Questions on a Pacific Energy Summit

[scotth324]

Hey all this is my first post. I just bought and installed the Summit on Saturday and have been burning with it everyday since. The stove I had before was a few year old Hearthstone Mansfield that the previous owners had put in and it had been overfired and warped inside and didn't work very well for my purposes. I live in Thunder Bay, ON and have an 1800 sq.ft home that has R60 in the ceiling but poorly insulated walls and floors. It is the normal cold for this time of year here. -30C to -40 at night and -20C during the day so it is chilly. I am burning some fairly wet birch and ash mixed. I know it is not the best wood but it is what I have to use.

I did some searching on what are some safe temps to run this stove at but I only came up with general temperatures from various types of stoves. This morning I put in 4 1/4s of birch and turned the damper to half and went away for about half an hour. The stovetop was at 300F to begin with and when I came back it was at 700. I immediately closed the damper fully and it climbed up to 750F and then slowly dropped. I am worried that I could possibly have hurt the new stove. Nowhere in the manual does it say acceptable operating temps that I could find.

Also I have gotten it hot to keep the secondaries burning and full of wood and close the damper for an all night burn but it only lasts for about 4 hours before the temp drops to around 350 or so. Just wondering if this is normal or not.

Also one last question. When using the ash dump can it be operated while running the stove? During the winter months I never really will let this stove cool down for at least 3 months straight. It says in the manual to only use the ash dump when the stove is cool. Will it hurt to use this feature while the stove is hot?

Sorry for the long post I just want to figure this stove out.

Regards,

Scott

 

[flhpi]

First of all, welcome to the forum.

I have a Aldera T6 which is the same firebox as your summit. Same stove, just with different clothes on. Sometimes my stove would get to 700-750 and I would worry about the temps. After searching the forums and reading other post I wasn't too concerned about if I did any damage to my stove but still didn't like the temps that high.

Your ash chute can contribute to the high temps. I stopped using it and packed ash in the hole in the firebrick surrounding the chute. Otherwise, it will draw air in from the ash pan and feed the fire air. Also, many people have modified the air control so they can reduce the air coming into the stove. The manufacturer has to meet requirements from the EPA or whatever the department would be in your neck of the woods that monitors pollution.

I let the fire die down and shovel ash into a bucket. There are hot coals to get it going again when I am done. The ash pan function on this stove was false advertising in my opinion but not really a big deal either. I am sure you don't want to modify a new stove but if you do a search and read up on the mod it is well worth it.

Welcome once again and enjoy your new stove.

 

[begreen]

Welcome Scott. Don't worry, you didn't harm the stove. Just broke in the paint job kind of quickly.

It's a good idea to wear a timer to remind oneself to turn down the air. The temp will actually climb as you turn it down because secondary combustion is making the firebox hotter as the wood gases are burned off. Plan on starting turning the air down as the stove top gets to around 400F or when the wood is fully involved in flame. Turn it down in increments, each time reducing the air until the flames get lazy, then let the fire build up again and repeat.