Coal Doesn't Fall Onto Grates When I Shake the Stove

I have a Warm Morning Model 400-A, this is my first year burning coal and I love everything about it from the low cost of operation to the heat. I'm having the problem of when I shake the stove, which I do at 3:00am, 12:00pm & again at 8:30 pm, the coal isn't falling onto the grate so shaking does nothing, I have to poke at it from the bottom & top to get it to fall down. I have 2 theories and I have learned the little bit about coal burning I know off of this forum. One theory is the nut coal I'm using is wet since it sat outside before I rented the house & bought the stove & it's got some dirt in it somehow or another. My other theory is maybe I'm burning it too hot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have a warm morning but I remembered this thread " the care and feeding of a Warm Morning Stove." Check it out, maybe you can find something to help. Lisa

The Care and Feeding of a Warm Morning Stove

Hopefully someone with the same stove you have will address specific issues with your grates and firebox design. However, there is no reason that having wet or dirty coal would prevent the ash, and therefore the coal from shaking down to the grates. Burning too hot could cause clinkers which are hardened lumps of ash from falling through the grates and therefore hold up ashes from falling through and therefore prevent the coal from settling down to the grates as you burn and shake. I have heard of bridging, which is the crusty buildup of ashes that will not allow coal to fall down also. Bridgng would also prevent ashes from falling through the grates also. I have experienced, I think minor cases of bridging, where a poke or two down into the coal and ash with a poker has broken it up enough to allow the ashes to be shaken down again.

From your wording of the problem and the fact that you continue to shake ashes, I will guess that you are getting the ashes to fall through the grates. If this is actually the case, and the coal is not following the coal down onto the grates, then it would appear that the nut coal was too big for the size or shape of the firebox, and was jamming up. If your Warm Morining is supposed to take nut size coal, then I am at a loss.

Please describe exactly how you determing that coal is not reaching the grates. Is ash falling through the grates in quantity when you shake down? Are you shaking until you get some red hot ash falling into the ash bin? When you poke the coal from the top do you get a sudden colapse of the heap, or just a little settling?

When you say "maybe I'm burning it too hot", what makes you think that? Is any part of the stove glowing (not the tin shell but the cast iron within)? Do you have a stove thermometer? Does it seem like it gets real hot soon after you load it up with coal? Are you using hard coal? Sorry for all the questions.
Wet/dirty coal isn't the problem as has been mentioned.

Do you have slag building up on your lower firebrick? If you do you ash might be bridging. (forming an arch with the slag at the base of either side) Sometines you can pry it (the slag) off but don't crack your firebrick doing so. You have to live with some slag as it is tough stuff. Part of my routine after I shake and pull the dump grate handle out carefully so not to dump live coals is to knock down any bridging coal or coal ash from above with the dump grate push in at the time of course. Shake a little more til sparks start dropping. I'm not worried about getting all the ash out. I just want to see a little glow here and there from undernieth the grates. Lights out helps to see. If you have course ash with anthricite as I do pulling the dump grate is a neccesity. There is a special handle extention that locks into the dump grate handle to you can do it with the ash door shut. Keep the dust in the stove not in your families lungs. Hope that helps.

PS Hot and wet doesn't matter.

PPS I should of read Griz's post fully. I think he has it right. My Warm Morning works fine with nut or stove coal. Pea if I don't fill it up will work. I've burned bit as big as will fit through the loading door but I'm not a fan of bituminious.

I,m burning the same stove as you and had the same problem only once. It happened 2 days after I burned some scrap wood. It seems that the lighter wood charchol caused the coal to bridge and had to poke coal bed to get it to fall to grates...about 6". I'm also burning nut coal and am now second guessing root cause of my bridging episode after hearing your problem, but as I stated it only happened once

Thanks for all the advice, I backed the air down a little last night & it seemed to fall a little easier this morning, only had to poke once from the bottom, next time it bridges on me I'll look for slag buildup although I gave it a pretty thorough cleaning before I fired it up. I also got some pea coal from the farm I work on that I started mixing in with the nut. I can't burn much of it though as it'll fall through my grates. I thought it was burning too hot because the old owner told me to leave the little door you open to shake it open a little, this stove has a thermostat on the damper I guess you call it? It's where the air comes in on the bottom of the stove and I saw it was completely closed as if maybe it was too hot, I closed the little door and the damper opened a bit. You were saying about a special extension for the grate, I've just been using a welding glove and can firmly grip it with that safely.I will give an update later as to if it's still bridging or if there's slag.

The slag builds up over months of burning. If there weren't any abnormal bulges firmly attached to for firebrick when you cleaned it a short time ago it is very unlikely you would see a noticable build up in such a short time.

With regards to the pea coal falling through the grates I can see if it if you start the stove on pea coal. When I burned pea I started off with nut and transitioned to pea. If you don't over shake the grates you shouldn't have a problem with the pea coal dropping through the grates. Some ash on the grates is a good thing. Not only will it stop unburned coal from falling through, it gives the grates some protection from intense heat.

With regards to bridging, I use it to my advantage. It allows me to shake down without loosing the live coals. I have a L-shaped fireplace poker and after the initial shake down I punch the fire down from above. It really isn't a probem once you get what is going on.

I'm not quite sure how you are controlling the air to the fire. I'm a bit puzzled by your description and I have to get to work. More late tonight.

Well no bridging at lunch time today, coal fell right down for me. I'll have to see how it does tonight. What I meant by having the little door open is if you look at the ash door on the bottom of the stove, there's a little door there that you open to slide the handle out to shake the stove. The previous owner told me to leave it open a little for air to enter, the stove has a mechanical thermostat on it that opens and closes a door on the side by the ash pan under the ceramic coated dress up cover on the right side looking at the stove from the front. The previous owner said he never used it, I thought since I'm using it I may have been giving it too much air. I'll get a pic of it and post it after work. I love the stove though and I only paid $250 for it. I must say I'm a coal burner for life now. Does anyone know the difference between a 400-A and a 400-B? Just curious.

Good luck redneck, sounds like you are gaining on it. I think we all started on a steep learning curve. I would operate the stove as it was designed, i.e. use the thermostatically controlled draft door and not the one someone else told you to use. Then if you find there is a problem with the burn, you can adjust from there. I believe that usually the stove manufacturer knows more than we do. Warm Morning receives good reviews on this forum so I would trust their designed operating procedure unless I had a good reason to do otherwise.
grizz.

Redneckgmcz71 wrote:the stove has a mechanical thermostat on it that opens and closes a door on the side by the ash pan

My 617-A doesn't have that feature. I'm jealous.

Just as an update here, I switched where I got coal from on Saturday and as of yesterday afternoon there was no bridging. I was getting nut coal from kreiders for $210/ton and got some from mussers supply in Columbia for $230/ton, seems to have more heat and be burning slower as I said no bridging.