I'm having little trouble settling my burns into cruise mode. Couple of nights in a row now I've had this happen. Burn a full load down to coals over 7-8 hours. Flue temp is way down (200 or so) but soapstone surface is still at 300 or so with a good bed of coals. Load the stove full of well seasoned oak and let it get burning good. In 15-20 minutes, my flue temps are over 1000 (I like to shoot for 800), so I shut the air down to about 50%. Give it 5-10 minutes and then take it down another step to 75-80%. Secondaries are blazing at this point. I give it a few more minutes and then shut it down to 90% closed. Flue temps at this point are still close to 1000 but they are dropping and the secondaries are putting on a show. 10 minutes later though, the secondaries are out. I open the primary air back up and let the secondaries get going again. This only takes a few minutes and at that point I can shut the primary all the way off and they settle in for good.
The two things I'm puzzling about are my flue temps running up over 1000 - I used to easily be able to keep them at 800 - and the deal with the secondaries going out and having to open the primary back up to get them running for good.
Any thoughts?
The two things I'm puzzling about are my flue temps running up over 1000 - I used to easily be able to keep them at 800 - and the deal with the secondaries going out and having to open the primary back up to get them running for good.
Any thoughts?