Question on Lopi 380-96 secondary baffle

[Thecreek]

My wife and I are new to wood stoves. We purchased a home (approx 1750 sq feet) with Lopi model 380-96 (prequal to the Endeavor) already professionally installed. This stove has been in the home for several years. Prior owners kept stove and Chimney in excellent condition. Chimney has been swept. There are no obstructions in the chimney. Damper located in the chimney as this model did not include a damper. When burning, the stove is more than adequate for heating our home. However, we noticed a strong smokey smell in the home. We then observed light amounts of smoke coming from underneath the heat plates on the sides of the stove. (NOTE this occurs after the fire had been burning for 2 days and chimney was well heated). Damper was approximately half closed. Upon inspection, I noticed there is a 1 half inch diameter hole on each side of the stove. After downloading the manual from Lopi, these holes appear to connect to each side of the secondary baffle which is inside the firebox. The baffle itself appears to be clear - none of the holes in the baffle are clogged.

I don't want my damper open 75% to 100% all the time due to lost efficiency. Is this a common issue with this model? If it is, we may be looking at getting another stove.

 

[begreen]

Not sure what is happening but it shouldn't smoke. Is the stove connected to a metal or masonry chimney? If masonry do you know the liner size? The stove should be carefully inspected to see if there are any cracks developing too.

 

[blacktail]

Why the damper?

 

[Thecreek]

begreen, It's a metal chimney. I've inspected the exterior but don't see any cracks. As to the inside, I have not removed anything (fire bricks) to inspect.

blacktail, damper is in the chimney. The damper comes standard on later models, but did not come on this one.

 

[begreen]

Just to clarify, chimney is different from connector pipe. Do you mean the damper is in the connector which goes to a stainless steel chimney?

 

[blacktail]

Are you comparing a bypass damper in later stoves, to a flue damper?

 

[webby3650]

I really don't think you want to use a damper on this stove. On Most newer stoves dampers aren't necessary. On the endeavor the bypass damper isn't really a damper at all. It only allows you to bypass the secondary combustion system to allow for faster startups. It shouldn't be compared to a pipe damper.

This stove doesn't have a set of tubes and a secondary air manifold like current stoves. It's secondary air comes up the back and into a single center oversized tube. Then it has a single tube along the front that is open to the outside of the stove, behind the side shields. That's where your smoke is coming from. If it's heating well with properly seasoned wood I'd just leave the damper open and keep using it.

 

[begreen]

The value version of the Endeavor, the 1750 Republic does not have a bypass damper either.

 

[dave_376]

Like they said don't use the flue damper. The gasses going up the flue are much cooler than in an old pre-epa stove. By using the damper you are forcing the smoke to stay inside the stove and back into your house.

 

[Thecreek]

Thanks for all of the feedback. Learned a lot with this post. I was mistakenly comparing a flue damper with a bypass damper. Also better understand secondary combustion. The flue damper is in the connector that goes to a stainless steel pipe. I'll leave the flue damper open.