Not enough heat from my Drolet 1800

[LieraArie]

Hello! New to burning wood and we are on our second year with the Drolet 1800. Stove is in 900 square foot partially finished basement and we leave the door open to the 900 square feet above for heat to rise. Chimney is block, about 25 feet tall. Stainless steel liner installed in 2023, comes down to a T joint that sits back through the wall. Thimble through the wall with single wall stove pipe sitting against tee, not connected in. Installer said that would be ok, I have questions. The T is not perfectly level and sits at a slight down angle away from the house when looking through the wall (off square, not perpendicular). It’s a tight space and no clean out, he said it was a difficult install. Drolet 1800 is hooked to 3 foot pipe, then 90 elbow, then approx four foot pipe that goes to the T and sits against it, not connected in.

Now, here’s the issue, I can’t get it hot enough. Most people say their Drolet 1800 is burning really hot. I have no problem getting a fire going with the door open, draw in the stove seems to be working as expected, flames get going really good and I’ll let it sit about 5-10 mins with each reload before closing. As soon as we close the door, inconsistent on if we can keep the temperature. I’ve got it loaded up now and the air on the stove itself has been open all the way for hours, stove pipe thermometer barely gets to 350. The room can get to 68 at max. Upstairs is even less. Help! Could this be the stove pipe not inserted into the T? User error?Something else? Do I need to clean the air tubes in the stove? We had a surprising amount of creosote buildup after our first year burn.

We’re burning good seasoned wood reading about 10%. There are flames and good bed of embers. Thank you!

 

[bigealta]

Yeah i bet your wood is not seasoned enough. If it really was 10% (which i'm sure it's not being tested correctly) than there would be an inferno in your stove and your problem would be it get's too hot.

That said you could also have an issue with that pipe connection.

Post some pics for better help.

 

[stoveliker]

First fix the piping. A leaking pipe connection decreases flue temps and increases creosote. It also decreased draft leading to less heat production (more smoldering).
But wood moisture content does the latter too.

Get a big split up to room temp in a day inside. Split it in half and measure on the newly exposed surface, so you measure the inside of the split. Pins as deep into the wood as you can, and parallel to the grain.

 

[EbS-P]

Two 90s, 4 ft horizontal run that’s not connected, fix this first. When fixing that try to minimize the horizontal run. 4 ft is long.

And test the moisture content of your wood.

 

[kborndale]

Besides the issues of your wood moisture and draft, is your basement insulated? Even if your stove is working at its best, it's going to struggle to heat an uninsulated basement. Also is your liner insulated? If not that is hurting your draft (and you increasing creosote production) and also in most cases an uninsulated liner does not meet code.

 

[Brian K]

I had an Osburn 1800 once and we got cold watching it burn. We replaced it. Just couldn't get any heat out of it. The old cheapy woodstove worked really well compared to the Osburn 1800. I assume this stove is basically the same as yours since Osburn and Drolet are the same company. Good luck with your stove and I hope you can get it to work. Yes nice dry wood is better than wood with some moisture, but I burned 'the same wood' in the cheapy and the 1800 so I blame the stove not the wood.

 

[Drolet1800]

Just finished install on my 3 year old NIB Drolet Escape 1800, ( finally got a round-to-it). Fired it up on last Friday and has been running pretty much continuous until today, when after a good accumulation of ash and a quick cleanup, my flame would die back after about 10 - 15 minutes. It had been keeping our 1700 sq, ft. at a toasty 73 degrees. I noticed that when I opened the door that the combustion would increase. Since I had only removed 75% of the ash leaving hot coals to restart the fire, it had apparently blocked the lower air draft holes reducing the combustion air. For a temporary check and fix, I used air pressure from the blowing side of a small canister style vacuum to force air from the outside air control damper assembly orifice to clean out the air draft ports inside the stove, (make sure the vacuum is cleaned out first). This made my stove burn correctly again. Will do a better clean and inspect tomorrow. HTH

 

[Drolet1800]

