Auto dampner

[razerface]

no your dealer told you to i am positive harman did not authorize it call them direct

I was there. They handed me the phone to talk to the harman guy.

 

[bholler]

I was there. They handed me the phone to talk to the harman guy.

Ok then I find that very hard to believe considering my many conversations with harman. Keep an eye on it and make sure you have all of the proper clearances and insulation in the chimney. Because when all the creosote that damper makes ignites and that damper opens up it will be quite a chimney fire. My many years of experience tell me that barometric dampers on wood stoves are an absolutely horrible idea when it comes performance and safety. The only thing they do is make it easier to run the appliance but there are much safer way to accomplish the same thing.

 

[brenndatomu]

My many years of experience tell me that barometric dampers on wood stoves are an absolutely horrible idea when it comes performance and safety

OK, so why do so many wood furnace manufacturers say to use them?
I'm not saying that they are always the way to go...I agree that they do have their downfalls. I have both baro and manual myself. If the manual won't bring the draft down to where it needs to be, then I pull the HD aluminum foil off the baro that covers the baro intake most of the time.

They even gave me the setting of .06 to initially set it at.

Do you have a manometer to set it?

 

[bholler]

OK, so why do so many wood furnace manufacturers say to use them?

Because they don,t design their stoves well enough to deal with fluctuating draft. That is one of the reasons i hate to work on many wood furnaces. I know many of them need tham but a freestanding wood stove does not.

 

[razerface]

Do you have a manometer to set it?

Yes, but did not use it. My meter is still new in the box, unused until i get it figured out how to use it.

The scale on the baro is marked 2,4,6,8, where you slide the weight to the setting you want. I removed it this morning since the flue was too cold even at full burn.

 

[bholler]

I removed it this morning since the flue was too cold even at full burn.

Good that was my concern.

 

[brenndatomu]

Yes, but did not use it. My meter is still new in the box, unused until i get it figured out how to use it.

The numbers are really just a ballpark setting. You really need to use the meter to set it. If you need help with how to use it let me know.

Because they don,t design their stoves well enough to deal with fluctuating draft

I don't think that most stoves deal with fluctuating draft very well either. I have said this here before, but I think that many of the stove problems that people post about here come down to draft issues, but I very rarely see anyone say anything about actually checking draft, just saying...

 

[bholler]

but I think that many of the stove problems that people post about here come down to draft issues,

Yes to much or to little not fluctuations stoves deal with normal fluctuations just fine by user input or auto air control

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Looking at this to try next.

http://www.amazon.com/DuraVent-8679-Double-Adapter-Section/dp/B003JV7X02

I'm like you, do my heating from a stove in the basement, and I was having the same problems with an overactive draft turning everything into a blazing inferno on my daily hot reloads. I put in the exact same key damper that you listed with your link just before Christmas, and I've had great success running the stove ever since. One of the problems I had was that I previously had to shut down the primary air completely off in order to inhibit the blazing inferno scenario, but then after a few hours of super hot secondaries everything would die out (usually when I was in bed, or at work) and I'd be left with a stove full of glowing red coals that needed to have a little bit of air added in to keep the stove producing decent useful heat. Now with the key damper installed, I don't have to shut the primary air off completely; I usually get the stove hot and cruising with the air opened just a little bit, maybe 15% still open, and I close the key damper completely. This leaves the stove cruising at a nice hot rate of burn (stove top & flue gasses around 600 F give or take) for hours and hours, and by the time I get up to reload in the morning the coals have burned down sufficiently and I'm ready to start the whole procedure again. The key damper has really changed the way I run my stove, and it's allowed me to set my stove for optimal crusing and given me hours and hours of more useful heat per load of wood. Happy? I'm tickled bloomin pink Cheers

 

[razerface]

Im glad to hear that chuck! You shut off the key completely? I assume the holes in it are enough to run the stove?

 

[bholler]

I assume the holes in it are enough to run the stove?

That depends on you draft and your stove you need to experiment and find what works for your setup.

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Im glad to hear that chuck! You shut off the key completely? I assume the holes in it are enough to run the stove?

Hey there. Yes indeed I am able to shut the key damper completely, but as Bholler points out, you need to experiment and see what works with your stove. I don't close the key damper completely right away; usually on reloading I take 10 to 20 minutes in shutting down the primary air on the stove so that I'm getting nice sustained secondaries burning while still having the primary air open enough to provide some little bit of air wash which keeps the stove glass clean and leaves a nice lazy flame burning in the lower front area of the wood before I touch the key damper. If I were to leave it like this without touching the key damper, the secondaries would start to burn hottter and hotter until it is raging like a blast furnace on top of the wood.... So what I do is close the key damper about 75% and monitor the burn action for about 5 minutes or so (sometimes 10 minutes) to make sure I'm not damping down the burn too much; once I'm satisfied that it's still burning to my liking I shut the key damper the rest of the way, and then monitor for another 5 or 10 minutes to make sure that I'm not going to snuff out the burn too much... generally the stove top (measured with IR) is running around 650 to 750 F (well, maybe 750 - 775 F I guess) at this time and the flue (measured with a thermocouple probe) is running around 600 F. The stove top usually drops down to cruise at around 600 F within an hour or so, and the flue gasses very very slowly drop over the course of the rest of the burn.... It's all good; I get clean glass pretty much every burn now, and I don't get any serious build up of coals due to leaving that little bit of primary air open (maybe 15 - 20%) running throughout the course of the burn either. And most importantly, I get at least a few extra hours of meaningful heat coming off the stove because of the primary air blowing on the coals which keeps the heat pumping away until them coals are pretty much burnt right down..... Give yourself a few weeks of experimenting with the key damper to primary air ratio, and you'll be running the stove exactly where you want it to be as well! Cheers

