Glowing Door

So this lovely 24* morning I got up and reloaded the stove then took the dogs out for a little while and came back in to watch the stove. I got a little distracted and went over to start shutting down the air a little later than I should have usually no big deal but today I noticed the stove door was glowing red The stove top temp was around 350* and my infrared thermo gun said the door was 928* Ive never seen that happen before what the heck is going on? I continued operating the stove as normal shut the air down to between .75 and 1 the door stopped glowing and I engaged the cat and everything seems normal now. Im wondering what could have caused this to happen the other side of the stove didnt read as hot as the door side but the fire did not appear to be any stronger on one side or the other? Could it be time to replace some gaskets or tighten the door knob?

 

The only thing that comes to mind is the heat was not escaping as well as it should? not sure that makes sense.
I have had borderline overheats on my Jotul Oslo in the past and when that overfires the stove top is that part that glows, but then again yours has a cat and this was only secondary burns with burn tubes.

Was the load in the stove set up in such a way as it directed heat towards the door? And also, if you have windy conditions today, that may affect the draft and ultimately a little over heating too.

 

That does sound strange, maybe you were in the bypass mode too long and along with a leaky gasket or loose door knob the stove was burning very hot near the door?

 

The funny thing about this was that the stove top was very low compared to the glowing door makes me wonder if my thermometer on top is defective. The load was pretty centered in the stove but it is cold and windy outside as it has been for a couple days now. Yesterday there was a very strong smell of smoke in the house especially around the stove door which makes me think new gaskets and a door tightening need to happen.

Thats what Im hoping it is/was. When this load burns down Im going to tighten the door knob and see if that helps I know it was in bypass to long but thats happened before and Ive never seen the door glow.

 

Can you do a quick test with a lit match around the door gasket before you open/touch the latch and while the stove is still burning hard?

When troubleshooting a problem I try to catch the breakdown in an untouched state, which for you means test the door before you disturb it. Perhaps some loose coals prevented an already leaky gasket from completely sealing.

 

Have you ever had any back puffing on windy days? I have found recently that I get some back pressure and it forces smoke out of any space it can find. Only thing is I only found this to be happening to me on warm (40's) windy days, nothing in the cold like this.

 

Matt, I am guessing you had it in bypass mode with too high of an air setting, I am guessing your stove pipe connector was quite hot? In regards to smoke smell, check the gasket, you can always adjust the tension on it.

When the fire dies out check to make sure all the cement seams are in good shape around the door frame, I have had to do some mid winter patching on my seams. I thought my door gasket was giving me trouble but I pulled the cat out so I could look high and low down the seams and saw a few chunks missing and a few gaps running vertically.

 

I found with air leaks on the door/frame it actually fans air down the east west stacks and makes the left side burn hotter.

 

I'd put this in the IS forum and see what feedback you get. I think any stove is prone to a bit of backpuffing given the right conditions and setup.

 

Whats weird is I never got any back puffing with my old stove (Jotul Oslo) and I'm using the same flue run as the Oslo.
Since the IS has been installed I've had it happen 2x in late fall.

 

When in bypass burning in a new load, I often see a blow torch effect from the ends of the wood. The air wash comes down the glass, enters the load, and exits the sides of the load blowing flames out sideways. Never noticed a hot door though, I'll check it with the IR next time and see if it gets overly hot. Double check your stove top thermo with your IR, it's probably just heat lag coming through the stone.

 

Hottest I have seen is 700 and that was with splits almost touching the door from being too long and while running in bypass mode.

 

Slower draft, build up of gasses and a perfect hot cat sitting up top to light off the off gassing bomb, and some wind to the equation and you have a pulsation and or air entering the flue.

 

You load the stove, took the dogs out "for a little while", watched the stove and THEN started shutting down the air?

Seems like a long span of time to get the stove up and going after a reload.

 

One of the assets I most appreciate in the PH is the speed with which it gets set for the long burn.

I care for a handicapped brother, and there were times when I would start a fire in the Fireview, then have a situation develop where I simply had to leave the stove for a few moments. If those few moments turned to ten or fifteen, I could come back to a stove that was taking off....stove top temps around 700.....

While the Fireview sometimes took me a half hour to forty five minutes to get to the settled burn, the PH never does. On a warm stove, I am usually good to go within a few minutes. If it is very cold out, I may elect to leave the primary air open a bit longer to establish a higher burning temp, but in such a situation if I ever have to leave the stove, I can simply shut it down first, and then open the air to get the stove hotter when I return to the room.

Leaving the stove too long, it doesn't surprise me at all to see a Fireview climbing to that temp. Did you shoot through the glass to see what the firebox temp was? Without the cat engaged, you have a significant air space between the firebox and stove top, so I would expect the soapstone there to take longer than the door to get hot, before the cat is engaged.

Makes me wonder what my door may have been reading when my stovetop was at 700....probably just as well I didn't know.

Still...350 top vs 900 door...you are talking a huge difference in temperatures. How long do you think the stove was burning before you caught this? What kind of wood, and what size splits? Were there a lot of smaller splits?

 

Im not sure what you mean by match test? I did the dollar bill test this afternoon and it was tight as could be so the door is not to loose.

Back puffing yes a little on the warmer windy days but not to often.

Ill check the seems next time I let it run down and clean the cat. I did have it in bypass a little to long but not that long the stove pipe connector was around 500*

I was outside with the dogs for about 5 minutes long enough for them to do their business and come back inside. I was reloading on pretty much nothing this morning there were very few glowing coals in there since I slept in so it did take a little longer than usual for things to get burning this morning.

The Fireview does take a little while to get going sometimes especially this morning since I didnt have much left in the stove to work with this morning. I was burning medium sized pine splits and it had probably been about 20 minutes since I had loaded it to the time I saw the door glowing. The thing is I usually judge the stove by the stove top temp as far as when to adjust things and I had glanced at it a couple times and it wasnt really moving up but I decided judging by what was going on inside that it was a good a time as any to engage the cat thats when I saw the door glowing.

 

I would also check the bypass frame for warping. When you burn wide open or close to it (I'm assuming that's the case) a tremendous amount of heat is concentrated in that area. The sides have double stone and temp there will be lagging way behind.

I've seen that as well, and have seen the door get hot. Even opening the air on a big load of coals will heat the door up pretty good, since it's right next to the coals. I seldom run the air wide open on the Woodstocks for any amount of time; I can ramp up temps in the firebox plenty fast for the reload without the air wide open.

That was the problem I found with the Woodstocks; The stone just lags too far behind what's happening in the firebox. A better indicator is pipe temp, or exit gas temp as indicated by a probe. I generally run the probe up to around 1000 (not too hard a burn to get there,) then cut the air enough to level it off there for about 10-15 min. You could do the same with a flue meter (which I have lying on the stainless tee about 6" from the flue exit.) I get a pretty much gauranteed light-off doing it this way, even though the stove top is still in many cases under 200. But yeah, you're looking at at least 30-40 min. in most cases from a cold start, if you don't run a hard ramp-up fire.

 

I like to baby these stoves as much as possible; I figure the harder I run 'em, the rougher it's gonna be on the seams with the additional expansion/contraction. You can direct the heat to the front/top of the stove during ramp-up by how you pack the load, what woods are where, and where you get it burning. Then you don't have to resort to the blunt-force object of wide-open air to get the temps you need in a timely fashion. Too lively a ramp-up may well have been what made the left front vertical seam leak on my Keystone worse, although that seam was leaking from day one. There was a time early on when I let the stove get a little hotter than I wanted. It was at 550 stove top with the bypass open when I caught it. Lucky I didn't have a bigger load in there....