This may be a crazy question but here goes.....My son leaves for work around 9:30pm every night but before he goes...He throws in a fairly good size split...I mean big.....He lets it catch on the bed of coals for about 10 minutes then he shut the damper down to 0...Yes 0!...All the way................I was under the impression that at 0 no air gets into the stove (Jotul F600) When I come down around 4am for work..There is a nice lump of cherry coals waiting for me.....What gives???? Thanks
Zero is just the lowest setting...not actually zero air...the EPA did away with "air tight" stoves back in 1988...so unless your stove is older than that...
Right on, most modern stoves leave enough air coming in to sustain a burn. I do believe you are operating it exactly as you should. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
The damper is in a fireplace. Closing that would create major problems. Ask anyone here who's ever started a fire in one with it closed! The draft at that setting must get enough air for a burn and obviously it did. I used the same protocol when i burned my insert and it worked fine although mine didnt have numbers.
Always thought the air control was called the Damper....Its the Silver knobbed lever right it front..All the to the left I would count as 0 All the way to the right I would count as 10
Both the primary (and secondary if the stove has one) air controller in the stove and the chimney damper (if there is one) can be referred to as dampers. It can be confusing. Most ( new stoves) the primary air control may go to a mechanical stop that may or may not be "zero". Most (but not all as PE has some stoves that are an exception) the primary air control does not limit the air to the secondary tubes, so there is still a supply for the fire. You really can't starve most of the newer stoves. (without modification(s)).
My understanding is a "damper" is any device to adjust the flow of gases (draft), either air into an appliance or gas out. My understanding is a wood burning appliance should be designed to never become totally air tight because cooling gases can shrink and suck air down the chimney, backflow. My furnace is not totally air tight but did backflow once in the last 25 years. Air coming down a chimney and hitting burning wood/coals which are starved for air creates a startling "boom", rapid combustion. Opening the air intake will prevent a second "boom" since the process can repeat immediately. One "boom" was enough for me and so I never close my intake draft more than 75% when a significant amount of wood or coals is burning. Creosote in the chimney (or lack of) is a way to tell if a damper is being closed too much. Poor catalyst life would be another sign of a damper being too closed.
I always remember as a kid dad would make sure the damper was open when he started the fireplace. Metal handle out of sight on the top of the fireplace inside. When i purchased my insert the seller called it a draft lever and i used that term since. My late uncle had a stove in his garage that had the damper/draft lever on the stovepipe although i dont recall what he called it. I guess they could be interchangable.
"You really can't starve most of the newer stoves. (without modification(s))." I beg to differ, a boatload of varibles too numerous to list.
But no matter how its labeled, you cannot close the air to actual zero on a modern stove (as it was built)
I have to have a pretty good fire going to back the air control down to anything less than half. It's due to a stove that has a 6" output going into an 8" exterior chimney, with two 90 degree bends.
My stove i set it and forget it!! Pull out the knob and turn to the left and as the fire gets hotter it closes the dampner and you wind up with the beautiful dancing secondary burn flames.
I'm thinking about putting an additional damper on my flue coming out of the stove. I have an enerzone 3.4 and about 25' of flue. Even when the stove is damped all the way down on the stove, it still runs pretty hot with a full load, especially now that I'm burning really dry wood. I've think with the amount of chimney I have I've got some overdraft going on. I just need to find time to install the manometer I have to verify.
I have a Pacific Energy Super 27 stove and I run it in a very similar fashion as the OP. I get a good fire going and char the wood then shut it down all the way to leave for work or for overnight burns. This is exactly how my owners manual directs for long sustained burns. It work great for me. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
This...... While digging around looking at it once on my insert I saw about a dime sized hole in the plate the knob controls that opens and closes, allowing the air intake. I went digging because I once had it completely closed but could subtly hear air being sucked in, thought something was wrong but did more research and learned what brenndatomu stated above.
I had a PE stove and it said to set the air to desired setting for long burns, this was to be found by trial and error.
Oddly enough we have had a strong steady wind today, blowing right at the damper to my boiler. Got home and temp was at 205. I checked the seal and it seems okay, so thinking maybe there is a slight gap on the damper. I have a trash bag covering it as an experiment. Only challenge the weather is warm, too so the furnace hasn’t been running to bring the water temp down.
