Hey, guys, was bored so I thought I'd show a pic of my "Super Cruise" mod to the air lever on my Englander 17-VL. I bought the stove last year, went through the trials of figuring out these secondary burn stoves, along with marginal wood and much thinking. This year, I got her dialed in and can run it like a rocket no problems. I have it in a mobile home, and the stove top to chimney cap is about 10 feet. She's sluggish when it's warm outside, but not much effort once the pipe warms up. Anyways, it seemed to be running away on me this year, not overfire, but too much temp on the flue probe, and a bit much flames shooting up between the baffles. I had thought it was a loose window gasket, but it doesn't appear to be the case. It won't pull smoke in, and it won't let it out or set off the CO detector. For some reason I'm sitting there, and I was wondering about the play (up/down) on the air control lever, and lifted it, and got the shock of my life! It simmered the flame down within 4-5 seconds.... Basically it's just a little rod that keeps the air lever perched up a little better than 1/8th inch higher on the channel. Maybe it was made on a Friday afternoon, and it lets a bit much air in, I don't know, maybe they're all like this to help pass the epa test?. I'm not slagging the stove, I love this thing. It couldn't be a better fit for our situation. Just thought it was neat to be able to settle it down on the top end so much, and keep more flame in the box.
I've noticed a little play in the 30's air rod as well, but haven't tried to see if pulling up or down would adjust the flame. Hmmm
The thing with my stove, is the baffles shield the top of the stove so well, I only get about 350-380 F on a good burn. It throws the heat out the front and sides and also has a blower. Cranking the snot out of it will heat up the outside of my double wall higher than the stove top (where it comes up and off the stove. so there's no sense having my flue temp at 850 when it doesn't produce any more heat than if the flue temp bounces between 500-600.
Your mileage may vary, and do at your own risk. Like I say, maybe the air control on mine is looser than normal, but it really cuts the air. It can actually go too far, where as normally I can have the lever pulled right out and she just goes. When it's up to temp, and I cut it back right, the flue temp goes up a bit, then drops, then holds. I can maintain previous stove temps with lower flue and outside of pipe temperatures. That's sort of why I started the flame efficiency thread.
My 13NC is the same way..................when the secondaries are rolling, my flue temps are 100-200*F warmer than the stove top temperatures. Once my "little big stove" starts toward the coaling stage; the flue temps drop to the same and then lower than the stove top temps. I believe this has to do with the "shallow" depth of the firebox. My 13 is only about 10" deep, and the path around the baffle to the flue is pretty short, so those flame never get a chance to hang in the box for a while. Your 17 is even more shallow in depth than my 13................my wood is 2+years seasoned..................
Just an update on my super cruise mod. After a good while of running the stove like this, I'd call it a success. While I don't run around with a stop watch, much longer burn times, and no "out of control fire" ever. I can hot load at 450 F and settle it down if I want (although that was testing, not normal operation). I can control the fire mild to wild, and pull the spike on a crazy fire. I had thought slowing the fire down would maybe result in a gross chimney, but no such thing. Cleaner than normal, and less crud over a longer time frame. I also had a 21? day non stop burn cycle when it was cold out. I don't really sleep more than 6 hours, but it was neat to reload and go. The other side of the coin is, I had to relearn the air lever settings, and stalled the stove quite a few times while learning to drive again.
I did a similar tweak on the Buck. I wrapped a small piece of trim coil around the saddle where the air control rod goes through. This holds the cover plates (mainly the right one) closer to the opening, sealing it off better and limiting the air a little more. I didn't want to pull the plate up too tight so I only wrapped one thickness around the saddle. That was enough to cut the air a bit and make the burn more controllable, and if my wife or SIL was running the stove, I wanted to make it a little less likely that they could cut the air too far and crash the cat. Before I put the shim in, you can see a bit of air gap between the right plate and opening. Pretty simple to cut a piece and wrap it around the bottom of the saddle.
I have an 18 TR No air control. First year I had it I could not get more than a 4-5 hour burn. Used some square stock to block off part of the draft chamber entrance and can get 7-8 hr burns pretty easy.
My 13 has that play as well as the 17 I had before. Never really thought about it until you brought it up. May have to tinker a little
You cutting much these days woody? It's on the verge of being a little warm down here for me so I've slowed a bit. I'm good for 3 years anyway
Nothing to lose by trying, as the worst that will happen is nothing. I have a feeling it may change the particulate rating, but to what, or how much, who knows. My chimney is cleaner this year anyways.
