I do not use the smaller splits to get the cat up to temp. I let the smaller splits burn down to coals , put my full load on the coal bed, let that catch until the flue hits 650, close the bypass (regardless of cat temp), let load burn to being the cat up to temp, then adjust air as needed.
Interesting..... How have we been talking for a over a year and I did not realize this.... I feel like we need a dedicated thread where you can document your specific procedures.... Something we can edit and add detail to over time.
Isn't that what you are doing when you re-load with cat already hot? I am not understanding something.
I did just that a little bit ago. I couldn't get the cat up to temp. I would need ti add more wood.
Last nights burn....
Yeah sounds familiar.... the lever on the right is merely a suggestion regarding level of heat....
Your technique is almost exactly what I have to do for a good reliable burn. If I vear away from those habits, I start to have problems.
My stove doesn't do that. If I put it at 0 the stove craps out and all temps drop.
This is where @arnermd theory of secondary air infiltrating into the primary combustion comes into play with our bigger Defiants. To me it seems a little bit dangerous. If there is no way to really ‘choke’ down the fire in a run away situation, because we have no control of the secondary air, how could we be liable for an over fire situation? Honestly, if I wasn’t in this forum, I defiantly would have over fired this stove countless times by now. I’m sure my cat would be destoryed.
This is the graph from this shorter burn. The cat didn't get to high. I need to find a way to get more temperature increments on the graph. It doesn't look like it on the graph but the STT hit 600 when it peaked. At 6:30 I put the air to 0% and you can see the STT just steadily increase. Nothing bad or worrisome, other than the fact that I cut the air all the way down and my primary combustion increases.
I'm not worried about 600 STT. I'm worried that I put my air to 0 and my STT continues to increase, by almost 100 degrees. Is it an ill placed expectation that the temperature of the stove should be somewhat controlled by the air control?
How much detail are you looking for? There are active flames in the box and the cat temps are usually on the decline. The off gassing and smoking is done but the coals are obviously built up and burning down. Air is at the lowest but there is still quite a bit of active flame.
Do you know about the EPA hole? (Not sure why we call it that) If not.... there is a hole in the bottom of the stove, just in front of the flapper. I am guessing it is 3/8 - 1/2" dia. It allows primary air to bypass the flapper, so even if the flapper is closed there is still some primary air coming in. I have experimented with plugging it with no real conclusions... nothing is consistent.
I would say it was just like your bottom picture. It was directly off the top of the splits.
I am aware of it because of your posts from last year and the schematic you drew up. I am always aware you did play with variable with no real result. Due to your experience, I didn't plan to mess with it much.
I asked to have it explained and my prayer was answer. I appreciate it. In my mind I was lumping that experience into the experience of the run away the other night. But I do understand the concept and I do, now, understand the difference in the active flame vs the secondary burn flame (auroras).
