DS 1600 Coal Stove Question

I have the stove on very low (idle) temp in the middle of the stove is almost 400 degrees. temp at the top of the stove is only 180 degrees. I don't know why the temp difference is so great. I do understand temp reading more towards the fire will be higher. but that difference in temp seems to be alot. any input? also when I run the stove at idle it seems like the center of the stove is the only part I see red. the back and the front of the stove doesnt seem to be red????? is there a way to keep stove idle with the whole grate red below???

thanks

This is only a guess. I just started playing with same stove in shop. Built a couple wood fires for seasoning the new grates. Do you have a hopper full of coal between where you took your top measurement, and the fire? Another possibility; With such a low fire as you say, maybe your non-adjustable "cooler over fire air" is keeping temps down as well. Or maybe a combination of both. What kind of damper are you using? If a manual damper (or no damper), chimney would be tugging directly on cooler over fire air, creating a barrier between fire bed, and top of stove. A barometric damper would be pulling less on over fire air, and more on room air. If pulling room air, top of stove would be hotter, as less cooler over fire air would be drawn through the stove. This is all theory at this point. Not sure which way is better yet. As for the coal bed; not being red throughout while idling, I would think that's a good thing. You are letting in so little air, it's taking the path of least resistance. I found that once the back flapper closes, it cuts off air completely. I'm not so sure that's a good thing when old man winter settles in. When seasoning my grates with wood fire, every time the back flapper closed, the fire choked itself way down, blackening the glass. With my HITZERs, I found a little air through the ash pan vents was nice. The fire idled very low, but was not put to sleep. I'll most likely be drilling holes behind the decorative ash pan knobs, making them functional. I could use them, or not. This D. S. is close to being like HITZER, but different. So far, I see three of us members have new D.S. 1600 Circulators this year.

I am using a baro damper. trying to see how low of a temp I can idle at. but at a low idle coal is only red in the middle of the stove.and I notice that ash build up tends to be where I don't see any red. example in the front and back of the stove. I have to use a poker and poke up thru the bottom of the grates and I see a lot of ash and unburned coal fall thru the grates.not sure if this is normal at low temps or not. and low temp I mean 220 degrees. I am 6 beeds up on the flap, and on setting number 2.....

shoman70 wrote:I am using a baro damper. trying to see how low of a temp I can idle at. but at a low idle coal is only red in the middle of the stove.and I notice that ash build up tends to be where I don't see any red. example in the front and back of the stove. I have to use a poker and poke up thru the bottom of the grates and I see a lot of ash and unburned coal fall thru the grates.not sure if this is normal at low temps or not. and low temp I mean 220 degrees. I am 6 beeds up on the flap, and on setting number 2.....

yes this will be the case and is the result of unfortunate design.

this is a large square fire pot. the walls are straight up and down and there is a wide ( 1.25 -1.5" ) flat steel lip between the inside of the fire brick and the grate area. this causes ash to build there, dropping the temp. of the lower fire pot along those areas and tending to retard the fire there.

kind of a self perpetuating problem that won't matter much at all once you really start heating with the stove. the DSM Circ. 1600 is a true power house when running in the sweet spot, you'll like it.

steve

Yeah I really love the stove, throws out alot of heat!! no fans and heats up 2200 square feet 2 story house no problem.

The weather is not really cold yet, so not a fair comparison but; playing with the D.S. 1600 on very low, the shop thermometer reads just over 70*, while outside temp is high 40's, with wind blowing/gusting hard. Walking around the shop, temperature felt even throughout. When the 30-95 was hooked up, I would turn off the fan when not in the shop (or when tired of hearing fan), and turn it on when needed. When the 30-95 fan was off, there was a noticeable difference in room temperature from stove to other end of shop. I'd turn the fan on low, and the shop temp would quickly even out. Great little stove but, there is fan noise. The D.S. does a VERY GOOD job circulating the heat so far,.......and does it with dead silence. So far, I'm impressed. We'll see how well the D.S. circulates as the weather gets colder. From what I'm seeing, I'm thinking it's going to do quite well. The HITZER, and D.S. Circulator are similar in operation, but perform very different. When given air, the HITZER responds quite well. Where as the D.S. is very slow to respond. Yet, once up to speed, it appears to be a steady/solid performer. These are my early findings. I think I'll stop here for now.