My 1800 choked up again causing a reduced flame. Cleaned it out. Found that the secondary, (boost?), combustion air feed has one 1/8” inlet hole on the bottom side of the hearth that feeds three 1/8” holes at the middle of lower inside door frame. They get plugged easily. There is a primary air control plate on the bottom of the stove that allows air to go through a tubular door frame below and vertically up along both front sides to provide air to the top in the form of a door glass wash. This air circuit appears to be clogged with creosote. I tried to use a flexible scope to find out where the primary air enters the wash area. No luck as of yet. I will try to run a probe in the form of some music wire to find the air ducts / ports to the air wash area. The fix may require cutting access holes at the top sides of the front body door frame to fix a ? manufacturing defect? Or possibly drilling and tapping a hole on each side to allow cleaning out, then putting a bolt in each hole to plug them off. I am thinking that the air feed holes to the wash area are too easily plugged by creosote. This snuffs out the fire.

 

[EbS-P]

My 1800 choked up again causing a reduced flame. Cleaned it out. Found that the secondary, (boost?), combustion air feed has one 1/8” inlet hole on the bottom side of the hearth that feeds three 1/8” holes at the middle of lower inside door frame. They get plugged easily. There is a primary air control plate on the bottom of the stove that allows air to go through a tubular door frame below and vertically up along both front sides to provide air to the top in the form of a door glass wash. This air circuit appears to be clogged with creosote. I tried to use a flexible scope to find out where the primary air enters the wash area. No luck as of yet. I will try to run a probe in the form of some music wire to find the air ducts / ports to the air wash area. The fix may require cutting access holes at the top sides of the front body door frame to fix a ? manufacturing defect? Or possibly drilling and tapping a hole on each side to allow cleaning out, then putting a bolt in each hole to plug them off. I am thinking that the air feed holes to the wash area are too easily plugged by creosote. This snuffs out the fire.

What does your fire box look like at you are getting air passages clogged by creosote?

 

[Drolet1800]

What does your fire box look like at you are getting air passages clogged by creosote?

Thanks for asking. Kind of hard to get a look at the interior air passages. There is a fair amount, too much), creosote in the upper inside corners of the stove. I am going to probe around a little with some wire to try to find the passages. And thinking that I need to add some length to my 13 ft straight up through the roof chimney to get the correct draft / burn.

 

[EbS-P]

Thanks for asking. Kind of hard to get a look at the interior air passages. There is a fair amount, too much), creosote in the upper inside corners of the stove. I am going to probe around a little with some wire to try to find the passages. And thinking that I need to add some length to my 13 ft straight up through the roof chimney to get the correct draft / burn.

The only place I have any build up is the vertical secondary air passages in the back. To plug up an air inlet with creosote it has to be running in as air is always coming out. 13’ meets specs. I’m guessing you have wood that not as dry as it should be. Do you have a moisture meter?

There is no reason to make any inspection ports. Secondary air is unregulated and has a separate intake than the front primary air boost air the 3 holes and the air wash that goes up the sides. Ash could plug the bottom three holes but just a poke would clear them.

 

[Drolet1800]

Once again, thank you @EbS-P , for your knowledgeable reply. I do not know the anatomy of this stove, I do not have a moisture meter, and the oak that I am burning was cut in February of ‘24 or before. The oak is not split. Upon initial firing of the stove, this wood burned well with flames rolling off. Then, after 3 days of continuous burn, with minimal ash removal, the stove started to choke the fire. I found and cleaned the air boost holes, (made up a tool to keep them clean). I do not understand how the lower front air control works, as to what it controls.

Could you explain to me how to access the Secondary air feed to check for creosote buildup / blockage. I have a lot of varieties of wood to burn from yard cleanup, pretty much all not split, which probably adds to my burn problem, (a cord of 3 year old cherry, 3 cords of 1-3 year old oak, 2 cords of hickory, and some box elder). A wood splitter is in my future. We had 2 tornadoes come through last February which took out 9 large trees, ( kept some of the 60’ Doug fir stump for fat lighter).
Most of my experience with wood stoves and fireplaces is with older pre 1970 units. Not EPA certified units. So this is new to me.
Just trying to figure this out. Thank you for your help.

