Soot near front edges?

[acritzer]

Another newbie question. Given the pic. Does the soot near the front sides indicate any problem other than possibly wet wood? Is a seal not tight? Or is this just where soot would collect based on the correct airflow into the insert?

 

[begreen]

Try a dollar bill test on the door gasket on all sides, but focus on the hinge edge.

 

[acritzer]

Try a dollar bill test on the door gasket on all sides, but focus on the hinge edge.

I have done this. It’s pretty secure. A little movement if I really pull, but it seems tight?

 

[EbS-P]

How big of fires are you making and is the glass staying clean?

 

[acritzer]

How big of fires are you making and is the glass staying clean?

I've made a couple of fires with the attempt to burn overnight. Usually the glass is somewhat dirty the next morning.

 

[acritzer]

How big of fires are you making and is the glass staying clean?

I guess my biggest struggle right now is figuring out how to make a fire that doesn't smoke when it starts to go out? Probably related to the moisture in the wood? I still need to properly test some pieces. I split a couple yesterday and found the inside face to read around 18% I think, so I would imagine I could get a hot enough fire?

 

[begreen]

Could be the fire is small and therefore the firebox does not reach secondary combustion temperature. Another thing to check is how well the stove is drafting. What stove make and model is this? How tall is the flue system from stovetop to chimney cap?

 

[acritzer]

Could be the fire is small and therefore the firebox does not reach secondary combustion temperature. Another thing to check is how well the stove is drafting. What stove make and model is this? How tall is the flue system from stovetop to chimney cap?

Osburn Matrix 2700
I meant to remeasure the flue. I think it’s just a bit short for the recommendations. Someone else commented that this time of year the draft may be a little inadequate because of this.

 

[begreen]

Yes, when temps drop below around 45º draft should improve.

 

[EbS-P]

I guess my biggest struggle right now is figuring out how to make a fire that doesn't smoke when it starts to go out?

I use the top down method 2-3 splits of the bottom nothing bigger than a medium split. Then kindling on top all the way up to the baffle. I usually have a 2 small pieces of fat wood or chainsaw noodles that I use to light it with and a kitchen butane torch.

I have a smaller firebox that gets shorter in the back so scale my recipe for you size and shape. It takes a good bit of kindling. When it’s warm I leave the door cracked for a couple minutes. But if it’s below 45 I just light it and close the door. With all that kindling I can get secondary combustion. I know I have wet wood or did it use enough kindling if the bottoms splits don’t want to take off and or smoke.

 

[acritzer]

Could be the fire is small and therefore the firebox does not reach secondary combustion temperature. Another thing to check is how well the stove is drafting. What stove make and model is this? How tall is the flue system from stovetop to chimney cap?

Hard to get decent pics. How do these look? This is with the air control turned most of the way up.

 

[acritzer]

It definitely seems like the reburn is more active and wicks toward the door from time to time. I’ve turned the air all the way down and the reburn seems to be holding steady.

 

[EbS-P]

The Re-burn(secondary air) goes back to front and then makes a 180 to get to the outlet. Secondaries look good to me. How many splits were in this load?

 

[acritzer]

I think at this point I had put in 4-5 small splits? And one med piece.

 

[acritzer]

The Re-burn(secondary air) goes back to front and then makes a 180 to get to the outlet. Secondaries look good to me. How many splits were in this load?

Again, very hard to get good pics. But this is what it looks like this morning. I didn’t load it overnight but did feed it into the evening. A few hot coals are left, and some discoloration on the sides.

 

[kennyp2339]

Again, very hard to get good pics. But this is what it looks like this morning. I didn’t load it overnight but did feed it into the evening. A few hot coals are left, and some discoloration on the sides.

View attachment 283790 View attachment 283791

That looks like a pretty normal post burn, white ash, a little door haze along the edges where there roll effect to keep the glass isnt as strong.

 

[ABMax24]

It's not unusual to get a little bit of buildup on the door on a lower burn, but can also be a sign of wet wood or too low a burn rate.

These short, shallow, but wide fireboxes do like to burn cold on the sides if the wood isn't loaded right into them. Try to make sure you have wood loaded to both sides of the firebox, otherwise you'll see nice secondary flames in the middle but the edges don't get hot enough to cleanly burn and you'll get unneeded smoke out the chimney and premature creosote buildup.

I think as the weather gets cold and your draft increases you'll also see better results and much of the buildup on the glass will disappear.

 

[brenndatomu]

Some stoves just have a tendency to leave a little soot at the edges/corners... especially if doing lots of cold starts and/or partial loads...I know my little Drolet 1400i fireplace stove does...

 

[begreen]

Hard to get decent pics. How do these look? This is with the air control turned most of the way up.

View attachment 283771 View attachment 283772

That is good for a starter fire, but not a large fire.
By "turned most of the way up" do you mean almost wide open? If so, that may be part of the issue. Next fire, try 2 medium splits and at this stage try closing down the air at least 50-75%. That should increase secondary combustion which will get the firebox hotter. This may seem counterintuitive, but closing down the air lets the draft created vacuum in the firebox pull more air from the secondary tubes. That means more heat from the insert and less going up the flue.