Back Puffing

[AppalachianStan]

HotCoals, By closing the by-pass all the way it will back puff every time at 1000* but by open it up 1/4" it will not. yes I know there is a lot of heat going up the flue doing this. I don't want to be asleep when this stove starts back puffing and die from CO.

 

[Woody Stover]

the air slider was closed but right now I am at 700* and no flames it was up to 900* and the slider is open?

With the bypass open on the Buck and just a couple of small splits burning on low, I've taken the cat probe up to 1200+, probably would go to 1400 if I let it keep building up heat, so probe temp alone does not confirm that the cat is burning. I can see the cat glowing if I look in around the hole for the bypass rod, when the cat is really cranking. Then the probe can go as high as 1800+. [Yes, the Buck is a different stove and peak cat temps may be different.] I can't remember if you said that there was a way on your stove that you could see the cat glowing....have you ever seen any glowing to indicate positively that the cat was indeed burning?

the primary air is just a box with a slider and 1" x 1 1/2 x 6" tube that go up the sides of the door opening for a air wash. The top of the tubes are open and it has 6 holes on each side. I have blow air up the tubes and they are clean.

Here is how the air flows

So the air ducts just end right there, six inches up, they do not go to an air wash at the top of the fire box? If that's the case, I wonder if smoke is pooling in the top of the fire box, then igniting all at once, giving the back-puff. If this is the case, maybe this older design proved to be problematic, and that's why they changed the air supply system on the later models of the 52?

But I don't understand how "the tops of the tubes are open" as you said. Wouldn't that prevent most of the air from coming out the holes in the sides of the tubes, as in your air flow diagram? (Could be I'm misunderstanding you....)

 

[AppalachianStan]

But I don't understand how "the tops of the tubes are open" as you said. Wouldn't that prevent most of the air from coming out the holes in the sides of the tubes, as in your air flow diagram? (Could be I'm misunderstanding you....)

No just as you understand the top of air tube are open. I have thought about put a plate of steel on top and sealing it with furnace cement to see what that will do.
Some times my cats will glow and some times they will not.
Try to see if it will back puff now with the by-pass closed.

 

[AppalachianStan]

Mellow and all who have the 52 bay is you door handle that you open and close the door with hollow all the way through to the in side of stove. My door handle is a tube but it is stop up half way in the tube and the last time it back puffed smoke came out the tube.

 

[Woody Stover]

No just as you understand the top of air tube are open. I have thought about put a plate of steel on top and sealing it with furnace cement to see what that will do.

It sounds like there must be another air inlet in the top of the fire box for air wash. Is your glass pretty clean? When you had the heat shield off to replace the cat, did you see any air channels along the top inside of the fire box? The Buck has two; One for the air wash, and this one, half way back in the fire box, fed by the shotgun air control.
(broken image removed)

 

[AppalachianStan]

heat shield

There is no heat shield.

another air inlet

There is only the air inlet I posted earlier.

 

[mellow]

My door is way different in terms of it having the air wash built into the door along with the primary air controls, when I get a back puff the smoke comes out the primary air controls.

 

[mellow]

If Appalachian was a more stand up company I would tell you to go ask them if they have a refurb sitting around, they are made not too far away from you in Asheville. I would tell you to point them to all these threads that you have been trying to get their stove to work without success but they did not seem computer literate from the conversations I have had with them in the past, heck, show up with some pot brownies and they would probably let you run the factory for the day.

 

[AppalachianStan]

Mellow had the same problem when I called. It took me a week to talk to some how worked in a office for some one out side the factory.It took another week to talk to the tech at the factory.

 

[AppalachianStan]

I am still around. Man this stove would be awesome if it did not back puff. Last 7 loads I have closed the by-pass all the way down and getting 12 hour burns. The house is warm its 80* in the stove room. If I can just get it to stop back puffing. It will back puff off and on for about an hour and then it stops. Usually it starts about 2 hours into the burn.

 

[HotCoals]

I am still around. Man this stove would be awesome if it did not back puff. Last 7 loads I have closed the by-pass all the way down and getting 12 hour burns. The house is warm its 80* in the stove room. If I can just get it to stop back puffing. It will back puff off and on for about an hour and then it stops. Usually it starts about 2 hours into the burn.

I think what you're talking about is more like spontaneous combustion then so called back puffing.
Gas's build up then either a flame happens or the the gas's just get hot enough and then poof!
A real slow draft can do that.
It's mostly because the stove is oxygen starved.

 

[AppalachianStan]

Yes the gas's build up then flames and the flames push out smoke from the gaskets into the stove room.

 

[HotCoals]

Yes the gas's build up then flames and the flames push out smoke from the gaskets into the stove room.

Just a tad more intake air should stop that.
Either your draft is slowing too much from low flue temps or you have some kind of blockage or the flue is to short are my guess's.
Or a combo of any.

 

[AppalachianStan]

How do I get more oxygen into the stove? The chimney is to tall now for the height of the house. I need away to get more air in the stove but have it where I can close it down on a cold windy night. Would this work by taken out one of the side windows and putting in a steel plate with a knob on it to get more air in the stove when it need it?

 

[AppalachianStan]

It dose it with the prime air open or closed. Chimney is 8" by 18'.

 

[AppalachianStan]

like right now I have a big pill of coals burning down for a re-load. To get them burn down I have to open the door, the prime air and the by-pass to get air to the coals.

 

[AppalachianStan]

you have some kind of blockage

No blockage. I would like someone who knows stove to come and look at this beast. But that will not happen. Have to make due with it as is for now.

 

[BrotherBart]

Close the dang bypass and pull the coals forward. And after you do, use the ash rake and push the whole pile backward. Everybody pulls the coals up on top of ash. Dig the ash rake in front of the coal bed and push back and then just rake the real coals off in the gap in front.

People b_itch about the coal bed when half of it is the ashes under the coals.'

 

[AppalachianStan]

use the ash rake and push the whole pile backward. Everybody pulls the coals up on top of ash. Dig the ash rake in front of the coal bed and push back and then just rake the real coals off in the gap in front.

Did this. Just closed the by-pass. This is going to be a long night. Put this load in at 11:30 this morning and it is still putting of some heat.

 

[BrotherBart]

Put this load in at 11:30 this morning and it is still putting of some heat.

And your complaint about that is what?

 

[AppalachianStan]

Bed time but need to reload. Have to whet until coals are down so I can. Thats all. I love the heat the stove puts off. Just wish I can get it to stop spontaneous combustion and smoking for that hour it does it.

 

[AppalachianStan]

How much would it coast to get a pro to look at the stove?
Just reloaded the stove all most bed time.

 

[mellow]

Problem is finding a "Pro" that has working knowledge of how that stove works is going to be very slim pickings.

I would try calling Appalachian now that you have done all this new work to the stove and see if you can get one of their engineers on the line to help you, keep calling them till you get help, the worst they can say is no we don't support that stove anymore. Let them know you don't have money to buy a new stove and have been trying to get theirs to work, maybe a guilt trip will buy you some time with one of the guys that designed that stove?