So, been thinking about this for a while and finally decided to do it today. My stove has a plate attached to an arm/lever which covers the intake hole. I've already adjusted the stop for the arm so that the plate only leaves a very, very small sliver of an opening to feed the fire once I have it going well. Decided to do another mod. This involved drilling a 3/16" hole in the plate and adjusting the stop to allow closing the plate completely. Had a small fire today, despite the outside temp being 59, just to test. I'll really need colder temps to get a better feel for what's going on, but it's a start. I don't know if the hole is too small, too big, or just right. If it doesn't do what I want, JB Weld will be used to mend the hole.
Keep us posted on your stove mod PD.....it's always neat when you can do some improvement on the stove performance.
Still too early to tell, LP. I do think it may be too small to support continued combustion. So far, the fire gradually slows and the stove cools after a few minutes. I think I'll redrill to 1/4" tomorrow and retest. I have an idea how I could do a 2ndary tube setup too, but that'll need to wait until next year. Also thinking of using a flange of some sort over the intake to bring in outside air. Need to find an appropriate flange, then figure out how to mount it w/o drilling though the stove bottom. Always thinking.
I wondered about that because you don't want to draw it back too much. Do you have a pipe damper on the flue ?
I do have a pipe damper. I need it at times, but also feel that it inhibits flow somewhat. I'd like to find the sweet spot for the hole so I can get the fire going, then just shut the plate and have the bleed hole take over. I had the plate stop adjusted so that just a very small sliver was open, which gave me a pretty good fire with the pipe damper closed about 45 degrees. I'm trying to determine the hole size that corresponds to that sliver. Sliver was probably between 1/32 and 1/16 wide and 1.75" long, and that may be generous. The stove ran like it had lots of air when set like that. Weird. And no, no gasket problems or other air leaks. That got fixed back in '10 and I posted about that "somewhere else". I figure if I have to keep the stove, I'll try tweaking it as best I can w/o breaking it. I can only do that when it's time to burn.
OAK might be able to use a close nipple of some kind with washers and nuts, then attach the duct to that. The air intake is only 1.75 x 2.25, I think. Just under 4 sq. inches. I could put a blast gate or slider in the duct to control air that way. Random thoughts, or rambling thoughts. Take your pick.
Sounds good Dave...at least your doing your best on the ol' girl. If your getting good heat for 7 or 8 hrs you just may not get much better than that or at least that's what I got down to. Heck that's not too bad.
I agree, it's not too bad. I got up this morning to the house at 64.4 in the living room (closest to the stove room, where I sit), and the stove was around 250. Didn't really load the stove full last night, and the outside temp was 28. this a.m.. Nice bed of coals, so I pulled some ash, and loaded 5 splits. Got it going well and shut the air. It rolled on up to 550 and that's where it's at right now, and the house is now 67. About an hour to raise the temp 2.5 degrees. I'll bet the fire won't last past about 2-2.5 hours, then the stove will cool and the house will go with it. I don't like rolly coasters. In the time it's taken to type this, the temp has gone up to 600. The stove, not the house.
Now, the stove is up to 650 at 9:25. This stove is crazy. Crazy, I tell ya'. One little 3/16th hole making it burn this way is nuts. The flue temp went down a few minutes after I closed the air, but now it's climbing. Up at about 325, and the stove is now @ 675. These temps are on my slow and lazy magnetic therms., so I'm sure the actual temps are a bit higher. Getting some JB Weld today, methinks.
Stove @ about 725 at 9:45. It should start slowing down soon, since most of the wood has been consumed. The coals will keep it hot for a bit though. 625 @ 10:00. Some flame still on the back end of the splits. Did I mention rolly coaster?
The temp climb doesn't bother me because you probably have the damper shut so it's just cooking with wood and off gas in the box. But why the short burn this morning and a longer overnight burn ?
out of necessity I had to modify the air intake in the NZ3000.....even with the draft control WIDE OPEN, it was choked down so damm bad that the fire would almost go OUT when the doors were shut, and also made the glass get super black.......wasn't enough air going through the airwash system to keep the smoke off of the glass.....with the mods I made, it works very well now. I still have to make a modification to the doors when I get time....... Just be sure to use caution, as the EPA stoves weren't really designed to be damped or choked down the whole way. Keep tabs how it works out for you, Dave, and keep us posted. If it saves wood, is easier to control and doesn't blacken your glass, it may be a great mod!
It's not a new EPA stove Scotty. Curious though what did you do to give some more air to your glass. The new Buck likes to haze the bottom corners of the door up.
Ooops.....sorry guys, thought this was an EPA stove. My bad... LP, I had to literally take the draft control box apart as I was convinced that something was almost totally blocking off the intake air. Turns out I was right, it was a factory installed baffle!! Literally let next to ZERO air into the firebox. I'm convinced that Napoleon put it in there to get the stove to pass the EPA regs or maybe to make the stove look like it had a really long burn time. Either way, it was almost totally IMPOSSIBLE to shut the doors on the stove as it would almost totally smother the fire. here's a before/after look at the baffle I modified..... before mods..... After mods..... Now, I do NOT recommend that anyone modify their stove unless they have a clue as to what they are doing......if one was to perform this mod and leave the stove unattended in the "wide open" setting, they may get an over-fire......but I can tell you it most certainly helped this fireplace perform way better than it did when we bought it...
Got ya.....That is quite a difference in size. I'm not going to do anything with mine until I see how she does when I can open it up and let it stretch it's legs in some nice cold weather. It's not much of a problem just a little in the bottom corners and that's just on the long burns so probably a non issue. I'm pretty happy with what I see so far.
LP, thanks for setting Scotty straight. He's a bit pre-occupied to remember my old stove. Anyway, I think the difference is the amount of wood. Overnight gets 8-10 splits, so takes longer to burn down the "cigars". This morning was only 5 splits.......2 n/s and 3 e/w. Lots of air spaces. My airwash is working much better now. I'll have to pull it apart to explain, but the mod I did directs all air to the manifold and keeps the glass cleaner than ever, most of the time. I should redo that, since it was a trial last year and only a tinfoil blocker. This stove loves to just run and I've always had a tough time reining it in. Better now, but it's one of the big reasons I'd like a new stove.........control. I'll be putting some foil tape over the hole I drilled, then readjust the lever back where it was. The temp climb wasn't too bad, it's been much worse. I knew it would stop around 700 or so, but when I don't need all that heat, it's annoying.
