Has anybody added any electronic doo dads to there wood stoves other than fans?

[chadihman]

I have a quadrafire 5700 wood stove. It's a heat beast and I love the fact that I can fit 24'' splits in it. There's just one issue. I get loads of coals I can't get rid of fast enough when it gets really cold outside. I pack the stove full of hardwood in the morning before work and get it good and hot then cut the air supply almost all the way shut. It goes through a really hot gas burn in about three hours then there's not enough air to make good heat from the coals. When I get home from work the house is cooled down a bit and I have to wait for the coals to burn down before I can load it with more hardwood. I usually throw a small split in and open the startup and main air feed all the way open but it still takes a long time to burn the coals up. Opening the air up more from the start just makes a hotter, faster and less efficient burn.

I found a programmable timer that I want to wire to a relay that will control a door lock actuator mounted on the side of the stove that will open the startup air control. I want to set the timer to activate the actuator three to four hours after I set the timer. This would let the stove burn through its hot gas burn with little air in three hours then the timer would open the air control and burn the coals down before I get home. The only thing that worries me is the possibility of the fire going out and smoldering for three hours then the timer opens the air and the fire goes out of control. I thought a bout adding a snap disk switch that would switch on at 600 deg and close the lock actuator in an over fire situation.

 

[Marshy]

You might want to look into the smart burn technology offered by quadrafire. It's a programmable thermostat that controls the air damper on the stove. It's available on the Adventure II and III models.

 

[Deleted member 135597]

get a blaze king, problem solved

 

[chadihman]

get a blaze king, problem solved

How so?

 

[chadihman]

You might want to look into the smart burn technology offered by quadrafire. It's a programmable thermostat that controls the air damper on the stove. It's available on the Adventure II and III models.

Thanks for the tip. I didn't know about this.

 

[Deleted member 135597]

How so?

They are built to do what your looking for your stove to do. They have a thermostat to control the damper

 

[Deleted member 116684]

get a blaze king, problem solved

good solution if you have the money.
I wish I did

 

[Deleted member 135597]

good solution if you have the money.
I wish I did

Yeah they are sweet stoves. I went from burning 5 cords on average a year to 3 cords. Wood is my only source of heat. In the shoulder seasons I will get 36 hours burn time out of 1 load. Yes I said 36 hours. I looked at the price as an investment in time and money that has already paid for itself

 

[Marshy]

good solution if you have the money.
I wish I did

They cost nearly the same as the quadrafire units do new.

 

[chadihman]

They cost nearly the same as the quadrafire units do new.

Yes and I like the style and heat output of mine. I bought it new four years ago and ot still looks and performs like new. I will own this costly investment for a long time. So I'll deal with it as is or modify it to meet my standards.

Could you expain how your stove operates please? I'm interested in the setup not the stove.

 

[Del_]

Yes and I like the style and heat output of mine. I bought it new four years ago and ot still looks and performs like new. I will own this costly investment for a long time. So I'll deal with it as is or modify it to meet my standards.

Could you expain how your stove operates please? I'm interested in the setup not the stove.

If you can figure out a way to reduce the secondary air input you'll find the coal bed burn down at a faster rate. I fooled around making the non adjustable secondary air on my Jotul F600CB manually adjustable and found this to be true.

I believe what happens is that secondary air does not get to the coals like the primary air does due to the location of firebox entrance and when all of the combustible gasses are gone the coals burn down slowly. Also it figures that if secondary air in entering the firebox but not getting involved in the combustion process that this 'extra' secondary air would reduce wood stove efficiency by taking some of the firebox heat with it on it's journey through the stove. My experiments seemed to show this.

If you can find a way to 'auto reduce' secondary air input automatically when the stove reaches the bed of coal stage I'd be interested in the results.

 

[chadihman]

If you can figure out a way to reduce the secondary air input you'll find the coal bed burn down at a faster rate. I fooled around making the non adjustable secondary air on my Jotul F600CB manually adjustable and found this to be true.

I believe what happens is that secondary air does not get to the coals like the primary air does due to the location of firebox entrance and when all of the combustible gasses are gone the coals burn down slowly. Also it figures that if secondary air in entering the firebox but not getting involved in the combustion process that this 'extra' secondary air would reduce wood stove efficiency by taking some of the firebox heat with it on it's journey through the stove. My experiments seemed to show this.

If you can find a way to 'auto reduce' secondary air input automatically when the stove reaches the bed of coal stage I'd be interested in the results.

Interesting! I have thought about controlling the secondary air before. The secondary air tubes are fed by a manifold on the side of my stove. The manifold has about a one inch hole in it. I could easily make a flap to slide over the air inlet. I'll do that first and see how it affects the coals then I could use the actuator to control the secondary air.

 

[Marshy]

Yes and I like the style and heat output of mine. I bought it new four years ago and ot still looks and performs like new. I will own this costly investment for a long time. So I'll deal with it as is or modify it to meet my standards.

