Order of Firing Your Stove

I have been on vacation all week so have had a lot of time to really experiment with my Harman Mark II stove. No problems but just some observations on firing the stove. When it is time to reload I open the bottom door and let the flames come and let the stove get to around 500° or so. Now this is the part I have experimented with. I then shake down the ashes so it's pretty much all coals and it's bright red and hot. I then add the new coal to it and then let it get going for a few minutes and then close the bottom door. When real cold I am 1.25 turns of the bottom knob.It catches right up and burns fine but the stove temp drops to like 350° and it takes a good 90 minutes or so till it get's back up to say 450° like I need it when it's 20° here in Pa. I say that is too long. Yes I could leave the draft open longer but then your burning up all your coal to get it there quick.
My next experiment was opening the bottom door and getting the stove to the same temp as before but instead of shaking the grates at that point I load it up with coal and let it catch and then when it's really going good I close the bottom door and set knob to same as other scenario and then shake down the ashes. Pretty close to the same results. How do you keep the temp of the stove the same during firing especially if you need to do this and get to work? You don't have the time to build it up for 2 hours?
Finally a comment about shaking the grates. The majority say they just give it a few tugs. I totally disagree with that. If I do that you have a lazy fire and it blocks the stove from firing a hot fire. It smothers it I say. You need hot coals getting the air. When I reload and shake I get a lot of ashes. I keep going till it lights my pan up and when I start to get a few hot coal that come thru. That is when you know it is breathing right. People saying 2 or 3 pulls on the handle is all you need to shake...I don't see how they can get away with that and have a good..hot...burn. I say they would have sections of the box that is not firing. What order do you people fire when it's time to reload? This is just my observations in the week I been tending and watching my stove closely 24/7. Thanks for your input.

My routine is shake to get hot coals, stuff full of new coal, leave for work.

It takes about 5 minutes and works acceptably for me.

Lately, with the Chubby. I've been waking up, opening the ash door and MPD (since my air is already open 90%) take a shower. I then come out, check the temp. Stove will be about 610* (runs all night at 590 - 600* and only maintains a 67* house) I then close the door, shake down (between 25 and 40+ times vigorously) until I see red through the shaker handle hole), poke through the shager grate. I then close the ash door and reopen the air (90%), open the loading door. Take the poker and run it along the edge of the pot to clear the coal that fell up there while loading. Fill the fire pot up with 30% stove and 70% nut. Leave the MPD and air open for a good 15-20 minutes. After loading I usually lose anywhere from 150* - 450*. I close the ash door after the temp either hits 350* or 450* (depends on how much heat I lost during loading) and then close the MPD a few minutes after that.

Stove usually goes back to 590 - 600 * within 30 -60 minutes. Then around 10 - 11 pm I'll open the MPD and ash door, poke through the bottom of the grate and top-off with an additional 5 - 10 pounds of coal.

Takes me about 20-30 minutes to do this. But then again, I'm trying to heat my house with a stove not designed for it and am only getting about 32k BTU/Hr. out of it.

I did you come up with that figure, 32,000 btu.

1 lb coal = about 13,500 btu...
weight of coal on reload...
time from last reload...
weight of new coal times 13500 divided by time from last filling...
gives a very rough btu/hr figure...
add in stove efficiency losses from stove...
and you have a better number...
30*13500/12=33750 btu/hr...
Gross output...
Stove efficiency 80%...
down to 27000 btu/hr net...

Yup. Me an math. We're not friends. But we're getting to know one another better.

Uffbros, I prefer to do what you do in regards to your 2nd method. Add new coal, leave damper wide open or door open if I stay nearby, fire up old & new coal, shut door, shake and reset damper. Leave for work. If you shake an old, tired or fragile fire, you are asking for trouble. You also shoot fly ash all over the place. The new coal prevents some ash from flying, but not all.

Cap wrote:.. If you shake an old, tired or fragile fire, you are asking for trouble. ...

I agree.
I think it's a simple enough deal.
If you dump a lot of coal on a thin bed of hot coals, you will have a real lazy
recovery.
If you add a medium amount of coal on a healthy bed,
the recovery will be more satisfactory.
This means... not trying to achieve a record setting burn
before adding coal.
You can get a long burn, sure.. but if your stove takes
2-1/2 hours to recover, what good did it do?
Just for the heck of it, while reading different threads, I decided to
check my stove's recovery.
I had a pretty deep, healthy bed of coal going.
I put 2 shovels full on top. All I did was open the loading door and threw it on.
did not touch anything else. didn't open ash door, didn't shake it, walked away.
side of the stove was 510°
10 minutes later it was 400
10 minutes later it was 370
10 minutes later it was 400
10 minutes later it was 450
10 minutes later it was 500

When I let the stove go for ~12-14 hours (@500°-550°), it takes MUCH longer
for the thing to get back going healthy again.
That's just my observation, your mileage may vary..

