sparks and glowing ash...too many?

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prairyD

Member
Dec 26, 2015
21
Rhode Island
I know the concern for sparks has been covered here and I was reassured that it was completely normal to see the sparks blowing out the exhaust. However this past month the fire department was alerted to a potential fire hazard from caring folks who happen to drive by when the sparks were flying. Its not just a spark here and there. They look like they pouring out of the exhaust pipe. I have just taken a video of what it looks like to see if maybe we are emitting too many sparks but it's too large of a file to upload. FWIW, there are no shrubs close by or brush. That being said many of the sparks do not extinguish before landing on the ground or being blown quite far. Sorry to start this thread again. If I didn't hear from people driving by as I have, I wouldn't have lost my sense of security. Thank you!

PS sometimes larger pieces of ash float out that are also glowing hot though that does not happen regularly
 
what stove do you have, I'm gonna venture a guess at a castle serenity
 
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Yes it's well covered in the threads here, I'll let one of the Serenity guys give you the full specs but basically you need to turn down your combustion blower speed and close down the mechanical damper so it's about 1/3 open. And for the record, you should have 0 sparks being emitted out your vent.
 
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alternativeheat said:
Yes it's well covered in the threads here, I'll let one of the Serenity guys give you the full specs but basically you need to turn down your combustion blower speed and close down the mechanical damper so it's about 1/3 open. And for the record, you should have 0 sparks being emitted out your vent.
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I'll see if I can find directions on how to do that here in the forum or online. There is a big storm coming and I want to get this right before it hits. Thank you so much!
 
alternativeheat said:
Yes it's well covered in the threads here, I'll let one of the Serenity guys give you the full specs but basically you need to turn down your combustion blower speed and close down the mechanical damper so it's about 1/3 open. And for the record, you should have 0 sparks being emitted out your vent.
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I just checked blower voltage and it is set at stall 1- 95V. The exhaust voltage is set at stall 1- 80V
 
like Alternative said it's been discussed many times here, basically because of the design of the stove it moves alot of air through quickly so you need to slow it down. you have to remove the left side panel of the stove looking from the front to adjust the air damper, the exhaust fan speed you will need to back the voltage down on and that can be adjusted on each heat level ( called stall in the controller menu )
 
prairyD said:
I'll see if I can find directions on how to do that here in the forum or online. There is a big storm coming and I want to get this right before it hits. Thank you so much!
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Yep, same storm coming our way. Lot's of wind they say, heavy wet snow, maybe a change to rain for a bit etc. Time will tell.

With those settings you might just have to close up your damper a bit.
 
prairyD said:
I just checked blower voltage and it is set at stall 1- 95V. The exhaust voltage is set at stall 1- 80V
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stall is the heat level so are you running the stove on heat level 1 , If so 80 v is good then you need to check the damper setting
 
rich2500 said:
like Alternative said it's been discussed many times here, basically because of the design of the stove it moves alot of air through quickly so you need to slow it down. you have to remove the left side panel of the stove looking from the front to adjust the air damper, the exhaust fan speed you will need to back the voltage down on and that can be adjusted on each heat level ( called stall in the controller menu )
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Makes sense. So if my exhaust blower is already at it's lowest setting is it possible that the issue is just the damper setting? I will be going through the archives, I am just a little pressed for time with the approaching storm and I do appreciate the feedback very much!
 
the stove draws air in through that damper so yes if it is open to far it allows the exhaust blower to pull excessive air through the stove which will pull the hot ash out through the vent
 
prairyD said:
Excellent help! I am hoping that I am about to impress my young teenager with some new skills thanks to you all!
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Sure but for the record ? You're probably going to have better luck with the stove than impressing your young teenager LOL !
 
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taking the screws out is the easy part, it's putting them back in that can be a challange. ;)
 
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So I have opened up the side panel and took the opportunity to do a little cleaning inside. What I hate to admit is that I am completely unsure of where the damper is. There is a metal piece that slides with the loosening of the screw and I thought that may be what I am looking for but I admit I am reduced to saying things like "the shiny flat piece under the big black tube". I've looked for a diagram but haven't found one. I did actually loosen said metal piece and slid it to what I would think would be "more closed" (see I told you that I do not have the stove vocabulary) but once I ran the stove again..nothing but sparks. Sparks galore.
 
prairyD said:
So I have opened up the side panel and took the opportunity to do a little cleaning inside. What I hate to admit is that I am completely unsure of where the damper is. There is a metal piece that slides with the loosening of the screw and I thought that may be what I am looking for but I admit I am reduced to saying things like "the shiny flat piece under the big black tube". I've looked for a diagram but haven't found one. I did actually loosen said metal piece and slid it to what I would think would be "more closed" (see I told you that I do not have the stove vocabulary) but once I ran the stove again..nothing but sparks. Sparks galore.
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I think you have the correct part. One screw and a metal piece with a slot. When the stove is off, you can remove the burn pot and see the slide. Upon removing the burn pot, you will see a half close round hole. The vertical part that is half way across the hole is the "gate" or inlet air slide.

