Hey gang, I have not been on the forum for some time and had something come up last night that seemed a bit odd to me. I have a LopiLiberty 1750 unit in the basement. Like others the weather here in the N.W. Iowa has been dipping a bit. I put five large splits in the stove last night around 10:00 on top of a good bed of coals. I left the draft control open until they got to burning good and then shut it down over 3/4 of the way. It seemed to just want to keep on gaining steam, so I slowly keep closing down the draft until it was shut completely off. The funny part was it never lost any fire, it was burning a really nice blue flame through the back secondary tubes and was being pulled towards the front down across the door glass. I stayed in the basement and sleep on the couch for a bit to watch it. But feel asleep and woke up at 1:00 a.m. and it still had some good amount of wood left that was not burned up so I went to bed. Woke up in the morning and it was burned to a nice white ash and still toasty warm in the basement. My question is why wood it not go out, is my main draft control not closing off completely? The stove is only on its third season.
This seemed to strange to me.
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TheBaron
Member
Just a theory, but perhaps the very cold weather is giving you a much higher draw and the air control isn't able to restrict as much as normal.
Someone will chime about the specfifcs of your stove. But I'm pretty sure no EPA stove allows full primary shutdown. However even if it did like my Elm, with enough draft you can experience just what you did. Sounds perfectly normal to me.
Umm...Think that is a pretty perfect burn like what every one wants....Congrats....
Thanks for congrats. While I am not new to burning wood, I am new to using a newer efficient stove. I am still amazed at the amount of blue lazy flame it creates.
This year (3rd with EPA stove) was the first year I got the perfect burn that firefighter described. The brass ring, IMHO. Would love to nail it like that every time (getting better though as I go). When all the stars and planets align, I can shut it right down and watch that lazy flame until I crash, and get great overnight burn.
It would be nice to have those stars and planets align more often. My wife still just shakes here head at me because I can watch that lazy flame for hours.
TheBaron
Member
Wow, it's going to hit -24 F (-40 F with windchill) here tonight. I wish I knew my stove better I would load it up for the night.
Today is our first real burn in our new stove, seems to be drawing beautiful draft, like a blowtorch when the air control is wide open. No stranger to woodstoves, just don't know this one yet.
Today is our first real burn in our new stove, seems to be drawing beautiful draft, like a blowtorch when the air control is wide open. No stranger to woodstoves, just don't know this one yet.
lopiliberty
Minister of Fire
My liberty doesn't know what lazy blue flames are. Instead its like a blow torch coming at you at 100 MPH. The liberty has a history of not liking to shut down when YOU want it to. I seem like when the liberty gets going there's not much you can do to stop it just shut the air down and turn on the fan. If you don't have a thermometer on the stovetop or an IR gun you need to get one. You really need to keep an eye on the temps with this heating monster. Like webby said you either have a lopi liberty or a lopi republic 1750. No such thing as a lopi liberty 1750.
The air control never closes completely on an EPA stove. The intent is to never let the fire smolder. As you close the air control down to the minimum, the secondary air is still feeding and burning wood gases that otherwise would be heading out the flue. This is a good thing as Martha would say.
Up reloading 1am. A good burn, a bad job timing it though. My first year burning for whole house heat, and with my stove. You live where it's proper cold. Have a brother in Ottawa and another in Montreal. Bless you guys for putting up with that weather! Learning the stove is a fun process, eh.
TheBaron
Member
Seems to be running pretty well. Put about 2 small/1 medium size splits in there last night, and turned it down about to 3/4 shut. In the morning, we had lots of nice coals, that was about 9 hours, and the relight was easy. Glass wasn't too dirty either.
I am not sure how I would load this stove NS configuration for the logs as the firebox seems too shallow. Am i missing something obvious here?
This forum is great!
I am not sure how I would load this stove NS configuration for the logs as the firebox seems too shallow. Am i missing something obvious here?
This forum is great!
I do not have a Temp gauge on the stove top, need to get a IR gauge or I could just bring home the Fire Dept. 10,000 dollar TI and say it was training. I do have a magnetic gauge on the single wall pipe about 12 inches above the stove and it was reading right at 425 deg. I checked the book, the stove is a 1750.
The 1750 is a good burning stove. Try putting that pipe thermometer on the stove. With these new stoves it more important to monitor the stovetop temp than the pipe temp. The pipe temp can be quit low at times compared to the stovetop temp.
With my Lopi Republic 1250 I think the doghouse air remains open even when the primary air control is closed. The secondary supply also remains open, so you can't turn the air down completely. I vote for cold weather creating more pull from the chimney, and that pull changing the way the stove works a little.
My Lopi certainly has a small amount of doghouse air remaining when the air control is fully closed, and obviously secondary air too.
The only thing strange about what OP saw is that most people who don't follow this site can't get it to work like that.
TE
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