You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
we filled our stove with seasoned wood, closed the damper and put the secondary air on low.. four hours in to the night , the smoke alarm went off and the stove was overfiring (900 degrees!) we had to put a cooking pot to the air intake on the bottom of the stove to help dampen the fire.. any suggestions out there? this is our second defiant replacing a 32 year stove that we loved and never had problem with... thanks
Is this stove new to you? I would never load up a new to me stove &go off to bed. Recipe for disaster. Is this a brand new stove with new gaskets? When stoves run away it can mean air is getting in somewhere it shouldn't.900 is too hot,for sure.What kind of wood ?
I am in zone 5 & we just use our lower power wood for the temps we have had so far. If I loaded up with hickory or some other high BTU wood,our Jotul,Oslo would run us out.We used a Defiant Encore for 20 years.Never had it run away. Had a Vigilant by Vermont castings & it would overfire. Problem was bad door gasket Until one gets used to how a stove behaves,it is best to put in smaller loads in the daytime when you can observe it..
Maybe the wood is too small & too dry. That could cause a roaring fire.I hope you get this solved so you don't burn the house down.Iris
You have one of the finest designed stoves available with one of the finest companies behind it. You should be talking with them. I've been firing their stoves in my home and hunting cabin for forty years. Their advise has never left me down. I might add they have been installed and inspected by a local wood stove installing company to their specifications which exceed our local installing specifications.
I do hope you had your stove installed by a professional or at least certified in writing that you have an installation that meets Vermont Casting and /or your local specks. If you have not been properly inspected which includes the smoke stack you may not have met the requirements of your home owners insurance. That means if you burn down your home you may have absolutely no recourse.
This is not the time to play Red Necker. It is time to know the rules of this day and be sure you have followed the to the letter.
Hello,
I have the same stove (new), and recently had a severe over-fire situation.
The flue temperature was well over 1000 degrees.
It seemed like the damper had no effect on the fire. After making sure no combustibles were in the area, I opened the stove doors and started taking out logs with gloves and tongs and putting them in an old washing copper container, then transporting them singly outside. Mega smoke, mega concern, mega danger.
The next day after things cooled down, I started to look for the problem with the damper, but soon realized that the problem was with the ash pan. Although swung into the proper position beneath the stove, it had not been securely latched. We have a very high chimney, probably 35 feet of draft, and with essentially an open bottom to the stove, we had created a blast furnace.
extremely dangerous, and quite a worry.
After remedying this problem the next fire was, fortunately, well behaved.
The next task is to make sure all those associated with our stove are aware of this danger.
