I'm sure that it does, Snag, but stop for a minute and think this through...
From where does the stove draw it's combustion air? Correct the first time, THE ROOM. It isn't drawing it down the flue and then shooting the smoke and waste gases up that same flue.
If you choke off the flue when the fire's burning, you're going to be venting those gases back into the room.
As Ed has advised, it takes awhile before you get the hang of it. It's not much of a curve but there is a curve. We have a 25+ year old Kent Tile Fire stove from New Zealand. You can see it on the internet with a search but they are no longer imported into the USA. Best way to describe it is a sheet steel (5/16" or 3/8") box with a double/triple wall around the exterior. The firebox can be cooking away at 500-600 degrees (flue temp might hit 180) and you can put your hand on the back of the stove (triple wall there) and it's merely warm.
The double walls on side and triple to the rear create very good air circulation in the room via convection. No fan necessary on the stove, just the ceiling fan in the room (24' x 26') to stir the air and bring it down from the cathedral ceiling.
The damn thing has a big glass door so you can see the fire burning. It's like watching it on television. We wind up having to clean the glass only once or twice per season since the air flow in the stove's design tends to keep it sparkling clear.
Note: if you have a glass window on your stove that gets dirty, before you buy some fancy cleaner - like we once did - take a paper towel, wet it, dip it in the ash and rub it on the (cold) glass. Finish with a clean, damp paper towel. Cleans it like a champ.
Took a bit but we learned rather quickly to start small and work up. Once you get a good sized chunk burning in there, you can load it up, cut back the air flow and it'll stay nice and warm all night. We load it up for the night around 10PM with the equivalent of maybe 4 7" logs split in half that are your standard 16"-17" long and cut the damper way back. That keeps the house warm all night and leaves us with a great bed of glowing coals at 6:30AM or so that we toss a couple more pieces on and we again have a roaring fire in 10-15 minutes.
BTW, IIRC, the owners manual on our stove specifically stated to never use a grate. They recommend that when you clean it out - typically for us is about once every 5 or 6 days - you leave an inch of ash in the bottom.
I have two wood burning stoves, one at the house, and one at the cabin. I will soon have one at the shop.
They are simple devices, yet not maintenance free. A good practice is to empty the ashes when they get a couple of inches deep, the deep being up to where it interferes with the air intake for the bottom draft. You can make a small shovel out of sheet metal, or find one at a yard sale. It is also good (!) to vacuum the bottom inlet very well with a implement that can get in there and get the dust. It will look clean after you have shoveled all the ashes, but that little bit in the hard to get area might be what is messing you up. A blaster will clean it out, but that would only be in a shop environment. Inside you can use an air nozzle, and have a shop vac going, but you will only get some of the dust, and the rest usually settles on SWMBO's best antiques and collectibles, don't ask me why.
As for the damper, it has different functions. The main one is to regulate the fire so that all the heat does not go out the chimney. It is a fine balance between the top and bottom draft so your fire burns long and hot. Once you find that point, it is easy to remember.
Chimney and flue pipe cleaning is proportional to the type of wood and amount. Different woods produce different amounts of soot, and that soot has differing amounts of residual flammables in it, and a buildup can cause a flue fire. Check the facts on the woods you burn. Around here, cottonwood and aspen are good, so is juniper. Pine of any species has lots of pitch, and I have seen some hellatious looking fires in the stove being fed from pitch coming out of the log, sounding like a blowtorch, and approaching scary.
Cleaning just depends on your setup, but it is good to run a brush through there once a year at least, or have it professionally done. I have to do the one at the cabin this year, and I have to go get two sets of scaffold jacks so I can get way up the pipe to make entry. (A-frame setup on that end.) The roof is like 45 degrees or more, and I don't climb any more. I am going to check out having someone do it, cuz by the time I do all that, I coulda paid someone. My time is very valuable nowadays, and I don't bounce as well as I used to.
Making this short by putting the answer at the end, I bet if you vacuum out the air passages on the bottom of the stove more frequently, it would work better. Mine sure does, and I can notice it burns entirely different when it is clean. I had to make a small little device to get in there for my Eureka Mighty Mite. Also, fire ash will stop up your filter very quickly in a vacuum, so clean it after you use it for ashes. I have a galvanized bucket with lid, probably 6 gal. that I put ashes in. Never assume they are out, put the bucket somewhere safe for a couple of days, then spread the ashes in your garden or yard. Some plants do well with ashes, check your local nursery.
