Larger stove and smaller burns.

[elkimmeg]

What would cause an EPA stove to fall out of spec?

Idealy the stove would be disconnected hauled out of the home shop vac, then with a compressor blown out
before the burn season and at mid point. The ## 1 reason for poor performance is fly ash accumulations in the air passage channels and exhaust to the secondary burn chamber. Secpondary burn tubes would be removed and blown out. I employ the same routine for my cat Combustors also cleaning out the combustion chamber and cleaning the end sensor to the thermatic probe. I remove plates and bricks and totally clean out my stove. There is quite a bit more that can be done soft brush off the gaskets to remove dirt that effects the gasket seating . Gaskets wearout from doors that are opened and closed thousands of times. Gasket replacement is needed, door latch adjustments needed Re factory sealed stoves require examining the joints for detection of missing cement or signs of joint failure, connector pipes removed and cleaned . All accumulations of ash removed . That's what I do. Most clean out the ash compartment and that's it.


Speaking on Cat Combustors that is the only interchangeable component that can increase efficiencies. Newer after market combustor are being built to increase the combustor light range 24% from 500 /550 ignition down now to 380 degrees. Most combustor failures are user invoked engaging them too soon, using less than dry wood. Not cleaning them never removing the fly ash on the bottom of the secondary cat combustion chamber where it draws it right back to clogs the combustor.

This is a good start as to why stoves loose performance and what to do about, it I'm sure others have more to add

 

[precaud]

What would cause an EPA stove to fall out of spec? Assuming everything is kept clean, I'd assume a non-cat stove to be pretty rock steady as far as emissions goes. A cat stove would obviously change as the cat ages.

Maybe we're just looking at operator ignorance? (clogged cats, bad gaskets, poor chimneys, destroyed secondary tubes etc...)

-Hal

Good question. What changes? Air feed holes can get blocked or even clogged. Leaks develop, by metal warping and cement cracking and falling out. That changes how much air is supplied to where, which changes how the stove burns. I'll post an interesting example of this very thing some time this weekend (I hope.)