Vogelzang hard to control fire

[EatenByLimestone]

Key dampers don’t completely block the flue. Similarly, the primary air control doesn’t completely shut off intake air.
It sounds like your experiment was successful? You gained knowledge and experience from it.

 

[brenndatomu]

stove top temps over 750 and flue around 375

Sounds about right to me...that is internal or external flue temp?

 

[bholler]

cottonwood. I know, it burns hot and fast. I was experimenting with it so I'll know next time to not load so much of it. But, why can I not kill this fire? Or, is my experience normal?

I closed everything nearly completely down except the key damper and got distracted with something and when I came back it was raging.

After I shut everything including the key damper the fire was still raging and temps stayed over 700 for about 15 more minutes.

It's like nothing would stop this fire. I understand a hotter fire pulls more draft, but even closing the key damper did nothing. Now, I can say that they key damper is a Menards one and even closed the damper is not tight up against the inside of the pipe so it's going to allow some draft around it. Is that normal?

Sounds pretty normal honestly

 

[larryjbjr]

Sounds pretty normal honestly

Ok, thank you for being honest.

Is there anything about this experience that you would recommend I do differently? For instance, if I would've watched the fire closer and closed down the air controls sooner, would I have been able to better control the fire? Am I just over reacting to the 750+ deg top of stove temps? I know that the flue temps were fine but 750+ top of stove seemed excessive.

 

[bholler]

Ok, thank you for being honest.

Is there anything about this experience that you would recommend I do differently? For instance, if I would've watched the fire closer and closed down the air controls sooner, would I have been able to better control the fire? Am I just over reacting to the 750+ deg top of stove temps? I know that the flue temps were fine but 750+ top of stove seemed excessive.

Shut down earlier and load with denser wood to slow the fire down a bit. But 750 is absolutely not a problem

 

[larryjbjr]

Sounds about right to me...that is internal or external flue temp?

The 375 flue temps were external using an IR temp gun right above the first 45 elbow, about 22 inches above the stove.
You can see the setup in the attached photo.

 

[Vg3200p]

@larryjbjr we have the same stove and the same problem. On full loads I've been getting 900+ stt. I've stove silicone my ashplug in place (my gasket was loose to). I also stove silicone my boost air (the lever on the right) plate shut. It still runs hot but is at least controllable now

 

[appointed EPA deviant]

In one of the pics i thought it looked like the glass gasket had a gap?
I have a similar "cheap" stove but am finding that my pipe damper is the ticket to slow it down.
I'm not sure if it is proper to add a second damper but if so that could be a an easy fix.
My first fires were with super dry birch that was somewhat punky as well which can cause a very quick hot fire. Last time I used this stove I was burning heavier splits with a higher MC and it was more controllable