Need help with Encore 2040-C

[Turbo89]

forgot to reply.

6inch double wall chimney, 18.5ft straight up. no key damper

Honestly it sounds like we have almost the exact same setup! I’d focus on wood / loading and see if that gets you somewhere.

If the stove were new I’d be calling the company and making them diagnose it! Another thought - is the bypass closing all the way (seems like a long shot since you can turn the flames way down)?

If it’s not new, I'd re-gasket everything and make sure it’s sealed up tight (include in the flue adapter section and bypass gaskets). This is probably $40-50 in material and a few hours if you have the skill.

 

[Mebenal]

This is the wood I have

 

[Mebenal]

This is the bed of coals I load on

 

[Mebenal]

This is what I would consider my stove to be 3/4 full

With this amount of wood, I will get about 2.5-3.5 hours

 

[Mebenal]

Here's an example of the backpuffing I often experience when the air is at 0%.

This specific case, the air has been at 0% for about 1.5 hours now, and suddenly it decides to start backpuffing. (it did not backpuff until 90min into the burn time)
The stove will do this every 20-30 seconds until I turn the air up to 10%.

This would be slightly on the mild side, when the backpuffing is more aggressive, I can visually see/smell a small amount of smoke come out of the front door. (since i fixed the leak, i dont see the smoke come out)

 

[Turbo89]

If I put that much wood in my stove (hardwood), I’d get 6-7hrs no problem, but if I pushed all the coals to the back (built a little wall near secondary intake holes) I’d get 10+ hrs. When I’m loading it, the wood in the front literally using touching coals (I try to make it only one so only one piece is in direct contact with the hot coals.

Those splits look smallish too, i typically burn much larger pieces overnight. Usually I’ll but a couple of the largest pieces at the bottom, so they take a while to burn off/ propagate the flame up to the top.

That back puff looks a lot like secondary ignition (smoke burning), and by itself isn’t concerning. The fact that’s it’s pushing smoke into the room is though.

I run mine fully closed usually, but sometimes I close the air control all the way down and just crack it (say 1/8th).

 

[Mebenal]

If I put that much wood in my stove (hardwood), I’d get 6-7hrs no problem, but if I pushed all the coals to the back (built a little wall near secondary intake holes) I’d get 10+ hrs. When I’m loading it, the wood in the front literally using touching coals (I try to make it only one so only one piece is in direct contact with the hot coals.

Well, I tried this last night. Made a massive pile of coals against the back wall, no coals probably the front half of the box.

Woke up 6.5 hours later and I still had enough coals/heat to restart with some kindling. stove was like 275-300, CAT was 450, Flue was pretty low.

Thanks alot! (huge improvement from what I was dealing with before) Still not 8-10hours but maybe thats the type of wood I have.

@Turbo89 what temps does your CAT get to during the cycle of the burn?

 

[Eman85]

Very interesting. I have almost the opposite. My Pine, measured at 9-11% moisture(on average) will cause my temps to go crazy if I fill the box and dont closely monitor my air settings. My fir, measured 17-22% (on average) with a full stove, I can leave my air 100% for the full burn and it wont make me nervous. This is why I have been mixing them half/half. the pine gives me heat, and the fir kind of balances the stove and makes it less volatile while still getting 3-4hours of burn time.

You say you can run with the air open 100% for the full burn? I can't do that in any way of burning, bypass open or closed. My flue temps would go way high with the bypass open and my cat would go ski high and flue temps high with the bypass closed.
Someone mentioned grocery store wood for hardwood, that's probably not dry wood, it says kiln dried but it's only heated to kill bugs not dry for burning.

 

[Mebenal]

You say you can run with the air open 100% for the full burn? I can't do that in any way of burning, bypass open or closed. My flue temps would go way high with the bypass open and my cat would go ski high and flue temps high with the bypass closed.
Someone mentioned grocery store wood for hardwood, that's probably not dry wood, it says kiln dried but it's only heated to kill bugs not dry for burning.

Yeah, I can do this ONLY with the Fir. If I left the air 100% open with the Pine, my stove would also go nuclear.

Adding the fir to the mixture seems to calm the stove down alot, but not necessarily extend the burn time.

