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Those of you who are using the Circulator 1500, what are your actual burn times? I live in south central PA and when it's at the beginning and the end of the heating season I can stretch my stove loading out to once a day. But when it's cold I'm tending to the stove three times a day, once in the morning, evening when I get home from work, and at night before bedtime.
DS Machines claim 24-48 hour burn times. I haven't yet been able to get a 48 hour burn out of the stove.

I need a little help here on how to stretch it out a little. What are you guys doing to get longer burns? How hot are you burning your stoves? How often are you loading?

Welcome to NEPA.

I am not using your stove but because you have not had any answers as yet I will try.

In general the larger the mass of burning coal the longer it will burn at a given temperature. So the higher the temperature the sooner the need to tend it. I assume you are filling it completely. A big stove like yours should easily go 12 hours before tending while throwing a great deal of heat.

How big is your house and where is the stove located? What happens when you go to a 12 hour tending time? If you have a stick on thermometer what are the temperatures of the stove pipe at the stove exit and the stove temperature at the hottest point. Do you know your draft? Is there a barometric damper or manual damper or none?

I have a Basement#4...
Spring and fall easily get 24-48 hrs...
Coldest and windy days must load 3x...
The ds #4 holds more coal than the 1500...
so your stove may be on the small side for your max heat load...
or you may be letting too much up the pipe...

Does your 1500 have the hopper? Mine does, and even on the coldest days of winter, with the stove top temps flirting with 600F, it will just barely empty the hopper in 12 hours time. The firebox will still be full of hot coal.

With a non-hopper model, I could see having the more frequest tendings. If that's the case, I would make sure you're filling it to the top of the firebrick, and pile it up even higher towards the center.

This past year, at the end of the heating season, it only took 15-20 lbs of coal in a 24 hour period.

I'm running just an MPD, don't have a baro. I don't think it's needed, since the bi-metal t-stat regulates the air coming into the stove.

12 hr burn times should be achievable. If not, you likely need a larger stove, better heat distribution in the home, or both.

I've run my DS 1600 at 700°+ and still saw 12 hours between shakes. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say your stove is too small for your needs or you're allowing too much heat out the chimney or you're not filling the stove all the way up. Even at 700° I was only tending the stove twice a day.

Same here, running my DS1600wh wide open at 600deg. stove temp I can get 12hrs with just hopper. During prime season I burn stove at 450deg. and can go 24hrs without shaking or filling with no problem. But it does shake down better if I do it every 12hrs or so. If you have to shake and fill 3 times in a 24hr period I believe stove is to small or you are loosing alot of heat elsewere.

700deg. is pushing it? I thought 600deg. was to be its max stove temp

I'm On Fire wrote:I've run my DS 1600 at 700°+ and still saw 12 hours between shakes. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say your stove is too small for your needs or you're allowing too much heat out the chimney or you're not filling the stove all the way up. Even at 700° I was only tending the stove twice a day.

ridgeracing wrote:700deg. is pushing it? I thought 600deg. was to be its max stove temp

I'm On Fire wrote:I've run my DS 1600 at 700°+ and still saw 12 hours between shakes. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say your stove is too small for your needs or you're allowing too much heat out the chimney or you're not filling the stove all the way up. Even at 700° I was only tending the stove twice a day.

Last year, when I was at DS Machine, they said, basically, as long as the stove isn't glowing, you're OK.

Yup pretty much, the 600* rating in the paperwork is there for the bean counting weenies over at the EPA or whatever other goofernment agency is in charge of it. It'd probably take it quite a bit of air to see nuclear temps on it. I only ever run the stove that hot on days where it's 0* and below with the wind howling.

WOW a DS1600 at 700* now that's a big heater.....

Or a Basement #4 at 750*...
No harm crankin the heat...

I love our DS, its idiot proof! I am the proof