Newbie clueless about a "Secondary burn"

[Soadrocks]

I'm a newbie to Wood stove burning. I have the Jotul F400. I love it! I've been reading up on this website for a couple nights now, trying to learn as quick as possible on how to maximize the stove. I have been reading a lot about secondary burning. What is "Secondary burning?" How do you achieve this? I'm not quite understanding this concept? Is this when the wood is glowing without flames?

Please explain.

Thanks!

 

[begreen]

Secondary burn is when the unburnt gases from the wood are burned with air supplied via holes in the secondary manifold. These are at the top of your stove. It's a nice light show. Depending on what the air control is set to, it can be a wraithlike slow dance of blue/purple flame or with more air and wood it can be a fountain of fire. Here's a link to a video of the Castine's secondary burning:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/6247/

 

[madrone]

How do you achieve this?

get stove hot. add dry wood. get dry wood burning hot. turn down air.
wood must be DRY.
stove must be HOT.

 

[Frostbit]

Man, I like this site!

Both responses to your question are spot-on.

You will darn sure know when you achieve a nice secondary burn. With a full firebox of dry charred wood and a nice bed of glowing coals, stove top temperatures in the 450 degree - plus range and the air lever all the way to the left, the light show visible through the glass at top of the stove will mesmerize you not unlike the Aurora Borealis.

It truely is a wonderful sight.

 

[Adam_MA]

Though not in a Jotul stove, I posted a couple of pictures of my stove here https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/43371/

In the 3rd picture you can see the secondary burn tubes burning with the air open full, and in the 4th picture you will see secondary burn with the air cut way back. Sometimes at this stage you will hear folks call them "ghost flames" because they just seem to appear and hang there above the wood, and put on a spectacular show for you.

Adam

 

[weatherguy]

The new epa stoves have a baffle that slows down or traps the smoke and gasses and at this point air is infused through the secondary tubes (as explained above), this ignites the smoke and gasses and you get more burning and heat and less emmissions, pretty clever. I think this technology was developed in New Zealand but I could be wrong on that.