The Serenity is a very open design. So there are a few small details that you can try. When you open the door, one each side of the ash box, there is a flap that you can flip up to remove the ash pan. Those flats must be down and you can sort of manipulate them a bit to cover cover as much gap between the flap and the ash pan as possible. Especially on the left (as you are facing the stove) side. When you install the ash pan, center it as well as you can. There is very little play there, but enough that you can move the pan side to side about 3/8" or so. Center it, then position the flaps as well as you can to reduce gaps.

The other thing with the Serenity is, the exhaust blower on many of them seems to be quite strong. I think the makers wanted to make sure the stove worked even with some of the longer than normal chimney plumbing out there. So if you have very short and simple chimney piping, that can compound the sparking issue. I have my Serenities dial pretty well so the only real sparking is at shut down. Which, I dont think there is anything that one can do in shut down as that is the whole purpose of a shut down process, to clear the burn pot.
 
Again the replies are so helpful! Currently I have the voltage set at the lowest settings for both the blower and exhaust and I have adjusted the damper so that it is closed more than it was (aiming for it to be open around 30%). Assuming I can find the sweet spot and I still see some sparks at shut down, I am assuming that the sparks I see won't be spilling out of the exhaust (I do not have a horizontal exhaust, the chimney extends up about 3 feet from the wall exit) and they will extinguish very quickly. rather than staying lit as they hit the ground. Though I did see it said that I shouldn't see any sparks. I have gone through the archives and see both opinions for this particular stove. It's so fantastic that there are so many of you familiar with this stove. I am on my own and didn't really use the stove last year but I am determined to master this!
 
prairyD said:
Again the replies are so helpful! Currently I have the voltage set at the lowest settings for both the blower and exhaust and I have adjusted the damper so that it is closed more than it was (aiming for it to be open around 30%). Assuming I can find the sweet spot and I still see some sparks at shut down, I am assuming that the sparks I see won't be spilling out of the exhaust (I do not have a horizontal exhaust, the chimney extends up about 3 feet from the wall exit) and they will extinguish very quickly. rather than staying lit as they hit the ground. Though I did see it said that I shouldn't see any sparks. I have gone through the archives and see both opinions for this particular stove. It's so fantastic that there are so many of you familiar with this stove. I am on my own and didn't really use the stove last year but I am determined to master this!
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Probably 90% of the people that say no sparks should ever come out the exhaust, have never looked at theirs.;)

In the control panel, the one that says "blower" does not in any way effect the fire. It is only for blowing the heat away from the stove and into your house. So you can set it anywhere you wish within reason. When you reset the exhaust blower stall, did you hit enter to hold that setting? I know it took me a while to learn that I had to hit enter, then set the volts, then hit enter again before exiting programming.

The one that says "exhaust blower" is the one that effects how much air and how fast the air is pulled into the fire. Some people with very long chimneys would need to run the fan at a higher setting, and close or open the gate to control the air.

My chimney sounds like it is similar to yours. It goes out thru the wall, then mine goes up about 6', and I use a 90 and a 45 to direct the exhaust slightly downward. If yours is only 3', you have about the most free flow chimney you can get. This short of chimney can be more likely to have sparks and embers. Another 3' vertical may help reduce the amount of sparking.

Do you have a hose connected the smaller pipe on the back of the stove making the stove have two connections to the outside? If yes, great, you are good to go. If no, then you might consider a couple options for safety. Either put another 3' vertical on your outside chimney, or have an apu hooked to the power cord. This is in case of a power outage. With the OAK as it is called (outside air kit) the small hose on the back of the stove, the fire is completely separated from the living area. Without that hose, if the power goes out, the smoke can back flow into the house. I have just a long enough chimney vertically that when warm, in a power outage, the convection effect pulls the smoke outside.
 
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That info about the chimney is super helpful. I may extend it just a bit this spring. I did hold the enter button down when I set the volts and I do have a second smaller pipe going outside. I have to say so far today the stove has had very little sparking, if any, at turn off and has been running beautifully. You guys were all so awesome to talk me through this! I've got my generator at the ready and I feel much more confident with this stove as this storm will soon settle in. Thank you!!
 
That's awesome !

And incidentally, seeing sparks "inside" your stove is normal.

I've never tried my stove on my generator, when we lose power I have my transfer switch set up to run the oil burner. Not all stoves will run on just any generator, some require pure sine wave generators. I know my generator runs pretty clean though because it runs other devices that are digital in nature but I doubt it's a pure sine wave generator. Newer Harman's will just shut down if they sense dirty power so I never even tried it. Generally the longest we lose power around here is 3 days and usually more like a few hours. For 3 days I can burn oil, it's not going to blow the budget to do that.
 
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