I am liking this new stove more every day and learning how it likes to run. It is my first gassifier, or smoke burner. We burn only pine and fir as that's all that is available locally. So I have a good bed of coals and throw on a fair sized piece of pine that is plumb full hardened resin, the kind I am very careful to keep out of the wood box and usually split and break into finger sized pieces for fire starters. This is not recommended of course, but the stove handled it better than any other that we have had over the last 37 years. Threw the log in, let it ignite, (explode). and slowly closed the air all the way. In my experience with all the older stoves this would be an unpleasant event resulting in one of two options. Crack the draft enough to prevent backdrafting, or drawing combustion air from the stack and then deal with a thermal runaway, or closing the draft and deal with the minor explosions and filling the house with smoke.
Not so with the new stove, although I will continue my practice of preventing any sizeable pieces of pitch wood from reaching the wood box. The fire was controllable. Stove top reached 710F and pipe remained under 400F. No backpuffing, no thermal runaway. I had been concerned about not being able to completely close the draft and chose to run the test at a time when I was prepared. The stove performed well. This test will not be repeated. This is not an endorsement of foolish practice.
Not so with the new stove, although I will continue my practice of preventing any sizeable pieces of pitch wood from reaching the wood box. The fire was controllable. Stove top reached 710F and pipe remained under 400F. No backpuffing, no thermal runaway. I had been concerned about not being able to completely close the draft and chose to run the test at a time when I was prepared. The stove performed well. This test will not be repeated. This is not an endorsement of foolish practice.
