Blower, Stack Temps, and Smoke

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Two concerns here. First, I get a great boil over most of my flat pan with a good hot fire with either the blower or natural draft. But, my stack glows a little in the first couple feet. I'm getting some burning embers that fly out as well, but nothing crazy. So my first concern is whether I'm burning too hot. Do I need more blower air or more wide open natural draft?

Second, I get a lot of brown/black smoke with each firing. It eventually goes away when the stack temp recovers and then there is no smoke. Again, not enough air? I'm afraid to spin the blower faster for fear of meltdown.

I burn dry softwood split small.

[lpakiz]

Urban,
Turn your blower down a minute or so after firing. If you are getting a good boil, there is no reason to have your stack red hot. Do you have a stack temp gauge? Digitals are GREAT. If mine went down, I wouldn't know how to fire.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

So is there too much air causing dark smoke? I always thought dark smoke meant inadequate oxygen for combustion. I do have a digital stack temp gauge and the boil is best at 1200-1300F measured at eye level. 1000F or less there's no glow but also not a great boil. BTW the glow is only really noticeable in the dark. I mainly want to avoid frequent bursts of thick dark smoke. Will have to experiment.

[Jonnyp390]

It is my understanding that if you are getting black smoke, you are overloading your firebox. Try putting in a little less wood than you were before, but fill it more often. I used to let it burn for a while (15-20 minutes), then fill it to capacity. I would get a lot of black smoke too. Now I fire about every 8-10 minutes adding 5 or 6 small splits and don't seem to get any black smoke. I do not use a blower, so that may make your situation different than mine. Good luck and have fun.

[adk1]

I use a blower and have a stack thermometer.,I try to keep my stack temps at 1000 degrees sometimes I pin it as high as it goes. I load alternating doors a few splits at a time about every 4 minutes. I basically keep the thing rippin. When u start to lose temp the syrup in your draw off will start to go backwards and u always want to keep things movin forwards to where u draw feom

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Well I think I solved my problem. I experimented with fire size and blower speed. With my setup, I think I found the right amount of wood and air and now the dark smoke is a non-issue. I also feed the fire more often with smaller amounts. I'm running the stack 1000-1250F with a good boil and just hot gasses coming out. Hardly any smoke. Thanks for the suggestions here. They worked.