wkpoor said:A Magnolia is a cheap US Stove mfg commonly sold at TSC stores. No cat jut secondary burn. I did a thorough check of the Nashua before I brought in plus a real good cleaning with air house and leaf blower hehehehe. You are correct, the Nashua uses a clever smoke path deal before exiting the stove.fjord said:Before you take that Magnolia ( ! ) in ( BTW: what's a "Magnolia" stove ?), check your Nashua thoroughly.
An air leak is a good possibility, BUT. Try this: Most of the stoves from the 70's were engineered with either secondary air and/or complex flame/smoke paths to inscrease the amount of BTUs from the stove.
I don't know the Nashua, but the similar Fisher line had a bypass plate that would be used WHEN there was pyrolysis , or a good hot coaled fire.
Check that your Nashua's bypass (if there is one) is not in the closed position. Or,
Take the stove outside, blow the stove out with compressed air or a strong vac in reverse.
So, if the bypass plate(damper) or the internal flame path were blocked (ash, furnace cement, broken firebrick) the exhaust gases from even a hot fire would be cooled before the flue.
For air leaks, dealers have small "smoke bombs" to light in a stove with the flue and air blocked (don't use indoors).
Another appraoch to your creosote dilemma. Give it a try.
fjod I have the same stove he has and no bypass, it has a simple baffle system that is hollow so air from the blower can go through it. 500 to 600 is nothing to worrry about then with the air turned up, what are the flue temps getting up too with more air?
So we have two baffle systems here: one "simple" the other "clever". I choose both.
When solving a mechanical problem, look at everything with NO bias for a solution; no ASSumptions. It is what is done.
K.I.S.S. is the principle here. Try to poke through the smoke path ( let's not upset Sparky by calling it a "bypass") with a flexible thick wire such as 12 gauge electric snaked though. In one VC Vigilant with a complex smoke path AND bypass, ash and loose furnace cement had blocked one of the passages. Blown air can get through, but it can be blocked for efficient exhaust. Simple no ? Maybe it works, maybe not.
Ask your dealer for a stove smoke bomb.
You're sure that your fires are up to +600 F to reach pyrolysis and coals ?