Too many small splits? (pic)

[Bster13]

This evening I filled the BK Princess insert to the brim with limbs i cut this year. This is a photo of my stove after 1/2 hour with the bi metal thermostat as low as it goes:

With a normal (drier) load wood, when I close the bi metal thermostat all the way closed the firebox goes black w/ no embers glowing, and then if I leave it on setting 1 or 2 I get glowing embers.

Is this because I have so much surface area to the wood (little limbs) that even with the bi metal slammed shut there was too much going on?

I thought even with all the surface area, if you slammed the air down there still wouldn't be enough oxygen to keep an active flame.

The CAT is at 3/4, I usually shoot for 1/2 way into the active zone.

 

[jharkin]

Yup, too much little stuff. Get ready for a wild ride....

 

[Bster13]

Yeah experiencing it now, a little difficult to lock the stove in for a smooth CAT experience.

 

[Bster13]

At least the flame went out

 

[Woody Stover]

That's what I was saying in another thread; If you make that mistake with a tube stove, you're gonna have to take action or you're going ballistic in a short period of time.

 

[Bster13]

Well it is fine at 6/10 in the active zone right now. I guess I figured it out, but in the future I'll mix in bigger stuff.

Why can't you just kill off the air in a secondary burn stove?

 

[Nick Mystic]

Loading a stove full with small, kindling size pieces can be dangerous. As you guessed, all that surface area creates a very hot and fast burning fire. You are lucky it's the beginning of the burning season and that you probably have a clean chimney because this sort of fire can set off creosote that would not ignite under more normal burning conditions. I hope it burns down without any over firing problems.

 

[Bster13]

Well the CAT never got past 75% through the active zone, I guess I wasn't in trouble.... yet.

 

[jharkin]

Tube stovesoften have unregulated secondaries.

Hey I thought a bk could take a full load of kindling and still burn all week. Nuclear meltdowns are only supposed to happen to us poor vc guys

 

[Bster13]

Well, whatever the BK can handle, it handled my newbie mistake in stride. Long live the bi metal thermostat!

 

[Bster13]

It will be interesting to see if it makes it to the morning with all these tiny limbs.

 

[rdust]

You're fine, I wouldn't hesitate to load the stove full with pallet pieces. These stoves give you more control than you'd ever find in a non cat. What was the temp on the stove, I'm betting it was no where near critical, chances are you only had flames since the stove wasn't up to temp yet for the t-stat setting you picked.

Could you hear the flapper close when you picked your setting? If the flapper was closed and it still had flames I bet they didn't hang around for long.

For example on my stove if I do a nice 30 minute or so burn in when I turn the t-stat to 1 3/4 it will go lights out and the stove top will be in the XXX temp range. If I do a 20 minute burn in and turn it down to the same 1 3/4 the stove will still have flames until it it reaches that XXX temp. Once the t-stat reaches that point it closes and the flames go out.

 

[Bster13]

I definitely am betting it won't make it to the morning, but then again it took me a bit to dial it in.

 

[WES999]

Why can't you just kill off the air in a secondary burn stove?

Well you can but you need to know where the secondary intake is, and have a way to block it in some way, as the secondary intake is generally not regulated.

On my stove the intake is in the back, underneath, I can block the intake with some aluminum foil,
this will shut off the secondary air and get an over fire under control.