Draft Help

Well I got the stove installed finally and I'm a little bummed. With all the drafts closed and the damper 3/4 closed I can't slow down the burn . It went nuclear on me tonight and I haven't even tried coal yet.

turbotom wrote:Well I got the stove installed finally and I'm a little bummed. With all the drafts closed and the damper 3/4 closed I can't slow down the burn . It went nuclear on me tonight and I haven't even tried coal yet.

If it was not coal, I assume it was wood you were burning? What kind of stove do you have? (photos of your setup will help us help you) Is it a new stove or a used stove?

Randy

You must have an air leak somewhere. Did you reseal the stove? Check all the seams with a cigarette or incense while stove is burning and you may find a leak. The smoke will go into the stove.

Heres his stove from another posting. Its a antique hot blast style. Newbie With "Retort Peninsular No214"

Yeah I sealed all the joints with stove cement. I'm thinking it's the ash door or the shaker door. Didn't think real
Small leaks would effect it. But wow! I'm burning dry red elm wood. I'll try the cigarette method. I'll have to turn my fans off. I really took my time on this stove and sealed it real well. Any advice on the ash door? The top loading door and Hole for the finial are not sealed but that should not effect the fire at the bottom where it's burning brightly.

Here it is when I first lit it up (the drafts/dampers are now closed)

Well the cigarette smoke is being sucked in at the bottom of the ash pan door. Any advice as to how to seal it up? Lay a bead of high temp silicone along it? So the door squishes into it ?( After it's set of course)

Nice looking stove. When done with smoke testing, post results.

Put wax paper on inside of your door. Put a bead of sealant around where the door is going to touch the stove. Close door shut tight, how you would have it when running. Allow to dry. Open door and remove wax paper.

I forget exactly what sealant to use as I only did this once but Im sure someone will chime in. The bottom of the stove wont get as hot as the top obviously.

I doubt you will get it 100% tight but it should make the fire manageable.

The top leaks will increase your wood or soft coal's burning and slow your anthracite fire. Seal them if you can.

That is a real sharp looking stove. Im curious how good it will work with anthracite.

turbotom wrote:Well I got the stove installed finally and I'm a little bummed. With all the drafts closed and the damper 3/4 closed I can't slow down the burn . It went nuclear on me tonight and I haven't even tried coal yet.

Wood fire or charcoal fire?.

If it was wood you should have been able to whoa it up with the MPD.
If it was charcoal....yer kind of along for the ride. That stuff burns real hot and real fast and you don't have a lot of control over it.

Does your stove have a check damper on the outlet elbow?.

Small leaks will pass more air then you'd think. The air speed through the gaps can vary. With a strong draft the air just rushes through the small gap faster.

Ways to help control that are;
1. Airtight seals before the fire- but not always practical in older stoves.
2. Create more resistance to air flow in the chimney system, such as close the MPD more, or in extreme cases, add another restriction/MPD.
3. Cool off the draft by bleeding room air into the chimney system. Such as a check damper like Pancho mentioned, or a barometric draft control installed in the stove pipe.

3/4 open for the pipe damper (MPD) is quite a bit. I'd try closing the MPD more to create more resistance in the chimney system to draft flow.

Paul

well I didn't open the check draft damper, I forgot about that, I did have the flue damper totally closed. still burned very hot. Im going to try resealing the ash pan door and the shaker lever door tonight and refire it tomoro ill post back my results

Back 40 years ago we had a "pot belly" stove in the basement of our farm equipment business doing nothing. I put a triple wall pipe straight up through a ceiling and roof and brought the stove home. I did a wood fire. The thing leaked so bad that the single wall pipe from stove to ceiling glowed red. Never fired it again. Threw underwear away.

Brent
Franco Belge 10-275

Pancho wrote:
Wood fire or charcoal fire?.

If it was wood you should have been able to whoa it up with the MPD.
If it was charcoal....yer kind of along for the ride. That stuff burns real hot and real fast and you don't have a lot of control over it.

So what kind of fire did you have and what temps did the stove run up to?.

Like I mentioned, if you fired for the first time with charcoal (like I did with mine), you won't have a ton of control over it. That stuff is kinda like a JATO bottle on a military jet....you pull the pin and hang on and you cannot un-pull the pin.

Coal burns TOTALLY different than charcoal is what I am getting at.

I stated that I was burning dried red elm fire wood in an earlier post. I am pretty certain that my ash door leak is the source of most of my problem and my chimney pulls a strong draft. (7" double wall insulated) I may add a second flue pipe damper. I don't have a nanometer setup yet, and don't have a thermometer yet. I do have smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers though.

Burning anthr differs from burning wood but an airtight stove is important in both cases to be able to control the burning rate.
For anthr burning, what is the most inportant to seal is what is located below the fire pot level: ash door/s, holes where the footrests hang in, shaker door/s...
For the Sunnyside, I had to make rope gasket supports to have these doors more air tight. Just HT silicone wouldn't have stay longer than one day.