stove pipe probe thermometer instead of the stove top thermometer.
2- As soon as your stove pipe probe thermometer reaches 300° - 325° shut your air intake down by 1/2.
3- As soon as the probe thermometer reaches 375° close the air intake down fully.
4- Should the fire die down after #3 re-open your air intake 1/3 to 1/2 way for a few minutes, until your probe thermometer reaches about 400° and shutdown your air intake fully again.

All this is dictated by the species of wood in the firebox and how dry it is as well as your chimney with high draft. Experiment around my suggestions and you should quickly zone in to your stoves start up sweet spot.

 

[Summit2020]

I don't reload until under 300 or max 350 on stt. If I need more heat I'll just run her mid way or more ... or add more wood to a reload and push the 650 or so mark.

A smoke test under the ashpan to see if it's sucking air might help but others might chime in and help since I don't have the ashpan door.

I don't buy stoves with ashpans. Too many issues. I'd use the stove without it. There are extra bricks described in manual to cover it if you decide not to use it.

But if your reloading to early with dry wood you will get those readings.

I'd just add less wood or mix the oak with ash. Fyi that probe is slow so you might want to get auber or time it sooner.

Do you see the flames change when you turn air inlet down?

Since you just moved in.... do you know what type of chimney or liner and year of stove? And last time stove and chimney cleaned? If no I'd set up a pro cleaning then learn how to do it yourself. a bucket of pipe screws, a soot eater, a dedicated drill and vacuum with long house for outside placement makes it easier.

Do you have the plate/cover on rear removed or an OAK?

I agree with the ash pan being useless, my guess is the previous owner may have bought a "floor" model.

The flame definitely changes when I move the damper.

Chimney was cleaned "just before the sale", and we had planned on having a pro come in to do a full clean as well as someone to check out the stove... with all the other issues we ran into on move-in the stove got pushed back (had a surprise of needing to get a complete new water system among other things)... besides, no one around here seems to work during "hunting season". lol

Not too sure about the plate on the back, there are a couple of metal pieces (plates) stuffed behind the stove, I just haven't figured out where they came from (yet).

Last night we got down to -20F and I stayed up to add one split at a time so I was running with the equiv of 1 1/2 quarter splits and it was running at 800! LOOONG night, I really want to figure out how to load this so I can get several hours for an overnight burn that includes sleep.

 

[Summit2020]

25 foot chimney normally draws much more than stove was tested with at around 15 feet.

1- Use stove pipe probe thermometer instead of the stove top thermometer.
2- As soon as your stove pipe probe thermometer reaches 300° - 325° shut your air intake down by 1/2.
3- As soon as the probe thermometer reaches 375° close the air intake down fully.
4- Should the fire die down after #3 re-open your air intake 1/3 to 1/2 way for a few minutes, until your probe thermometer reaches about 400° and shutdown your air intake fully again.

All this is dictated by the species of wood in the firebox and how dry it is as well as your chimney with high draft. Experiment around my suggestions and you should quickly zone in to your stoves start up sweet spot.

Not sure I could run with those temps on this stove/pipe combo. If I was to close down to 1/2 at 325, the vent would never be open full... it can go from 325 to 500 in 1-2 minutes and the wood definitely isn't fully engulfed at that point.

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

Not sure I could run with those temps on this stove/pipe combo. If I was to close down to 1/2 at 325, the vent would never be open full... it can go from 325 to 500 in 1-2 minutes and the wood definitely isn't fully engulfed at that point.

What vent are you referring to ?

I also have 24 feet of 6'' dia. insulated outside chimney.

I am strictly talking start up or reloads. My wood is never fully engulfed until 15 - 30 minutes after start up and reload unless there is a very high build up of red hot coals. If I shutdown only when the wood is charred my stove will shoot up to 800° - 900° and more in no time.

 

[MR. GLO]

-20 is out of my league...

And 800 stt that's too high for me but the manual doesn't really provide stt unless I'm missing it. 800 degrees on the flue probe is ok but I would have turned down sooner.


When did you buy your wood? Or was it left over from previous owner?

Need a new ir gun to 1000 degrees and a moisture meter.

Some say you only need to watch the flue but I would get both. Flue and stove top (stt).

The plate is at the rear down below at pedestal...center
It's has a white sticker....if it was removed there will be a hole. It's held on with a torx bit. The stove is vented with the hole or an OAK from below or oak into this rear hole.

Ast night i only got a 5 1/2 hour burn times ran it 680 stt to 150 stt but I don't stuff it and I didn't turn all the way down. About 75 to 80 percent. Which is ok because the house is 68 and 67 in the am and it was about 20 to 12 degrees drop last night.

