Got to love that new stove smell!! I love my Lopi and you’ll like yours! Yours has air control on the bottom and bypass on top? Feel free to hit me up with any questions I’ve had mine apart to clean it a couple times. I’d suggest a stove top magnet thermometer, it will help with finding the sweet spot for getting that afterburn cruise. Edit... looks like you may already have a thermometer
J. Dirt You are right. I have air control on the bottom and bypass on top. I do have a stove top thermometer and according to that, I did get it up to 600F. I did get the tubes to fire off but they seem to only be working while I had a good fire down below. Granted I was only burning small branch pieces due to not wanting to overfire the stove. What does your stove top get to when you are burning the good winter wood?
I’ve got the thermometer dead center at the front edge of the stove just so the bypass lever touches it. I’ll usually start the stove with bypass open and take it to 325-350 then close the bypass. Once it runs up to 500-550 I’ll close the air control down and it will cruise around 450-500 for quite a while with a pretty nice looking secondary burn. I will say I’ve accidentally took it to the 3-350 point, closed the bypass then fallen asleep to wake up a while later and see dust sparking off the outside and be waaaaaaayyyy up on the temp!
Don’t let this worry you about that stove! This was a thread of my learning experience on keeping it clean from last winter. It gives you a bit of a look as to the guts of the stove. Now is NOT the time!!!!
J. Dirt You have given me good info. I will move the thermometer to the front of the stove just beyond the bypass handle and see what happens. This place is good for sharing what we have learned so each of us doesn't have to reinvent the wheel
I got a fire going this morning and after getting the stove up to temp the tubes didn't fire. I am using short wood(12 inch) and I was putting it way in back of the firebox. I just reloaded and put the wood in where it is mostly towards the front and the tubes are firing. It is a beautiful sight.
After you start cutting the air back you are not seeing secondary burn? How long has the wood been CSS?
The shoulder season wood I am using was put up 3 years ago and under cover. I believe my problem was the fire was built towards the back of the firebox. With the few fires I have had, I seem to have no problem getting the stove to 700*F with just shoulder season wood. I am wondering what temps I will get using the oak I have available for this winter, especially when filling the firebox. How do you maintain a 500* stove top temp and keep the secondary burn going?
You can try putting new logs in every hour but that's a PITA . You just get used to the ramp up and ramp down cycle of burning. Secondaries igniting are just gases burning off. I almost never see any secondaries after around the mid-point of a burn cycle. I have a north-south loading stove and there's almost never any action on the back tube ( there are three ) .
Mine is also N/S loading and I think I did see some action on the back tubes when I had the bulk of the wood in the back. I thought I would see more tube action for a longer period of time than I have. Should be interesting when I start putting full loads in during the cold part of winter.
The secondaries keep firing as long as the have fuel and air. It is possible to kill them by reducing the air too much. The secondaries also do not fire during the entire burn. When you are actively out gassing from the wood they run wild. When they are gone the wood reverts to a more normal flame, eventually settling in to a Coaling stage where there is still a lot of heat being produced but not a lot flames. Give the coal bed a rake and some more air and you will be treated to some very hot blue flames from the coal bed.
This is my first year burning an EPA stove so a lot of this is new to me. Reading about how a stove works doesn't always match up with the reality of an EPA stove. Be patient with me cause I am guessing I will have more questions as the cold weather sets in.
More like a fully functioning dysfunctional family. Erik B , I think you'll see the secondaries go much better when it gets colder outside. I think I saw it was supposed to get to near freezing up north tomorrow night?