Yes oliver that is true about the ds 1600. it does take some time when you put more air on the stove for it to even out. I know I am running my 1600 right now at a very low temp for 2 weeks now, and stove does very well just at idle. temps are low and very constant...I love my stove works very well. 3rd winter with this stove.... Good Luck with your stove.

shoman70 wrote:Yes oliver that is true about the ds 1600. it does take some time when you put more air on the stove for it to even out. I know I am running my 1600 right now at a very low temp for 2 weeks now, and stove does very well just at idle. temps are low and very constant...I love my stove works very well. 3rd winter with this stove.... Good Luck with your stove.

Thanks shoman70. This morning, the wind was blowing, raining, and nasty. I opened the shop door (far away from stove), stood there, and grinned. The entire shop was toasty throughout. No un-evenness in heat. I can't believe how well this stove circulates WITH NO FAN. I have this stove running so low, I have to look for a spot of red down through the still black un-ignited coals. I'm talking after 48 hours here. At these settings/temps, I'll bet I can go close to a week without touching this stove. We'll see.... Today, I thought maybe I should shake her down (Very first shake down), and top off the hopper. It took about 25 - 30 pounds to top the hopper off. And that's playing with higher temps while adjusting the barometric damper. If I'd have known, I wouldn't have touched it. HEY! As of now, I'm just playing.........

lets use 30#'s just for round numbers, that would be about .625 #'s per hour over 48 hrs.

that's very good for the grate area of those 1600's. i,ve managed .50 #'s an hr. with the 1400 but it's a smaller firebox.

i think the circulators do best in a large ,open area, even better than in a basement located gravity application.

KingCoal wrote:lets use 30#'s just for round numbers, that would be about .625 #'s per hour over 48 hrs.

that's very good for the grate area of those 1600's. i,ve managed .50 #'s an hr. with the 1400 but it's a smaller firebox.

i think the circulators do best in a large ,open area, even better than in a basement located gravity application.

Hi KingCoal, How well would you say the 1400 circulates the air? The air coming out of the circulator tubes is no where near the force of a fan on low. Yet, the constant pulling in of the cool air to be heated, and discharged works very well.

well, I don't have a good answer for that because I never used my 1400 in either of the lay outs I think it would perform best at, namely basement / gravity circulation or wide / high shop type area.

my house is laid out just OK for direct radiant and or circulator service but I don't want a stoker or boiler due to complexity and electrical tie in.

off the top of my head i'd say that the 1600's do a much better job of it because of both greater capacity and more tubes.

i always felt that in my application the tubes seemed to work best from idle to about 300* stove temp. then not so much after that.

it simply does much better in all areas since I converted it and more so now that I changed the back pipe.

Another difference I've noticed between the HITZER & D.S. Circulator is; the function of the back flapper doors for the bi-metallic thermostat. The HITZER heats up, and closes the flapper door. If adjusted correctly, the magnet pulls just enough to hold the door from going tap, tap, tap. When the mass of stove cools, the flapper door opens again. A little air through the ash pan door vents keeps the fire from going to sleep. The D.S. has no ash pan vents. The fire stays alive because the back flapper door never closes. It hoovers open ever so slightly. It may look closed, but it isn't. Push down with your finger, and you'll feel it close.

you will also find that at many higher heat settings you will indeed be making and distributing more heat and if you look at the flap it's still barely or even 1/16" open.

that was when I started seriously experimenting with Mano. displayed draft settings and found that the stove will put out just as much , sometimes more, heat at -.02 and under as anywhere above that AND use even less coal.

i think these are one of the most OCD producing stoves out there. they respond to any and everything you do and make fact finding fun.

KingCoal wrote:you will also find that at many higher heat settings you will indeed be making and distributing more heat and if you look at the flap it's still barely or even 1/16" open.

that was when I started seriously experimenting with Mano. displayed draft settings and found that the stove will put out just as much , sometimes more, heat at -.02 and under as anywhere above that AND use even less coal.

i think these are one of the most OCD producing stoves out there. they respond to any and everything you do and make fact finding fun.

Yes, it's been lots of fun so far. So far, this D.S. 1600 has done nothing but Amaze me with how well it circulates the heat. No wonder they call it "The Circulator". This stove lives up to it's name. I've been around many radiant stoves over the years. In order to get any kind of uniform temperatures throughout, the stove had to be some what cranking, and a fan of some sort had to be used. The D.S. doesn't need to be cranking, in order to circulate heat. Not as of yet anyways. I've got to ask; What is OCD???

that's grown up "what if's"

obsessive compulsive disorder