Wind tunnel causing shorter burns

[d.n.f.]

It is blowing 30 to 50 kph for the past three days with temps -12C or so.
It is causing a freaking vortex in my T6. I don't have to keep the door open to start a fire, I can turn it down almost immediately. I can run it at the lowest setting and it still rips. I don't have an OAK and I am burning fir/pine.
I am only getting like six hours on a fully stacked load. Chimney is almost straight with a smallish kink to clear a beam. Maybe 16 to 18'?

Any ideas? Other than waiting for the winds to abide.

 

[savageactor7]

Maybe an inline damper like they had on those non EPA stoves would help out when the wind howls like than.

 

[eernest4]

Yea , I used to have the same problem because my stove sits at the bottom of a 48 ft brick chimney that goes up from the basement through two stories and an attic.

Draft so heavy it sucks the flame out of a wooden kitchen match & you can't even lite a piece of newspaper without 3 attempts.

What I did was a in line manuel draft plate to restrict the size of the flue pipe. It has a 3 inch hole in the middle of it so that you can't shut down all the draft. I am running a 8 inch black single wall stove pipe about 7 ft into the chimney with two 90 deg elbows.

With the in line draft reducer, you are manuel setting it and guessing hown much draft to set.

If you guess wrong and dont set enough draft (if you shut down too much of your draft) you end up with some light smoke and a camp fire oder in the room.

A tee in the stove pipe and a dump draft to room air regulator may be a better choice.
This opens the stove pipe to the room , allowing the draft to directly suck up room air so that the stove gets less draft.
The good thing about this regulator is that the stove will always have more draft than with the
in line draft regulator and it is less prone to leaving you with a light smoke & a camp fire oder
in the room.

You can get one that is "automatic" and will swing open by itself if it sees a heavy draft and automatically close if it sees a light draft. But you must adjust the wieght so that it stays closed
almost most of the time and only opens on a really heavy draft.

(the regulator door is on a pivot with an adjustable wieght that the draft must overcome to open the regulator flapper.)

If it is set to lightly, it will open & the smoke stack will loose so much draft that smoke can enther the room.

If you set it only to open momentarly only on the highest drafts, you may not get any smoke into the room or al least not very much smoke and not very often.

The thing with the smoke & people complaining about it when they mis set the control is why they no longer install them & do not recommend that you install them.

It is not the control's fault if the user mis sets them & gets smoke and I can't blame merchants
for not recommending them because they don't want to hear about smoke when the owner mis sets the draft regulator.

I HAVE BOTH TYPES OF DRAFT REGULATOR INSTALLED IN MY STACK AT THE SAME TIME. I can use one , or both at the same time or neither of them at all.

When I mis judge the draft & get the setting wrong ,I get smoke in the room.
I don't cry or groan about it; I just reset the control & open a window for 10 minutes.

every time is relative & every thing is a compromise.

If you dont like the draft regulators, you leave the in line damper fully open and the draft dump to room air fully closed and it is like you never installed them and have an unbroken continious
stove pipe , but they are both there for if you really need them.

Bear in mind , that a setting that is good now ,wont be good a hour later when the wind changes velocity or diresction or atmospheric pressure or temp outside changes ,all of which will change the draft to your stove and may require you to reset your draft controls.

Your first warning of this is usually a camp fire oder in the room.

so, you probably can't have a draft regulator in use without the ocasional camp fire oder when you mis the setting or the draft changes making your previously good setting a bad setting.

You will have to learn the ways of the draft regulators by trial and error where
(some smoke out = error).

I still use them sometimes but I feel it is better to burn a little extra wood a bit sooner(if I have extra wood to spair) than deal with a camp fire oder when I mis the setting or atmosppheric conditions change on a good setting making it a bad setting & i'm not there to catch it.

like I say, your first indicaton of a missed setting is camp fire smell.

 

[d.n.f.]

wow thanks for that. Things to ponder.
The winds (six days) have ended for now. I at least had some coals this morning.

Will have to consider something if this is normal for the area.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Remove chimney cap, insert cantaloupe, replace cap.

hey, it's just an idea

 

[d.n.f.]

Remove chimney cap, insert cantaloupe, replace cap.

hey, it's just an idea

Eat smoked cantaloupe later.

Win win.

 

[ScottF]

Adios Pantalones - 17 December 2008 11:49 AM
Remove chimney cap, insert cantaloupe, replace cap.

hey, it’s just an idea

Eat smoked cantaloupe later.

Win win.

On windy days install cantaloupe with a small hole in it. On non windy days install cantaloupe with bigger hole in it. I like to keep cantaloupess on hand with different sized holes for different conditions.

 

[madison]

dnf,

you may also want to check your door gasket all the way around via the "dollar bill test" prior to cooking the cantelope.

before you go wacking the latch to tighten fit, check the "hinge" side of the door to make sure that the three screws are tight and door is aligned. I noticed that mine had shifted, and i needed to adjust door and retighten the three screws (slotted screw driver or 3/8" ratchet (i think) ), involves loosening the two top bolts (7/16") and one on the bottom that hold the cast iron shell to the steel stove, prior replacing the cast iron, make sure to do the dollar bill test multiple times around the door frame...

The other site for air entrainment is the ash chute! it can be just barely open and cause a rapid burn.

I have noticed high barametric pressures seem to help with the draft...