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Lightning wrote:

McGiever wrote:As was mentioned...same dimensions as a brick...to take ones place in the stove and channel air from below up to top of fire.

SO its gonna give your primary combustion air a path to bypass the coal bed? Hows that gonna pan out later in the burn when ash starts to block air going up thru the grates? Seems it would be much better to have independent control of primary and secondary air.. Am I missing something?

Actually, it is a Soft Coal/Wood device...and as you have concluded, not so much of a Hard Coal device.
The Riteways also employed a downdraft exhaust outlet which played a part with the Louvers and gave a secondary burn at low exit point. You would need to study this arrangement to grasp the whole process.

I'm On Fire wrote:Echo, yes it's the Permatex Ultra copper. I used it on all my door gaskets and they are holding up well, stove was around 700• a few weeks ago when I left the ash door open.

That's great news, not that you left the ash door open but that the Ultra Copper works as claimed, thanks.

I'm not sure. The slit in the louver is halfway up. It'd need 5" of ash to block the hole in the louver. That's a few days of no tending.

I am happy but confused. I have been burning my new DS1600WH for over a month now and have never had any backfire/explosion?
I fill hopper first, shake for 10 seconds, top off hopper, open ash pan door and shake more if needed, at same time my manual dampner stays 95% closed all the time, never touch it. I have ran stove for 24hrs without touching it, coal was 4 inches below hopper, filled it all up and 10 min later had blue ladies! I have never opened front coal door since new! Am I just getting lucky.
PS- I do not have louvers

I'm On Fire wrote:I'm not sure. The slit in the louver is halfway up. It'd need 5" of ash to block the hole in the louver. That's a few days of no tending.

Oh ok that makes better sense

ridgeracing wrote:I have been burning my new DS1600WH for over a month now and have never had any backfire/explosion?

How tight is the seal on the loading door? Its possible a little air is getting in to maintain the blue ladies...

I will open frt door and check seal, stove is only 1 month old? I have turned stove down to as low as 200-250deg. for warmer days without problems. PS- You are talking about frt glass loading door?

I'm On Fire wrote:I'm not sure. The slit in the louver is halfway up. It'd need 5" of ash to block the hole in the louver. That's a few days of no tending.

Reason I asked is because this was a huge stumbling block with my furnace. Its designed to burn wood and bit coal. It has air passages in the fire box liner that I purposely blocked so primary air could only go up thru the grates. I have other ways to give it secondary air independently.

Before I discovered the air passages I had a miserable time with it. It would burn great till half way thru the burn and just whimp out and go cold leaving most of the load unburned. The reason was primary combustion air would find the easiest way thru the furnace by bypassing the burning coal thru these air passages in the liner and go up the chimney, starving it. And it didn't seem take much for this to occur, just a thin layer across the grates and the air would go around it because it could.

But since your grate system is better designed than mine, maybe this won't be an issue for you..

ridgeracing wrote:I will open frt door and check seal, stove is only 1 month old? I have turned stove down to as low as 200-250deg. for warmer days without problems. PS- You are talking about frt glass loading door?

Yes, and anywhere else air could get in over the fire. There is a test you can do to determine the tightness of the gasket. Its called the dollar bill test close a one dollar bill in the door and tug on it to pull it out. Try several locations around the door to see how tight it is.

ridgeracing wrote:I will open frt door and check seal, stove is only 1 month old? I have turned stove down to as low as 200-250deg. for warmer days without problems. PS- You are talking about frt glass loading door?

You may not have any problems at all. I might have to try fiddling with my MPD.... I run it wide open all the time.

I would imagine that with so many variables involved, it is hard to determine why some installations have explosive puffbacks and others have none..

LDPosse wrote:You may not have any problems at all.

Yeah good point, I wasn't meaning for him to fix something thats not broke

LDPosse wrote: it is hard to determine why some installations have explosive puffbacks and others have none..

You are right, in all the years I had my gibralter never knew what an explosion was till I got the DS. Than I found out , now I got a smaller stove and louvers and no problems.

I still do not understand what the louvers do?

Eric

The way I understand it, they allow primary air from underneath to go to the top of the coal bed. This will either keep the gases in the fire box burning, so they can't build up and flash (puff back) OR keep the gases diluted enough so they can't flash.

Just for the record, I've been using Permatex Ultra Copper for close to 20 years now in the automotive world. It was good then, and still is today. One of the few things the EPA hasn't completely ruined ... yet, anyway.

I used to use the stuff on header gaskets on my El Camino. If it can withstand that, it'll withstand anything a stove can throw at it.

McGiever wrote:

Lightning wrote:SO its gonna give your primary combustion air a path to bypass the coal bed? Hows that gonna pan out later in the burn when ash starts to block air going up thru the grates? Seems it would be much better to have independent control of primary and secondary air.. Am I missing something?

Actually, it is a Soft Coal/Wood device...and as you have concluded, not so much of a Hard Coal device.
The Riteways also employed a downdraft exhaust outlet which played a part with the Louvers and gave a secondary burn at low exit point. You would need to study this arrangement to grasp the whole process.

Yes my stove is a copy of the Riteway design and uses two of these I am guessing to aid with the down draft, anyway the stove works great and wouldn't change anything in their design.

Both of the louver's I installed in the stove yesterday say Riteburn on them.