NOT trying to start an argument. I know it is common advice for cooling an over-fire. This has never sat well with me. I've opened the door on a hot stove many times (not for an over-fire) and it ROARS, who knows how far up the chimney the flames are shooting. I can see the rush of cool air temporarily cooling the stove, but also fanning the fire much more intense. Eventually one must deal with the much more intense fire. And all the flames blowing up the chimney could cause a chimney failure. Possible worst case scenario: Over-fired stove and chimney fire at the same time. Anyone have any firsthand experience good or bad?
I have opened the doors before on a runaway stove. Luckily my stove is in an old fireplace with a good clay flue and my stove pipe only goes up about 10ft into the open flue with no liner, plus the VC 2550 is supposedly designed to run in fireplace mode with doors open... shoot they even gave me a fireplace screen!!
I had an old Sierra that was designed to burn with the doors open, but I wouldn't have wanted to try it from an over-fire condition.
True. I guess you have 3 options 1)Leave the doors closed and let the stove self destruct 2)Open the doors and hope for the best 3)Grab the fire extinguisher and make a MESS!!
I've done it & it works. Just be sure your opening the door all the way. As far as the chimney fire is concerned I can see that being more of an issue if your having to open a bypass. But you should keep your chimney clean anyway.
It would no doubt depend upon the stage of the fire. Many times opening the firebox door will tend to cool the stove...if you can stand it. Another option is to open the draft all the way. Ash will work to snuff out a fire and yes, it could get messy but would it be worth that little mess? And one has to ask, would not a fire extinguisher also make a bit of a mess? Would it be worth the little mess? Sand will work as well or better than ashes. We usually have sand either at the stove or not very far from it. Right now we have a bucket of sand on two different porches; one of those porches being right by the stove. btw, on the sand, we live on a sand dune. During the summer months after it has been hot and dry for a while, I will go out onto the open sand and scoop just the top layer of dry sand and put it into 5 gallon buckets. Then we place it where it most likely will be needed most during the winter months, especially should we have an ice storm. We also have a gallon bucket in the car should we need some traction sometime. I've even used the sand to help out semi drivers. They suddenly have an empty load so very little weight on the tractor and they sit there and spin. I go and just sprinkle a little sand by each dual and away they go. Of course I've helped a few damsels in distress too but that could amount to more than sand!
The first time I open and shut frequently. Got braver on the next & left it for probably 5 or 6 minutes. It felt like an hour. Haven't had to do it since. Finally got the beast figured out. Now watch it run away tonight.
If you have a CAT stove, make sure you open the bypass first! Otherwise the cold air hitting the very hot CAT will likely ruin it!
I've yet to have an overfire (and hope I never do), but opening the doors the entire way should slow the fire down after a couple seconds because the air will rush up the flue and not necessarily aid combustion. One piece of advise I've heard that supposedly works pretty good is soaking wet rolled up newspapers. Throw them in the firebox. The steam created will help quell the fire. I'm not saying this from experience, but from what I've heard. Just be careful to not get the glass wet with those newspapers !
I know that, starting a fire, if I keep the door open a few minutes to watch the flames, then the flames are very lazy and slow to build., The instant I shut the door the stove takes off. Reverse situation, reverse action, reverse reaction. SO, makes sense to me.
I posted yesterday about my stove run away so I will add here about my experience opening the door. I had read online about opening the door in a run away situation and though the concept was "interesting". During the event yesterday I knew I had to do something so I decided to open the door. Since I had the draft control closed and the fire was still running away I was afraid to just open the door and cause a backdraft explosion. My father was a firefighter and I have heard many backdraft stories from him. I shut off the blower and turned the door handle slightly so that the latch was still engaged. That let air into the fire but if it caused an explosion at least the door would stay latched and a fireball wouldn't shoot across my living room. (Those are the types of visions you get in your head when your stove is running away.) I then opened the door wide open. Yes, the fire gets more air, but it not the forge effect of having the door cracked. With the door wide open a huge amount of very high temp air came out. Hot air out / cool air in. It cooled things off, I then closed the door and left the draft control closed and put the blower back on high. It spiked a little and then died down in to a normal fire. So opening the door worked for me. I like the idea of having sand nearby. That would have worked well and it is a lot easier to clean up than a fire extinguisher. I already have a bucket of sand in my garage for when the driveway gets icy. Didn't think of it until I read it here, so thank you Backwoods Savage.
I'm a firm believer in the opening of the door scenario for these reasons: First the addition of a large amount of air, more than the fire needs to burn at an optimum (or stoichiometric) rate, should not make the fire burn hotter but rather tend to cool it because it's now burning "lean" on fuel. Secondly, as Free BTUs pointed out, opening the door allows a ton of radiant heat directly out the front of the stove thus cooling the fire and the stove. As far as backdrafts are concerned, if you open the primary air all the way first then open the door just a crack to allow extra oxygen access to the fuel there should be no reason for a huge puff. The main reason I don't advocate for totally shutting down the air on a runaway is that the fire will seek out anyway possible to find oxygen. This could actually promote forge like fires in places that aren't intended to have them like any joints in the stove or pipe that aren't 100% sealed.
