New Feature from the Encore: Back puffing!

Whoops, missed that part

 

I had my old Fireview backpuff on me once so bad the top lid lifted up a bit and belched smoke out! Scared the crap out of me but I just bypassed for a few minutes and she ran fine after that. I think my case was my own fault by having a roaring fire in the bypass mode then engaging the cat and turning the air way down right away instead of in stages.

 

1. I plugged the EPA airholes about 2/3 shut.
2. The white gasket sealing the primary air door was trimmed so that the door could actually close all the way.
3. The cast limiter bump (on the side of the right air plate facing the primary control bimetal thermostat) was ground away about 1/8" so that the primary air handle could be closed about 25 degrees more.
These mods gave the stove better control and less occurances of runaway and glowing hood/firebacks. So the incoming air could be limited enough that the fuel load never had a chance to re-ignite and cause backpuff.

 

Strange seems backwards. I know for the Progress they added a small "EPA" hole to feed a small amount of air into the firebox to prevent backpuffing. The idea was to feed a small amount of air to purge combustible gasses so they can't build up to the point of major ignition.

 

I see how one approach (avoid backpuffs) could be to always maintain at least a little flame in the firebox. The mods done were an attempt to go the other direction. Was trying to supress the primary intake so that the load had a dim red glow only on a very few ends or edges but not enough air or heat to allow flame. Let the cat do ALL the work. It did behave like I wanted unless intake was supressed too much and the cat stalled. Conclusion: I can't make a VC 2550 cat stove into a Blaze King. Heheh.