Your Stove Setup - The one thing you wish you could change

[coutufr]

Could you please explain how you are using the tinfoil to reduce the draft?

 

[Diabel]

I've got another one . . . sometimes, about once or twice in a heating season, I wish I had installed a damper in my flue.

Usually I think about making one for my double wall pipe sometime in the Fall, but never get around to it and then just figure on using a bit of tinfoil on those few occasions I find myself needing to slow up the fire.

Jake,
How do you slow up the fire?

 

[begreen]

Some Jotuls have a big round air intake hole in the bottom rear where the OAK connects. With the Castine I kept a ball of aluminum foil I could shove in there to slow down a runaway fire. It worked well enough that I kept it behind the stove. As I got better with the stove it became less necessary, but good to have just in case.

 

[firefighterjake]

Could you please explain how you are using the tinfoil to reduce the draft?

On the Oslo I partially block the incoming air (with a folded up piece of tinfoil) which enters the stove from the rear underneath . . . by partly blocking the incoming air it acts much like a damper (only on the incoming air vs. outgoing air). Due to the high draft the tinfoil square sucks up against the incoming air hole . . . until the draft subsides when the fire dies and then it falls down on to my hearth. I only do this a few times every burning season when the fire is getting a little hotter than I care to see . . . partially blocking the air typically will lower the stove and flue temps to acceptable levels and that's where I truly see some trippy flames -- super slow mo secondaries and often they're purple, blue or green in color. I avoid completely blocking the incoming air as I don't want to completely starve the fire and risk any bad effects of having a hot environment with an oxygen starved environment on the off chance the tin foil could come off early and suddenly introduce a whole bunch of oxygen.

 

[firefighterjake]

Jake,
How do you slow up the fire?

See reply above . . . basically a folded up piece of tinfoil in a square shape which I partially block the incoming air on the Oslo.

 

[begreen]

Jake, does the draft keep the foil in place or do you need to tape it there?

 

[firefighterjake]

Jake, does the draft keep the foil in place or do you need to tape it there?

Draft keeps it in place . . . at some point when it reaches the coaling stage (I'm usually gone or asleep at that point) the draft is reduced enough to the point where the tinfoil will fall down on to the hearth.

Sometimes I think a damper would be more convenient than getting on my belly and using the tinfoil trick . . . but a) I'm cheap, b) I'm lazy and c) I only need to use this maybe 2, possibly 3 times a burning season.

 

[jhjove]

I wish I was present when the original homeowner had to repair a design flaw. Maybe suggest a different method to implement the fix, like more joists overhead.

When we bought the house the 3rd flue was not yet used; the thimble was blocked and the top of the flue was capped off with a piece of tile.

I did A LOT of measuring when buying the woodstove; clearances to combustibles (top and sides) but also clearance for the door to open fully. It functions.

Yep, the ambience is lacking.

 

[blueridgerider]

I wish I had not gotten a gas fireplace insert for my second fireplace and gotten another (albeit smaller) buck catalyst stove. It will be expensive to change that around and will lose a ton on the gas fireplace itself.