2018/19 VC Owners Thread

[frased]

CAT won’t stop climbing with a fresh log I’m at 1621...

Reccomendations?

Air fully closed

Phew CAT started going down but peaked at 1621

 

[Diabel]

1600
Is still ok
1800
Open the air and the bypass for few minutes
If it goes to 1800 then you have a leak issue

 

[frased]

1600
Is still ok
1800
Open the air and the bypass for few minutes
If it goes to 1800 then you have a leak issue

So open both damper and air control if things get out of control?

Thanks man. Just protecting the investment. It was such a big job getting this done. So first big burn has me nervous as hell.

 

[begreen]

A fresh cat is lively. It should settle down in a while.

 

[SculptureOfSound]

My Merrimack insert is the same way with the fixed open front/bottom intake. I just wonder why they put such a limit on how much control you have over the air intake. There is a warning in the manual that states:

"This wood heater has a manufactured-set minimum low burn rate that must not be altered. It is against federal regulations to alter this setting..."

But why is what I want to know. I have experimented with blocking the front/bottom intake but I haven't really had enough time or dry wood to really come to a educated conclusion.

It's an epa thing. The stoves are designed to work at a certain draft setting and I'm sure work well within a slight variance from their design parameters. However if you have say, significantly stronger draft, then all bets are off. The reason they don't let you shut the air down more is they don't want people making smoldering fires and polluting.

For my situation...well I'm going to modify the stove to make it safe. I know I'm working hard to learn this thing - every burn is basically an experiment where I track all kinds of variables, stove temp, effect of air adjustments at various stages of the burn, smoke out the stack, etc. I'm doing everything I can to get the most control, most safety, most heat, and cleanest burns...if that requires breaking the rules a bit then so be it

 

[RandyBoBandy]

View attachment 234591 View attachment 234592 View attachment 234593 View attachment 234594


Nice

Here is my typical 2550 9h burn.

How do you like your imperial flue thermometer? I just ordered one on amazon. I didn’t like all the colors on the condar or the price tag.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

So open both damper and air control if things get out of control?

Thanks man. Just protecting the investment. It was such a big job getting this done. So first big burn has me nervous as hell.

This can also happen if you shut down primary air to fast. Killing the flames in the fire box leaves all the work for the cat which can drive the cat temps up. The secondary air shutter isn’t exactly a great design either. A lot of us 2550 guys have moded or disconnected and sealed up the secondary air inlet. Don’t get discouraged. These stoves are finicky at times. Just when you think you get it all figured out the stove reminds you that you don’t. Keep at it and you will get it dialed.

 

[Kevin Weis]

Make sure your ash pan door is latched. Mine dId same thing first fire and found that it was closed but not latched leakin air up through the grate. Kevin

 

[frased]

Thanks guys!

Good tip on closing the air to fast I was definitely doing that last night.

Here is one thing I really noticed is when I put three fresh logs in during a well-established coal fire that the temperatures go crazy no matter what I do to the air control. I hit 1695 on the cat at one point peak. Now I started putting in just two fresh logs and it seems to be a little bit more controllable.

Granted I’m burning maple which I believe is dryer than I thought probably too dry but it’s only been sitting for six months. My wood sits stacked in the sunshine with air flowing so it dries quick.

Here’s a question… if the temperature starts to get raging out-of-control I think one of you said open both air controls? I’m just trying to make sure I have the process down if things go nuts. It’s nerve racking.

 

[Diabel]

How do you like your imperial flue thermometer? I just ordered one on amazon. I didn’t like all the colors on the condar or the price tag.

I like it. Blends in and was 15.00. I have one on each stove.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Thanks guys!

Good tip on closing the air to fast I was definitely doing that last night.

Here is one thing I really noticed is when I put three fresh logs in during a well-established coal fire that the temperatures go crazy no matter what I do to the air control. I hit 1695 on the cat at one point peak. Now I started putting in just two fresh logs and it seems to be a little bit more controllable.

Granted I’m burning maple which I believe is dryer than I thought probably too dry but it’s only been sitting for six months. My wood sits stacked in the sunshine with air flowing so it dries quick.

Here’s a question… if the temperature starts to get raging out-of-control I think one of you said open both air controls? I’m just trying to make sure I have the process down if things go nuts. It’s nerve racking.

Try letting your coals burn down a little longer before you reload. I typically fill my firebox all the way up to the GT so 2 or 3 splits shouldn’t matter. I would invest in a moisture meter from Home Depot or Lowe’s. If your maple is only 6 months c/s/s I’m going to say probably not dry enough. I’ve found that wood above 19-20% MC will still off gas sending all kinds of smoke to the cat but is a little harder to keep flames going in the box. Which results in high cat temps. Try taking the secondary air cover off and watch the shutter close during a burn. If the timing is off they can actually start to reopen causing cat temps to skyrocket as well. And yes if you have a run away cat just open the damper and let it cool down. You can leave primary closed. But should probably open it back up when you close the damper again. You will get frustrated many times before you get this stove tamed so just keep working at it and ask questions.

