Just wondering-NC 13

OAKs and their use is a wholenuther topic , my house is wicked "tight" so I use an OAK, if he was using an OAK and it wasn't connected properly or had a blockage then it would cause problems.

 

Are you asking me???? Oh well, I'll answer anyhow.

All the air for the 13NC enters in and around the OAK manifold at the rear, back center of the stove. Remember I said that this manifold wasn't totally sealed, so that if you did attach an OAK, you'd still be drawing SOME inside air.

Within this manifold, there are 2 openings to passages. One passage goes vertically up the back/center of the firebox................this feeds the secondary air tubes/secondaries. You can see this tube looking into the 13 as if you were loading wood. It's the 4" wide steel between the fire bricks. This passage has no manual control for it. The other passage runs horizontally under the firebox. This passage feeds both the primary air (air wash) and the tertiary air (dog house). This passage; once it hits the front of the firebox splits horizontally across the bottom, front of the stove, then up each front corner of the stove to feed the primary/air wash. Right where the horizontal tube meets the front of the firebox and splits, there is an opening on the top (bottom front center of stove) of the tube which vents for the tertiary air/dog house.

The air control lever only controls the air entering the primary and tertiary. There is no control over secondary air. So in essence all you/I are doing when we adjust the air on a 13NC is changing the % of air that is drawn thru each portion of the stove. The chimney is drawing X amount of air..................it pulls it from A, B, and C areas from within the stove. "A" being primary air/airwash, "B" being secondary air/tubes, and "C" being tertiary air/doghouse. If you move the air control lever and change the air going to A and C; X is still drawing the same...................so the %'s between the different AIRS changes.

Am I making sense???

 

Just an update on the stove issue. I re-sealed all the pipe joints with the rutland hi-temp (2000f) stuff today before I lit the 13 and it seemed to help even a little more. It just isn't up to speed like it was, though. Probably shouldn't have cleaned the chimney...if it's not broke dont fix it?

 

It's still relatively warm out Yooper!!!

Your draft will/should improve!!

 

Like I said before, it performed great during the warmer months. Just no rhyme or reason. (The draft was never an issue over the 3-4 years I've used it) I think it is a combination of little fixes; that's why every little bit of advice helps!

 

WW, I used a blower to inject air (forced combustion) through the air intake for a short while. No longer than 2-3 minutes and it functioned just fine, so I don't feel that there is any obstruction there. We'll see how it goes next weekend or maybe a bit later.