Yet another struggle with my OWB. I did a complete cleaning a month ago and due to other projects etc. I wasn't able to start it for the season until now.
First thing I noticed was that the blower wasn't working. Fortunately, I had a spare so I was able to replace that.
I have good, seasoned wood, but it was wet since it had rained most of the day. I dug through the stack to get some drier pieces from the middle. I used a lot of bone-dry kindling and paper. Lit the fire and it seemed to start. I ran it with the by-pass open for quite a while and closed it when it got to 450 or so. Then it proceeded to choke itself out.
I stirred up the coals and repositioned the wood. It seemed like it may have bridged. Ran it with the bypass open again until it got to mid-400's, shut the bypass and it again choked itself out over the course of an hour at best.
I know the wood was wet-ish, but by the second time I tried the wood was good and dried. Fuel, air and ignition source is all that fire needs. I think my air may be the issue? When the door is open for loading, the small tube on the lower air supply elbow is open and I can see/feel/hear air coming out of the air charge tube.
When the door is closed, the upper air supply elbow is open. When is the larger tube on the lower air supply elbow supposed to open?
It seems to me, that until the water gets to temperature, all the tubes should be open and blowing a ton of air in there no? The water temp only reached 110 degrees... Any help/suggestions?