Let us know how it shakes out.
Steve
Partially right. Downdrafts have a cause. Identify that cause, and solve it, and you will get rid of the smoking. Sometimes, just opening a door to the outside can cause a downdraft. If enough smoke comes out to smoke out the room, you have waited too long to address the problem, the flue may be plugged, or as I said, a door or window is open somewhere. Or, could be the configuration of the house, or the height of the top of the chimney in relation to other parts of the structure that cause vortexes that can work against exhausting gases. Also, it takes a little while for the stove to get hot, and for the natural heating of air and steel to create the natural updraft of warm air.
A word of caution here. Watch your chimney cap. Birds will nest in there during the warmer months, and you won't know until you build a fire. The birds will take off, but the nest will be there, creating some blockage. I have a pipe, and I put hardware cloth around it so they can't get in there. They like nesting in there.
Steve
If you don't have a flue damper, get one. It will greatly improve the performance of your stove, and your firewood won't burn up as fast. Once you find the right settings, your wood will burn long and hot and slow.
On 12/27/2013 8:49 AM, Snag wrote: This thing is oversize
Did they put in a damper? Have you called them and asked them to come check it out? They are usually pretty good about that, as it covers their *** should something not be just right. Wood stoves are simple, unless something basic has been overlooked, and that is possible.
Steve
On 12/28/2013 1:33 PM, Unquestionably Confused wrote
Right - o. Some stoves use a two pipe chimney pipe, the outer annulus brings in air for combustion, the inner takes out the exhaust. They have an adjustment so room air can be added to the fire, but it uses very little room air, hence are very efficient. I found out about them after I built a house with a two sided see through fireplace, which was a beautiful nightmare. Looked beautiful with it's Apache Paint stone, one from Arizona with blue stringers of copper ore, and some copper colored stringers of some other element. Never did get it burning right, though. Sealed up the used brick side with a glass fireplace cover, and a lot of caulking and ingenuity. The other side was too uneven with no flat surface. Had to open a window to use it, and that defeated any using of the fireplace to heat the place. Had I kept the house, I would have installed an insert that drew outside air for combustion.
Steve
A new chainsaw is on the event horizon for me, a Husky 455 or 460 with a
24" bar. Got a 435 now with a 16" bar, but we just landed a deal with a guy who has 20 acres of juniper (HOT burning) that was burned slightly in a wildfire, just enough to burn the hair off the bark. The 435 will do good for most of it, but some of it is really hefty, and I will need a longer bar. Besides, I need one for some of the larger trees we get into. The owner had it all bulldozed, and it has been sitting for a year now. Soon as the mud dries up, we will be on it. We have been dolling our trailers up, adding toolboxes, and tie downs and all, and we're good to go. I have not heard a lot of good on newer Homelites, but have heard good on older ones. Run it a little oily on the gas. Get a couple of extra plugs. Better to be a little smoky, and not lean it out and smoke the engine.Steve
I know a lot of people don't, but I keep my firewood covered. It can soak up a lot of water quick, and if you have it all nice and seasoned and dry, it will suck up a lot of water with a few days of light rain. Tarps work okay. Something permanent works better. I have a fifteen foot by thirty foot steel awning on the side of the house that covers the wood racks and the propane tank, and garden "stuff".
Steve
Bought it used from a neighbor , I did the install . The stove works fine , I just need to learn how to use it . I believe the knee of the learning curve is in sight ...
Actually , the inlet damper does the same thing . And it's controlled by position/bimetal spring temperature .
My cap has a "screen" of stainless steel , holes in a piece of thin flat stock . Small enough that I can't get a finger thru . -- Snag
I think you will eventually need a damper ...............
It really lets you fine tune your flame. Don't know your type of stove. Maybe it's in the directions?
Steve
The stove is a King Circulator , and since I got it used there are no directions . My neighbor up the hill has one just like it , he hasn't got a flue damper either . By starting a bit earlier in the day and getting a good hot fire before stoking it up for the night I managed to keep it above 70* here all night last night . Feels good ! and the humidity that's plagued us in the camper is way down now that we're using wood .
The wood stove in our VT house didn't have a flue damper. I believe it's pretty common for wood stoves to be regulated on the (air) supply side.
I've been running a Vermont Casting stove for 30+ years with no damper. Properly designed, the supply side can fine tune very well. It maintains the temperature within a couple of degrees and I rarely have to change it.
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