 

[SculptureOfSound]

ok still not eniugh control on my monty....air all the way down and cruising at 730. sigh

 

[Woody Stover]

Try letting your coals burn down a little longer before you reload.

Or pull the coals to the front, or even push them to the back so that the burn has to fight its way upstream, against the flow of air in the box. If you have coals under the entire load, a lot more wood will be gassing by the time you have the stove up to temp.

 

[frased]

I may be dialing into this thing...

Full load... established fire (didn’t wait an hour like the manual suggests this time)... 15 minutes... closed primary all the way to slow it down...

Griddle hit 500 closed damper AND left primary closed...

CAT has been on cruise control 1000 for over an hour. Nice!

 

[frased]

Well guys I thought I had the stove someone dialed in but I guess not. Last night my griddle temperatures went off the chart. I had my primary closed. Had to disengage the cat when I saw it going up to 1600 fast. Here are some pictures of the fire and my temperatures. I’m not sure what to do from here it’s just seemed crazy the griddle temperature. Again I have an 8 inch chimney maybe too much draft.

If I open the ashpan, doors, etc or anything like that the draft increases. So I don’t think the stove itself has leaks.

This made me nervous.

The griddle temperature stayed at 850 for about an hour. I have the lights off but stove doesn’t look like it’s glowing red.

Do I need an inline pipe damper now?

 

[frased]

I wonder if the maple i’m using is a soft maple that has completely dried out and the last six months seven months. It seems to catch fire pretty quickly and I’m wondering if last night I just had too many pieces of it in the fire. And it ran out of control even with the primary closed.

Or should I be able to kill the fire when I close that primary all the way.

Just scared the crap outta me. That it can get out of control.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Are you sure the primary door is closing all the way? Just because the lever closes all the way doesn’t mean the flapper is. It’s cable driven so if there is any obstructions or it is not adjusted correctly it will not completely close.
Did you ever observe the secondary air operation? How tall is your chimney?

 

[Diabel]

Few things:

Why are you opening the ashpan door? You should only open it to empty the ash.

With the stove completely shut down, are these flames continues or just burst of flame once in a while (I will get that once or twice in a burn, sometimes not at all).

There are very good instructions in this thread (from last year) how to determine if the secondary air flapper is closing properly.

On a cold stove close the primary air lever rapidly all the way down, you should hear a metallic closing sound from the primary air door. If you can get behind the stove, observe it’s operation, it should close completely.



Again, ashpan door........only for ash removal!

 

[frased]

Few things:

Why are you opening the ashpan door? You should only open it to empty the ash.

With the stove completely shut down, are these flames continues or just burst of flame once in a while (I will get that once or twice in a burn, sometimes not at all).

There are very good instructions in this thread (from last year) how to determine if the secondary air flapper is closing properly.

On a cold stove close the primary air lever rapidly all the way down, you should hear a metallic closing sound from the primary air door. If you can get behind the stove, observe it’s operation, it should close completely.



Again, ashpan door........only for ash removal!

Thanks guys. The ashpan door was only to check the seal. Wanted to make sure it was closing securely and I latched it correctly. Soon as I moved it an inch the flames jumped.

I'll check the primary air lever and that flapper. Maybe it isn't closing all the way.

1 thing I have been thinking about is my chimney height is tall... because of all the codes and where it exits the house. I had to do the 2ft above roof ridge line (within 10ft rule). So my chimney is 16.5 feet outside... plus the 4ft griddle to elbow inside. 2ft horizontal to outside Tee. That gives me 20ft... 22ft if I count the horizontal.

I just moved the primary back n forth and I'm not hearing the "metallic closing sound". Going to let this stove cool for the day and get in there tonight.

I thought I was going to destroy the stove last night.

 

[Diabel]

Your chimney sounds fine in terms of height. I would not consider a damper at all.

Another neat tool is the IR gun. It gives you a very accurate temp reading. Once I bought one, I realized how inaccurate the magnetic thermometers are, especially at higher ten readings.

 

[Woody Stover]

I wonder if the maple i’m using is a soft maple that has completely dried out and the last six months seven months. It seems to catch fire pretty quickly and I’m wondering if last night I just had too many pieces of it in the fire.

Yes, soft Maple dries quickly. And it catches fire and gasses off quickly so if you had a bunch of smaller splits in there, you could have been creating a ton of volatiles..

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Woody brings up a good point. How big are your splits?

 

[frased]

Woody brings up a good point. How big are your splits?

Here is a picture of them... when I do the “knock” test together it has the dry clunk sound.

Maybe this stuff is out of control dry.

Moisture meter is showing about 18% average.

 

[Dobish]

check out the primary first, make sure it is closing. Double check your ash pan door and make sure it is sealed up all the way snug. I found that after a few burns, I had to tighten up the handle on the ash pan.

Also, try putting some green wood in there as well, that might help.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

When checking for moisture content:
Bring piece of wood to room temperature
Split again to open a fresh face
Jam probes with grain into freshly exposed face.