new Vapor Fire 100 with very poor heat
- Thread starter gary38532
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
- Status
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
No problem it is what it is. 0.06" is great, I was referring to the 0.04" you mentioned before. Is that with the BD covered? Seems like you may not even need a BD...?
It was also with my best wood. I was down there next to it cleaning up the mess from all work so I was wacthing the whole time.Holey moley, I don't think I have EVER gotten 2.5 hours on pilot!
yeah I was thinking about taking it out and just puting a cap on the T .... I covered it after I noticed it droping so I don't really know
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
Holey moley, I don't think I have EVER gotten 2.5 hours on pilot!
That's because you load on 0.001 ounces of coals.
I wish I had that luxury in the dead of winter, but the house loses heat too fast so I have to load on a fair amount of coals.When I load on a good amount of coals in the dead of winter I get some good pilot times.
As long as you monitor your draft and it doesn't get too high, I don't see why you couldn't. Make sure you keep on eye on it though in windy conditions and put it back in if you see it getting too high.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
No way I would take it out! You will need it this winter. When its real cold out mine can't even keep up...its wide open and draft is still too high (at times)...that's why I put a manual damper in after the baro...take the edge off the draft so that the baro can do its job properly. (keep up) Just to be clear, this only happens (for me) when its 0 or below and maybe when the wind is just right...just keep the baro covered with HD foil if you don't need it...easy to pop off when its needed then. Or if you don't like the foil look it would be easy to make a sheet metal "cap" that just hangs on the front of the baro...paint it black, you'd never notice it.
Ok will do. I loaded on a big bed of coals too. Hopefully as I get it more sealed up I wont have to as much.That's because you load on 0.001 ounces of coals.
When I load on a good amount of coals in the dead of winter I get some good pilot times.
As long as you monitor your draft and it doesn't get too high, I don't see why you couldn't. Make sure you keep on eye on it though in windy conditions and put it back in if you see it getting too high.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
That's because you load on 0.001 ounces of coals.
When I load on a good amount of coals in the dead of winter I get some good pilot times.
Yeah but I wasn't even getting that long on pilot when I was loading on a big pile of coals and loading the firebox clear full last January during that real cold snap...and even had the firebox high temp alarm go off on that one!
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Yup.
A chimney works because the warm air column inside it rises...the greater the difference between the flue gas temps, and the outside air temps, the higher the "draft speed" (air speed in the chimney)
ok I'll just leave it with the foil for now and if I see it too high I'll remove it.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
Probably a good idea.
I totally brain-farted on it actually getting colder than it is now. 
its been 72 pretty much all day including now Ive been making a list of things that can be improved in the house. Its pretty big but I'm going to start with all new door seals and fix broken latches on windows.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Can also work on directing the temperature throughout the house. Personally I like sleeping in 68f room. The extra heat can be directed to another room ideally with less heat loss to act as a sink.
There is two dampers on the duct work to do that. Ive been slowly adjusting them for the new furance.
While it doesn't really matter if the BD is sealed up, or gone entirely, I'd be tempted to think that if it's only getting a slightly high draft at startup, a BD isn't really needed. Of course, you'll want to watch as the temps change with winter, but with your outside stack, you might not see an increase in draft when it gets really cold. I'd love to eliminate the BD if I could, and I threw in some just plain wrong features when I ran my stovepipe, because I already knew I had some excess draft to knock down. It wasn't enough. The BD is always open, and I'm currently working on cobbling up an outside air supply for my BD as I can't stand the notion of it sucking the warmest air in the house (next to the furnace) up the pipe 24-7. I'm not telling anyone to do this, and Lammpa already told me not to do this, but I'm a big boy, and I'll deal with my mistakes - if it turns out to be one.
I'm not in love with the notion of having any holes in my stove pipe, either, and that's what a BD is. There's going to be situations where that gap around the flap could allow a glowing something to be emitted. I've done what I can to separate anything that could be fuel from my stove, but that's never perfect, and the thought of some spark ending up in a dust-bunny filled crevice somewhere has always troubled me. I'm working to make the outside air attachment something that would contain such sparks as well.
I've already had a bit of a problem with the BD allowing black and brown bits out into my room. I don't know if it was only high winds with the stove off, but I suspect not always. It didn't start until the stove and pipe had dirtied up somewhat, and I cleaned it all a week or two ago, and it isn't doing it again - yet.
FWIW, it was one time only, but this week I had a significant smoke explosion in my Kuuma while I was relighting it from minimal coals. I had put some wood bits, paper, and kindling on the few coals over the grate, and left the ash drawer open to ignite it. Once well lit, I closed the ash drawer intending to let the stove heat up, while I walked away to pick out what I would feed it next. My back was turned, but there was a loud whoomph like a really large log toppling down in the fire box would sound like in the old Clayton, but with that low frequency wave moving through my insides feeling, combined with clanking from the BD. That kind of thing, and a BD, makes me REALLY nervous. No harm done, but it really got my attention!
The original owners of this house had an arrangement where they were stacking about 1/4 cord of wood literally against the side of the old Clayton. I'm sure it helped to make the wood just that extra-crispy dry, but for God's sake NO!
Anyway, through all the grief you've experienced, you might just have what I had hoped for - no need for a heat sucking baro damper!
All that aside, it seems like you've gotten a lot more positive on the Kuuma experience. I'll be really interested to see, as you (I'm assuming here) have a chance to get back to some colder weather with most of the bugs worked out. I know there was a time a month ago, here at least, where I was surprised at how hard I was already working the Kuuma to keep up. The weather eased, and it's been more of an issue of deciding weather to let it go out, or not. It seems like every year during this time, I'm looking at the wood consumption, and the wood supply, thinking that there's no chance of making it to spring, but every year there ends up being plenty left. Maybe it's snow cover on or around the house, or sun angles, or something that makes the difference?? I know we're both hoping we have enough horsepower for the dead of winter.
I appreciate your understanding on my previous post. I couldn't sleep, but wasn't awake, either, and typed some stuff poorly that seemed rather rude. It wasn't intended that way, and I'm sorry! I was going to delete most or all of it, but I see it's been incorporated to a degree, so I just cleaned up what I could. Some of it's probably good to throw around for the next guy to ponder.
Good to see things are going your way - you're certainly earning it!
If I woke up to find that it was 75 in my bedroom, I'd probably be 2/3 of the way through 9-1-1 before I came to my senses
!That doesn't even happen here in the summer!
I don't want to derail this thread, but since Gary already has some experience running this thing flat out, and all the Kuuma performance folks are gathered round, I'm going to ask:
Does anybody find the thermostat controlled high blower setting to be useful? For me, it seems like that just causes the stove to cool too much and cycle the fan - accomplishing nothing, really. It's still the same amount of heat per hour.
Does anybody find the thermostat controlled high blower setting to be useful? For me, it seems like that just causes the stove to cool too much and cycle the fan - accomplishing nothing, really. It's still the same amount of heat per hour.
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
I can see it cycling in your case as you are sending some rather cool return air through it. Back when I ran the thermostat and had it running on high speed, it wouldn't cycle in the middle of the burn. I also had the Kuuma on high during those times too.
- Status
Similar threads
