In my mind there's no such thing as "enough of an ash bed" unless maybe yer trying to run it extremely low during warm weather. Ash is not our friend when it's cold outside. During moderate to high heat demand you want to keep the fuel bed as ash free as possible.gina wrote:I wonder if I didn't have enough of an ash bed down when I started the fire and so that's why it was burning so hot? It's slowed down now, with all doors closed and the round damper closed, I'm at about 350-370 on the stove.
Those temps you posted look very good to me, as long as it's keeping you comfortable. Keep with trying to control the heat output of the stove with the primary air controls (air fed to the fuel bed under the grates) and keep that glass door closed. If it continues to run away on you keep cutting primary air. If that isn't fixing the runaways then we'll need to determine if it's getting primary air some other way, like thru a leaky gasket on the lower door (ash door), or something else
Keep up the good work, you'll be a coal expert in no time