Baffled

I absolutely agree prodave, but I have time and patience so eventually I hope to get it right. Many thanks for your input. Kieran
 
Hi, nice stove,that's quite an achievement.I've installed hundreds of stoves shore-side(ex hetas fitter) but only two on boats and that includes the one on my boat. Boat installs are a pain.My stove took a few goes to working 99% of the time.IMHO a flue 2" in dia is too small, 4" would be best, maybe 3" would work.Again imho the total length of the flue needs to be 9 feet min.I only burn smokeless "eggs",one charge lasts me 5 hours min.Any part of the flue outside the cabin must be insulated(I made my own).Also I have 4 CO alarms,belt and braces approach! plus I've no desire to die.Prodave is spot on re airwash and primary air control but on boats smokeless coal is the way to go for me.
 
rubbishman said:
Hi, nice stove,that's quite an achievement.I've installed hundreds of stoves shore-side(ex hetas fitter) but only two on boats and that includes the one on my boat. Boat installs are a pain.My stove took a few goes to working 99% of the time.IMHO a flue 2" in dia is too small, 4" would be best, maybe 3" would work.Again imho the total length of the flue needs to be 9 feet min.I only burn smokeless "eggs",one charge lasts me 5 hours min.Any part of the flue outside the cabin must be insulated(I made my own).Also I have 4 CO alarms,belt and braces approach! plus I've no desire to die.Prodave is spot on re airwash and primary air control but on boats smokeless coal is the way to go for me.
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ProDave said:
Our stove is a Dunsley Highlander 5.

The idea of the top draw for burning wood is to create an air wash. Basically the top draw is in the top of the door above the glass so draws the combustion air down to the fire across the glass helping to keep the glass clear. The smoke tends to rise up at the back, wash over the baffle, then up into the flue.

The exact position of the air intake and it's size is very critical. Once we broke the glass. Only a little corner broke off right at the top. Now I would have thought that would have had the effect of allowing more air in and making it impossible to shut the fire down, resulting in it being over fired. But no, it had the opposite effect and the fire was almost impossible to light and get it to burn properly until we replaced the glass.

I suspect commercial stoves have gone through a long design / evolution process, probably a lot by trial and error, to arrive at a design that works. The OP has built a stove that does not work so well, and it probably only wants a small adjustment, but knowing what it needs is a bit of a black art.
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K-ron said:
Firstly, many thanks for all the informative replies. As prodave says, I thought it was good to have an air intake at the bottom for burning charcoal/coal etc and the top vent for burning wood. This is how a morso squirrel is set up and I have found to be excellent to control. Last night I lit a small amount of lump charcoal (with a fairly strong breeze, around 20 knots) and it drew beautifully, I then added some really small pieces of wood and it was great. Then I added some larger lumps of that compressed paper saw dust stuff and it was ok but often needed the bottom ash door open to help keep the wood lit and not smoulder. It certainly seems that lighting with a little charcoal to get the flue hot works wonders. Like all the stoves I have had in the past it seems to have its own character and I need to get to know it better before I start cutting it up! Please keep any other information coming and I will continue to experiment and feed back. Also the flue is centered and to the right as you look at it. The baffle is welded on the three edges, right side, front and back - hope that makes sense. I thought the baffle would help stop the heat going out the flue which I'm sure it does but makes it harder to start.

Once again, thank you everyone.
Kieran
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Hi rubbishman, do you mean that the external flue pipe should be double lined? Ie should I consider placing an additional pipe over the existing one.

Also, yes I have co alarms as is most prudent.
 
Stove now working brilliantly, I simply need to use a little charcoal to get it going and warm up the flue pipe and it burns beautifully. I just need to make a small adjustment on the bottom door to allow a little more air in. At the moment I need to keep the bottom door a jar, which is ok whilst attended but not so otherwise. The main problem I had was using those ghastly compressed logs, they are smokey, smelly and produce tons of ash. I dread to think what's in them.

Once again thanks to all the replies, I'm glad I didn't take the grinder to it!

Kieran
 
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