Going Out!!!

Well not sure what happen... here it is.. Started stove sunday Morning, set hopper at highest setting , Burned awesome till last night. 8 pm... give a good shake.. poke.. slice.... Seemed to be good.... 3 am come down to check stove... co monitor at 50... stove all but out... CO rising... get out buckets... empty stove.... open windows clear air... back to bed... get up this morning... cleaned out the stove really not see ing anything out of the ordinary... not sure what happen?? Could it be bad coal??? not sure how old the coal is... any body?? please some help!!!!

Well the coal is about 300 million years old, give or take a few million so I don't think it's the coal. I'm not familiar with your stove but I'm sure we have folks who are and I'm sure they will chime in. But off hand I'd say it has to do with how you did the shake down and reloading of the stove. Coal fires are not like wood fires. They don't like to be messed with. And when you do mess with them you need to be careful. First of all, timing is important. You don't want to let the fire get too low before you do the shake and reload. You should open the ash door and let the fire get going well. Then shake only until you start to see live embers dropping into the ash pan. Every stove is different so that's why I'm hoping other will offer advice as to how to add coal to this stove. My Jotul is pretty forgiving as it has a tall skinny combustion chamber. It's hard to screw it up. But some stoves if you shake too much or too hard or not enough....you get the idea. Then add the coal. Shaking a fire that's too low can kill it. The troubling part of your post is the CO. Tell us about your chimney, vent pipe, etc. Pics would be nice.

chimney I beleive is fine... 5 inch black pipe... baro damper... into a 6 inch clay... whenever the stove is going out or Is not hot enough I get the Co issue.. I ahve a good draft when the stove is going good. as I have checke it with a draft guage... running -.04 as within th stove specs... thinking maybe I shook it too much and with the hopper set all the way up I prbably went to far with it.. I usually do make sure the stove is hot before I shake... then after I sheke I slice...making sure I go through the grate... ... It is back and running and seems to be fine right now...

I ran a Franco for years. Make sure your clean out covers are
tight and sealed on the heat exchanger corners. Check all the
other castings for cracks and leaks.

Good luck.

Another thing to consider- It sounds like you are saying your chimney doesn't have a good draft without a good fire going. Make sure your chimney is at least two feet higher than any part of the roof withing 10 feet of the chimney top. Mine meets that criteria, and still can get a down draft in a north wind.

Hang in there. I got your PM and am sending you info requested. Never had a CO problem. Make sure you check the areas TSB mentioned. There is also an "exhaust" area that has cement sealing it.

Sounds like a chimney problem to me also. What is the rest of the chimney after the 6 inch clay? It seems that it is down-drafting or you are losing draft through leaks in the stove. Did you check those rear clean out ports? Look at the flap controlled by the thermostat. It should be open.

Richard

One thing I forgot to mention. If you have a new house
that is very tight, you have to be careful about using the
clothes dryer or if you have a radon exhaust system. New
houses are so tight, getting good draft is problematic with
out opening up a bit.

Tom

tsb wrote:One thing I forgot to mention. If you have a new house
that is very tight, you have to be careful about using the
clothes dryer or if you have a radon exhaust system. New
houses are so tight, getting good draft is problematic with
out opening up a bit.

Tom

Good point about tight houses but a radon system should not affect positive or negative pressure in the building envelope. It only creates negative pressure under the basement slab.

From reading all of the post I believe I may be overtending the stove... I re lite yesterday and it has been burning well not really sure what happen. I am in northeast PA ... Easton area.. As for the chimney it is over 3 ft taller then the furthest point of the house. The house was built in 1987... and is very well insulated that I can tell as even when the stove went out the night before the temp in the house did not drop much.. I also try to keep at least 1 window cracked in the room where the stove is. The previous owner has told me he never had issues... of course that was when I bought the house. .. Will have to keep learning... I appreciate all the info and help.. God bless all of you...

franco b wrote:Sounds like a chimney problem to me also. What is the rest of the chimney after the 6 inch clay? It seems that it is down-drafting or you are losing draft through leaks in the stove. Did you check those rear clean out ports? Look at the flap controlled by the thermostat. It should be open.

Richard

The flap does open and close...

Yesterday I took the day off of work and completely broke down the stove and cleaned piece by piece ( that is what I could get apart) the access doors I could not get apart (for fear of breaking something) or opened but looking though and vaccumming I do believe it is all opened.. I did notice however some coal in the exhaust ports not enought to block but a few nuggets here and there.. and alos some ash in the air port at the bttom back of the stove.

By access doors I assume you mean the clean out ports on the two rear corners of the stove.

These are held in place by two knurled nuts which indicate they are not meant to be excessively tightened. Being knurled they were meant to be hand tightened. The ports were sealed originally by a very fragile asbestos like gasket which if they were ever removed are probably disintegrated.

You do need to remove them to do a good job of cleaning the passages. They are probably rusted in place. To remove use the following procedure: first spray or apply a bit of penetrating oil
Grasp the nut with a Channelock pliers and apply just enough pressure to stress the bolt lightly. While holding the nut with the pliers, strike the handles with a wrench to set up vibrations. Do this in both directions until it starts to give, then slowly work it back and forth until loose. Moderate force plus vibration. Striking the pliers handle is to set up vibration, not force, so tap rapidly for maximum vibration. You do not want a handle with a cushion on it. If that does not work then apply heat with a torch to the nut and before the heat penetrates to the central screw apply the force and vibration again.

After cleaning the passages which will probably have a few inches of fly ash in them re-seal the ports if the gaskets are in good shape you can re-use them, other wise just fasten the ports and butter the outside seam with furnace cement. Apply some anti-seize compound to the threads to make it easy to get them off again.

While the stove is cold turn the thermostat to the number one position. the flap should be closed. If not adjust if you wish. The older stoves were set up to have the flap open about 1/4 inch when set at one. There is nothing critical here as you will adjust for the output and burn time as the stove operates. Make sure the small flap door within the larger flap is free to move freely.

WE still don't know about your chimney. Is it masonry and if so what is the flue size and is it inside or on an outside wall? Is it a fireplace?

Warm air rises but cold air sinks. The air at the top of the chimney when not being used is colder than the air at ground level, so the flow through the chimney will be down. When you apply heat to the air it reverses this and the chimney draws. Usually when it is desired to let a fire die, or if it does it on its own, there is enough residual heat left in the chimney to keep it drawing until the fire is out and residual gasses in the stove are exhausted. Yours is not doing this and the reason has to be found for safe operation. It could very well be that when you are burning hot and long enough the mass of the chimney will be warm enough.

Richard

franco b wrote:WE still don't know about your chimney. Is it masonry and if so what is the flue size and is it inside or on an outside wall? Is it a fireplace?

Richard

Chimney....

from back of stove this is the chimney..

5 inch adjustable elbow into a 5 inch striaght (about 6 inches) INTO BARO DAMPER INTO 5 - 6 INCH COUPLING INTO 6 INCH CLAY ROUND... ALL THIS IS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BACK THEN GOES INTO WALL INTO A BRICK CHIMNEY LINED WITH 6 INCH SQAURE CHIMNEY FLUE.. CHIMNEY RISES ABOUT 3 FT ABOVE THE PEAK OF THE ROOF.

Now the latest is this...

Running stove at 3 1/2 - 4 yesterday outside temps were about 65-68 kept going no problem....

Thermometer on stove pipe reading 200 will have to see again today temps to be in the high 60's once again...