I have had my wood stove running continuously for the last 2 weeks. The last 2 days when I add a piece of wood it just burns very hot and fast even though i have the lower air vent lever pushed in. I'm worried that it is getting too hot. I just ordered a magnetic thermometer so I will know. If it is burning too hot what is the best way to quickly cool it down?
The only thing I know to do on my Lopi Leyden is running the blower fan at max to dissipate some of the excess heat. That air control lever doesn’t allow 100% air shutoff on mine either. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If I remember this correctly if a stove is overfiring, as much as it seems the opposite, the best thing to do is disengage the cat and open the loading door to get the heat up the chimney and out of the stove. Backwoods Savage can explain this better than I can if I even explained it correctly at all. Dennis? Can you help with this question?
First, Paul, I don't know what kind of a stove you are running. However for what it is worth my stove is a Woodstock Fireview and it has a catalyst so we might treat the stove a bit differently. What catches my attention is when you stated when you add a piece of wood it burns very hot. This suggests to me that you are adding wood long before you should. Are you burning down to coals before adding wood? If not, you should. What kind of wood are you burning? Perhaps your draft is a bit too strong, but this is rarely the case. If it is too strong you can add a pipe damper to give more control. In addition, because you are in the south you likely don't get a lot of cold such as has been lately. When it is cold you get excellent draft, but usually you can control that with the stove controls. What Oldhippie wrote has some merit but if the stove is overheating I would certainly be reluctant to be opening the door! With a stove that has a catalyst, yes, it can overheat if you are not careful. Maximum recommended for our stove is 700 degrees stovetop. To best explain how I handle that is to give an example. In winter day I had been away from the house for several hours. When I came in, my wife was standing right at the stove and was a bit shook up. She was watching the thermometer and when the stove got to 700 she would open the bypass and that would bring it down some but shortly after engaging the cat again it would take off. What to do? I looked at what she was doing and noticed she had the draft closed. I said, "Let's give it some air." She almost lost it just at the thought, but I simply set the draft at 1 (dial is 0-4). The stovetop immediately began cooling! It did not take but maybe a minute to reach 695 and it went even lower. Why did this work? Because the air going in actually cools the fire! Quite naturally though if you let in too much air it will go the other way, so don't give it too much air. Paul, I am going to send you a PM.
Thanks Dennis, I couldn't quite remember but this was what you said that stuck with me. >>> I looked at what she was doing and noticed she had the draft closed. I said, "Let's give it some air." She almost lost it just at the thought, but I simply set the draft at 1 (dial is 0-4). The stovetop immediately began cooling! It did not take but maybe a minute to reach 695 and it went even lower. Why did this work? Because the air going in actually cools the fire! Quite naturally though if you let in too much air it will go the other way, so don't give it too much air.
I finally figured out what the problem was. The ash tray under the stove had some ash compacted in the back so it wasn’t closing all the way. When I cleaned it out it now seals well and I can dampen it down. I sure wasted a lot of firewood and made my family mad when the stove was getting so hot. thanks for all the replies. This forum is great!
Good point Paul. I just remembered that mine gets full back there also. I made a “T” looking thing out of a couple pieces of 1x2 wood to reach back there and scrape it all out long ago. Set the pan on the hearth under the front edge and scrape/drag everything out into it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
