Wow, that was hot!!

[CountryBoy19]

This is my first year burning wood so I'm on a learning curve here.

I have an EPA non-cat stove, and in the past I've often worried that it was getting too hot. I borrowed an IR thermo from my dad so I could check temps more easily until I get things down.

Anyways, I was recently reading here about a person experience with secondary burn etc. He mentioned that just cracking the damper a little bit dropped his stove temp because letting the primary air burn starved the secondaries of some of the fuel they were getting. It made sense to me, so I decided to try it to see if that is where I was going wrong in controlling my stove.

So last night we had a fire, good secondary ignition and all. I dampered the stove all the way down after the secondaries got going; stove temp was right at 600 degrees. I decided to just barely crack the damper to see if it would drop the temp a bit as mentioned. Within 5 minutes the stove was an inferno, and temp of the glass was 830 degrees.

Guess the cracked damper thing doesn't work, and I'm still having problems keeping this thing under control. I don't know what's going to happen when we get some truly cold weather and I load the firebox up all the way...

 

[vvvv]

1- flue damper
2-barometric damper
3- Magic Heat
2&3 are self adjusting or automatic though controversial
4- proof of the pudding which takes time trials to evaluate

 

[SolarAndWood]

What is your setup?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Rather than taking the temperature of the glass you need to read it somewhere else on the stove. Normally, stove top, sides, front (but not on glass) and firebox door plus the flue are good places to take readings. You also open just barely a crack. I doubt that is a good test as you made very little change. You might try just a tad more open than that the next time. Have some fun and do some experimenting.

 

[roddy]

dont just crack it...try opening it full.......

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm not so sure I'd open it full. I take it that was meant in jest.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Rather than taking the temperature of the glass you need to read it somewhere else on the stove. Normally, stove top, sides, front (but not on glass) and firebox door plus the flue are good places to take readings. You also open just barely a crack. I doubt that is a good test as you made very little change. You might try just a tad more open than that the next time. Have some fun and do some experimenting.

It's a Kozyheat zero-clearance fireplace so the only place to take the temp is on the glass. There isn't much cast iron on the door frames, and in the center where it overlaps there are 2 layers of cast with a door gasket in the middle so that isn't really an accurate temp either.

Flue is class A chimney from the fireplace to the cap so no reading there either.

 

[jharkin]

Just so we understand terminology - when you say "crack the damper" do you mean open the primary air control?

Usually the term damper is used to refer to a flue damper, or an exhaust bypass (found on cat stoves and even a few non-cats - i.e VC and QF).

 

[ckarotka]

CB19,

I believe that was my post about the giving it more air to gain more control. I will try to be more specific with this post.
Here's what happened and what I did and why. It didn't drop my stove temp per say, but gave me control so that I could maintain a steadier burn instead of running away. This year it's starting to click for me.

I loaded the stove 3/4 full on a smallish coal bed that was raked to the front of the stove. I have to load E/W unless I want to cut my splits down to 8-10" which I don't.

As the fire got established normally I was shutting the air down in small increments, no problems. The stove top was around 500 and accidentally shut the air almost fully closed from about 1/2 open very quickly. This shifted the air flow from the primary air (bottom front+glass wash in the front) to the pre heated secondaries. Since the primary was so weak now the wood began to smolder and create more smoke than I wanted. The secondaries then got a rush of hot fresh air and had lots of fuel from all the smoke. The flue and stove were hot enough to create great secondary burn conditions. With all the smoke to burn and a great draft the top of the fire box became an inferno. I've had this happen to me last year and didn't know what to do other than watch the temp climb. So I closed the air all the way, increasing the air to the secondaries feeding the fire. Finally (last year) I plugged the air intake in the back of the stove and starved the fire of all incoming air and the fire went out.

Now this year when I closed the air to much, to fast and the inferno started (stove at 500) I could tell by looking at the secondaries what was gonna happen. So I opened the primary up until I had flames again at the bottom of the fire box and the secondaries slowed way down. Now at this point the fire did get bigger but the stove was still only 500-525 because I noticed my mistake quickly. I stole air from the secondaries and gave it back to the primary air burning more of the smoke at the bottom and sending more heat up the flue. Now I closed the primary half of what I did before and the fire settled the way it was supposed to. It still got hotter, but it should have with all the fuel. I then closed the air again around 550 and at 575. She then settled in around 550.

My stove air intake is a shift in intensity and needs to be balanced to perform. To fast or to much of an adjustment gave me problems.

I hope this helps and I hope I explained things correctly.

Charlie

 

[vvvv]

blow a fan onto the glass & watch the fire until if the glass soots up. class a is rated to handle 2100*f

 

[roddy]

I'm not so sure I'd open it full. I take it that was meant in jest.

yeah,didn,t really mean full,more like dont baby to much is all

 

[Battenkiller]

CB,

I don't see a thing wrong with taking the temp of the glass with the IR gun. It probably the very best place to take it IMO because that's where you'll get the best indication of your burn. You get a lot of heat from the front of a stove because there's no insulation to block the fire. It is usually higher than other areas, best to use the hottest spot as your indicator.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Just so we understand terminology - when you say "crack the damper" do you mean open the primary air control?

Usually the term damper is used to refer to a flue damper, or an exhaust bypass (found on cat stoves and even a few non-cats - i.e VC and QF).

Yes, I mean primary air-control...

CB19,

I hope this helps and I hope I explained things correctly.

Charlie

Thanks... I'll try it again next time... but either way, I'm still disappointed that the level of control with these non-cats is very minimal. Really the only way to control the heat output is to control the fuel load (load more or less wood).

 

[ckarotka]

CB19,

I hope this helps and I hope I explained things correctly.

Charlie

Thanks... I'll try it again next time... but either way, I'm still disappointed that the level of control with these non-cats is very minimal. Really the only way to control the heat output is to control the fuel load (load more or less wood).[/quote]

Remember the only reason I did this was because I made a mistake. Under normal attentive "setting" of the stove I don't have to do this.

It is my understanding that each stove and set up like to run a certain way. My particular stove and system seem to like to cruise at 500-550 with soft wood (I haven't burned anything other than pine and cottonwood this year so far) and last year around 600 or so with the hardwood.