Help Maintaining a Burn

[RBZ5416]

I have a Stovax Stockton 4 that is around 10 years old. It's been largely unused in that time because I just can't seen to get it run "properly". It has two controls, a primary air inlet at the bottom & an "air wash" at the top. Manual states to get a good burn going & close the primary, so far so good. The problem is then adjusting the air wash. This has a total travel from open to closed of little more than an inch, which seems to result in only two possible states.

 

With the control fully open, logs burn hard & fast. Nudging the control closed fractions at a time does very little to the burn, until it suddenly reduces significantly. This all looks good with a gentle burn but will be followed by the flame dying completely a few minutes later. A nudge back in the other direction does nothing & so the control has to be fully opened to reignite. Rinse & repeat.

 

The consumption with the control open is too high & no flame is equally of no use. I have a thermostat on the stove pipe & am getting up around the 150 degree C before attempting a controlled burn. Being a small stove it can only take 200mm logs & don't know if this is part of the problem? Flue has been swept & logs are very well seasoned & dry.

 

With the current low temps I had another go this week, probably the first time in at least three+ years. Actually long enough to have forgotten about this issue but it soon raised it's head again. Any suggestions of why I'm struggling so much with this would be greatly appreciated before I give up for good.

[Will C]

Have you got the slider underneath the stove? Our bigger Stockton (8 or 10?) has and it puts air into the back of the fire box. Makes a huge difference, pull it forward to open it. 
 

unfortunately our Stockton has all but fallen apart in 5 seasons and I won’t be buying another, low heat and poor build quality IMO 

[RBZ5416]

No sadly, that was added to later models.

[Paul in the woods]

This doesn't sound too dissimilar to our Hunter stove. We mainly have the top airwash vents fully open as it's our main heating and cooling source. Half closing doesn't seem to do much and fully closing does too much.

 

Have you cleaned out the top of the stove? Have you tried closing the airwash but then nudging it open a bit before the fire does down?

[woody paul]

Baffle plate the right way around, makes one hell of a differents. 

[Dan Maynard]

How many logs have you got in the firebox? A single log sitting on small amount of coals is hard to burn, two logs have a gap where the heat builds up so will burn nicely on much lower air flow.

 

I just wonder if you need more pieces of smaller wood to burn with the vent at mid position.

 

Our Hunter is a little bit the same, we never close the airwash below half as it loses draw. Spends all the time at about 3/4 and then regulate also with the fuelling.

[RBZ5416]

1 hour ago, Paul in the woods said:

Have you cleaned out the top of the stove? Have you tried closing the airwash but then nudging it open a bit before the fire does down?

Stove was cleaned out by the sweep & has been the same from new. Operating the ariwash backwards is worth a try thanks.

1 hour ago, woody paul said:

Baffle plate the right way around, makes one hell of a difference. 

As far as I know. As above, it's been like it from new so I would hope that the installer would have got that right!

1 hour ago, Dan Maynard said:

How many logs have you got in the firebox? A single log sitting on small amount of coals is hard to burn, two logs have a gap where the heat builds up so will burn nicely on much lower air flow.

Not much I can do in that regard because the firebox is so small. So two logs of decent size would be a squeeze & small enough logs would need almost constant refuelling. I'll have a rummage through the logs & select a bunch for a session to try though.

Edited December 17, 2022 by RBZ5416

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

How many logs have you got in the firebox? A single log sitting on small amount of coals is hard to burn, two logs have a gap where the heat builds up so will burn nicely on much lower air flow.

 

I just wonder if you need more pieces of smaller wood to burn with the vent at mid position.

 

Our Hunter is a little bit the same, we never close the airwash below half as it loses draw. Spends all the time at about 3/4 and then regulate also with the fuelling.

Yes I tend to leave the air control fixed (as it jams up with ash) and control output by the amount of logs in the firebox. Unless the firebox is really hot with a bed of glowing charcoal  I need two or three logs to keep it flaming and my logs are below 17%mc.

[Stubby]

Get a Burley . 🙂

[woody paul]

1 hour ago, RBZ5416 said:

As far as I know. As above, it's been like it from new so I would hope that the installer would have got that right!

It will fit both ways, so I would check first.