For me it depends on the fire. I agree with the comments on the old tired fire needs no shaking first, add some coal, let it get going, then depending on how it's going, repeat or go to a good shake and then fill. If the fire is still pretty good, I shake, fill, let the bottom door sit open with the damper wide open until I get nice blue flames, then put the stove back to running mode.

But it also depends on how old the fire is. I find after running for a month or so, sometimes I have to clean the fire. I get clinker in the fire and all that does is suck up the heat, slow down the fire and just generally be a royal pain. Sometimes it won't shake out. So then I have to get a decent fire going and then go in from the top of the fire looking for the clinker and get it out. I use a straight poker so I can feel for it. It's usually low in the fire bed so I have to push down to the bottom of the fire feeling for the clinker. It feels kinda like taffy. Not hard like the coal. It also has a particular appearance. It almost looks like a hotter piece of burning coal but has like darker flaky scales on the outside in places. Hard to explain. So once I find it, I bring it up to the top of the fire, carefully trying not to break it up into smaller pieces, and then grab it with a set of tongs and put it down into my ash pan.

There are a couple ways I know I'm getting clinker build up. The fire doesn't get as hot as it should even though it looks good and seems to have a good bed of coal burning. The biggest indicator is when I do a good shake down and when I look into the area under my grates, I can see shadows instead of a nice even glow.

dj

Another factor is how much coal the stove holds...
The DSM takes 180# from bare grates...
I can toss 80# on the stove in one shot with about a 25* drop on the fire...
The hopper helps it holds about 35#...
The Mark II was a different story...

I spend alot longer screwing with the stove than I should, but it does go 24 hours no problem.

I shake way down .. then poke from the top ... shake again carefully until I feel raw coal starting to jam the grates lightly ...throw a layer on ... wait a few minutes & check for an even glow on ashpan ... poke any dark areas ... add another layer after flames ... then another & lightly shake again .... wait a few till that's going good, then pile it on right to the coils and as far forward as possible before it starts covering the firebrick in front.

I end up with lots of red in the pan doing it this way. While I wait for the layers to catch I scoop the bigger ones out with the coal shovel. By the time I'm ready to walk away, the ashpan is brightly lit, & evenly lit. All set for at least 24 hours ... but less than that on real cold days.

1st thing that I do is empty out the ash pan. 2nd I open the MPD and I open the draft air slide all the way on the ash door and wait about 2 or 3 minutes. 3rd now I shake down the stove. I give it a few quick, short strokes untill I feel the harder coal, then stop. Usually it only takes about 5 to 7 complete strokes. At this time I will look in at the ash pan to see if I have a nice even glow and if I don't , I will give it a couple more. The fire now is picking up. 4th It's time to add coal. I now add the coal with a grain scoop. Usually it takes 3 scoops. I add the first scoop in the front of the firebox. The second scoop in the back of the firebox leaving the middle of the firebox alone for about 5 minutes. Now I will add the last scoop of coal to the middle of the firebox to finish it off. Nice fire is burning along with the blue flames. 5th Now I set the draft on the ash door and close the MPD to where I want it and I'm good for the next 10 - 12 hours. The whole process only takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Pull out stack vent. Fill water for top of stove. Open door, use a fireplace poker to open dead spots and settle the ash down.Put some coal in.Wipe glass with newspaper. Open ash door and shake until some red coals drops. Empty ash pan. open hopper and fill to top.
5-10 minutes twice a day. since Nov. 1st.

I get home from work and throw two shovelfuls on the stove, fill the water pot on the stove(uses about 2 1/2 gallons a day),walk away for 20-30 minutes. Check for crackling to stop and see blue flames. Shake stove until hot coal begins to drop into the ash pan. Fill in most of the stove until it is FULL, leaving a small area of hot coals exposed. Come back 20-30 minutes and heap the coal up as much as I can, set draft for the night, and it is good for 12 hours. (It would be ok for 24 hours with just a shovelful added in the AM but it would take longer to load it full the next day.) In the AM(430 when I get up for work), I give the stove a half-hearted shake and load the back of the stove with two shovelfuls. Take the ash pan out and place in the cellarway(so I can empty the pan into bags when it is cool in the evening).20 minutes later, before I leave, I fill the stove to the top, check draft settings and,top off the water, and make sure the doors are closed tight.