I loaded my Jotul F400 last night with some very well seasoned oak. Loaded the oak onto a nice bed of red coals, and I shut the double doors, which have glass in them. This Jotul has an ash clean-out door, and I opened it a tad, to encourage the coals to get the oak going, and that happened. After about 30 seconds, I shut the clean-out door, and the flames went out. I was kneeling in front of the stove, watching and waiting for the flames to take off, when..... POOOM!! The gasses inside the stove exploded with such force, smoke was forced out around the door gaskets. I felt a shock wave, and thought at first the glass had broken, but it was intact. Scared the snot out of me. Anyone have this happen?
Yup, I had a wood furnace some years back that would do it sometimes...it could get going in a cycle where it would do it about every 30 seconds if you didn't do something to interrupt the cycle...sure blew a lot of smoke...house could smell like an old smoky cabin for a couple days after...after it did that a few times, and I wasn't able to come up with a good permanent cure, that was the last straw for me...down the road she went! Its not hard to understand why you need to put 3 screws in each stovepipe joint on assembly after you go through this once! Basically, anytime the wood is off gassing (like laying on the coals smoking) without there being active flame, you are filling the firebox with explosive gas...cutting the air back too much/t0o fast after a reload which can snuff the fire out, will do the same thing quite effectively too! I try not to let the wood smolder at all when reloading...if it doesn't flame up right away I'll throw a ball of dryer lint, paper, wood shavings, etc on the hot coals to get instant flame...once that happens its usually off to the races. An unlit match dropped on the hot coals works good too...when the match tip gets near them hot coals it will flare up quickly...I like the unlit match better because they all too often go out when you light them first, and then try to drop onto the coals.
Yep, had that happen a few days ago. Loaded wood onto a nice hot bed of coals, and pulled the air control choocher valve to the cruising position. Few minutes later, the gasses ignited. A little puff came out between the door and stove. Not bad, really, but a reminder to get some flames going before dialing the air back. Edit, on reloads, I've been throwing in pieces of mail, and scrap paper to do the same as what brenndatomu does.
Yup - it’s happened to me - be very careful if you ever use the ash clean out door to - um - persuade your fire to start a bit faster... Don’t ask me how I know. My advise - never ever try it. The hinged top lid on an IS is a substantial piece of metal - when the stove went boom that lid pivoted up to let the expanding gasses escape. I crapped my pants!
