Sierra update

[Mainewoodchucker]

Now that I have 3 months in on my Sierra 2100 I am still tweaking my burns . If I cut back draft at around 350-400 ( and secondaries roaring) my stove will creep past 700 stove top at times and not seem to want to stop . . Have had to open the door to cool it down to 600. No leaks btw . Did new door gasket etc and its all tight .

Funny thing is even at 700 stove top and 1000 internal , my stack just one foot above the stove gets 350 max and by my ceiling it will be as low as 200 ( single wall pipe) . Because of the low stack temps I decided to just clean my pipe . Got a foldgers coffee can full of fluffy/sooty light brown stuff . No black flecks and it came off the pipe real easy . Could almost just blow it off . Never had that burning my air tights or wood circulators .

Have about 3 cord of 2-3 year seasoned hardwood through the stove so far . Should get through the rest of the season on another cord .

Hopefully can get the burn situation stabilized for next season . This stove will really take off on a full load with secondaries looking like the gates of h*ll . Has kept the house in the mid/high 70s except during extreme sub zero temps . So pretty happy with that .

Anyone have any ideas how to tame the beast a bit more ? And why my stack temps are as low as they are without creating the black crappy creasote I got before this stove? Is it possible that it is burning so efficiently that the bad stuff is getting cooked off via secondaries etc instead of going up the pipe ?

 

[begreen]

Sounds like a nice clean burner. Do you have a blower on the stove? Usually that will cool the top down by about 100F. You might also try splitting larger splits to help slow down the burn.

How tall is the flue on the stove?

 

[Mainewoodchucker]

Yup, have a blower . Kick it on when I hit 450 or so and it does seem to drop stack temp a bit . The blower is configured to blow across the top of the stove , so does blow at the base of the stack . Without the blower going the stove will go nuclear . Hav pegged my stove top thermo when running the stove and had no electricity for the blower.

As an aside , I don't rely on just the thermos on the stove and stack . I check everything with my IR gun .

I do know that my secondaries get their own air supply , and no damper for that . Hence , when she starts running away with draft closed , its only secondaries fire within the box . Looks cool , but can get scary when getting past 700 . On a normal fire using partial load I can close the damper and she will cruise at 450-550 with little flame and zero smoke out the chimney .

 

[begreen]

How tall is the chimney? Also, maybe reload a little later when the stove is 50-100F cooler.

 

[Mainewoodchucker]

7 feet single wall and 8 feet double . 3 feet above peak.

I usually do reloads when it is between 150-250 . Just rake coals forward and part them a bit in front of the doghouse . Because my wood was cut for the older wood stove I have to burn east/west , and it takes a bit to get going sometimes . But , once the secondaries kick in she heats like crazy .

During the few warmer days I just put a couple small splits in at a time and wait until its just a small pile of coals before the next few .

 

[begreen]

Sounds like you are doing things right and the chimney is not too tall. She's just a willing puppy. Try cutting thicker splits for future burning. And post a picture if you get a chance. We love to see stoves with fire in their belly.

 

[Mainewoodchucker]

You make a good point about splits . The wood I had for this season was all cut as "cook stove" wood . Mostly around 3-5" splits . Did try a few of my rock maple splits that I had done which are 8-10" . They did burn cooler and longer . Luckily , next years stash is what I personally split and is a good chunk bigger splits . Only problem is they are all cut to long for NS burning.
Barring unforeseen circumstances , I will be running this stove for a long time , so I will be cutting future wood to be able to burn NS . Even though EW has worked OK , much rather burn the other way for loading ease .

 

[Mainewoodchucker]

Here is some of the last of this years pile with a couple splits from my maple standind beside it . Big difference in size . So your probably right about split size making a difference in burning .




Had to dig this stuff out of a snow bank since my tin blew away and had a few snowstorms after . Just stacked it up and used a fan to get the surface moisture off of it . Stuff practically bursts into flames within 30 seconds of hitting coals .

 

[begreen]

We're burning splits like the leftmost one standing on end. Locust mostly right now. They go for 10-12 hrs., it's almost like burning coal.