New Hand Fired Stove Install Have Excessive Draft?

Hello All,
I just in the last 2 weeks have installed a rebuilt chubby stove I got from Larry trainer. I am able to get very good burn times and plenty of heat out of this unit.
I have a manual pipe damper installed before the baro and on most warm days 45 degrees and up I must close the bottom draft down to 1/8 inch maybe as small as 1/16 of an inch.
the past 3 day that is has been in the low 30's however I have had to close the draft completely or the stove will run over 600 degrees.
with the draft closed I am able to keep anywhere between 450 and 550 degrees.
I closed the draft off completely yesterday after reload and it burned for 14 hrs with it closed completely and the stove maintained a temp of 500.

Is this normal? could I be doing something wrong? Suggestions and comments are welcomed.

Thanks,

Mitch

Mitch, it is possible the draft is too strong, but it sounds like you may have air leaking past your ash door gasket.

If the draft is cloased no air to fire stove should just about be out. Sounds like you have a leak around ash door.

What is your draft.

Eric

air is getting in...

take a stick of insense around it and find where its sucking in the smoke

the gaskets were all new and appear to be in great shape. How would I check the ash door gasket for leaks? There is no sign of ash powder coming out of the ash door.
is there just the possiblity that the new chimney drafts that well/strong?

Mitch

mof1964 wrote: is there just the possiblity that the new chimney drafts that well/strong?

Mitch

not if the air intake is closed, check draft with a mano.

Eric

check you pm

Mitch, APPEARS don't cut it with gaskets--do the dollar bill test--close the door on the $$ & try & pull it out--if you can--tere's your sign

Are chubby's air tight? If so then yep, you have an air leak somewhere if you can't get it any lower than that. Check that ash door and make sure its air tight as possible. Also the air vents on the door. make sure your not leaking there with loose fitting vents.

Last night we had about 7-8" of blowing snow with 40mph winds. Came down this morning and the Herald was cranking at 600 degrees with just the air cracked, but it's not an airtight and you back it off with a check valve and over fire air. The temp outside is 4 degrees and with the wind it's way below zero.
My other cookstove was nearly out this morning due too the howling winds! I was able to catch it though and its back to 450 on the oven gauge. That wind really pulled hard because I had filled it at 10pm and at 6am it was nearly all ash! Kitchen was plenty warm though.
Went out to clear the drive with a snowblower and came back looking like old man winter. Blowing snow in my face was froze on my goatee! Sun's out now and up to a whopping 8 degrees! Furnace never came close to coming on though set at 60! Gotta love that.

You definitely have an air leak.I don't know how low that chubby should idle, but closing off all the air and damping down the chimney should bring your stove surface temps down to at least 200 if not lower. I don't care how much draft your chimney has...

dj

today coalfire and myself did the dollar bill test and the ash door is tight. Coalfire also checked the draft with a digital manometer and the baro is set right on.
the air intake closed and fire is still going strong.
coalfire has seen it first hand and he is still confused as I am.

Does the inlet damper fit tightly against the ash door?

it does appear that the inlet damper is tight against the door. I just checked the stove and now the temp has finally dropped off to 300.
it burned last night for 12hrs at 500 with the air cut off completely.
Now im really getting confused

Was last night your first fire since the stove was empty? If so, the stove may operate normally now that there is a layer of ash in the firepot.

Any chance air is sneaking around the grate-shake rod?

I ran a Chubby for half of the 2010/2011 season and had a problem similar to yours where I was unable to idle the stove lower than 300*.

Do you have the heat shield on the bottom of the stove? If not is the center bolt hole plugged? If not that could be a source of the leak. Remember the legs, heat shield and top are bolted to the stove. If the bolts are not tight they are sources for leaks. I also did the dollar bill test on my Chubby and it was tight but when I closed the ash door I could clearly see where the door was tighter on one side and loose on the other.

You could take a mallet (rubber) and tap on the ash door and see if you can get it sit tighter. Another thing you could try is a different gasket on the ash door, I ended up using a 5/8 gasket. It helped a little bit. And again, check the door pins and hinges, if the holes in the hinges are elongated and the pins are loose it could also cause the door to not sit properly. You can also try adjusting the latch on the handle. What I did was used a "C" clamp and compressed the handle a little more to make the door close tighter.

Are the gaskets still soft? If the stove sat in storage after being refurbished it may be possible the gaskets dried out and may not seal properly. You could try changing the ash door gasket. Is the hole around the shaker rod elongated? You could take the rod out of the stove and put a washer on it to seal the hole up a little more. You could even try two washers and a spring in between them to keep pressure on the washer closest to the stove.

as I said eariler, how bout the insense smoke draw in test?