Will Adventure 2 over heat without blower?

[snaple4]

Looked at a Quadrafire Adventure 2 this week. I don't like the looks that much compared to PE Alderlea or the Quad Explorer but I am very interested in the automatic air adjustment. I may also have a chance to buy the floor model at season end. My concern, b/c it is a box in a box like an insert but bigger, is that it will over heat without the fan. We don't have many power outages but when we do they last some time.

Also, is the blower loud? I have a Regency i2400 and it is loud but have to use it to keep from over firing.

Are there other companies that offer some type of automatic air control?

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[bholler]

Looked at a Quadrafire Adventure 2 this week. I don't like the looks that much compared to PE Alderlea or the Quad Explorer but I am very interested in the automatic air adjustment. I may also have a chance to buy the floor model at season end. My concern, b/c it is a box in a box like an insert but bigger, is that it will over heat without the fan. We don't have many power outages but when we do they last some time.

Also, is the blower loud? I have a Regency i2400 and it is loud but have to use it to keep from over firing.

Are there other companies that offer some type of automatic air control?

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

You should never have to run a blower on a wood stove to keep it from overheating. If you do it is not set up properly.

 

[jetsam]

Are there other companies that offer some type of automatic air control?

Blaze Kings use a very slick mechanical thermostat that regulates intake air. No electricity required.

I am shocked that bholler did not mention this; he himself is an extremely proud BK operator and usually we can't stop him talking about it.

There are only a couple adventure 2 owners here, but hopefully one will show up to advise you on the stove.

 

[blacktail]

It seems unlikely that any reputable manufacturer would sell a stove that self destructs if the power goes out.

 

[Woody Stover]

Running without the blower should be OK, but if you need to move heat a long way in the house the blower will help. Can you hear a Quadra-fire blower on one of the floor models you mentioned?
I'm not too interested in a computer-controlled stove but I guess they have a fail-safe mode built in. It should keep the stove from taking off, like some secondary-burn stoves might do (not a problem with the cat stoves I run.) Why are you interested in auto-pilot, to ease your wife's apprehensions?

 

[bholler]

Running without the blower should be OK, but if you need to move heat a long way in the house the blower will help. Can you hear a Quadra-fire blower on one of the floor models you mentioned?
I'm not too interested in a computer-controlled stove but I guess they have a fail-safe mode built in. It should keep the stove from taking off, like some secondary-burn stoves might do (not a problem with the cat stoves I run.) Why are you interested in auto-pilot, to ease your wife's apprehensions?

For the record cat stoves can runaway just as easily as tube stoves.

 

[jetsam]

It seems unlikely that any reputable manufacturer would sell a stove that self destructs if the power goes out.

Back when I was looking at the adventure 2, I looked to see what kind of battery backup it had, and the answer was none. Still, put it on a small consumer grade UPS and you don't have much to worry about as long as you keep the UPS charged enough to run the stove.

I don't know what kind of overfire protection it has in the event of a power outage if it is not on a UPS.

A BK doesn't care about a power outage and will not overfire under normal circumstances. (And "normal circumstances" include stuff you would not ever try with other stoves, like loading a half load of dry pine on top of a red hot half load and going to work.) It's not magic, it just has a really low low and a thermostatic air control.

What bholler is saying about cats vs. tubes sounds like it came from a different conversation because he is burning a BK, and still can't bring himself to say that maybe his current stove is much harder to overfire than any other cat or tube stove. We are working on him and hope to have this speech impediment cured by next season!

 

[Woody Stover]

For the record cat stoves can runaway just as easily as tube stoves.

I've never seen it on the cats I've run here (Dutchwest and two Woodstocks.) No concerns with any of the suggestions I read here for how to control secondary stoves such as "don't load your stove with small splits, pack the splits tightly together to limit gassing, cut the air early to limit gassing" and so on. I can load my stove with small splits and get them all burning. All I have to do is cut the air, and the fire is back under control. I can even snuff the flame if I want. Once I burn in the load and set the air, sure, it might eventually burn a little hotter, but not to the point that the stove is gonna start glowing, as we've heard happen with tube stoves.
Now, I have no doubt that I could make pretty much any secondary stove run under control, but I might have to do tweaks to the air supply of the stove or put a damper in the chimney if it was tall. All I was saying was that an inexperienced operator could have many brands of secondary stove take off on him, and closing the air all the way might not help. Give the same inexperienced operator a cat stove, and all they would have to do is cut the air to slow the stove down.
The only cat stove I had trouble with was the Buck 91, which admitted too much air even on the lowest setting. Not all 91 owners had this problem so it may have been an assembly mistake (bent air feed slider holding the shut-off plates too far from the air holes) or some other issue . That said, I think most, if not all cat stoves will stall if you cut the air, they are not gonna take off. The BK has another fail-safe with the thermostat cutting the air as the stove heats up.

 

[bholler]

I've never seen it on the cats I've run here (Dutchwest and two Woodstocks.) No concerns with any of the suggestions I read here for how to control secondary stoves such as "don't load your stove with small splits, pack the splits tightly together to limit gassing, cut the air early to limit gassing" and so on. I can load my stove with small splits and get them all burning. All I have to do is cut the air, and the fire is back under control. I can even snuff the flame if I want. Once I burn in the load and set the air, sure, it might eventually burn a little hotter, but not to the point that the stove is gonna start glowing, as we've heard happen with tube stoves.
Now, I have no doubt that I could make pretty much any secondary stove run under control, but I might have to do tweaks to the air supply of the stove or put a damper in the chimney if it was tall. All I was saying was that an inexperienced operator could have many brands of secondary stove take off on him, and closing the air all the way might not help. Give the same inexperienced operator a cat stove, and all they would have to do is cut the air to slow the stove down.
The only cat stove I had trouble with was the Buck 91, which admitted too much air even on the lowest setting. Not all 91 owners had this problem so it may have been an assembly mistake (bent air feed slider holding the shut-off plates too far from the air holes) or some other issue . That said, I think most, if not all cat stoves will stall if you cut the air, they are not gonna take off. The BK has another fail-safe with the thermostat cutting the air as the stove heats up.

