Coalpail.com Forum

Cyber36 wrote:I had my first puff-back happen to me this year after loading the stove after the first match. Scared the -hit out of me & burnt 75% of my left arm hair off.......

I think most of us have "been there" at least once. My most impressive puff-back was from my Hitzer Model 82, blew the chimney cleanout door open and shot fly ash all over the basement.

New Hope Engineer wrote:i will leave you with this video and get back on topic now before I gets in trouble

I love how the tracks move, by the sheer weight of the locomotive!! Gorgeous train!!

Gorgeous train!!

Even more so up close and personal. A work of art.

Awesome train me and my girls would love to ride in it sometime. Here in Mechanicsburg where I live they have a train the runs for the Purina dog food plant. In the summer if I am out in the yard cutting the grass and facing away from the tracks and that train rolls through and it just lays on that horn and it scares the sh---t out of me no joke every time it gets me. That horn is so loud and piercing but it so cool also. Thanks for posting the video.

thanx,and welcome to the forum.

For your reading pleasure: BOOM! How to Turn Your Stove Into Small Bomb! LOL!

Smitty you just made my day! I haven't had any puff backs lately unless the damper closes at the same time I'm re-fueling. It must close as I have the ash pan door open to get the fresh coal going. I'll have to try leaving the front loading door open for awhile and see if that helps.

New Hope Engineer wrote:i will leave you with this video and get back on topic now before I gets in trouble

Finally read this thread, wow never knew what I was missing... Where do I get ticket's?

But on the topic here, typically I do my shaking and slicing, change ash pans, and then add top off with coal last. But tonight I still had like 5 lbs in the bucket so I figured I'd just empty the bucket and when I got done with the shaking part to refill and top off. Well I guess that wasn't such a good idea or I just went to quickly and open the front doors and started shaking the grate when I got a little puff, but mainly the added coal was popping and splitting I guess and throwing out little pieces of coal... Lesson Learned

...but not too bad.
I guess I added just a little too much Harmony at once nut after shaking. My daughter's 2 Chihuahuas love hanging around the Harman. We were by the stove, she was getting the leashes ready to take them out. One of the dogs was right by the front of the stove. The ash door was open a few inches. Suddenly the stove let out the daintiest little "poof", stuck the baro wide open. The dog is fine, no singed fur. I launched into an explanation of what just happened and finished with "that's why there are screws in all the stovepipe connections".

YAY!! Second explosion since starting to learn. Man it stinks in here now. Scared my cat out of her fur. She was sitting right in front of the Chubby. I am at the desktop computer waiting for Fallout: New Vegas to install and I hear a "BOOM!" I look over, the stove is on fire.

I was wondering why it was taking it forever to get up to temp so I could shake down before bed.

But, what I find most surprising is that my 8.5 month old didn't wake up. It was pretty loud, the 7" lid popped off.

I thought I heard a "Boom" when I was outside with the dogs before!

Yep. That was me. Next time I'll make sure Barnegat can hear it.

Sure beats a creosote-fueled chimney fire!

Having enough air to fuel (gas) ratio is one way to prevent back puffs. I used to get them with the Vermont Castings Stove I started out with 25 years ago. The combustion area above the fire bed was too small to allow proper mixing of the air and volatile gasses, so I had to learn to leave the doors cracked a little bit until the flames died down.
The Glenwood will not back puff. You can't make it. I've tried. The large combustion area above the fire, plus; the heated secondary air hot blast ring around the top of the firepot insures that heated air in enough volume is available to ignite the gasses before they build up to that level. The worst you get is a slight, "woof," sound which sounds exactly like a gas furnace when it lights off.
Yet another reason to own a Glenwood Base Heater.

Wood 'nCoal,

This is very true. I am loving the constant heat output of the coal thus far. I honestly don't know why I never switched earlier.

Wsherrick,

I had the air inlet wide open but not the door. Maybe next time I'll try cracking the ash door and opening one of the two secondary air inlets with a low fire (it was only at 260º when I opened everything up).