Chuuby Stove - Leave Side Holes Open All Night ?

jnow that Im paranoid about UAE gas buildup, Im wondering if I should leave the 2 holes open on the side of my chubby when I tuck it in at night ?

I have a full belly of coal in it and have it damped down to a low idle although the stove body temp is around 500

Ive just noticed that if I leave the holes open, a blue blanket dances on the coal - burinig off the gasses of the fresh coal.
if I close the 2 holes the blues go away.

So, by closing the holes am I allowing the gases to build ?
Should I be letting the over-top air in to burn off the gases with a blue blanket ?

What would Larry do ?

Hi Larry, I had a coal Chubby tor two years. I found that if I left the two sides open, the coal burned up much faster. Look inside where the pot is. you can see two holes the same size as the ones on the outside rim. The two inside holes are to bring some air from the underside through the air inlet on the ash pan door. I read the instructions from the man who sold it to me, they said the two side holes were designed for burning bituminous coal. The holes are to allow extra air to burn off the volatiles. Opening the holes when I burned Bit. in it, caused the stove very hot until the volatiles were burned off.
I always kept them closed and never had any problems burning anthracite in it.

I burn anthracite and I only open one when I put a new charge of coal in. I usually leave it open until I see the blue flames, then I close it. Last night I did a little experiment and left it open all night. I found that with the anthracite it slowed the burn down. I woke up around 2am and noticed that the body temp was 450*. Just for giggles I closed it and waited a few minutes the body temp went back to 500*.

Best thing for you to do is to play around with the stove, see what works best for you and your house.

I've only been burning coal since late September and I'm still learning too.

I've been experimenting with leaving just one open but hard to tell if it's better or not due to the weather and changing the temperature of the stove as needed.

IIRC Larry Trainer said those over fire holes were for burning wood and not used with coal.

I was always told that the air slots over the fire were only used for burning wood. The air slots below the fire were used for coal. You want the draft to come from under the burning coal bed. By leaving the slots open over the coal bed your allowing air over the top and this will drop your stove temperature. Back in the old days when a stove was burning hot my grandfather would open the slide on the feed door and let that air over the top to cool down the stove temperature while burning coal. I have a Buck Model 24 Coal Stove and there are no slots for air over the fire. Many of the other stoves made today for coal do not have air slot openings over the burning chamber. I think you may have given it too much coal at once to cause the build up of gases to ignite. Try adding coal in 2 or 3 shots leaving a little area open that is burning good then you could do that part last when the fire is established.

OK thanks to all

Looks like some experimentation is in order

I do have a tendancy to fill the fire pot all at once. So, I do open one to burn off the gasses.

And yes, by leaving it open the stove did run about 50° cooler.

I only use the secondary draft flaps for burning wood and they do work very well at doing that. Most of the time I only need to open one side to do the job. When burning anthracite, there is enough air getting into the stove through the secondary air holes because they don't close all of the way and I believe that they are sufficient at providing just enough secondary air on top of the fire to do the job.

DOUG wrote:I only use the secondary draft flaps for burning wood and they do work very well at doing that. Most of the time I only need to open one side to do the job. When burning anthracite, there is enough air getting into the stove through the secondary air holes because they don't close all of the way and I believe that they are sufficient at providing just enough secondary air on top of the fire to do the job.

yeah this chubby is leaky, I usually run it total shut down and there is just enough leaking to idle it all night