Critique My Stove

You guys seem to know what you are talking about, so please don't hammer me too bad. I was "winging" this install. Keep in mind that right now, it works pretty well. I certainly can't complain, just kind of wondering if I should be doing anything different.

I read about all these draft measurements and frankly, I have no idea what mine are or how to go about checking it. Ditto for flue temps.

My house is a small ranch house built in 1951. 1200sf. It has a small fireplace, maybe 20" deep. When I bought the house 6 years ago, the owners had a Harman Mk I sitting in the middle of the living room with about 4' of pipe containing the baro damper running horizontally to the fireplace, then a 90* elbow and another 3' of pipe that had been smashed into an oval and stuffed up the chimney. The original fireplace damper is long gone so it was just an open hole around the stove pipe.

Having 3 small children, this setup was less than ideal as you might imagine. I talked to the local Harman dealer and with his suggestion, I took the legs off the stove, which gave me enough room to put it mostly into the fireplace, basically like an insert(he told me this was how Harman did their inserts). I only have enough room to put a damper right at the collar, then a 90* elbow with a round to oval offset adapter going to a sheet metal plate I made to seal up the area where the firplace damper was. Beyond that, it's the original chimney. I never measured it, but it around 9" x 11" terracota liner and probably 20' tall. I have cap up there just to keep the rain/animals out.

That's about it. I can post some pics if anyone needs them.

Thanks for any help.

Jeff

I'm not seeing/hearing anything wrong with that.

There are at less two types of coal burners, as I see it. The old standard, hand fired with a pipe draft ... the basics. Get it to burn, heat the house and enjoy. The other is the automatic types, where chimney temps and precise draft control are influential, to some extent.