Fireview 201 door air flow settings

The new cat came today and I have the stove cruising right now. I think I'm doing everything correctly. The 201 has the air controls on the door, not in the rear like the 205 model. I see a lot of the 205 owners talking about the sweet spot at around setting #1 on their 205s.

Does anyone know where the sweet spot is on the 201 in relation to the door controls?

Right now I have the dial cracked and the door damper shut.

 

Very impressed with this stove. I loaded 5 hardwood splits at 3pm yesterday afternoon and woke up at 6am to hot coals! 15 hours! Over night outside temp was in the upper 20s. I put 5 more splits in and it fired up again in a few minutes. The amount of coals left were similar to what the I3100 would give me after an 8 hour overnight burn on a full load.

 

Penny from Woodstock told me to close the air knob completely once the fire gets going and adjust the sliding damper to find the sweet spot.

 

I didn't realize they had a knob on the door.
I haven't seen many posts about the 201. Most users have probably been burning them for years and years.

 

I missed your other thread...awesome that you found that stove, which seems to be in good shape. Nice work on the paint job, etc.
I knew that there was a sliding air plate in the door on these, but didn't realize there's also a dial. What's the idea there, why two air controls?
Another question; Any way to see the cat glow, once you close the bypass? If not, I assume you can tell when the cat is lit by a relatively rapid rise in stove-top temp over the cat? Of course, you can always go outside and see if you have a clear plume....but it might be cold out there, and you are already spoiled on the Fv heat.

Finding that sweet spot is gonna be different for everyone, depending on the chimney height, what kind of wood you are burning, how much heat you need, etc. In most weather conditions I can open up the air a little bit on the coals toward the end of the burn, and keep the stove top up around 300 which is enough to maintain room temp at 70. If it's single digits and windy, that's a whole 'nother ball game!

 

Thanks you. I've very happy with the way it came out. It was worth the $600 I paid for it.

You can't see where the cat is from underneath on the 201 as its off to the side and sits on the baffle. Theres a turbulence screen all the way to the left on the baffle that the smoke comes through before hitting the cat.

I picked up an IR temp gun and have been engaging the cat when the stove top is around 300*. The top has peaked out around 520* on the two half loads Ive ran so far. It's currently at 200* from my 6am half load restart. It's comfortable in here, low 70s.

 

I usually go by flue temp, and it works well. My stove is rear-vented into a tee, and I have a surface meter lying on top of the tee snout about 6" behind the flue collar. I will run that up to about 600 or so and cut the air to hold that temp for about ten minutes, maybe a little longer. Then I can light the cat pretty reliably within a minute, even though the stove top over the cat may only be about 150 or so. I have the ceramic cat in the Keystone right now, but this method worked with the Fireview and steel cat as well.

 

Before I installed a cat probe, I used the pipe thermometer more than the stove top thermometer to judge cat engagement temp. It reacts much faster than the stove top. I'd engage about 600F single wall pipe surface temp on a hot reload.

 

I have a 1991 Fireview 201 and have been a proud owner for 6 years now. I too got a great deal on mine and with a little work had essentially a new stove. I have tried both the steel and ceramic cats in my stove and find that mine likes the ceramic better. As far as the air control settings, the knob on the door is used for start ups and reloads. I will pull the bypass rod out, open the air knob on the door and slide the door damper the whole way open before opening the door. No smoke spillage at all, ever. I will run my stove up to 300 before engaging the cat, it seems to light off better. My sweet spot is with the slide damper just barely cracked. I also have a key damper that I use but my draft is tremendous with a 35 foot chimney. If you have any questions let me know, I will be glad to help. The best advice I can give I got from Dennis....three year wood is the best fuel for these stoves. Plain and simple.

 

Might be a good idea to install a cat probe for these older models, it should help you fine tune your burns.

I wouldn't mind an old Classic or 201 for my basement if I could find a great deal.

 

There's a decent deal on a 205 fire view down here in Baltimore

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

Is it normal to not have much (if any) flame in the firebox? My wood seems ok (its about 2 years split) but once the bypass is closed and the air adjusted down the flames go away and its just a red glow. I'm not getting any rolling flames or anything during the burn cycle.

 

Sounds like to me that you are doing everything fine. I will let my STT reach 400 before I put my stove in cruise mode. I will usually peak out around 600 STT with a decent 8-10 hour burn. Make sure you have a hot fire before shutting it down, less chance for clogging your cat and no back puffs. I made that mistake with the steel cat and clogged it pretty bad. My stove works better with the ceramic one and it was recommended to me by Jamie from Woodstock to use that one in the 201.

 

OK cool. I engage the cat at 300+*. This is my first cat stove and I'm not used to the lack of flames. Just wanted to make sure the stove is doing what it's supposed to do. I dial the air down at 400+* like you've mentioned....It reached 460* this morning about 4 hours ago...still around 400 right now.

Thank you for the response.

 

You can burn it very low and slow if your going for a longer burn, but I liked to see nice lazy flames and rolling secondaries in my 205.
600 degrees on the STT is about the limit on the soapstone stoves. But its good for a day like today.

 

With the draft fully closed, it have no flames. No smoke either
As I increase the draft, the more flames I get. From slow motion smoke "explosions", to ribbons of flame, to steady/classic box full of flames-in that order.

 

How often are you replacing baffle gaskets? I went to load my stove this morning and notice gasket hanging down into the firebox at the front of the stove. I pushed the gasket up back into the baffle and saw that it was pretty compressed so I replaced that section with new gasket. The gasket was only 2 years old and I'm surprised it looked the way it did.