Warm Morning Normal Operating Temp?

A question for you guys. I'm burning a warm morning 400 A, using nut coal. baro damper set @ .04. using the damper control ,only, on the side of the stove set on high I'm only burning around 250*.
If I open the door ment for inserting the shaker handle I can get her cooking to 350* to 400*. At 250* the house temp stays 68-72 which is fine with outside temps in the upper 20's, but will probably need a hotter burn to maintain indoor temp as it gets colder. I read cokehead's post about filling in the corner holes in the fire brick to allow air to flow thru coal bed as opposed to around it, and that seems to make sense but was looking to see if I may be doing something wrong that is preventing a hotter burn.

I don't use a baro damp. I just have the manual one in the pipe. A little tweak of the dampner and I can get her reved up pretty good. I leave the corners open although they require regular cleaning from loading.Its 10 degrees outside and I'm still running 40 percent buck and 60 nut. House is at 74. If it gets colder I'll modify the coal percentage.I'll try to find thermometer to get a normal run reading. Your talking 250 on the browm shell or 250 on the belly?

Hanover Breaker wrote:I don't use a baro damp. I just have the manual one in the pipe. A little tweak of the dampner and I can get her reved up pretty good. I leave the corners open although they require regular cleaning from loading.Its 10 degrees outside and I'm still running 40 percent buck and 60 nut. House is at 74. If it gets colder I'll modify the coal percentage.I'll try to find thermometer to get a normal run reading. Your talking 250 on the browm shell or 250 on the belly?

Hey Hanover, you don't have trouble with the buckwheat falling through the grates? I have a Model 400, and I have plenty of nut and stove coal, but I also have about 1.5 tons of buckwheat which I was going to give away to a friend who has a stoker, but I have not heard from him yet. How are you burning it successfully? I understand you probably have the buckwheat on top of nut, but what happens when the nut shakes down? Don't you end up dumping the fire!?! :-O

I'm taking my reading on the stovepipe 6" below the baro damper. curious, are you controling temp by using different size coal? and where should I be taking my temp reading from? was 10* out side the other night and the stove did well, keeping house at 68*seems to want to level out and burn around 275-300* when I leave shaker door open 1/4 way.

Hanover I think you just educated me a little on the placement of my thermometer, I placed it on the belly and am reading 450* when the stack temp is at 275*. thinking this is good because the heat is staying in the stove and not up the chimney. Forgive me I'm new at this, 1st year burning. A better question would be, where is the best place to read your stove temp?

From what I have found the baro should be at .02. I am using the same stove and with the side damper only it will run you out of the house. As for blocking the corners, It will not make a difference. If you force the air through the caol you will push it out the chimney and over heat your stove. You may have to open the front draft a little. Have you only used one place and one kind of coal? maybe you could try a different kind or place to get it.

with the side damper only, its burning a constant 400* with the thermometer on the belly. using the small door on the front I can maintain 550* if need be. and if I accidently leave ash door cracked 650*+ is atainable(oops!). The accidental door thing did bring to my attention the saftey mechanism on the side damper though. the damper slider is attached to a thermal spring that automatically closes the damper through expansion. I belive this also maintains consistant temp by automatically regulating damper position as the stove temp changes. just a neat find I wasn't aware of. as for the type of coal I'm kinda stuck with what I have as I stocked up for the season. I do however think I'ts good coal as I know several others using it with no complaints. I think my original issue of low temps was from measureing temp at the wrong location as I'm easily able to reach those higher temps. this is my first time using coal and so far it has reached or exceeded my expectations, and thanks to this forum and the many people like you with experience and knowlege my coal transition has been fun and effective.

check your draft, in the operation and installation manual ,quote the overall hight of the chimnley from the flue outlet ofthe heater to the top of the chimney ........... should be no less than ten feet if there are no elbows in the flue conection and at least 15feet if there are on more than two, and should extand three feet above the roof line i''''''''ve had two they are great stoves they hold 5%of a ton. wow