I Turned My Hybrid Stove into a Rocket Stove and Nearly Burned My House Down

My cats were partially clogged that night. So by opening the bypass, it was in essence like opening a damper. The smoldering fire now had unobstructed draft to take off. At least, that's my theory.

I'd considered it might have been a chimney fire, except that the first thing I did when I discovered the inferno was to close the bypass. When that didn't work, I blew the extinguisher. If it had been a chimney fire, I think the extinguisher would not have put it out since the cats absorbed and quickly fully clogged with extinguisher. Which actually made cleanup a bunch easier.

I've known since the beginning my draft's too strong. I added a secondary air control on my outside air kit, which helps me manage a full stove. I've now added a damper on the exhaust side, as well. It's crazy because I can fully close the damper and a loaded stove will still accelerate. But if I also limit air on the intake side through the control on my OAK, I can manage stove temp.

 

Tall chimneys, say over 25-30', sometimes need 2 pipe dampers in a row to control draft on a cold night...

 

Is that right???? I hadn't heard that or known. Honestly I fully expected this one to do the trick, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll add another next Summer, I guess.

 

Another trick that can help is to bolt some fender washers over the holes in the damper plate...might can get by with just one damper then?