Could you explain how your stove operates please? I'm interested in the setup not the stove.

The Blaze King Stoves use a thermostatic air damper to control air inlet to the firebox which in return controls the heat output. It auto controls the incoming air for a very even heat output. As the stove metal temperature cools it opens more, as it heats up it closes. It also serves to protect the stove from over firing and damaging the catalytic element. The BK stoves use a catalytic element to achieve the high temperature burn which reduces the emissions. The catalytic element lowers the ignition temperature of the combustible flue gases so you are not relying on a very high firebox temperature to ignite those combustible gases. The cat get super hot and burns them. The difference in the BK stoves is that the combustion of those gasses are taking place when they interact with the cat as compared to your stove which relies on mixing those combustible gasses with super heater secondary air at the baffle.

Don't be fooled. Coal buildup can happen in the BK stoves. The brick lined bed is 8" deep and my stove stays nearly full of coals. That amount of coals is able to meet my heating needs when the outside area is in the low 30's. I can let the stove burn them down on its own right now and they do a good job at burning down closest to the door. The incoming air has a hard time reaching the back of the firebox though so I constantly have to rake my coals to the front during loading. I suspect at some point during the colder parts of the winter it will be a challenge to allow them to burn down on their own as refueling frequency will likely increase. This is my first heating season with the stove and I've ran it on HIGH non stop since I put it in service.

 

[chadihman]

The Blaze King Stoves use a thermostatic air damper to control air inlet to the firebox which in return controls the heat output. It auto controls the incoming air for a very even heat output. As the stove metal temperature cools it opens more, as it heats up it closes. It also serves to protect the stove from over firing and damaging the catalytic element. The BK stoves use a catalytic element to achieve the high temperature burn which reduces the emissions. The catalytic element lowers the ignition temperature of the combustible flue gases so you are not relying on a very high firebox temperature to ignite those combustible gases. The cat get super hot and burns them. The difference in the BK stoves is that the combustion of those gasses are taking place when they interact with the cat as compared to your stove which relies on mixing those combustible gasses with super heater secondary air at the baffle.

Don't be fooled. Coal buildup can happen in the BK stoves. The brick lined bed is 8" deep and my stove stays nearly full of coals. That amount of coals is able to meet my heating needs when the outside area is in the low 30's. I can let the stove burn them down on its own right now and they do a good job at burning down closest to the door. The incoming air has a hard time reaching the back of the firebox though so I constantly have to rake my coals to the front during loading. I suspect at some point during the colder parts of the winter it will be a challenge to allow them to burn down on their own as refueling frequency will likely increase. This is my first heating season with the stove and I've ran it on HIGH non stop since I put it in service.

My quadrafire has a startup air control that lets more air in the front and in four holes in the back of the stove four inches from the bottom. The main air supply comes in at the glass air wash. I was thinking of putting the actuator on my startup control to feed air to the back of my stove as mine also has most of the coals heaped up in the back of the stove.

 

[chadihman]

I might be able to use one actuator to close the secondary air and open the start up air in one action with a rod and a pivoting lever setup.

 

[Full Chisel]

I understand that you are loosing out on BTUs by the coals not getting enough air with the damper closed. But why do you have to let them burn down before reloading? Why not just build a fire on top of them? I always thought a nice bed of coals was welcome when it comes time to reload...am I wrong?

 

[chadihman]

I understand that you are loosing out on BTUs by the coals not getting enough air with the damper closed. But why do you have to let them burn down before reloading? Why not just build a fire on top of them? I always thought a nice bed of coals was welcome when it comes time to reload...am I wrong?

My problem is there's to many coals and they keep building if I don't let them burn down. I'm talking like coals piled up as much as half the stove worth and only half a load can be put in.

 

[Full Chisel]

My problem is there's to many coals and they keep building if I don't let them burn down. I'm talking like coals piled up as much as half the stove worth and only half a load can be put in.

I gotcha. I have the same problem, only with ash and not coals. Not having an ash pan necessitates letting the stove burn down every few days and cleaning it out. Luckily the stove is just for supplimental heat and not primary, although it gets run 24hrs a day during cold weather. Cold around here is sub freezing.

 

[Deleted member 116684]

HEY! I closed down the secondaries on my osburn 2200 by getting a piece of metal over the secondary inlet until it was just bloody right!!n It now burns without making so much coal. This was a problem I've read about on other threads and if you want to tinker with your particular stove have fun. It does help( at least me). I shut the secondaries down some to control the burn better and this just happened as well. I've thought about fashioning a way to control the secondaries with a lever but thn I thought it would take too much time and I don't really want to screw around with it.

 

[Full Chisel]

The problem I see with shutting down the secondary airflow is that it will lower the efficiency of the stove quite a bit. I like the idea of a thermostatic controlled damper and catalytic, that seems like an ideal combination.