Ideal Steel Season #2 Tips, Tricks, and Improvements.

On a warm day like today.....
Open the door a crack for several seconds
Close the air intake - I found that having the air come in the door works best
Open the door slowly and only as much as you need. Do not leave the door wide open while you are grabbing another log.

The smoke travel works good for efficiency, but not so good for reloading.

 

I'll try the intake being closed as well. I'm also gonna look into a high rise roof support bracket to add another 4 feet of class a

 

So here is an interesting thought. I am wondering how much "stack effect" comes into play for me. The reason I am questioning this is I am heating from the basement. I have a very strong convective loop in my house. Possibly when I open the stove door the convective loop fights against the pipe draft and carries some smoke to the upstairs. Everytime I have gotten smoke in the house I immediately smell it upstairs. The attic is air sealed and re-insulated, however the voids upstairs from the falling cold air could be causing a quick rise in "stack" draw. I will try closing the basement door for several minutes before opening the door next time and we shall see!

 

Interesting theory. Do you use fans to move air? Come think of it I'm not sure if I turned my floor fan off during my reloads, and I'm sure the ceiling fan plays into the equation

 

I don't need fans. It is naturally a strong loop.

 

That is great!!

 

Started a fire yesterday afternoon from a cold stove. 4 medium splits and kindling to start and left it wide open for awhile. About 6 or 7 pm I threw in two more medium splits that were still in log form as charcoal this morning at 5am with air down to the 1st or 2nd tick mark. One split this morning and will we see what we have when I get home.

 

Oh man. I can't wait to get a little cold spell so I can do my break in fires.

 

My IS lives in the basement, so our situation is similar. In the stack effect envelope, the neutral pressure plane (NPP) can be raised / lowered depending on if a window is opened (to outdoors) upstairs or down. So ideally I should crack open a window low down close to the basement floor before reloading. Gotta figure out a way to do that as an experiment, but I'm not going to drill a hole low in the basement wall either.

 

Sheet metal duct?

 

Two words will fix all.... draft inducer. Fixes all the problems of a reload, initial loading, etc. I only use it when the door of the stove is open, otherwise it is off all the time and has no effect on the operation of the stove.

This whole issue reminds me of road types: the very best natural roads (dirt, 'hardpack', gravel, etc.) are actually pretty lousy by comparison but throw out some asphalt or concrete and you got yourself a road! A draft inducer is about $150, takes a couple of hours of fiddling around to fit to the smoke pipe but after that, it is the only sure- fire (pun intended) way to prevent smoke spillage from the stove when the door is open. And I am not blaming anyone's brand or stove design here: it is just not reasonable to expect 180 sq. in. of door hole to all draft (along with the smoke generated by the wood) into a round hole just under 30 sq. in. unless the chimney connected to it reaches into the stratosphere.

Brian

 

welcome back BDF. I'll try some more things before I do that, but it's always an option.

 

my guy stopped by and said my draft was 60 plus pascal, so for me I think it is not much of a draft issue I think he said 15 to 20 was considered good...

 

Thanks but I have been around, more in the wood processing (log splitter / finger masher, chain saws) section of late.

The great thing about a draft inducer is that it is what I like to think of as a 'shotgun fix'. There is no doubt that it will work, there is no doubt that it will work sufficiently and it will supersede anything else that can be done (altering the chimney size / type / length, using the smoke flap, etc.). Plus, no more tip toeing around with the stove- easing the door open, not opening the door all the way, trying to quick about loading the stove and so- forth. It puts the stove operator back in control of the machine (the wood stove) as it always should be IMO. Machines serve us, we should never serve machines. I do not mean that we should not attend to them or maintain them, just that we should not have to coax what we need from them and then hope they deliver.

Brian

 

I believe you are right- it is a flow issue. Not enough flow up the six inch pipe to maintain a vacuum inside the stove when the door is open.

Brian

 

Would any of that smoke entering my room be an issue with a top vent, straight chimney, 5 feet inside the house and then 10 feet of class a outside the house? Not in a valley or blocked by anything.

 

I doubt it, however, you are at the minimum height they specify.

 

I am tempted to modify the door opening. Not anything permanent. I have thought different times about where I could attach steel to slightly fill in the opening. This time of the year is for tinkering.

 

Would it be bad to try my first break in fire at 55 degrees