Got a little nervous last night

[Haywire Haywood]

I'm down to a section of my stack where there's a lot of 2-3" limbs. I loaded the stove up like normal and got in the shower. When I got out, I had an inferno in there the likes of which I've never seen before and the pipes were crackling. I shut it down and the secondary burn kicked in like gangbusters. The stove top thermometer never got too hot, but the light show in there had me nervous to the point that I stayed up till it calmed down a bit. I won't be loading the stove up with just 3" stuff again. :jawdrop:

Ian

 

[Elim]

It is a good thing you had your eye on things. It sure sounds like it could have gotten out of control in a hurry. I sure am glad it was nothing worse. Keep safe, and warm in this latest storm.

 

[jerryw66]

I've noticed in our Oslo, the smaller the splits, the hotter the fire. That's true in any stove, but seems to make a bigger difference in the Oslo. I just make sure I don't put more than 2 or 3 smallish pieces at one loading.:angry2:

 

[Alan Smith]

you are not running out of wood are you

 

[sloth9669]

I'm down to a section of my stack where there's a lot of 2-3" limbs. I loaded the stove up like normal and got in the shower. When I got out, I had an inferno in there the likes of which I've never seen before and the pipes were crackling. I shut it down and the secondary burn kicked in like gangbusters. The stove top thermometer never got too hot, but the light show in there had me nervous to the point that I stayed up till it calmed down a bit. I won't be loading the stove up with just 3" stuff again. :jawdrop:

Ian

In other words you put the wood in and it went HAYWIRE :hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:

 

[jimbojango]

we came home from a weekend out to find our house at 50 degree's (didn't turn the space heaters on high enough i guess) so i built a fire and put a lot of 2x2 sized peices in the stove. After probably 20 got stacked in there and caught my wife said "choke it now" which i DIDN'T so 20 minutes later my house was 83 and i had it choked and the doors open. If you stack a lot of little pieces it will build heat like no other. I also had fire coming out the top of my stove pipe (only about 8 feet of total pipe) and was watching my creosote fire go about 20 feet in the air never worried me a bit. was just hot to try and sleep later that night

 

[Haywire Haywood]

you are not running out of wood are you

Oh no, I have about 3 years worth out back, I was just pulling from a section where there were a lot of limbs.

I had it chock full of the small stuff. Won't make that mistake again.

Ian

 

[pipehead]

I'm down to a section of my stack where there's a lot of 2-3" limbs. I loaded the stove up like normal and got in the shower. When I got out, I had an inferno in there the likes of which I've never seen before and the pipes were crackling. I shut it down and the secondary burn kicked in like gangbusters. The stove top thermometer never got too hot, but the light show in there had me nervous to the point that I stayed up till it calmed down a bit. I won't be loading the stove up with just 3" stuff again. :jawdrop:

Ian

I've done that. It's kind of scary. Glad nothing happened.

 

[Upidstay]

Done that too. Loaded it up with a bunch of small pieces, really packed it, turned it to full blast, and fell asleep on the couch. I have a good size firebox, so I must have put a few dozen pieces in there.Woke up about 45 minutes later, realized what I had done, and saw the top of the stove glowing bright red before I turned the light on. There was quite an inferno in there. Gave me a bit of a scare. Haven't done that since. Never more that a few small pieces at a time from now on.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I had a somewhat similiar situation the other night; I put in a big piece of Black Birch, about 18" by 13" wide by 6" high (a cut from near the stump) and left the air inlet wide open becauise it wasn't taking off very fast. I kept a watch on it, then left the room for about 15 minutes and came back in and felt "man it's warm in here" only to see the stovetop temp over 700 and climbing-the pipe temp was only 300, so I shut 'em down and rode it out and after he hit 810 degrees on the stove thermometer he slowly backed down-I was really jonesing and hoping that he wouldn't go any higher. I checked the stove manual, and it said don't burn over 900 degrees surface temp for over a half-hour so I was still under that, but I was close to crapping myself none the less hoping that he wouldn't hit 1000 degrees-never again will I do that lol....

 

[branchbuzzer]

I had a somewhat similiar situation the other night; I put in a big piece of Black Birch, about 18" by 13" wide by 6" high ....

I've had a few other people say that about black birch too, that it caught them off-guard and nearly melted the stove. Never experienced it myself, just some anedoctals. No idea why it would be any different.

Scariest moment I had was when mom 'n dad were out somewhere and me and my younger brother ( both teenagers at the time ) about caught the house on fire with an over-fired stove. First 3-feet of outlet were cherry red for what seemed an eternity. Talk about some major fear.... think we kinda kept that to ourselves when they got home.

