What is a smoke dragon?

Pre-epa stoves

 

Anything pre-EPA I suppose. Although, I imagine a smoke dragon will burn clean with good dry wood and a bed of coals.

 

Although some of the smoke dragons had air tubes to create a secondary burn.

 

I think generally a pre-EPA stove.
Mine burned like crud until I got it fixed (long story) and started using real wood (another long story) (AKA....dry).
Once all those stars aligned, it burned fairly clean.
Now that I have the 30, ......no comparison.

 

Smoke-Dragon= Majority of Pre-EPA stoves
Usually a steel or cast box that held fire. A simple baffle was used in some models, an attempt to re-direct some of the flame from going straight up the flue pipe. Fisher stoves, my old Timberline, many others, they all qualify for -smoke dragon- status.

 

I hear you. My Timberline, especially after I modd'ed it for secondary air, was a heating beast. 10-12 hrs. per load, but that stove was an "all or nothing" deal. It was finicky on air adjustments, and running good, flue temps. were 900+, I didn't like that.
I miss it about 6 weeks during the winter, after that, the BKK rules.

 

A term applied to most wood stoves prior to the application of particle limits of exhaust as defined by the EPA, most outdoor boilers still are smoke dragons. In all fairness though an awful lot has to do with practices of the users as well - cut and split today- burn tommorow group. As noted above if you got the temps high enough pretty clean- just before a flue fire erupts, which of course did save having to clean the flue if it was still standing ( and the building it was attached to).

 

A stove run by an idiot.

 

I think you just described my stove.

 

My BKK is not a "smoke dragon"....wait..what ?

 

My BBK is pre EPA and smokes like a coal locomotive on 3 year seasoned wood. But it makes heat...and lots of it...for up to 18 hours.

 

Now that surprises me, do you monitor your flue temps, my Nashua does not smoke much at all after start up and the flue temps are warmed up in the normal range.

 

Really? I must be an idiot then. Oh I have both EPA and Smoke Dragon, Does that make me 1/2 idiot?

 

Not sure you understood the intent on the post, a smoke dragon is the result of poor burning practices, wet wood and or choking the stove down too far.
You can have a EPA stove and make it a smoke dragon using poor techniques.
I love the old stoves and still burn one in the shop.

 

oldspark, I have to somewhat disagree.
I had very dry firewood before getting rid of my Ashley, and made sure I let it burn hot enough, yet it still smoked.
It just wasn't meant or designed to burn all the gases like the newer stoves.
That said, there were plenty of times I had nothing but a heat sig coming out of the flue.
With the new stove and a cold start, I'll still get smoke until things get crankin'. Doesn't usually take more than just a few minutes though.
I don't believe any of that makes me an idiot.
Were you an idiot when you had so many problems with the Summit? I think not.

 

I don't monitor flue temps. It smokes pretty good for the first 30-45 minutes after startup...only a little after that...and by halfway thru the burn there is 0 visible smoke. That's with a full load.

If I toss on a couple splits I can get near 0 smoke for the entire burn cycle, but I'd much rather load it every 12 - 18 hours even though I know I'm using more wood in the process.