Uncontrollable flame

[begreen]

Correct. The stove, via the air controls and the core design, restricts the airflow. Some stoves have direct air passages to the firebox and others have more circuitous air channel paths. The advantage of the latter is that it preheats the combustion air more. The slight disadvantage is that these stoves require a bit stronger draught to function well. It looks like this Henley has very little restriction. The air wash feeds directly over the glass from the top front air intake. (The air wash is not secondary air in spite of some mfgs. calling it that.) I suspect the true secondary air path at the back of the stove is also quite short and direct. This makes it an "easy breathing" stove that works well with a weaker draught but may be a bit lively when the draught is strong.

Note that draught strength will vary depending on several factors, the primary factor besides the flue height is the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures. Typically, the colder it is outside, the strong the draught will be.

 

[scaryflame]

To (possibly superfluous) clarify, stoves don't push air, chimneys suck air and since the stove is at the bottom of the chimney, the air gets sucked thru the stove. The taller the chimney the more air gets sucked up and thru the stove. A too tall chimney may thus make a stove run hot.

Interesting. Out of curiosity, I can also hear the wind a lot (I have an anti-downdraught cowl fitted). Is this normal? When the stovedoor is open if a dog is barking or bird chirping, it echos down too...

I don't think it's likely to be a mfg. or fitting defect but with the amount of draft a 23' chimney creates, if the stove is an easy breather by design so that it will work on short chimneys, then in your case that may be too much air.
My wife's sister's stove, was burning borderline hot on only 16' of chimney (that brand of stove is known pull a lot of air.)
Hers is a free-standing stove with exposed connector pipe, so it was easy put in a flue damper. Not sure how you could do that on an insert, though..

If you throw a split in on a hot coal bed, and two sides are already flaming within a minute or so, that can be a sign that the wood is pretty dry. Conversely, if you put a couple splits on a coal bed and let them get burning for ten or fifteen minute, and water starts hissing out of the ends of the splits, they need further drying.

Ah no way, does she have a Henley too? It's a cheap brand compared to a lot of the ones on here. Unsure how you would fit a damper is right, I've been in touch with the manufacturer and they've asked me for more videos so I took them tonight.
I chucked on a small fire, let it die out the I threw a small split on the bunch of embers with both vents closed, it flamed right up and burned out in 20 mins.

 

[scaryflame]

I think you need to pop out the windows in these to view...

Small split:

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[scaryflame]

Correct. The stove, via the air controls and the core design, restricts the airflow. Some stoves have direct air passages to the firebox and others have more circuitous air channel paths. The advantage of the latter is that it preheats the combustion air more. The slight disadvantage is that these stoves require a bit stronger draught to function well. It looks like this Henley has very little restriction. The air wash feeds directly over the glass from the top front air intake. (The air wash is not secondary air in spite of some mfgs. calling it that.) I suspect the true secondary air path at the back of the stove is also quite short and direct. This makes it an "easy breathing" stove that works well with a weaker draught but may be a bit lively when the draught is strong.

Note that draught strength will vary depending on several factors, the primary factor besides the flue height is the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures. Typically, the colder it is outside, the strong the draught will be.

Thanks begreen - lot of very interesting info there which I will be taking to the manufacturer to see. Any way to fix any of it as I'm hardly going to be running the stove when it's warm outside and if it's colder, then that means my fire will burn up quicker!

 

[stoveliker]

The flame looks fair (great would be fully enflamed, now it's only one side).

The sound depends too much on other factors to say something about and is likely not related to draft.

If you have access to the stove pipe for the first 2 ft above the stove, you can simply install a key damper by taking out the pipe, drilling a hole, and mounting the damper.

 

[NorthernFireplaceFool]

Is there a tight seal on the door gasket? Could that be letting in too much air?

 

[scaryflame]

Is there a tight seal on the door gasket? Could that be letting in too much air?

I did the paper/dollar bill check around it - seemed to be fine?
One thing I just noticed when I opened the door there though was when the door is open, I can kind of rock the stove. Is that normal or should it be bolted into place?

 

[begreen]

So far I haven't seen much evidence of a problem. The fire looks pretty normal at the peak burn stage.

 

[scaryflame]

So far I haven't seen much evidence of a problem. The fire looks pretty normal at the peak burn stage.

Thanks - how come when I shut the vents off completely, the flame doesn't come down? Even the Henley video that was posted here
earlier shows the flame coming down. Right now, I had 3 logs, burned them out and put a single log on to see. The flame is hitting the baffle with the vents closed.

Side note: How much would should I be loading the stove up with initially? Slight intrepidation to put more in due to inability to turn the flame down...

 

[joop]

check for any play in air shutoff my dovre did the same thing then noticed plate was loose ,after tightening it it burned perfectly.nice and slow burn with good secondaries before i tightened it it would just burn wood down fast

 

[scaryflame]

check for any play in air shutoff my dovre did the same thing then noticed plate was loose ,after tightening it it burned perfectly.nice and slow burn with good secondaries before i tightened it it would just burn wood down fast

Thanks Joop - will check that in the morning..

BeGreen- This is the Henley right now, both vents closed... It's my first stove and maybe I'm wrong but there's no way the fire should be this big?

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[joop]

burnt like that for 2yrs thought it was normal.wasn't lol.never overfired just would burn the wood up real fast

 

[scaryflame]

burnt like that for 2yrs thought it was normal.wasn't lol.never overfired just would burn the wood up real fast

Thanks :D I have watched a LOT of videos to try figure it out... I knew it couldn't be right.

 

[joop]

easy fix if it is

 

[bholler]

burnt like that for 2yrs thought it was normal.wasn't lol.never overfired just would burn the wood up real fast

How do you know it was never over fired without any thermometers

 

[scaryflame]

How do you know it was never over fired without any thermometers

What do you think of my vids bholler?

 

[bholler]

What do you think of my vids bholler?

Doesn't really look that abnormal for a small load of small wood honestly. Especially in a multi fuel stove

 

[scaryflame]

Doesn't really look that abnormal for a small load of small wood honestly. Especially in a multi fuel stove

Any recommendations for me to make it work better? I was thinking something like cutting & laying firebrick over the grill at the bottom so it's more like a woodburner or is that just stupid...

 

[bholler]

Any recommendations for me to make it work better? I was thinking something like cutting & laying firebrick over the grill at the bottom so it's more like a woodburner or is that just stupid...

It's certainly worth a try

 

[TomMcDonald]

Are key dampers legal over there? If so I would try one.

 

[bholler]

Are key dampers legal over there? If so I would try one.

I don't know of anywhere they are illegal

 

[begreen]

Any recommendations for me to make it work better? I was thinking something like cutting & laying firebrick over the grill at the bottom so it's more like a woodburner or is that just stupid...

Try burning much thicker pieces of wood. This would be kindling in our stove.

 

[begreen]

Are key dampers legal over there? If so I would try one.

This is an insert, so challenging.

 

[scaryflame]

Try burning much thicker pieces of wood. This would be kindling in our stove.

Unfortunately a lot of the cuts come in that size over here but there are a few big ones, so I will give it a try later tonight with a decent sized one and report back!

As I can't seem to be able to control the fire..if you don't hear from me in approx 14 hours.. disaster struck :|

 

[begreen]

Unfortunately a lot of the cuts come in that size over here but there are a few big ones, so I will give it a try later tonight with a decent sized one and report back!

As I can't seem to be able to control the fire..if you don't hear from me in approx 14 hours.. disaster struck :|

Also, let the coal bed burn down a bit more before reloading unless a lot of heat is desired. A single 3" split on a thick hot coal bed is going to ignite and combust rapidly.