When you were adding logs one at a time what was the stt?

Are you running 24/7 or just coming home from work and adding wood.
With my temps if I don't start heating my home before noon it will struggle to heat. Basement stove.

 

[Summit2020]

What vent are you referring to ?

I also have 24 feet of 6'' dia. insulated outside chimney.

I am strictly talking start up or reloads. My wood is never fully engulfed until 15 - 30 minutes after start up and reload unless there is a very high build up of red hot coals. If I shutdown only when the wood is charred my stove will shoot up to 800° - 900° and more in no time.

View attachment 289581

Vent = Damper... it was a long night.

 

[Summit2020]

-20 is out of my league...

And 800 stt that's too high for me but the manual doesn't really provide stt unless I'm missing it. 800 degrees on the flue probe is ok but I would have turned down sooner.


When did you buy your wood? Or was it left over from previous owner?

Need a new ir gun to 1000 degrees and a moisture meter.

Some say you only need to watch the flue but I would get both. Flue and stove top (stt).

The plate is at the rear down below at pedestal...center
It's has a white sticker....if it was removed there will be a hole. It's held on with a torx bit. The stove is vented with the hole or an OAK from below or oak into this rear hole.

Ast night i only got a 5 1/2 hour burn times ran it 680 stt to 150 stt but I don't stuff it and I didn't turn all the way down. About 75 to 80 percent. Which is ok because the house is 68 and 67 in the am and it was about 20 to 12 degrees drop last night.

When you were adding logs one at a time what was the stt?

Are you running 24/7 or just coming home from work and adding wood.
With my temps if I don't start heating my home before noon it will struggle to heat. Basement stove.

Have the moisture meter (got that for firewood when camping).

So I dug out my digital multi-meter (still unpacking) and it's temp probe is good to 1,500F.... so after some testing I have confirmed the stove probe thermo reads by roughly 100F too high. That makes me feel a LOT better. Now I just need to find a place that sells a good pipe thermo.

Previous owner sold all his wood (and splitter), so we scrambled to get wood for this season... this wood comes from a neighbor who sells wood and had one cord left.

I will look for the plate another day, when the stove is cooled down.

When I did the single adds last night the pipe was in the 400ish range, and the wood was largely consumed so mainly coals left... didn't note the sst.

Been running 24/7 for the past week or two... our stove is in the basement also and takes forever to get the heat upstairs. Stove is at one end of the house, basement stairs are at the other end... small fan by the ceiling 1/2 way towards the stairs helps a lot.

Thanks for the assist, going in blind is never fun and online videos can only get you so far.

 

[stoveliker]

Condar sells decent flue probes.

Also, if you can blow cold air into the basement, it is likely to be more effective (it being replaced by warm air from the basement).
If you can make an "air circuit" it's going to help a lot.

I have a stove in the basement + vent register in my living room floor + fusible link (fire blocking - see code) + flexible duct all the way down to the basement floor + an inline fan there. The fan sucks the coldest air from the living room floor and deposits it on the basement floor. The hottest air near the basement ceiling is then pushed up the stairs into my living room.

Be aware of code when making a penetration in a floor (hence my fusible link fire damper).

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

Personally I use a Condar Fluegard probe thermometer in my double wall stove pipe and a Condar Chimgard magnet thermometer on top of the trivet of my PE Spectrum Classic, have had them at least 25 years both still work fine.
Note that the Fluegard probe type reacts quicker to the changing temperature in the stove pipe than the Chimgard does on top of the stove. The stove top thermometer always reads lower in temps than the probe type and does not react as quickly which is why for start-ups and reloads I guide my actions via the probe type.

http://condar.com/Probe_Thermometers.html

http://condar.com/Stovepipe_Thermometers.html

 

[Summit2020]

UPDATE: We had the stove checked over and the door gasket was still original (3-4 years old)... it came off without any effort at all. With the gasket changed, burn times are much better, and the damper actually controls the fire ! (imagine that).

Thanks all.

 

[MR. GLO]

UPDATE: We had the stove checked over and the door gasket was still original (3-4 years old)... it came off without any effort at all. With the gasket changed, burn times are much better, and the damper actually controls the fire ! (imagine that).

Thanks all.

did you buy it online and is it factory PE? What cement did you use clear or black?

 

[Summit2020]

did you buy it online and is it factory PE? What cement did you use clear or black?

It is OME, not the generic... was installed by the tech we had out to check over the stove.