To Strong A Draft

Last night, my daughters new TLC (hooked up to a new masonry chimney) was burning too hot (350*) with the air vent closed. It was very windy & the bar damper was wide open but I still think to much air was being sucked out of the stove & forcing ir to come in through the ash door seals.
I'm positive the problem is too strong a draw from the chimney & one the baro damper doesn't seem to be able to cope with.

How does this sound for a solution: There is a cleanout door just below the wall thimble & I'm going to have her leave that part way open all the time to kill some of the draft. Think that will solve the over-draft....or help much?

OR add a secondary baro at the cleanout that opens at a higher or lower level then the stove.?

WNY wrote:OR add a secondary baro at the cleanout that opens at a higher or lower level then the stove.?

Wouldn't keeping the cleanout door open accomplish the same result of killing the draft a bit? (It's about 2' below the wall thimble)........I'm thinking that it would lower the overall draft enough to make the baro damper capable of working effectively to do the "fine tuning"

NO! You need to fix the door seal if in fact it is bleeding air into the stove. If you still have too much draft then you need a bigger baro to cope with it. What is the actual draft reading?
DO NOT install a baro in the cleanout or anywhere else that is lower than the stoves exhaust outlet and ONLY where the exhaust gas flow is present in the stovepipe it is attached to.
Playing with the cleanout door to break the draft is probably not a good idea. Use a mano and wire the door fixed if you must but I could not leave something that Mickey Mouse unattended. You would be much better served fixing the real problem than creating new ones.

coaledsweat wrote:NO! You need to fix the door seal if in fact it is bleeding air into the stove. If you still have too much draft then you need a bigger baro to cope with it. What is the actual draft reading?

Going over there with a manometer this morning.

coaledsweat wrote:DO NOT install a baro in the cleanout or anywhere else that is lower than the stoves exhaust outlet and ONLY where the exhaust gas flow is present in the stovepipe it is attached to.

Not sure I understand the physics of the danger you mention above.

My thinking goes along these lines:

1. If the draft is very strong, I don't think any stove's door seals are that air tight that some air could not be pulled through under extreme pressure.
2. If the chimney is drawing way to strong a draft (when it's windy & cold lets say) my idea is to allow more air into the flue than can be sucked through the coal bed & a 6' barometric damper.
3. Under those (extreme draft) conditions, wouldn't the cleanout hole be under the same draft (negative) pressure that the wall thimble is? (if so, why would it be dangerous to open the cleanout door (which is below the thimble) to releive some of this negative pressure that is sucking too much air through the coal bed?)

Trying to understand your warning about "lower than the stoves exhaust outlet and ONLY where the exhaust gas flow is present in the stovepipe it is attached to."
I don't follow???

If the wind would stop and the draft becomes very little which can and will happen you could end up with sulfur dioxide which is definitely heavier than the amient air coming out that door on a slight backdraft situation. Its probably leaking around the cheesy air control on the TLC. I can't understand why Harman used that instead of there good spin draft like on the Mark series.

The other day we had very strong winds. I opened my cleanout 1" and it did lower the draft to where the damper could regualte it, BUT, my boiler is in an outbuilding with two good CO detectors. I'm not sure I'd want to do that same trick if it where in my house. I've thought about adding another barometric damper.

Unless it's always very windy at your daughters I wouldn't worry that much. I don't think 350 is dangerously hot especially considering it was very windy. If it got up to 450 then I would be very concerned.

Is there any way to safely let air in above the coal bed in this stove? If so this could be done in windy conditions and would cool the stove.

rockwood wrote:Is there any way to safely let air in above the coal bed in this stove? If so this could be done in windy conditions and would cool the stove.

There are secondary air vents above the coal bed for wood burning, yes. I always keep these fully close on my stove but I'll have her try opening them on windy days & see if that cuts down the draw through the coal bed.
It's amazing....We have the same exact stove but her chimney changes the burning equation by leaps & bounds!
Right now her fire is behaving well & the manometer was only reading .02 at her house, with a very cool fire, no wind temps in the high 50's.

I think I'll have her keep everything the same, but on very windy days with a fire running hotter that she wants with air controls barely open, I have her throw open the cleanout door & see if that takes the pressure off her fire.

OR

I could have her remove the faceplate of the baro damper completely & just leave the wide open "T" fitting to allow more air through.

That would seem safer, right?

First I would try opening the secondary vents above the coal bed then if that doesn't do it I would install an additional baro damper rather than having a "wide open" tee into the chimney.

If she has a runaway stove you could open the clean out door or just open the front door of the stove above the coal bed and the stove will cool very quickly.

I have never seen more than one baro damper on a flue but I don't see any problem with it as long as they're set up correctly.

I just installed my manometer over there so she can read it when the wind kicks up again. I'll try to get her to join the conversation here but she keeps telling me she actually HAS a life, so I don't know!

Too good for us? Fine.

rockwood wrote:oo good for us? Fine.

No...More like STUBBORN!! (like her Mother!)

I would NEVER remove the baro and leave the tee open.. that's attempted suicide..

Greg L.