I have addressed over fire issues with woostocks and lots of dutchwests. It is a common issue with dutchwests. To much draft on just about any stove will cause it. Bk really is the only one that can handle it if everything is working properly.

 

[Woody Stover]

To much draft on just about any stove will cause it.

Yep, you need to have your chimney within draft spec. But my comments were mainly aimed at the computer stove; It's a secondary stove that won't get away from you (I assume) since the air is automatically adjusted. Many other secondary stoves seem to be set up to run hot, even if draft is within spec. Think back..how many "hot stove" threads have been from cat stove operators..almost none. Except a few VCs here and there. But that's a down-draft stove..uncharted territory.

 

[bholler]

Yep, you need to have your chimney within draft spec. But my comments were mainly aimed at the computer stove; It's a secondary stove that won't get away from you (I assume) since the air is automatically adjusted. Many other secondary stoves seem to be set up to run hot, even if draft is within spec. Think back..how many "hot stove" threads have been from cat stove operators..almost none. Except a few VCs here and there. But that's a down-draft stove..uncharted territory.

And good noncat stoves within draft spec are controllable as well. I work in this field every day and yes cat stoves are just as susceptible to over fire as non cats.

 

[Woody Stover]

You also read here comments about various stoves, where they say "it likes to run hot" such as the Lopi Liberty, the original Hearthstone Manchester, and some others I don't recall offhand.
I've never read a post by a cat stove operator where they had to grab burning wood out of the box and throw it out in the snow because their stove was headed for the moon, but a few secondary stove operators have posted as much, your experience notwithstanding.

 

[bholler]

You also read here comments about various stoves, where they say "it likes to run hot" such as the Lopi Liberty, the original Hearthstone Manchester, and some others I don't recall offhand.
I've never read a post by a cat stove operator where they had to grab burning wood out of the box and throw it out in the snow because their stove was headed for the moon, but a few secondary stove operators have posted as much, your experience notwithstanding.

So next time i get called about a cat stove that runs way to hot should i just tell them well i have never read about it on the internet so you have to be wrong?

 

[snaple4]

Running without the blower should be OK, but if you need to move heat a long way in the house the blower will help. Can you hear a Quadra-fire blower on one of the floor models you mentioned?
I'm not too interested in a computer-controlled stove but I guess they have a fail-safe mode built in. It should keep the stove from taking off, like some secondary-burn stoves might do (not a problem with the cat stoves I run.) Why are you interested in auto-pilot, to ease your wife's apprehensions?

Unfortunately, they didn't have the blowers on the display hooked up (they only have a PE in use).

Looking at the air control mainly for my wife but also for myself. It would be nice not to have to worry about the air adjustment after it gets going. Started to look at the bk and their bi-metal thermostat. Interesting idea. Are they the only ones who utilize that?

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[Woody Stover]

So next time i get called about a cat stove that runs way to hot should i just tell them well i have never read about it on the internet so you have to be wrong?

No, you probably will tell them that all the cement has fallen out of the seams or the gaskets have fallen out of the load or ash door, or that their stove needs some other type of maintenance. I doubt that anyone who has a new cat stove would call you about a stove that they can't control. Come to think of it, wouldn't any owner of a new stove, cat or non-cat, call the dealer, not you? If you do sell and install stoves in addition to doing chimney work, how many calls have you gotten about new cats running out of control, vs. calls about hot secondary stoves (excluding cases where there is excessive draft?)
Well, maybe not many new stove owners at all have problems with their stove getting too hot, since they all probably have wet wood.

 

[bholler]

No, you probably will tell them that all the cement has fallen out of the seams or the gaskets have fallen out of the load or ash door, or that their stove needs some other type of maintenance. I doubt that anyone who has a new cat stove would call you about a stove that they can't control. Come to think of it, wouldn't any owner of a new stove, cat or non-cat, call the dealer, not you? If you do sell and install stoves in addition to doing chimney work, how many calls have you gotten about new cats running out of control, vs. calls about hot secondary stoves (excluding cases where there is excessive draft?)
Well, maybe not many new stove owners at all have problems with their stove getting too hot, since they all probably have wet wood.

And what dealer would they be calling for Woodstock? Yes they usually call their dealer. But their dealer may not address the problem correctly or may not even do installs. We even get calls from dealers to help them deal with problems. You can beleive what ever you want that doesn't change what happens in the real world.

I will say that over fires in cat stoves are pretty uncommon. We only deal with at most one a year. But cat stoves are much less common than noncat. In our area I would say they make up less than 10 percent of the stoves in use.

 

[Durabiopwr]

It will not overheat without a blower. It is sold as an option and not required for safe operation.

The electronic control system is independent of the blower and will operate on battery backup if power goes out for over a month. If you dont have batteries then it will operate manually like a regular stove.

The electronic system however does control the blower when 110V power is available and will automatically vary the speed of the blower based on stove temperature. When hot the blower speeds up, when cooler or in charcoal blower slows down so as to not be loud all the time.

Blower is quieter than many other models.