 

[bigealta]

Yup your unsplit oak is definitely way to unseasoned.
All your unsplit pieces are most likely to unseasoned as well.
These stoves need dry very well seasoned splits to burn properly.

Your good initial burns that then turn to poor burning is telling you the outside is dry enough to burn but the inside of the wood is not.

Solution is to split, then stack all your wood for at least 2 years or more.

 

[kborndale]

If you're burning oak that was cut a year ago and never split you are burning extremely wet wood. Get a bundle of wood from a supermarket or other store and burn that and see what a difference dry wood makes.

 

[EbS-P]

Once again, thank you @EbS-P , for your knowledgeable reply. I do not know the anatomy of this stove, I do not have a moisture meter, and the oak that I am burning was cut in February of ‘24 or before. The oak is not split. Upon initial firing of the stove, this wood burned well with flames rolling off. Then, after 3 days of continuous burn, with minimal ash removal, the stove started to choke the fire. I found and cleaned the air boost holes, (made up a tool to keep them clean). I do not understand how the lower front air control works, as to what it controls.

Could you explain to me how to access the Secondary air feed to check for creosote buildup / blockage. I have a lot of varieties of wood to burn from yard cleanup, pretty much all not split, which probably adds to my burn problem, (a cord of 3 year old cherry, 3 cords of 1-3 year old oak, 2 cords of hickory, and some box elder). A wood splitter is in my future. We had 2 tornadoes come through last February which took out 9 large trees, ( kept some of the 60’ Doug fir stump for fat lighter).
Most of my experience with wood stoves and fireplaces is with older pre 1970 units. Not EPA certified units. So this is new to me.
Just trying to figure this out. Thank you for your help.

Given this information I would not worry about buildup blocking air. I can’t think of a single report of this happening. On any SBI products. You need moisture meter.

Have you checked you chimney and cap for buildup?

 

[Drolet1800]

Given this information I would not worry about buildup blocking air. I can’t think of a single report of this happening. On any SBI products. You need moisture meter.

Have you checked you chimney and cap for buildup?

Minimal build up in chimney and cap, ( checked today). I did a thorough clean out of the stove yesterday, and today, I finished inspecting fresh air circuits. On my stove there are only 2 paths for fresh air, the 3 holed one at the lower middle on the inside door frame, (which is blocked off when the outer fresh air adjustment plate is opened), and the 2 vertical door frame channels that feed the air wash. None in the rear that I could find. I used some flour as an indicator placed in the left and right air wash channels, powered by compressed air to check out those circuits, and they are clear. (Note: Do Not Do This on a Hot Stove). Started a fire with the door open for 5 minutes with pine kindling stacked. When the flame got going good, I closed the door. The flame did not like this, so I opened the door a little and the flame increased. I added the wood from the stack that I had been using and it burned well with the door cracked open just a 1/4 inch.

Could you please mark on the attached picture where I might find the Secondary air feed on the attached picture? I also attached a picture of the burn with the door open, same wood.
Thanks again for the help!

 

[bigealta]

If you have to leave the door cracked open to burn in your cleaned stove with unblocked stove pipe and chimney cap, then your wood is way to wet.
Been there before. No fun.

 

[Drolet1800]

If you have to leave the door cracked open to burn in your cleaned stove with unblocked stove pipe and chimney cap, then your wood is way to wet.
Been there before. No fun.

Thank you for the reply. I found charts on the web that showed that I needed 15.25 feet of my 6 inch , (12 inch outside), diameter stove pipe for the correct draw. I added 3 feet of chimney to my 13 foot length and now my stove burns Great with the door closed using the same wood. I have been just trying to get the right components to make my stove burn clean. Thanks again for your help. It is very much appreciated!

 

[bigealta]

When your wood seasons more you will then see more heat from it and also be able to burn with the draft closed further down.
Nice work adding to the chimney height. That definitely should help on a 13' chimney.