Low Overnight Burns

I was looking through my manual and I guess I misread or something. To refresh, I have the Madison from England Stove Works. For long burns the stove has an automatic feature. I am to pull the damper control out; which cuts down on the draft opposite the 30-NC, and then rotate the knob. This opens the draft fully. Once the stove has reached the proper temperature, charred the wood, etc for the long burn, it will automatically set the stove back to the low damper setting. I haven't been doing that; I have been watching the stove trying to guess that it was ready to go low burn setting. The next time I try doing a low overnight burn, I am going to try this feature.

 

That might be wise. If it does not cut back automatically, I think you can just turn the knob back although the manual does not say that.

 

Sounds interesting but dont think I would trust it, hard to believe it would react quick enough to keep from over firing or it could cause a back puffing scenario if shut down too quickly at a high temp.

 

I always try new scenarios when I'm around to monitor the stove.
Kind of hard to know what it's doing when I'm fast asleep, unless I've already done the testing thing and know the outcome.

 

It would be interesting to know how it works and I would want to be wide awake to try it.

 

I agree. Nobody should try it...


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No fire during the day; warm enough to save the wood. Fire now so may do a load and see how it works.

 

keep us posted how it goes. No fire during the day here either. Kids at school, wife at work, since it's cold I leave at 4 a.m and get home between 4 p.m and 6 p.m.

 

Can't wait to hear how it works. I have a thermostatic air control on my BK and my NC30 is all manual. After watching all of these guys with wood furnaces and their automatic air controls I wonder why in the world all non-cats aren't equipped with at least the bimettalic spring style like a BK. Sounds like this Madison might be giving it a try.

 

Got too many phone calls yesterday to try it; maybe today. I read the manual again and the Madison has two air sources. The main air source is the damper and it feeds the primary air through the air wash system and then to the fire. The other source is the doghouse (I think that is what it called) and that air is feed from under the stove. Now I have not hooked up an OAK to this stove; it should not be that hard for me to cut the hole through the wall and so forth but I have not done it.
The bimetallic on the Madison releases a catch; I think the idea of introducing it was to help with fueling the stove for slow burns and making sure the stove is not shut down too soon.
I hope to have time to try this today. Good day for it as it has turned cold; snow for Saturday.

 

What you are talking about would be more along the lines of the PE EBT2 or the Quadra-Fire ACC. I think the Madison AAS is more of a "dead man's switch" to keep from over-firing the stove if you get distracted when you are ramping the stove up to temp, not to give you a longer burn as the fire progresses. But I'm not sure why you would need a dead man's switch, since you would already be dead... I probably would not use it, as I'm already used to using the timer on my phone when ramping up.

 

Good to have a stove top temp gauge and a stove pipe temp gauge around 12" above stove.
That way you can always watch the temps and learn reference points of how the stove is burning at what temps.
Like if the pipe temp is climbing too fast you can shut down the input air some that will lower the pipe temp and raise the stove top temp.
After several months of using the stove y ou will learn from monitoring the temps.

 

Kimberly, what species of wood are you burning? Loading more dense woods will make a noticeable difference in how long your stove will maintain higher temps.

 

According to the manual, the purpose is to properly char the wood and drive off excess moisture so the wood is properly ignited before shutting the unit down to a slow burn.
From the manual "
This unit also offers a new feature. When loading the stove for a long low burn, you can set the
air control damper to allow the unit to heat up and get a good burn going before the air is closed
off to the Low position. Simply pull the rod out to Low and turn it counter‐clockwise until
you hear a slight “click” (about a quarter of a turn). When it is ready the damper will shut itself.
This will work for low and medium low settings. This ensures good combustion at the Lowest
burn rate (or even the Medium burn rate, if set to Medium)."

 

I use the poplar for quick starts. Some sweetgum which I have been burning. The other is locust and oak.

 

If you've been burning mainly Sweetgum to this point, you'll definitely notice a hotter, longer burn when you start feeding the Locust and Oak.

 

Found this.
"At England’s Stove Works, our engineers have developed a patent pending Automatic Air Setback (AAS) that nurtures your fire from the moment you light it. This innovative stove comes equipped with a rotating trigger incorporated into the primary air control.

To use the stove, you simply set the trigger, which allows a temporary flow of air into the stove, build and light your fire, set the main air control to where you like it, and let your Smartstove™ do the rest.

How does the AAS work?
• The AAS trigger clicks into place, much like cocking a gun
• When the stove is hot enough, the trigger is automatically released to close the extra air vents
• You choose whether the main stove control is set for high or low (low for a slow, overnight burn and high for a faster and hotter burn)"

 

Most 30-NC folks push their damper about to the lip of the ash tray when the stove gets to temperature. I think the Madison simply automates that one step, and doesn't do anything after that.

 

I agree it looks like more of a safety feature instead of something that extends the burn cycle.