 

[tcassavaugh]

i'm a big fan of a key damper. i've used them on every stove combination i've had. i feel it just gives you another element of control as it can slow the burn by adjusting the amount of closure you have in the pipe, in addition to the stove control. in my opinion, it also aids in shutting the stove down in the case of an over fire for some reason. i normally get my little jotul burning pretty good than engage the key damper and lower the draft on the stove. takes a while to experiment with it and adjust it to your liking. hope it works for you.

 

[razerface]

Chuck, what you describe is exactly what happens to me. My afterburner will sound like a jet airplane when it gets going on a full load. The air has to be completely shut off to hold it under 1200-1400 degree on the probe, depending on the day,, then open it when the smoke burn is finished. I hope the key helps out on this like it did yours. I am impatient for it to show up.

 

[begreen]

Im glad to hear that chuck! You shut off the key completely? I assume the holes in it are enough to run the stove?

Yes, you have that correct. The damper will still allow a portion of the flue gases to pass when closed. If the draft is strong you likely will be able to close it completely once the fire is burning well. Just remember to open it before opening the stove door or you may get smoke spillage.

 

[brenndatomu]

it also aids in shutting the stove down in the case of an over fire for some reason

If you ever get a real live chimney fire going...a key damper will hardly slow it down because the draft is gonna be "off the charts" high during that time...even if the damper did seal completely, the fire can actually draw enough air through the pipe seams to stay alive...they can be a tough bugger to smother!

 

[bholler]

If you ever get a real live chimney fire going...a key damper will hardly slow it down because the draft is gonna be "off the charts" high during that time...even if the damper did seal completely, the fire can actually draw enough air through the pipe seams to stay alive...they can be a tough bugger to smother!

Yes but reducing the draft with a key damper is better than increasing it with a barometric one. It will probably not put the fire out but it will slow it down till the fd gets there

 

[brenndatomu]

Yes but reducing the draft with a key damper is better than increasing it with a barometric one. It will probably not put the fire out but it will slow it down till the fd gets there

True dat

 

[tcassavaugh]

exactly....

 

[razerface]

The damper came in. I may have bought the wrong one? I bought for 6 inch flue, but the outside is 7 inch. My double wall looks like about 6-1/2 dia. The box says it is adapter from stovetop to flue. Should i set it right on top the stove and drop the flue in it? there would be a gap of about 3/16 to 1/4 all around with no way to screw it together?

I thought it would fit tight between the two sections of double wall about 24 inches up. Do they make any the same size as double wall that fit together just like the pipe does?

I bought this

http://www.amazon.com/DuraVent-8679-Double-Adapter-Section/dp/B003JV7X02

 

[Highbeam]

It has to be the same brand as the double wall pipe you already have. Then it bolts together like any other section of double wall.

 

[razerface]

It has to be the same brand as the double wall pipe you already have. Then it bolts together like any other section of double wall.

I figured that,,,gonna be tough to figure out what brand.

 

[razerface]

I figured that,,,gonna be tough to figure out what brand.

I thought i should come back and finish this thread. I ended up with a simple key damper that we drilled and installed ourselves in the existing double wall. It works perfectly now. I can completely control the overburn tendency my stove has due to excessive draft. Since we put it in the existing pipe there are no leaks from joints for the draft to pull in air from outside the system. That made it predictable and controlable.

We have burned for a week on it now and i can shut down the flue temp any time i need to. Finally!

 

[Knots]

Looking at this to try next.

http://www.amazon.com/DuraVent-8679-Double-Adapter-Section/dp/B003JV7X02

I can't run my stove without one of these.

I have a 26 foot chimney that runs up the center of my house. It stays nice and warm until it exits the roof. I have too much draft.

As a result, I have taped off my secondary air inlet to a slit. When my stove gets up to about 400 F on the top where Jotul says to measure, I can put everything to the minimum - air intake "shut" and the key damper "closed".

In this condition, I get nice secondaries and the temp goes up to around 625 and stays there for a couple of hours. Then I have to open up the intake and damper to get the stuff in the back to burn.

My chimney is clean. I didn't even brush it after last winter it was so clean. The bottom line for me is that the stove is designed for a worst-case short-chimney, warm-air condition ("Florida Bungalow Syndrome - see below) and I have a tall-chimney, cold-air situation. My stove is running at the fringe of its design condition.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/florida-bungalow-syndrome-comments.13191/

Some day, there will be sensors and electronic controls on the intake and exhaust of a wood stove. Until then, I am the computer. Something akin to the difference between a carbureted engine and one with electronic fuel injection...

 

[razerface]

They already exist,, i cant remember the name, but at the dealer sits a wood stove,,under the burn chamber sits a whole bunch of electronis gizmos. It comes with a thermostate on the wall to control the air and heat output.