Encore 2040 cat C burns too fast

[hoosierhermit]

My stove is a lot older than yours, but it is the original design of what you have. I can burn my stove with the damper open and easily control the fire and get overnight burns and never engage the cat. I burned like that for quite a few years with no problems other than cleaning my chimney more often. point is the firebox should be completely controllable with the primary air flap. If your stove can't do that I'd look a lot harder at the stove not sealing and sucking combustion air from somewhere.

I've checked everywhere I can think to and I've had a guy with 40 years of experience with wood stoves check as well and a source of air entry hasn't been found. I'm losing hope for a solution. If the stove is fine then perhaps the installation/pipe combination are responsible for too strong a draft? But, as i mentioned in the original post, I had a key damper installed in the pipe. I have no idea whether that should solve "too strong a draft" when it's completely closed, and therefore maximally reducing air flow, which is the position I have it in when burning.

 

[stoveliker]

I wrapped some gasket rope where the stove and first section of pipe meet to "seal" any potential openings where air could be entering and increasing the draft. It didn't make any difference in how vigorously the wood in the stove burned so I don't think that is the problem. It was a good idea though

Air leaking into the pipe will hurt draft, not increase it.

 

[arnermd]

Forgive me if someone already mentioned this....
Have you checked the gasket on the bypass damper? If that is leaking you could get a lot of air through the stove bypassing the cat and accelerating the primary burn rate (when the damper is closed obviously). Do you see a change in flame intensity when you close the damper? The flames should calm down fairly quickly after closing the bypass damper, in a minute or two.

More ideas:

• With some bar magnets or tinfoil, completely block the primary inlet and / or the secondary inlet and see if that kills the fire. With those sealed up the fire should be really smoldery, no flames at all. I would not do this for very long and I would do it with a small fire......
  • If the fire is still raging you definitely have an air leak somewhere, somehow....
• With regards to the key damper, I measure the pressure in my stove pipe right above the stove top so I know precisely how much it is affecting the draft.
  • My first damper had holes in it that would reduce the open area a lot but not completely shut off. I found closing this damper did not change the pressure at all when the stove was hot and I saw little/no change in the flame intensity.
  • My second damper was solid (no holes) and I found it made a small change in pressure when closed and flame did respond a little. It had some leakage around the circumference of the plate but not a lot. I was shocked at how little effect it had.
  • My last mod was to rivet a shelf inside the stove pipe on either side of the damper to give the plate a step to seat on. See my earlier post from 2023 I think.... This really kills the draft and I can actually quench the fire with it closed. Flames will go out completely in a few minutes. Be very careful if you do this, very high likelihood you will get smoke in the house with a well sealed damper. I use mine very sparingly for only the most extreme runaway incidents and I never leave sight of the stove when it is closed.
  • It was shocking to me how little open area was required to sustain enough airflow for a fire. I think my stove would run fine with a 1" dia hole, or even less on a typical winter day. Warm days would not work very well I expect....

 

[bholler]

Then you have massive air leak somewhere else.

Or the stove is massively overdrafting

 

[bholler]

I wrapped some gasket rope where the stove and first section of pipe meet to "seal" any potential openings where air could be entering and increasing the draft. It didn't make any difference in how vigorously the wood in the stove burned so I don't think that is the problem. It was a good idea though

How tall is your chimney?

 

[Turbo89]

Subscribing for a similar experience on a 2040 CAT C… although mine issues could be lack of experience with running a CAT stove.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I didn't reat through the entire thread, I would do the following. Id start a cold stove and build a fire. Id get it going a little bit and just turn the primary air all the way back to see if you have control of the fire.. the flames should die down immediately. If you have control of the fire Id let the stove and pipe get up to temperature then do the same thing.. not closings the damper.. just turn the primary air back and see if the flames die back.. If the flames dont die back on the first one you definitely have a leak in the stove. if it does the stove itself is probably ok.. if the flames don't die back on the second one your draft is probably high.. Report back and Ill walk you through the next step..