So about a week ago I started complaining my T6 wasn't burning down the coals very well. Then I noticed when I shut the primary all the way down it was as if it wasn't getting the normal amount of air and I could actually watch the coals stop glowing on the bottom of the wood. Of course I jumped to conclusions and imagined the worst things it could be. Anyhow, it just ended up being a sim[ple problem that was nothing more than the boost air on the bottom of the stove being clogged with ash. I usually pull the plate that covers the boost air once a week or so and sweep it out with a quick brushing but my wife had been running the stove more than me and it slipped my mind. So even though I always push the coals back from the boost air slot it still had ashes pushed up inside the slot. Sorry for the long story but with the cold temps already here and or on their way in certain parts of the country just wanted to remind people to check the boost air on your stoves as they are a critical part of keeping your coal bed burnt down especially when running your stove hard in cold weather!
Nice tip for those with that feature. I need to clean the front lip of my stove almost every load, because that's where the air comes in. It's the glass air wash and feeds the fire. Once this cold goes away for a minute, I plan to pull it apart and clean under that "manifold" area.
I'll look again, but last I did, we're due for the warmup starting on the 9th. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it's changed........again. Last night's forecast was for -7 a couple days ago, then got changed to -14. We were lucky enough to see -16°.
When it gets really cold and am burning a lot of wood I still fight the coals, read on woodheat.org the EPA non cat stoves are known for doing this as they burn the gases off so quickly.
I only fight it when I am pushing it hard and when I had my dutchwest cat stove I fought it in cold weather when i ran it hard also. I know I didn't leave my air open enough last night when I went to bed...... I came down to a 1/3 full firebox and the stove room had dropped to 67 degrees. Took about two hours of catch up to get it back up around 74 degrees. Even with that problem I still went 10 hours between reloads in 6 degree weather. With the T6 the rest of the time I have no problems with a 12+ hour burn and leaving it shut down the whole Burn cycle. It usually burns front to back and leaves a nice bit of coals in the back that I pull forward. The problem I get into in cold weather is the time to burn the final third of the load usually doesn't give me enough useable heat to keep up with the heat loss of the house when it's near zero since it has already off gassed most of the volatiles.
Yea I only fight it on my Summit when it gets really cold for the most part, I have no problem getting coals to last for 12 hours also but its cold here now and the temps in the house are on the chilly side. Yesterday was bad with a strong south wind.
Yeah Yeah I hear you, lol. I haven't had mine cranked up and rolling like that for a long time. I probably need to let it rip over the next few days and see what happens. How are your flue temps when it's roaring like that? I do need to crank mine up when it's cold like this. In all honesty I probably could use a second stove when you figure in I am heating over 2600 sq ft liveable space and have an unfinished basement with no insulation and exposed concrete walls 4 foot above ground under the first floor. The basement temps was 40° this morning and the slate floor in the kitchen felt like ice! but the house held 67 so I will deal with it and open the air more tonight and tomorrow on the stove.
The pipe temp was 500, I shut it down after the picture, the stove top was 600. If I ran it like I did our first year, I'd be burning next years wood.
I have never had my primary air open much more than 15 t0 20% on a burn and shotgun air is generally closed. I may have a purple stove like Well Seasoned if I do. We had a pretty cold night this week so I thought I would open it up but I got a little nervous after a spell and backed down. I know I have always had good draft even with the old stove but Gee wilikers !!!!
