Finished up completely re-gasketing and cementing our fireview. It was a little easier than the first time I did it. Anyways, I have read from other members about having a left to right burn on their stoves. (Left as in facing the front of the stove). I thought maybe it was due to having some minor air leaks, but this time around I know I got it sealed tight. It does help to pull more coals towards the loading door side, but still noticeable. I know in the manual it states to use a 1/4" drill bit as a spacer when installing the air deflector. I'm debating about changing the left side from 1/4" to 1/8" and having the right side at 1/4". Also, along those lines drilling out the air holes for the cat slightly larger on the right side. My guess is because of the loading door (Right side) having a larger volume and more rapid cooling has an effect on the burn. It would be nice to have a more even burn and would help with faster engagements.
Are you talking about flames moving in a left to right pattern or the wood burning down in a left to right pattern? Any pictures of this process you can share?
The burn is biased on the left side, more than the right. I had asked the good folks at Woodstock a few years back about this and was told it is a pretty typical thing for the fireview with the way it's designed. I just can't leave a good thing alone, ha.
Interesting. Have not seen this in mine. Seems like the old 201 design might do this as the combustor is located on the left side. I had not come across this detail in my research before buying, but I also recently found a thread where an extreme back puff caused the top to lift up. I'm interested to hear more from other owners.
Yes, the 201 was a bit different. There is a lot of info out there on the fireview but a lot of the buzz has been on the IS, Beta and Progress hybrid. No stove is immune from a backpuff, some just tend to do it more than others. Setup, Fuel and Operator error always play a bit part in figuring out a backpuff.
Well, I let the stove cool off today and set the air deflector at 1/4" on the right side and 1/8" on the left side. Just started up the stove and will see what happens. My first observation is a quicker cold start with a more even burn. When I tore the stove down this fall, I thought maybe some furnace cement had falled into the air duct and was blocking the right side air flow but I did not find any when I had it apart.
Ok, update. This tweak worked well for our stove. Close to even burn from start to finish. Even in the secondaries they were floating a lot more evenly. I have to play with the spacing a touch but we had much better results from this tweak. I got a bit greedy with the 1/8" left 1/4" right spacing. This may not be for everyone but these fireviews are hand-built and casted pieces of art and no two are like. I am in no way suggesting everyone go out and do this or that there is some sort of problem with these stoves. I've had enough years of burning on this stove and done enough work on it to try a few different things. But in my own early conclusions if the loading door is on the right the air needs a touch of bias to that side and if its a left loading door it needs a bit more to the left. I think that's why over the years we have seen some reports of owners talking about either the stoves burning more to either the right or left depending on the loading door configuration. There have been alot of other stoves over the years that people have made airwash or doghouse adjustments and gotten improved results. The next test I am going to try out is a very low air setting where the stove goes on the verge of backpuffing with the random secondary bursts and see if it now starts on the right or left side or stays more centered or even.
My newly rebuilt Fireview has the opposite problem but not sure if it really is a problem or not? Mine almost always burns right to left and I was fighting a darkening of the glass in the lower left corner. I got in there to adjust the air wash shute and the bolts were loose with the gap less than 1/4”. I shoved the shute back all the way and tightened the bolts. I think the gap is a little more than the recommended 1/4” but the glass stays super clean. She still burns left to right for the most part but that only seems to be for about the first hour of the burn.
