Performed surgery on my new stove.

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Vg3200p

Minister of Fire
Nov 21, 2021
507
Clinton county indiana
Is running 3 dampers to slow down draft/heavy breathing stove safe?

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Certainly safer than a 1000* stove!
Might hafta be a octopus to run it though! ;)
 
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Everything shutdown and she's back to running hot again. This is in 50f weather too.
Guess i need to block some air intakes again. Smoke checked everything again tonight and no leaks found. I'm really starting to hate this stove lol

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You’ve probably already posted about this but how tall is the chimney?
 
Over all around 25ft never actually measured but I installed it. Bout 5 5ft of single wall into roughly 20ft of Selkirk class a
 
Not incredibly tall. Is the stove itself leaky?
 
Not incredibly tall. Is the stove itself leaky?
Had this stove for just over a week. Old stove same brand just way smaller. Never came close to overfire and I dint have any dampers on the flue with that one. I have experimented with blocking intakes dampers and smoke tested new stove every night tgat I've owned it. Never have found an air leak. Before I installed dampers it had a true overfire that warped stovetop
 
I’d invest in this before going any further or to use the 3 dampers properly, you’ll want the draft at .05-.08 while the stove is running fully loaded and at the highest air setting for reference.
I've had one of these for years...cheap and reliable. Check it everyday.

shopping
 
Had this stove for just over a week. Old stove same brand just way smaller. Never came close to overfire and I dint have any dampers on the flue with that one. I have experimented with blocking intakes dampers and smoke tested new stove every night tgat I've owned it. Never have found an air leak. Before I installed dampers it had a true overfire that warped stovetop
My experience with our USstove was similar. On a very reasonable length of chimney for this elevation it was very hard to control, wanted to turn its top red even choked down all the way.
 
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That 797 is with the air shut all the way down and 3 key dampers shut? Holy mackerel! That stove is really poorly designed and/or has a failure somewhere. That is a ridiculous number in a 25' chimney.

Sorry you have to deal with all this. You'll need to make it work for now as you said but I'd strongly consider going to a different stove this off season.
 
That 797 is with the air shut all the way down and 3 key dampers shut? Holy mackerel! That stove is really poorly designed and/or has a failure somewhere. That is a ridiculous number in a 25' chimney.

Sorry you have to deal with all this. You'll need to make it work for now as you said but I'd strongly consider going to a different stove this off season.
That's with everything shut for probably an hour. The stove runs really mellow for a long time then at some point every burn it just goes crazy for an hour or 2 then goes back to mellow. I might just need to load this thing like 1/2 or 3/4 capacity to make it safe. But kinda defeats the purpose of a 3+ cubic ft firebox
 
Yeah. If that is how it behaves with such restricted conditions either that stove is just a POS or something is wrong with it. Feelsbadman. Definitely check out the market this off-season.

I have a 24' chimney with no dampers on my stove with a straight up shot and I can control it stuffed to the absolute gills. Only time it gets even a little out of control is when it's below 10 degrees out. Might shoot up to 775 for a short time. Otherwise it lives around 650-725 and cruises nicely.
 
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I would try sealing up that ashpan, I bet it is pulling in extra air. For a test when the stove cools down get a tub of furnace cement and coat that ash plug all around it so it is fully sealed then try running it and see if that makes a difference.
Ash plugs been reasealed since after 1st fire
 
I have two dampers in my stove pipe. I rarely use the second one. Both of mine are 'enhanced'; meaning that I covered the space in the damper plates to further restrict air flow. The damper that I use is usually turned to 80 - 85 degrees in order to restrict the draft to my liking - .05"WC or less. 0 degrees is fully open; 90 degrees is fully shut. I do not see a reduction in my draft for the first 45 degrees of movement.
I fully agree with those above who recommend using a manometer. It and my digital flue temperature probe are my most important sources of information about my burns.
 
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I have occasionally heard about cheap poorly manufactured stoves where the door will fit tightly when cold, but will deform slightly once it heats up and let in extra air which leads to a runaway situation. I wonder if that's what you have going on here.
 
Have you tried taking an incense stick or some other smoke emitting device around the stove while it is running to find any air leaks?
Yes about 10 times now lol. Never have found any. In a different thread begreen suggested that us stove co just dumped a bunch of air in these to make them run hot to Meet 2020 emmisions. I think he's right. It does say in the manual to not put wood above the firebrick. So I'm gonna try that when I load tonight. As long as I can still keep my house above 55 and have decent burn times I'll be ok with that
 
Lesson learned about these stoves. Will have to make it work
Maybe run it for now and just kinda keep an eye open for a good deal on something better...some real deals pop up on Marketplace sometimes...its not like things are so bad you have to jump on the first thing that comes along.
I have two dampers in my stove pipe. I rarely use the second one. Both of mine are 'enhanced'; meaning that I covered the space in the damper plates to further restrict air flow.
I bet that would make the difference here too...be able to just use 1 or 2 dampers...
 
I would recommend getting an Auber with a High Temp alarm for this setup, you can get the washer thermocouple and the unit has a built in buzzer.