Help Reloading My Hitzer 55FA

I like to think I know my way around a coal stove but, since I moved the Hitzer upstairs, I am learning that I do not, in fact, have a thorough understanding of this device's operating characteristics.

I am running bituminous pea coal right now due to the warmer days. I haven't tried much of my stove sized yet. Here's how I run.

Open ash door and shake. Remove ashes if needed but do not leave ash door open while away from stove. Open ash door for half a minute or so before beginning to shovel in coal. I leave open areas that have active flame to try to reduce puffbacks.

Close ash door and prop load door an inch open for several minutes, waiting for it to want to be closed without extinguishing the flame and puffing. And there's the problem(s).

I will try to close the load door but usually the volume of smoke just kills the fire and I either open or get a puff. Depending on how much coal is in contact with hot embers seems to dictate how successful I am. Almost as often as not, it takes an hour or two to get the door closed without surprises.

Bigger problem - when I do manage to keep the stove from belching at me, it wants to overfire. Load and ash door gaskets were replaced before season and I've checked them both. I'm not keeping the ash door open. I'm not fiddling with the primary air control. I am typically keeping the spinner on the load door wide open to try to improve coal gas dilution to inhibit puffing.

What can I do differently?

Bigger sized bit coal would be the first thing I'd do. Both underfire and overfire air after loading. If you are closing the metal thingy ( I forget the name), the reburn feature, leave that open, at least until burning well.

Also if this same stove burned well on the same coal in your basement you likely have draft issues. It could be your chimney or could be pressure in the house. Try cracking a window close to the stove. if that helps then you need makeup air. manometers plug quick with bit, but that would be a good idea to install one too, just to know if draft is your issue. Even if you just use it to test it occassionally.

You may be onto something with the draft. I hadn't moved my magnehelic from the stoker project downstairs. Always got around - 0.04 to - 0.05 with the warm morning hooked to this chimney so I assumed that wouldn't change. My stove pipe is different with this one but I don't know if that would make a measurable difference. I'll get the gage up here tomorrow and see if it gives me any information.

Picture of setup would be great, but the less elbows the better, especially 90 degree elbows. Most stoves have a 90 at the stove which doesnt seem to matter, but avoid them if possible after that. A pair of 45 degree elbows is much better than one 90 degree. Think of it like kinking a garden hose. The less kink the faster the water flows. Even sealing the pipe joints may help just a little. Its possible you may have to add a couple feet to your chimney to make up for moving the stove upstairs. (If thats possible) It will probably work better in colder weather.

If its the same chimney as before except for connecting it upstairs, make sure you have the basement chimney connection sealed tightly. CO detectors are a must have item.

I've got a 90 degree elbow at the outlet, 2 feet of vertical, then a clean out tee with about 6 inches of horizontal to get to the masonry chimney. From the thimble to the top of the tile is 15 feet. Yes, I know it's a bit short. The old 818 ran fine like this. I do realize that these are different stoves.

CO detectors in every single room of the house. All less than 2 years old.

Wgy does it swing from acting like it's going to die to getting way hotter than I want, though? Iy goes from zero to hellfire within half an hour.

Your other stove maybe wasnt as efficient as the Hitzer ( or not as air tight) and maybe wasted more heat up the chimney, which made your chimney warmer, which made more draft.

Im guessing, but if it acts like its going to die then gets burning well and takes off, it really sounds like a draft problem to me. If it does end out being a draft problem, changing out the 90 at the chimney connection to a 45, and a 45 towards the stove, will make a very small difference. Its similar to adding a foot of height to your chimney.

It could be that it will work fine in colder weather and you may need to use alternate heat in warmer weather. When you hook up your meter, make sure to try it with a window open and without it open to see if theres a difference.

voodoochylde wrote:I like to think I know my way around a coal stove but, since I moved the Hitzer upstairs, I am learning that I do not, in fact, have a thorough understanding of this device's operating characteristics.

I am running bituminous pea coal right now due to the warmer days. I haven't tried much of my stove sized yet. Here's how I run.

Open ash door and shake. Remove ashes if needed but do not leave ash door open while away from stove. Open ash door for half a minute or so before beginning to shovel in coal. I leave open areas that have active flame to try to reduce puffbacks.

Close ash door and prop load door an inch open for several minutes, waiting for it to want to be closed without extinguishing the flame and puffing. And there's the problem(s).

I will try to close the load door but usually the volume of smoke just kills the fire and I either open or get a puff. Depending on how much coal is in contact with hot embers seems to dictate how successful I am. Almost as often as not, it takes an hour or two to get the door closed without surprises.

Bigger problem - when I do manage to keep the stove from belching at me, it wants to overfire. Load and ash door gaskets were replaced before season and I've checked them both. I'm not keeping the ash door open. I'm not fiddling with the primary air control. I am typically keeping the spinner on the load door wide open to try to improve coal gas dilution to inhibit puffing.

What can I do differently?

For starters, stop propping the load door open, and don't leave spinner on the load door wide open. This is what is causing your overfire condition.


I'm betting we have the exact same coal, as I'm going through the same situation that you are. This coal will respond extrememly well with 'over the fire' air or 'under the fire air. I also thought mine was going to go out with the amount of smoke it puts out, but it won't. I have the spinner on mine cracked open about 1 full turn most of the time. As ' warminmn' said, bigger coal will help a lot also.

Please check back and let us know what happens.

Here is a link to Bituminous coal sizes: https://sizes.com/materials/coal_bituminous.htm My coal mostly resembles the 'egg' size, although I do have smaller stuff that I'm sure comes from the transportation process as well as loading and unloading. Here is a picture of what I had delivered, with a 20 dollar bill for comparison:

I'm not being defensive so I hope it doesn't sound that way. I keep the over-the-fire air excessive because it puffs if I don't. Obviously, the odds of it happening increase as the load heats up.

House was down in the middle 60s this morning. I had it turned down though, as I just couldn't do another night of staying up until 4am watching the stove.

I do use more over fire air than under. Mine does puff some, but It's just the nature of the coal I'm using. Lot's of smoke and lot"s of soot.

Burning pea size is part of the problem. Leaving just part of the burning coal exposed might not be enough, you may need to load one side of the stove, let the volatiles burn off, and then load the other side.

I'm baaaack. Sorry for the delay, it's been rather hectic.

I finally got my magnehelic installed. It's not good. Even with every joint sealed, I'm only pulling -0.035. It's warm at 46 degrees but I am now concerned. I will physically check my masonry chimney tomorrow after work.

I figured out part of the problem. I was giving it way too much overfire air. I now keep it 2 or 3 turns right after loading and restrict it to 1 turn open after about an hour. I'm also not loading as much coal at once. The stove has been more controllable but, man, this thing likes to get up and walk if you leave the primary air open too much for just a bit too long. Then I have to shut the air almost fully off and it'll fall flat on its face. I have had more nights than I'd like staying up until 4am trying to get coal loaded and keep the house temperature up.

I'll learn this critter eventually.