I loaded my old Tempwood stove pretty full and left for the day. When I came home I found the lid had been popped off. I figure as the pile burned and shifted a long log kicked up and knocked the lid. Luckily nothing bad happened but now I'm afraid to load it too full. So I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else?
I've seen/more heard a gas build up (or something) in a stove or log ignite and cause an audible "whump" ( not a "bang" ) type of "explosion" in a stove that resulted in a puff of smoke coming out of everywhere for a short second. What one might expect if a fairly large pitch pocket suddenly ignited or gassed and ignited . That stove had a butterfly damper in the exhaust and the "pop" turned it to wide open. I've never heard/experienced one of those in either of the stoves I have now. My sister has a Tempwood. It doesn't have the baffle over the exhaust that some do.
Yes, that was one of my biggest fears with the Tempwood (dislodging the cover while we were out of the house). We have a large teapot (about a gallon capacity) that was always full and sat on top of the lid. It is impressive to be in the room when they blow back like that. Wife was never too impressed. It was a beautifully simple stove to run.
