Can I really damage my stove by overheating?

questions

The fact that the body of any wood-burning/multifuel stove is made from cast iron or similarly durable materials tends to give the impression they are in effect “bombproof”. Many people automatically assume they can throw in as much wood or solid fuel as they like with no repercussions, simply greater heat output. However, this is a common misconception and overheating can prove to be extremely costly in the long term.

Optimum efficiency

Each stove will have an optimum efficiency which relates to a specific temperature within the combustion chamber. The fact that the majority of stoves today have primary, secondary and tertiary combustion phases means that all excess material/gas is burnt and burnt again to create more heat. If you use the analogy of a car, your vehicle will be more efficient at for example 70 miles an hour on a motorway than if you were speeding at 100 miles an hour. The faster your speed above 70 miles an hour the less efficient the vehicle becomes and the chance of greater wear and tear and need for replacement parts. The situation is no different for a wood-burning or multifuel stove.

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If you continuously overfill the combustion chamber with fuel then eventually you will begin to see wear and tear and even potential damage to the normally durable body of the stove.

Baffle plate

The baffle plate is an intrinsic part of any stove as it basically ensures that the heat created in the combustion chamber does not escape through the flue but is instead circulated around the stove and emitted efficiently into your room. Aside from the fact that over filling the combustion chamber will create more heat, the high the pile of logs, for example, the close the heat is to the baffle plate. We have seen situations where baffle plates have cracked and disintegrated or simply bent and buckled under the continuous high temperatures created.

It is common to replace your baffle plate every few years, just imagine the wear and tear and the excessive heat this element experiences day in day out, but overloading your combustion chamber with fuel will just speed up the erosion process.

Fire bricks

Fire bricks are also an essential part of the combustion chamber, effectively deflecting heat back into the centre of the combustion chamber leading to higher and higher temperatures. Over filling of the combustion chamber with wood or solid fuel places more pressure on the fire bricks, leading to cracks and erosion, and more and more heat escaping in an inefficient manner. The erosion of fire bricks and baffle plates will also place greater pressure on the solid metal body of your stove. Under normal circumstances the body of the stove is able to absorb heat at the optimum rate but overheating and overloading will over time eventually cause irreparable damage.

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Flue pipe

You will often see stove owners with a relatively simple thermometer sticker attached to their flue pipe. This automatically alerts the owner to instances of overheating and over fuelling of the combustion chamber. Time and time again we see evidence of flue pipes being damaged due to over fuelling and the excessive heat which this creates. When you bear in mind the cost of flue pipes, and various attachments, for many people this will be a relatively expensive misjudgement!

Sometimes, less is more

Aside from the fact that overloading your wood-burning/multifuel stove with fuel will speed up the erosion of elements such as the baffle plate, flue pipe, fire bricks and cause damage to the body of your stove, it also means you will use more fuel in a less efficient manner. The use of greater volumes of fuel will also lead to an increase in the cost and reduction in the overall efficiency of your machine.

So, ensure that you read the manufacturer’s instructions with specific emphasis on optimum temperatures and the issue of overheating. The idea that heavy cast-iron stove bodies can be impacted by “overheating” may seem bizarre to some people but for others it can be a very expensive learning curve!