Lopi Cape Cod

[BrowningBAR]

Sorry for not knowing your protocols re starting threads as I am new to your forum.
Thanks for the response and good questions. Answers:
1. Three previous stoves. Still running a Godin Grand in the shop. Still a workhorse and still a great performer. Have run lots of stoves over the years. Such as an airtight Mountain Aire with bimetal air control then a VC Reliant hybrid cat, The CC hybrid seems like a different animal all together.
2. I am loading up with 16 inch splits of about 4 inch diameter. Maybe it's my 16 inch lengths that are an issue? As CC is all EW which leaves pretty big spaces at each side?

Do our own firewood. Wood is processed - one year stacked outside top covered with pallet top but rain screened and at least one year in ventilated woodshed. Have always used moisture meter checks and check split faces.

Start off with cedar kindling top down method to bowl of smaller splits. No problems with startup at all in fact the CC stove starts easily but always no leftover overnight coals.

3. Have two stove thermometers. One on pipe and one on stove top as per manual advice. Will move the stove top one up the collar as per your good advice ... Thanks.
4. Run it up to 350 then close damper. Keep air wide open to 400 then throttle down a bit keeping at 400 ish. When overnight fill her up burn wide open with bypass open till new wood really burning well and close damper and throttle fully down air.
6. Replaced chimney with new stainless at install - outside with total length 6 ft in and 6 ft out... Chimney draws well but is not causing any over firing issues. Install done by certified tech.

CC Beautiful stove with lovely fires but burn times about 1/2 of what we expected. Hence the frustration. Thanks for any suggestions. Don't want to be a bother.

Well, nothing seems to be blatantly wrong with how you are using the stove. How many splits are you using? With shorter splits you can load them to one side of the stove and then add some splits north/south to fill up the firebox. Not sure how shallow the firebox is, though.

How big of an area are you attempting to heat? When it is burning, is it heating your house as well as you would like it to?

 

[Waulie]

I've never ran a CC, but I have a thought. If you are loading 16" long splits of Douglas Fir, you're not putting much fuel in compared to a full load of hardwood. I couldn't actually find maximum split length for the CC after a quick search. If it's 22", then you're losing 28% of the stove volume. Then, add in the fact the Doug Fir is about 75% the weight of good hardwoods. You're left without half the weight of fuel. So, if Webby was getting 12 hours on a full load of good hardwood, I'd say you getting half that on a load of 16" Doug Fir sounds about right.

 

[Doc21]

I currently run a Cape Cod. I find it takes awhile to come up to temperature from a cold start, but puts out quite a bit of heat once it gets there and holds it well. Using good hardwoods made all the difference for me in burn times. I can get 10 hours out of good hardwoods, but nowhere close with anything less. By the way, it will take a 24 inch split.

 

[webby3650]

And only 12" loaded N/S.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I currently run a Cape Cod. I find it takes awhile to come up to temperature from a cold start, but puts out quite a bit of heat once it gets there and holds it well. Using good hardwoods made all the difference for me in burn times. I can get 10 hours out of good hardwoods, but nowhere close with anything less. By the way, it will take a 24 inch split.

Seems like lakeguy is only using about 66% of the firebox. My math shows he could add 3-4 hours with longer splits.

Which would give him 8-10 hours from Doug Fir.

 

[begreen]

Is there very strong draft? How tall is the flue on this system?

One of the first things to check are for the base crack that webby discovered. If ok, I would try thicker splits, more in the 6-7" range. Maybe drop some chunks on the side to fill in the gaps?

 

[BrowningBAR]

Maybe drop some chunks on the side to fill in the gaps?

I do this a lot with the 30. Push all my splits to one side and fill the open gap with whatever fits.

 

[lakeguy]

Thanks Webby and everyone for all your good advice and patience. I realize that my frustration was showing. You all gave me some solid leads to track down.

As per my firewood, we do try to fill the box but my 16 inch splits are a challenge. We try to stuff in shorter pieces NS on the sides but will work on this packing issue.

Will also investigate possible cat seal leakage on each side. You have convinced me that these problems are specific to my particular stove as others have shown me that their Cape Cod's have been terrific performers. I will follow up all the good advice. Thank you all. we now have hope!

 

[lakeguy]

Thanks Webby and everyone for all your good advice and patience. I realize that my frustration was showing. You all gave me some solid leads to track down.

As per my firewood, we do try to fill the box but my 16 inch splits are a challenge. We try to stuff in shorter pieces NS on the sides but will work on this packing issue.

Will also investigate possible cat seal leakage on each side. You have convinced me that these problems are specific to my particular stove as others have shown me that their Cape Cod's have been terrific performers. I will follow up all the good advice. Thank you all. we now have hope!

Webby told me to keep an eye out for warpage of baffle and andirons rail. The andiron rail gradually started to warp so I kind of expected it would continue. This AM when cleaning the stove , I noticed that the SS baffle below the combustor has warped and twisted badly. Worried it could put undo pressure on catalyst? Off to the dealer in town with photos. Stove has only had 40 days of use.

 

[begreen]

Webby told me to keep an eye out for warpage of baffle and andirons rail. The andiron rail gradually started to warp so I kind of expected it would continue. This AM when cleaning the stove , I noticed that the SS baffle below the combustor has warped and twisted badly. Worried it could put undo pressure on catalyst? Off to the dealer in town with photos. Stove has only had 40 days of use.

Sorry to hear this. Once the stove has cooled down can you post pictures of the problem areas?

 

[webby3650]

Webby told me to keep an eye out for warpage of baffle and andirons rail. The andiron rail gradually started to warp so I kind of expected it would continue. This AM when cleaning the stove , I noticed that the SS baffle below the combustor has warped and twisted badly. Worried it could put undo pressure on catalyst? Off to the dealer in town with photos. Stove has only had 40 days of use.

It doesn't put any stress on the cat.
I was told by Travis Ind. that it will not effect the efficiency or the operation of the stove, although I could watch flames from the middle secondary tube go right above and bypass the front tube completely. I was told to remove the baffle and bend it back into shape. It was very difficult to do since it's basically a piece of spring steel, but I was able to straighten it up, so far it hasn't warped again. The dealer and Lopi will most likely act like you are the first person to have this issue, but it's very common.
I had mine replaced under warranty. Still in the box, I was installing the parts when I found the crack.

 

[lakeguy]

It doesn't put any stress on the cat.
I was told by Travis Ind. that it will not effect the efficiency or the operation of the stove, although I could watch flames from the middle secondary tube go right above and bypass the front tube completely. I was told to remove the baffle and bend it back into shape. It was very difficult to do since it's basically a piece of spring steel, but I was able to straighten it up, so far it hasn't warped again. The dealer and Lopi will most likely act like you are the first person to have this issue, but it's very common.
I had mine replaced under warranty. Still in the box, I was installing the parts when I found the crack.

 

[lakeguy]

Sorry my photo somehow was cropped on the RHS where the warp is bending up.