 

[deerlakejens]

I imagine its just all the extra combustible surface area of the smaller pieces that generate the extra heat. I accumulate cut offs from the table saw and bag them up to burn and a pretty small bag really burns hot. Larger pieces of the same material don't get as hot as quick so it has to be the surface area.

 

[Vangellis]

I've had a few other people say that about black birch too, that it caught them off-guard and nearly melted the stove. Never experienced it myself, just some anedoctals. No idea why it would be any different.

Scariest moment I had was when mom 'n dad were out somewhere and me and my younger brother ( both teenagers at the time ) about caught the house on fire with an over-fired stove. First 3-feet of outlet were cherry red for what seemed an eternity. Talk about some major fear.... think we kinda kept that to ourselves when they got home.

Son....is that you? J/K

I was working 3rd shift and my wife was out of town one night. My teenage sons loaded the stove, but left the front door open a little too long. They freaked at the chimney fire and called the neighbor who came over and shut it down.

Thanks for the lesson on loading with a lot of small pieces. Never knew that!
Learn something new everyday and I've been burning for 27 years.





Kevin

 

[mtngun]

The old fashioned air-tight stoves can burn small wood just fine, merely adjust the damper(s) to control the burn rate. Haywood, does your fancy stove with its secondary burn not work that way ?

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Hoo Boy... my stove excels at burning small wood. I can vouch for that. No Problemo.

 

[volks-man]

The old fashioned air-tight stoves can burn small wood just fine, merely adjust the damper(s) to control the burn rate. Haywood, does your fancy stove with its secondary burn not work that way ?

if haywood's stove is like mine...
sometimes after turning down the draft all the way the secondary tubes actually accelerate the fire for a while.

it's a perfect storm situation when it happens, but it does happen.

 

[D.Marsh]

Haven't done it with a wood burner yet, but seen it happen with a coal burner one time. Was working with the Boy Scouts out at camp many years back, and the particular cabin we had that weekend had both a fireplace and a small top load coal stove. We always kept a bucket of coal on hand just in case. Well one night we were about out of firewood, so I decided to walk up to maintainence and get a wheelbarrow full to hold us over till morning. As I was walking back up to the cabin, I noticed a lot of black smoke rolling around the roof, and sparks flying out of the coal burner chimney. Apparently, the Scoutmaster had never used a coal burner before. He started it up, then proceeded to dump the entire 5 gallon bucket of coal in (which pretty much filled the stove to the very top), left all the dampers wide open and went back to bed. I come flying into the cabin to see 6' of stovepipe cherry red, top of the stove even brighter, and a fair haze to the air. Not to mention almost 90 degrees inside. I got everyone outside, choked the burner down as much as I could, called the ranger in with a water truck just in case. Got lucky in as much as the cabin didn't catch, although we did have to replace the stove pipe, which had actually warped and buckled from the heat. Was the last time I ever left those guys in charge of the fire.

 

[gtu160]

I love it when that happens. Load the box up with some good wood and that thing will take off sometimes. I have a huge indoor boiler and I've already popped all 3 relief valve's off. That is something to watch. Not much you can do either sometimes, just the nature of the beast I guess..

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

I imagine its just all the extra combustible surface area of the smaller pieces that generate the extra heat. I accumulate cut offs from the table saw and bag them up to burn and a pretty small bag really burns hot. Larger pieces of the same material don't get as hot as quick so it has to be the surface area.

I also think that the smaller pieces heat up faster too so they burn hotter.

 

[avalancher]

Kinda reminds me of the chimp that called me several years ago for wood.Told me over the phone that he wanted real small pieces, split real small.I told him I could resplit some for him, but it was going to be an extra ten bucks which he readily agreed to.
As I loaded the wood in the truck, I split everything again to almost three inch pieces and delivered the load to the guy.He was delighted to see his delivery and I figured it was worth the extra time spent on the deal.At least until I got a phone call from the guy the next morning.

Evidently he loaded as much small stuff he could cram in the box, and lit it up. In conversation with him, he revealed he had never had dry and seasoned hickory before, and that is why he wanted small split stuff so he could get it to burn.
Anyway, he lit the dang thing up, left the dampers wide open, then went out to check the mail.Came back to discover the whole dang stove glowing red and in a panic he threw a whole bucket of cold water in the door to "slow the fire down".
In his panic I guess he never took into account several factors.Cast iron doesnt react to well to being cooled down real quick, and the entire stove shattered into several pieces. The cold water ran out of the cracks and carried a ton of soot down over his hearth and on to his carpet,ruining the carpet as well.
For some dang reason he figured it was my fault and wanted my insurance information.After I quite laughing, I politely as I could explained that for one he isnt getting my isurance company involved, and two I seriously doubt his own insurance agent is going to be happy with him as well.