Ready for Winter?? (2013, living in, cabins)

[Zarathu]

Maineah,

That's a good stove. Under all normal conditions I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately in 30 years of burning wood and coal, I've had times when for whatever reason I was really glad that I had the option of closing the draft and the air intake off completely. Without those options I could have burned the house down. I remember one a long time ago when my kids were very little(the oldest is 30 now) when I had opened the maindoor and lower draft door to put in wood, and I heard a loud crash in the kitchen and immediate screaming of my daughter. I rushed immediately into the kitchen forgetting completely that I'd left the air door open with a fire in the box. When I came to my senses after calming the baby, I came back to a stove pipe that was Cherry red, and a roaring air intake. I was so glad that I could close the whole fire box down completely.

My back ups are not for any normal running of a modern stove, they are for the times when something happens and normal running is thrown out the window. Current stove manufacturers never provide for unusual dangerous situations. They always assume that everything will be run normally all the time. With wood burning, that is just not the case. I know this from 30 years of woodburning experience.

Better to have back-up safety than having your house burn down.

zarathu

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Zarathu

Maineah,

That's a good stove. Under all normal conditions I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately in 30 years of burning wood and coal, I've had times when for whatever reason I was really glad that I had the option of closing the draft and the air intake off completely. Without those options I could have burned the house down. I remember one a long time ago when my kids were very little(the oldest is 30 now) when I had opened the maindoor and lower draft door to put in wood, and I heard a loud crash in the kitchen and immediate screaming of my daughter. I rushed immediately into the kitchen forgetting completely that I'd left the air door open with a fire in the box. When I came to my senses after calming the baby, I came back to a stove pipe that was Cherry red, and a roaring air intake. I was so glad that I could close the whole fire box down completely.

My back ups are not for any normal running of a modern stove, they are for the times when something happens and normal running is thrown out the window. Current stove manufacturers never provide for unusual dangerous situations. They always assume that everything will be run normally all the time. With wood burning, that is just not the case. I know this from 30 years of woodburning experience.

Better to have back-up safety than having your house burn down.

zarathu

You should see what a good number of Mainers run for wood stoves. Primarily old box stoves with no seals what so ever. You can see the fire right through the seams. Old Franklin fireplaces that burn wood as fast as you can throw it in, kitchen stoves with no draft controls at all. I have seen numerous stoves held together with various welds, stove cement and bailing wire (no kidding).
People just run them. They don't make creosote much as they run so hot all the time. Many times the stove is piped right through the wall with just a metal collar to keep it away from the wall then the pipe runs right up the side of the outside wall from an elbow to a shanty cap. The only thing that keeps the pipe up is a few metal standoffs. These people have run these setups for years and years and there is no point in trying to convince them to do any different. All the air shutoffs in the world wouldn't tame down a fire in any of these old stoves.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by Zarathu

Better to have back-up safety than having your house burn down.

zarathu

Couldn't you just douse the fire with water or sand or a fire extinguisher?

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Couldn't you just douse the fire with water or sand or a fire extinguisher?

Zarathu's ideas are really good IF you have the type of stove you can close off completely. Most stoves as we have pointed out will draw some air through cracks, bad seams, faulty seals or poor design. These stoves do not lend themselves to air shutoff as there is no way to close them off.
If you had a run away fire in a stove ie, the stove is cherry red and is heating nearby materials to the point of combustion you'd be better off keeping the area around the stove doused with water until the stove calmed down enough to tend to normally rather than run the risk of splitting the stove open dousing it with water or a fire extinguisher. I have seen a cast iron stove split across the top one time at Moosehead Lake when the flashing around the chimney suddenly let go and a few quarts of cold water hit the top of that hot stove. Instant crack across the whole top that opened to about 1/4 of an inch. A tub of stove cement and some caulk in the flashing and we were back in business.

[Zarathu]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Couldn't you just douse the fire with water or sand or a fire extinguisher?

That would kind of ruin my living room don't you think?

Water on hot metal generally causes it to crack. Sand won't go where you want it to go when you need it. A fire extinguisher is good for putting out fires in walls not inside stoves.

If this baby were outside then you could do that. Having a mechanical way to simply cut off the air intakes will kill the first easily AND quickly without any mess.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Maineah

You should see what a good number of Mainers run for wood stoves. Primarily old box stoves with no seals what so ever. You can see the fire right through the seams. Old Franklin fireplaces that burn wood as fast as you can throw it in, kitchen stoves with no draft controls at all. I have seen numerous stoves held together with various welds, stove cement and bailing wire (no kidding). People just run them. They don't make creosote much as they run so hot all the time. Many times the stove is piped right through the wall with just a metal collar to keep it away from the wall then the pipe runs right up the side of the outside wall from an elbow to a shanty cap. The only thing that keeps the pipe up is a few metal standoffs. These people have run these setups for years and years and there is no point in trying to convince them to do any different. All the air shutoffs in the world wouldn't tame down a fire in any of these old stoves.

And 55-gallon drums made into stoves too.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Couldn't you just douse the fire with water or sand or a fire extinguisher?

Are you suggesting to open the stove door, and then to put water, sand or CO2 into the stove?

That might well make a huge mess.

Closing a couple dampers is clean and easy.

If you interrupt the drafting in any manner, there is the possibility that with the door open and no draft, your house will fill instantly with smoke and volatile oils.

[Zarathu]

The draft dampers that I use are not 100 sealed. They have a center open area about the size of a silver dollar. This will drop the exhaust substantially but provide some. You don't want to abruptly cut off the exterior draft unless you can do it in the chimney itself since it will cause an ocillating down then up then down then up draft scenario which pumps smoke into your stove room everytime it comes back down.

You close the air intake first then the exhaust, then the air, then the exhaust, give a good 15 second between each closure for the air in the exhaust pipe to equalize itself.

its a finicky thing. It helps when you have an exterior insulated pipe that is separated from the house by two inches of very cold winter air.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

If you want to slow a fire, just throw half a cup of baking soda in there and close the door. The fire will simmer down a lot and you don't risk shattering your cast iron stove. Never put water into a cast iron stove.

[Zarathu]

Northern MaINE land Man,

Why does that work?

I would never have a cast iron stove. My riteway 37 is a 1/4 inch welded steel stove with a full totally enclosed fire brick for the first 10 inches and then the firebox continues another 20 inches above it. The stove holds 5 cu ft of wood, take logs 22.5 inches long and 10 inches thick, and also burns coal.