1 Match Club

Am hoping to be in the one match club this year.. only problem is the weather forecast for next week is to be in the mid 70's. is there any way I can keep this thing burning

Thanks !

Wile on the topic once the new boiler is installed in this house we're going for the one match club... forever.

Nice! First LIFETIME inductee into the one match hall of fame. Only fitting that our mayor would be the first.

So far so good for me. I didn't need to shutdown to re-solder a 90° fitting I fabricated a couple years ago. I just shook down, then loaded up, then drained the coils & took everything apart. Had to let it spit water & steam for a while ... but once that was done it was smooth sailing. I had forgot that I marked each coil & each fitting to go in the same exact way it came out ... so when I tightened the fittings down with them in the wrong spots, it stressed a couple soldered joints & began to leak. One immediately, and then another after 24 hours of heat. All set now though - and I'm still in it!

I fired up Tuesday night. Had to relieve pressure once to repair a bad joint that didn't show without heat. Go figure huh?
5 minutes and back up and running strong.

I am happy if I make it on one tank on my hand torch

mplynn64 wrote:Am hoping to be in the one match club this year.. only problem is the weather forecast for next week is to be in the mid 70's. is there any way I can keep this thing burning

Thanks !

That's what happened to me last year. Even with the stove in a low idle I had to let it go out for a week and re-light it; it was just too hot in the house. Do you have any thermometers on your stove? You can start turning down your air intake and just let it sit there and slowly burn. Many stoves will hold the fire at a stove front temp of 180* or so. Spend the weekend seeing just how low you can run the temp without the stove going out. You'll know if the temp starts to fall to increase the amount of air. Coal takes time to respond but it's important to know how low your stove can idle. Using a smaller size coal will help, too. The smaller pieces block the air flow. You can also use the ash to block the air somewhat; just don't shake as often or as thoroughly. If it gets too hot in the house, open your windows. I'd keep the stove full of coal as you can, it will block the air flow. It may look as if the fire is dead but the stove front thermometer will tell you otherwise. If that temp isn't going down, you have a fire burning. Open up your air flow and shake the stove well to bring up the temps in the evening chill. Good Luck, Lisa

Not sure I'm in the one match club but I struck one on October 10th at 1800 and it's been going since. I say I'm not sure if it counts because there were those few days in September where I messed around the Chubby and went through a bunch of matches.

mplynn64 wrote:the weather forecast for next week is to be in the mid 70's. is there any way I can keep this thing burning

Try piling coal in the center of the firebox only--in my stove maybe 10 lbs. Open vents to get this started well, then close them way down. The periphery of the coalbed will go out entirely, which is just what you want--temp way down but still active fire that can easily be revived. The pile spreads when you shake down 12-16 hours later, and you can put in another pile to continue this process more or less indefinitely.

Richard S. wrote:Wile on the topic once the new boiler is installed in this house we're going for the one match club... forever.

That's where I'm at Richard. I ran my boiler with everything on low (probably too low) last spring. What a mess!!!!! I shut it down for the summer. Even though I cleaned it out good, everything was rusted up on the inside come fall. Now, after having it fired back up again, things are back to looking good. Thought I'd try going 365 days this time around.

You need to set the flue pipe up right to do that so you can clean it quick. Here's from the old house:
1. Is the barometric damper on a T, it's a straight shot into the thimble.

2. there's a T here with a cap on the end. You can open it up. We used to just get a Vacumn and suck the ash out. You really never had to remove the flue pipe at all but we would disconnect from the end pipe coming out of the boiler just to make sure we got all the ash. It was never fully removed.

3. Chimney cleanout.

The entire length of flue pipe was easily accessible from the T or the little bit going into the thimble from the baro. We didn't even have to take it out of the thimble.

Well looks like I'll be in the club for only a week. Gonna be almost 80° here next week! I'll have 330° boiler water if I keep it lit!

Same here, weather says 70* all this week. But I refuse to shut down the Chubby. So, I'm keeping it stocked but banking it way down. I expect my house to be 80* - 90* all week. Time to open some windows I s'pose.

I'm On Fire wrote: Time to open some windows I s'pose.

I has a customer that mentioned he did that at this time of the year because it saved him money, he was running the electric or whatever he had through October or November and he said it would have been cheaper to just open the windows during the day.

My wife called and complained this afternoon, "I shut the air on the stove all the way. It's still sitting at 300*. Its 82* in the house, 78* outside Quinn is sitting on the floor in just her diaper and socks and I've opened all of the windows. There is only a little bit of red coals showing and a whole bunch of black. Why won't this thing just go out?"

My response was a hearty laugh and a, "I dunno what is going on with it, but that's crazy."

I haven't shaken the stove down since yesterday morning or added any new coal since yesterday morning.

I'm On Fire wrote:My wife called and complained this afternoon, "I shut the air on the stove all the way. It's still sitting at 300*. Its 82* in the house, 78* outside Quinn is sitting on the floor in just her diaper and socks and I've opened all of the windows. There is only a little bit of red coals showing and a whole bunch of black. Why won't this thing just go out?"

My response was a hearty laugh and a, "I dunno what is going on with it, but that's crazy."

I haven't shaken the stove down since yesterday morning or added any new coal since yesterday morning.

Seems as though you've found your sweet spot for idling your Chubbie

Mine when out last night. I had added about 10 Lb of coal to it on Sunday evening and closed the thermostatic air down then opened 9 windows about a foot each. Stove room was in the low 80s. Closed the air down twice more during the day and let it was out this morning. It's currently 73 inside and 69 outside. I'm enjoying this little run of warm weather Looks like the weather will be amenable to coal burning by the weekend.