 

[Turbo89]

Well, I tried this last night. Made a massive pile of coals against the back wall, no coals probably the front half of the box.

Woke up 6.5 hours later and I still had enough coals/heat to restart with some kindling. stove was like 275-300, CAT was 450, Flue was pretty low.

Thanks alot! (huge improvement from what I was dealing with before) Still not 8-10hours but maybe thats the type of wood I have.

@Turbo89 what temps does your CAT get to during the cycle of the burn?

Great!!

With the dry hardwood I burn, I typically see 1100-1400, this morning I kind of rushed it and saw 1550. I’ll try to take some pics when I go out to reload the shop stove, right now it’s cranking because I’m trying to warm the shop up.

 

[Turbo89]

Just reloaded from this morning (cold stove lit around 9:30, kindling and 2 splits).

Here’s the coals - about 4 hours, stove was on high for the fire 1-1/2 hrs or so.

here’s the coal rake:

Here’s the reload, 4 big splits of maple / oak:

2 pieces are very dry, sub 10% and two pieces are 15-18%. I loaded about 45 min ago, and turned it down to about 1/8th. CAT is settling around 1460 right now.

I’ll report back later!

 

[Turbo89]

Update about 3hr 15 min in, CAT temp still above 1,000, stove top around 600 and I can still see all the logs. I’m going to let it go 3-4 more hours, then maybe refill it for the night.

 

[Mebenal]

when your cat temps are 1400-1500, what are your flue temps?

The highest ive let my CAT get so far is 1250 or so..... just a bit anxious letting it get too high and having flue temps get too high.

Or am I being a bit too paranoid...?

 

[Turbo89]

when your cat temps are 1400-1500, what are your flue temps?

The highest ive let my CAT get so far is 1250 or so..... just a bit anxious letting it get too high and having flue temps get too high.

Or am I being a bit too paranoid...?

I don’t have a great flue temp monitor (just a magnet temp gauges right before the connection to double wall pipe. That’s 600-750 when things are cooking.

I try to keep CAT temps below 1500, but when I was troubleshooting this I saw like 1700 and pulled wood out to cool it off. There’s a lot of folks on here that see 1600-1650 routinely…. But they don’t like it (check out the 2025 VC thread, a few folks post nice temp graphs). The low cat temps could be an indication you can put more wood in…

I’m going to go out in a half hour or so and stuff the stove up try and keep the shop above freezing (it’s low teens here, and the shop isn’t insulated great). I’ll post a pic of where it is, should be 8 or 8-1/2hrs into the burn by then.

 

[Turbo89]

Here’s what about 8-1/2 hrs, maybe a little more looks:

Pretty cold, so it ate that load right up! Still good enough coals for a reload. I Just stuffed it again, it’s still coming up to temp, so I’ll go check it in a bit (left it turned down to 25%, CAT around 850). Shop’s a bit under 50, but it’s around 14 outside… I really need to insulate the ceiling.

Reload:

 

[Turbo89]

Last update, here’s what was left afer about 12hrs:

Basically enough to re-light itself with the pile you see on it. Stove top temperature was at about 200, shop was around 44, temps still low teens.

Here’s a few minutes after piling coals and adding dry wood:

Stacking the big flat oak piece right on the griddle and pushing everything left helped. Last night I pushed all the coals to the back right too, so it had to burn from right to left, front to back.

Happy burning!

 

[Mebenal]

here’s the coal rake:

Do you often empty your ash pan? It looks like it.

 

[Turbo89]

Do you often empty your ash pan? It looks like it.

I cleaned it out when I was troubleshooting gaskets a month or so ago, don’t plan to do it again this season, lol. Next season I’m going to replace that gasket and try to use it…. Or if we get a warm spell i may do it this season.

I don’t burn in this every day (home shop), and I’m burning a mix of extremely dry, sub 10% and dry 15-18% wood, so it’s not really generating a lot of ash. That’s probably 10-15 days of burning, with the stove on wide open during the day and turned all the way down at night.

 

[Eman85]

Do you always load from the front? I haven't opened my front doors maybe a couple of times this year.

 

[Turbo89]

Almost never, I just opened it to get a pic for this thread. I really only use the front doors for initially lighting the stove.

