building a Vortex stove - 165mm

[recumby]

After some extra days of stove-work, the stove is ready !!

Finished masonry:  (as you can see I used all available normal bricks, leftover bricks and even some other random type of bricks I found in the backyard  )


Clay-plastering of the stove:


The finished stove with the fist fire:


Now I'm slowly building up the quantity of wood. Started with 750grams, 1kg, 1.4kg and 1.8kg. I'm waiting eagerly untill the vortex will show-up

[martyn]

That is great that you have progressed so far but it will take time to dry out, you slopping floor looks a bit to steep?

[recumby]

Indeed, the sloping is a bit steeper than normal. But at this moment, I'm more concerned about the drying of the stove. Anyone has an idea how long it takes for the stove to dry?
I couldn't install a bypass in my layout. I think the water takes all the heat from the smoke that there isn't enough to create/sustain the draft. So now the smoke finds it's way through all possible openings 😱😱

[Vortex]

It'll take a few weeks for it to dry. Trying to light a cold wet stove without a bypass will be challenging.. If you have an access hole on the chimney try putting a blow torch in there to warm up the chimney before lighting the stove. Also I'd leave the stove door open when it's not going, as the air flow through will help to dry it out.

[recumby]

Thanks for the ideas!!

The blowtorch-thing is already in use (I always do that once or twice at the start of the could season)

The open door was new to me. I opened the 2 soot doors and guess what, condense-liquid was flowing down!

[recumby]

So here I'm back after one more week of "drying-fires".   Until yesterday, I had to use the blow torch before each fire.   The last days (as the fires were slightly bigger, I guess 2or 3kg of wood), it was even necessary to use the blow torch during (!) the fire instead of only just before lighting the stove.    I was confident that everything would work out fine, but I must admit, doubts were slowly rising in my mind... 
The only way I could monitor the drying progress was via the temperature of the exhaust gasses.   During the first week of burning, the exhaust temp didn't change much.   It stayed around 25°C (77°F) before, during and after lighting the stove .     2 days ago, the exhaust temp slowly started to increase.   Yesterday-evening, it reached 50°C (122°F).  As this showed the drying was finally going well, I couldn't resist any longer.  So today I filled the stove a bit more and prayed to the god of fire for a good outcome.   And yes!! No need for the blow torch any more and above all, I got a nice vortex!!!  I must say that seeing a vortex in real life is even more beautiful than on video 


You can see the glass of the door is still black due to all the cold and wet fires of the last 10 days.  The vortex-window was black too, but due to the heat,  most of the creosote burned away during todays fire.

[martyn]

Looking good! Keep us informed ad to how it works in a few more days time…..

[Jura]

Nov 1, 2024 12:40:03 GMT -8 recumby said:

You can see the glass of the door is still black due to all the cold and wet fires of the last 10 days.  The vortex-window was black too, but due to the heat,  most of the creosote burned away during todays fire.

So far so good..I wanted to ask if you have the oryginal glass in the afterburner's door
afaik it was rated to 600 C ( if can correctly discern Pisla's door model.
Thanks for sharing.

Btw. As to.cold start I recently had a chance to lit a huge, freshly finished single bell masonry stove with a 2 m long bench as the only flue gases Path to chimney. 3 tonnes of wet mass.
It had no bypass.
investor was brave enough to see how it will go.
To my astonishment it started without any issues.(Top lit) But after 6 minutes it chocked. all the smoke was back in firebox and afterburner exiting even by the very smallest opening in the doors.

[recumby]

Nov 11, 2024 13:16:00 GMT -8 Jura said:

So far so good..I wanted to ask if you have the oryginal glass in the afterburner's door
afaik it was rated to 600 C ( if can correctly discern Pisla's door model.
Thanks for sharing.

Btw. As to.cold start I recently had a chance to lit a huge, freshly finished single bell masonry stove with a 2 m long bench as the only flue gases Path to chimney. 3 tonnes of wet mass.
It had no bypass.
investor was brave enough to see how it will go.
To my astonishment it started without any issues.(Top lit) But after 6 minutes it chocked. all the smoke was back in firebox and afterburner exiting even by the very smallest opening in the doors.

Hi Jura
Yes, it is a Pisla-door HTT631 with the original glass. I have no idea of the max temp resistance of the glass.

Concerning the could/wet start. Indeed there is no issue at al during the first minutes.
Sometimes it goes fine up to 15 min. But then al of a sudden the stove smokes immensly. I think during the first minutes, the new, hotter smoke can easily push the cold gasses through the chimney (simple rule of gravity in the bell). Once the smoke in the bell reaches a certain temp, there isn't enough difference in temp, so gravity isn't helping any more. Then the smoke has nowhere to go but through every (im)possible opening.

[recumby]

And concerning my stove. I can only say that it burns well. I had to try a few times to find the correct stacking of wood (maximal stacking works fine:-)) and air inlet. I tried once with a closed primary air inlet (no air coming through the bottom peak of the V-shape) but that did't worked well at all. Firstly during the fire-stage, the fire was remarkebly slower and afterwards, it took a decade before the embers were finished.

So now, I simply fire the stove with the prescribed secondary air inlet (with a little primary air through the V-shape), making sure to use enough kindling... and it works just fine.

My congratulations to all contributers of the vortex-stove-design on this forum!!!

[Jura]

Nov 14, 2024 23:54:56 GMT -8 recumby said:

. But then al of a sudden the stove smokes immensly. I think during the first minutes, the new, hotter smoke can easily push the cold gasses through the chimney (simple rule of gravity in the bell). Once the smoke in the bell reaches a certain temp, there isn't enough difference in temp, so gravity isn't helping any more. Then the smoke has nowhere to go but through every (im)possible opening.

.

I always thought that this kind of chocking, with cold and wet stoves happens when the heat from the very beginning of the combustion makes the stove to warm up and evaporate its water content. and due to a.significant mass of newly crated, relatively cold water vapor is stuck in the chimney creating a perfect cork.
That's what I was told.

[Jura]

Jun 27, 1975 21:35:29 GMT -8 recumby said:

Yes, it is a Pisla-door HTT631 with the original glass. I have no idea of the max temp resistance of the glass opening.

I addressed this issue as very long time ago down the vortex thread it was concluded the glass in the afterburner shall be rated up to 850 deg C (if I remember correctly. )
Maybe Trev can correct me..I can not find this post.

[Jura]

Oct 23, 2024 9:15:40 GMT -8 Vortex said:

.... If you have an access hole on the chimney try putting a blow torch in there to warm up the chimney before lighting the stove.

I was told ( by an experienced masonry )to be cautious when warming up the chimney with torch.
If the chimney has any build up it may ignite causing chimney fire.
A a few minutes of working hair dryer shall suffice. Just saying.