Whew first scare today

[mitchell721]

Ok, to sum things up I got the wood stove as supplemental heat for the house well with the wild winter (so far anyways) I have really only had to throw in a couple splits and that would be plenty of heat, even too much sometimes. Well it's colder today and I got a little over ambitious so to speak and put in 3 good sized real dry ash splits. Although I had a decent coal bed stove was only at 3/325ish. Did it how I always do wide open for about ten min to char it up good and the shut it down. She started rolling pretty good and within maybe 10 minutes had secondarys like a rocket ship. The stove was at about 650 and flu gard was about 700 both still climbing when I started freaking. Well some ash and having the door wide open brought it down slowly. But it makes me wonder how are you guys loading these bad boys right up with wood and not having it blast off to the moon?

 

[2broke2ride]

Had my stove top hit almost 800 the other night for no apparent reason, that scared me,650 is totally normal for me, I wouldn't have even worried about that.

 

[claydogg84]

How hot was the stove when you started shutting down the air? Perhaps you waited a little longer than you should have.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah make that first adjustment down on the primary air around 400-450 stove top and the second around 500-550. About a third of the way each time.

 

[mitchell721]

Stove was around 450 and flu was around 400 and shut it down almost all the way. Wish I could have taken a pic. But i was kind of in that freak out mode. Secondarys were burning like mini torpedo heaters. Usually they are a more lazy secondarys

 

[BrotherBart]

Sounds like the stove was too hot when you loaded it. I usually reload down around 250. I often say here that if you put a big load in a stove over 400 degrees you are going to have pause to reflect.

 

[mitchell721]

Lol I definitely did. Will take that advice. Your probably right like I said I have done it multiple times before but usually not as much wood thanks brotherbart

 

[Smoked]

With dry splits and a good coal bed, I use very little primary air at reload. On strong draft days, sometimes I don't even touch it and the secondaries take off on their own. So on reload, I am really just looking at the secondaries and adjust the throttle based on that. I try to shut it down as early as possible while maintaining a clean burn. Like Bart, I do not like to do big loads on a hot stove. About 300 f is a magic number for me.

 

[jatoxico]

Sounds like the stove was too hot when you loaded it.

I will just add that you often don't need to use the air control the same way you would on a cold or warmish stove. With draft raring to go half open or even less will often do it and will help (sometimes) keep peak temps in check. If you're giving full air you may only have a couple minutes to make the decision that it needs to be to cut early.

 

[spirilis]

I will just add that you often don't need to use the air control the same way you would on a cold or warmish stove. With draft raring to go half open or even less will often do it and will help (sometimes) keep peak temps in check. If you're giving full air you may only have a couple minutes to make the decision that it needs to be to cut early.

Something I'm starting to realize here too. A already-heated stove and flue can get away with half-damper on reload.

 

[wilson1474]

This is my first time buring dried ash, and had the exact same thing happen to me, fire took right off on me.... the ole butt hole was clenched pretty good.

 

[Squisher]

Yah I find on a hot re-load that if I crank the air up that the temps rise so fast that I have to cut it way back to avoid overfiring and then I'll end up losing secondary's because the wood hasn't off gassed enough and the temp will drop. I'm just getting the hang of how much air to give for various reload temps so that the temp can climb slowly allowing the wood to char and off gas enough that when I do cut the air back I get consistent secondary's for the rest of the load.

 

[claydogg84]

the ole butt hole was clenched pretty good.

Nice

 

[BrotherBart]

Hot reloads can be done in a pinch. The key is to add a split or two at a time and let them get it off of their chest and then add the next ones. The method comes in handy when the prior load is taking to long to burn down before bedtime. Takes practice though.

 

[Ashful]

Sounds like the stove was too hot when you loaded it. I usually reload down around 250. I often say here that if you put a big load in a stove over 400 degrees you are going to have pause to reflect.

Really? It's hard to understand why they even make non-cat stoves, when I hear things like this. I just hot-loaded one of the BKs, and it was about as eventful as brushing my teeth.

 

[BrotherBart]

Cat stoves are boring. It takes a real wood burner to run a non-cat.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

I run a non cat stove (Harman TLC 2000) I hate to say it here, but, I routinely hit 700F on mine. Especially with a large load of oak.

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

I also run a non-cat stove and routinely hit 700. It's also not uncommon for me to burn hardwood with a bit higher moisture content, ie 23-30 percent, mixed in with my dryer wood. This helps to avoid these runaways. New EPA stove are supposed to be fed only dry wood at 20% and under but I find that they run away if only fed wood that dry. Just my experience. We also have a super strong draft and straight pipe that runs right up through the center of the house.

 

[kennyp2339]

I run a BK Princess and had a similar scare last night, loaded her up on a hot bed of coals using super dry maple and oak, my normal loading process for super dry wood it to open the air adjustment all the way, open the by-pass, load, close the by-pass and let the stuff catch / char good, then turn down the air, takes about 10min normally, last night I must have had a brain fart; I did all those steps except for closing the by-pass, I was up in my bedroom getting changed for bed when I heard the smoke detector go off, I ran downstairs to the small of metal burning, I quickly realized my mistake and closed the by-pass, turned the air down, my smoke pipe was hot, 750 deg hot but as soon as I closed the stove down, the pipe started to cool down right away, the only damage that was done was paint cure smell down stairs and a bruised ego, lesson learned.

 

[wilson1474]

I also run a non-cat stove and routinely hit 700. It's also not uncommon for me to burn hardwood with a bit higher moisture content, ie 23-30 percent, mixed in with my dryer wood. This helps to avoid these runaways. New EPA stove are supposed to be fed only dry wood at 20% and under but I find that they run away if only fed wood that dry. Just my experience. We also have a super strong draft and straight pipe that runs right up through the center of the house.

Are you talking 700 stovetop?

 

[baseroom]

Nice

That plus coal equals diamonds

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

Are you talking 700 stovetop?

Stove top at back corner, where Jotul recommends measuring from. It's a bit higher than the recommended operating temperature but the stove will routinely get there if I want to get it cranking. I don't keep it there for long periods of time but I also don't freak out if it hovers around there for a bit. I'm not recommending it for everyone, I'm just saying what I do sometimes.

 

[2broke2ride]

Yeah, my cast iron Efel Harmony will routinely hit 700, 650 is my normal hot cruise. Like I said earlier, it hit 785 the other night, [emoji15]that was scary. I haven't run it again since, went to using the wood furnace at least until I get this old beast sealed back up.