 

[Mebenal]

So. getting frustrated again, and need some input from you guys. (sorry its very long, but the details may be important)

2 days ago- I hear a "new" noise from the stove. Its in our living room, so at night when we're sitting on the couch you can hear every creek/crackle, rumbling of the fire, whistling of the air in through the primary vent, whooshing of the cat....
I heard a new whooshing sound, went to the stove, tried adjusting the air to see if the sound went away. It didnt.
My ashpan door latch handle has always been a bit "loose" i would say. Even full closed, I can move the latch up and down, pivot it kind of. (seems like it just needs to be adjusted).

Long story short, I wiggled the ash pan door latch a bit, and the noise went away. So, the door obviously wasnt sealing correct.

Dumbass me, I thought, "ok tomorrow ill let the stove cool down and change the ashpan door gasket and adjust the handle".

Now we are on yesterday-
I clean out the ashpan (it was full from probably 1 month of burning ALOT).
I change the gasket (I had some 3/8 rope gasket available)
Close the door, and try to adjust the handle so it is tighter. I have to lift up the door slightly to get it to seat properly.
Didn't get the adjustments I needed, so I loosened the left side hinge adjustments, get the door square (what I think is square), latch the handle, and its pretty tight.

Now im thinking "I cant wait to start a fire and hopefully get those 8-10hour burns". Boy was I wrong.

First fire- box about 3/4 full, decent coals, but not the best, engage cat, closed air 100% when cat was 1000. Cat climbed very very slowly to 1450 before it settled. This 1450 really had me nervous!
(Keep in mind, I have not seen above 1200 on the cat before this, if I close the air 100% it always settles almost immediately)
Cat went down to maybe 1250 and stayed there for a while, so I went to bed.
4 hours later, JUST enough coals to restart. (so back to the 4 hour burns)

Second fire, about 2am- Bit better coals, loaded the box same, about 2/3 to 3/4 full, engaged cat, closed air immediately as I was fearful (cat was maybe 925), Cat climbed to 1350 when it was 0% air. settled down to 1200 eventually, and again, 3.5 hours later left with very little coals.

Something to note- Typically my glass stays very clean, maybe just a small wipe with wet rag in morning only. But after those two burns, the glass is caked with black chit......

I shouldn't have opened the ash pan



So I think it's one of 2 things, please let me know!

1. I have made the ash pan leak extremely worse somehow?

2. Because the ashpan is completely empty, I dont have any insulation for the fire at all, causing the MUCH higher cat temps, and short burn times?
(i understand 1450 is normal for some guys, but for the last week straight, it was a struggle to get the cat to even 1200 with the air full open) (now with the air full shut, the cat climbs from 1000 to 1450)

 

[gthomas785]

Definitely sounds like your ash door could use a closer look. Did you do the dollar bill test before firing it up?

 

[Turbo89]

I had a tough time getting the dollar bill check to work on the ashtray door, I had better success using a candle lighter (the flame will get “pull in” from the draft).

I agree, I’d be focused on the ash tray door.

A few things on the CAT temp:
- 1450 is normal, My alarm is set for 1550, and honestly I wouldn’t take any drastic measures until I saw 1700 or higher (I did once and pulled wood out).
- Closing the air all the way down should choke the stove off. But if it’s even cracked a little, I’ll see higher CAT temps than at wide open.

 

[Eman85]

My ash pan door is tight, very tight to open and close.
4 hour burns with the air closed and a full box isn't much. I know your stove is different but if I shut mine down for the night at 10pm I have a lot in the box at 8am and opening the air will clean my glass and I have to burn it down some before reloading.
If you really want to get excited have a meter with a memory function, it's a real thrill the next morning when you had it all calmed down and cruising and then see what it rose to while you slept.

 

[Mebenal]

Definitely sounds like your ash door could use a closer look. Did you do the dollar bill test before firing it up?

This morning I did a dollar bill test. I tested the bottom ledge of the door from outside the stove, and top ledge from sticking my head in the stove with the bottom griddle? pan out.

The far right corner (where the latch is) the dollar bill pulled out quite easy. I put some gasket sealer behind the gasket to raise the gasket in that area (because the latch is already super tight). Dollar bill tests good there now.