Dirty PH glass with 3YR Wood

[Berner]

Yeah, a leaky door will also lead to dirty glass.

I will make sure to try that as well. The logic is that the air comes from the door instead of the air hole like it is supposed to?

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Instead of reloading, I let mine burn out to take a picture of the air hole. Hope this helps. My PH is one of the early models.View attachment 152308

Yeah, thanks for sharing this.....

 

[Berner]

My experience with the PH, this only happens with wet wood. It burns off once the fire gets hot. If you burn the entire cycle with the air under 400 and you have used wet wood, it may not burn off.

The air hole in my PH is considerably smaller than the diameter of a normal wooden pencil. Maybe they have increased the size of the air hole?

If that is covered the coals don't burn down as well, for sure. But it has not seemed to have any effect in stopping wet wood from producing a black or brown film on a portion of the glass.

Three year seasoned, I am surprised you are encountering the problem. Is your wood oak?

Tenn Dave, nice install, handsome stove. And very clean. Looks brand new.

Yes my wood is a mixture of Oak, Cherry, Ash, Maple and a few other hardwoods. I do wonder how dry my wood is. Sometimes my loads stay just above 400. My black glass doesn't burn off from when the stove gets hot as much as it burns off when the wood is burning down and the secondary flames come lower and lower. I notice that even on my hotter burns of 550 I can still have black glass.

My wood has been cut, split and stacked in a single row for three years. It was top covered and off the ground. However everyone talks about split and cracked ends which aren't as prevalent in my wood. A few pieces have split and cracked ends but not the majority.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I packed my insert with black locust just now, I left 3-4 inches on each side and the glass is crystal clear......so it's got to be about having the airspace in your stove....... I did get more wood in by doing it this way as opposed to the other ways....

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Like this.....

 

[brenndatomu]

I have no experience with this particular stove so if I'm full of dooky then just ignore me, but isn't that hole just to feed primary "boost" air to the fire from "below"? Airwash is generally from a door-width series of holes or a slot above the door. A curtain of cooler fresh air falls across the door glass "insulating" the glass from the smoke as it then sweeps or rolls into the fire at the bottom. Airwash requires a lot more volume than what that lil ole hole would ever supply. On my stove the airwash intake hole (behind a shield above the door) is almost an inch in diameter.
Loading the wood too close to the door interrupts the flow of said curtain allowing the smoke to mix into the flow. Just to experiment I have turned the air clear down, before the fire was ready for it, just to use the smoke to "see" the airflow pattern through the stove. It looked just like some of the airflow illustrations that I have seen in sales materials .

 

[TheRambler]

I have no experience with this particular stove so if I'm full of dooky then just ignore me, but isn't that hole just to feed primary "boost" air to the fire from "below"? Airwash is generally from a door-width series of holes or a slot above the door. A curtain of cooler fresh air falls across the door glass "insulating" the glass from the smoke as it then sweeps or rolls into the fire at the bottom. Airwash requires a lot more volume than what that lil ole hole would ever supply. On my stove the airwash intake hole (behind a shield above the door) is almost an inch in diameter.
Loading the wood too close to the door interrupts the flow of said curtain allowing the smoke to mix into the flow. Just to experiment I have turned the air clear down, before the fire was ready for it, just to use the smoke to "see" the airflow pattern through the stove. It looked just like some of the airflow illustrations that I have seen in sales materials .

You are correct in its design/ intended functionality. However, it does aid greatly in keeping the lower half or so of the glass clean.

 

[brenndatomu]

You are correct in its design/ intended functionality. However, it does aid greatly in keeping the lower half or so of the glass clean.

Hmm, must be a model specific thing then 'cause I blocked off my boost air and it made no change in regards to glass cleanliness. It did however allow me to have a few hot coals in the morning when I usually had none before

 

[OhioBurner©]

Great point, knowing about keeping those air holes open is extremely important to good operation on the stoves. I was lucky to ask a question and be told by the guy that sold me the unit about them, otherwise I would never have known because you can't see them on mine......

Maybe the PH acts differently but on my Jotul I plug both those air holes that really only serve to burn ashes down better. I find having chunkier coals left behind makes reloading easier. Certainly doesn't effect the main burn or make it dirty on my stove.

 

[Berner]

I found the main air hole and it was free of ash. I will be experimenting with more air and different loading configurations and will report back.