secondary burn

[Dunadan]

LOL...I couldn't figure it out for a bit, then it hit me.

Actually I think it's a reflection of the hall light in the upstairs of our split level. When you stand at the top of the 3 steps leading "upstairs" you can feel the heat coming up at you since the stove is directly across from it.

p.s. Wifey calling me to bed (like 15 minutes ago) so I'll check out that loop first thing in the am with my coffee

 

[DonCT]

Dunadan, those be some nice secondary burn flames!

 

[Sandor]

So I gave the new instructions a try. At first I was thinking to my self this is never going to work. My firebox was going out with air on low. There was no way I was going to get secondary burn this way. Then I decided that my stove might not be hot enough. Surface temp was only reading slightly over 300. So I open my bypass all the way, open the air all the way, play with my wood (chuckle) and move it around a bit ('cmon now) and it takes off with flames everywhere. After about 20 minutes of this I close the bypass, turn the air control until it's about 1/3 open (so more air is being sent through the burn tubes) and sit back and watch.

Within moments I started getting secondary combustion all over the place. Not a little wisp here or there, and not what I thought was secondary burn (the air blowing out of the burn tubes, through the flames in the baffes, leaving a little dimple in the flame). I'm talking full blown secondary combustion.

All I can say is I never would have thought low air, with almost nothing left of my original splits, would get me that type of burn.

My stove person told me that's the key to getting the long burns out of these stoves. With the air low, and the secondary burn going, it's the gasses that are burning, not so much the wood. That's why she said she can get 2-3 hours or more of burn out of a hot bed of coals, and only a split or two.

Sorry if this is obvious information to some of you vets, but since I'm a newb, it's all new to me

Here are a few pics...

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Sometimes things are not intuitive.

When I first burnt my Woodstock, I followed the directions, thinking this will never work..... firing up the stove, engaging the cat, and setting the air control really low.

But, the cat starting glowing, the wood had lazy flames, and the temp on the stove was actually climbing. Kinda strange because I was anxious to chuck some more wood in the fire, but the stuff in the firebox just seemed to last forever.

If I didn't read the manual first, I have no clue what I would have ended up with.

Good job.

 

[JMF1]

Check out my new avitar......550 deg on the surface temp, burnin' nice...........did the pic come out ok?

 

[DonCT]

You may have to try without a flash. Just hold the camera steady and it should capture ok. I find aI get my best pics by leaving the camera on AUTO and just turning off the flash. Otherwise, I get wicked glare off my glass and enamle.

 

[Roospike]

Check out my new avitar......550 deg on the surface temp, burnin' nice...........did the pic come out ok?

The issue here with Avatar photos if they are submitted in too large of form then they loose there pixel and color ............

You need to down size the photo until it takes and shows the true color for your Avatar.
(Max Avatar Image Size: 110 X 110 - 50KB )
If the new size photo does not take you need to delete it from the server and when you sunmit the new size phots its best to rename the photo before you reupload it otherwise the server takes it as the old pixle photo and does not change.
If you need any help with your Avatar sizing just Private Message me your photo and i can resize it for you.

 

[JMF1]

Thanks guys, I'll mess with it tonite from home!

 

[DonCT]

Ahhh yes, Roo, the Avata Masta (That's the best Bostonian I can do :coolsmile: )

 

[tradergordo]

The Exception is different. I was out looking at one last week. It has an "afterburner" chamber behind the fire box where the secondary burn occurs. Same principle but just not burning at the top of the fire box but burns in the chamber.

Kind of a slick setup.

I wish the owner's manuals would explain how their stoves really work, they assume the average person doesn't care I guess? Or that its not important to know for operation (well in some cases as we've seen here, it IS important).

Anyway, "the exception" with its "afterburner" sounds similar to the VC "everburn". I've been trying for months to learn precisely how "everburn" works - its not described in any detail in the manual, it isn't on the web any place that I can find, and I even did patent searches. I found lots of CFM and VC patents with lots of details and even images, but none seem to describe everburn, even the patents submitted in the last 2 years (the term "everburn" does not exist in any US patent - maybe I need to search a Canadian database?). Here is CFM's most recent patent submission, just 2 months old:

7,082,942 Wood burner with improved emissions

Anyway, everburn uses secondary burn chambers instead of tubes, and a design that lights off with lower temps. The design makes a whole lot of sense, basically instead of burning from the top of the stove (which most models do with burn tubes or baffles at the top) it forces the combustion gasses back down to the bottom of the firebox and though the hot coals, superheating it all before secondary burn. It actually exhausts out the bottom of the firebox. The other part that is still somewhat of a mystery to me is that inside the secondary burn chamber(s) there is some fibrous ceramic filament which also supposedly allows combustion to occur at much lower temps (500 degrees) than would normally be required without a catalyst. This ceramic fiber material never degrades (supposedly), never has to be replaced, and is covered by the lifetime warrantee. That's pretty much all I know. The CMF technichians (whom I cannot extract any more info from) tell me I know more about the stove than most of their dealers. Haha.