Novice Can't Keep Chubby Stove Going

Just my 3 cents worth...

Either shake it down first, with poking, or fill it up first. Open bottom door or slots on bottom door and let it catch good after that, then do the other procedure, either filling or shaking. Dont do them both at the same time.

My Jr has a smaller pot, but i usually throw coal in, wait til it catches good, then shake and poke (not always poking). I usually do an 8 hr routine on mine but you can easily do 12 with the bigger model. Mine will do 12 if I idle it.

And its already been said, but fill it up each time.

If it goes out on you on the 3rd or 4th day after a cleanout and restart its "usually' because of ash buildup.... been there done that. The above is just my opinion and works for me but the other advice is fine too. Its whatever works for YOU and you just have to try a few things and find out what works.

I do my larger stove which isnt a chubby and has a larger pot a whole different way, doing both at the same time, but my Jr doesnt like that. Your stove may work fine doing both.

The videos are on the Chubby website, unless Larry moved them.

Fill the pot. I also like what Emory at Stove Hospital recommends in taking a poker and drilling down to grate level through a new load of coal to provide a very hot path to encourage burning of the gas from a new load.

For my 12 hour burn: in the morning open vent on ash door
Open mpd
Go and fill teapot on stove
Open ash door and empty ashes
Shake stove about 20 shakes
Floss grate from underneath
Load coal about four shovels around the edge of pot leaving glowing eyeball in the center
Close air vent on ash door so it is open about 1/8"
Close mpd but leave cracked about 15%
Come back in about 10-20 min and fill stove to top of pot.

Until the temps get cold I usually leave mpd cracked a little to help with the draft in the chimney
Also, the two air vents on the sides I leave open about 1/4 all the time , it helps to keep from getting puff backs .

One more thing , I kept a daily log my first year so I could go back and see what I was doing right or wrong. Like I said it's a little different until the weather gets steady cold . I hope this helps. Keep at it
Dave

One more thing , I have 2 thermometers , one on barrel right above teardrop air vent. And one on pipe above Baro damper my stove temp is 350-400, pipe temp is 80-100

Less poking, more revving.

coaledsweat wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 25, 2017 1:18 pm

Less poking, more revving.

Geesh, sounds like my wife!

Shake then "heat up" if desired or just add coal w/o the heat up.

The ash will limit air to the fire.

I'm a novice compared to most here. In the past few years heating w coal in my stove , I've had better luck reviving a fire in the am by first reviving up to stove first, loading the stove w coal them shaking. Maybe there's not much left in the fire pot an shaking first , is losing too much of the fire an causing the temp to drop off too much. Yea , pretty much what everyone else said.

Thanks you guys for all the suggestions....Today I was able to keep the coal fire going overnight and through the morning. When I checked in this morning I first opened the ash door and let the coals rev up before adding a small amount of new fuel. With the ash door still open I let the fire continue to build.. then threw some more fuel on. I repeated this once or twice more and then shut everything down except for a 1/4 crack in the ash door vents. The thermometer on the side has been reading in the 220-230 range which is where I want it given the space and the outside temp 63F.... yes this is northern Maine. Still haven't shaken or flossed the grate yet. I'll chalk this down to some progress.

Thank You and Keep The Feedback Coming !

Great to hear that you are on the right track!!!

take your time and as has said been in earlier post if you have to or want to jot your doings down and keep a log or journal and then go back to those if needed ,but like the guys are saying you are moving forward good luck and you will soon be here to help some one else !!

Congratulations on your progress! Be careful not to get ash bound, I would advise to shake ash after rev up and before adding fresh coal at each tending. Coal has 10-15% ash by weight. It will sneak up on you quickly and choke off combustion air coming up thru the grate.

Keep up the great work

How much coal do you burn overnight? How much coal to fill it? I open the pipe damper first for a few minutes and do have a stack thermometer that most don't bother with but it does tell me if the stove is getting hotter. If I see that going up when it gains around 150 to 200 degrees I add one scoop to salt the entire coal bed and do this a couple of times as each scoop is burning then shake and open ash door. The whole thing is you can't add more coal than you have coal bed to start the burn. If the bed gets below around 1180 degrees the coal goes out.. I have found if I open ash door and MPD at the same time right off the bat I am cooling the coal bed down too much. The more coal you put in at night the better the chance you will have plenty in the morning.

ddahlgren wrote: ↑

Mon. Nov. 06, 2017 8:19 pm

How much coal do you burn overnight? How much coal to fill it? I open the pipe damper first for a few minutes and do have a stack thermometer that most don't bother with but it does tell me if the stove is getting hotter. If I see that going up when it gains around 150 to 200 degrees I add one scoop to salt the entire coal bed and do this a couple of times as each scoop is burning then shake and open ash door. The whole thing is you can't add more coal than you have coal bed to start the burn. If the bed gets below around 1180 degrees the coal goes out.. I have found if I open ash door and MPD at the same time right off the bat I am cooling the coal bed down too much. The more coal you put in at night the better the chance you will have plenty in the morning.

Thanks for the response ddahlgren..... I had some luck with keeping the fire going overnight and through the morning by gingerly adding more fuel in the morning and then later, after I've built up a deeper bed of hot coals, flossing and shaking the grate. The Chubby seems to heat this little 800sq/ft, two story house with little effort. It's been a mild fall here so far this year and so I'm trying to slow burn it to avoid having to open windows (and waste fuel). Daytime temps are such that we don't need to have the fire going so it's not a big deal really that it goes out. In fact it's been an opportunity for me to play within the lower heating range of the stove. As you suggest, I'm probably not fueling the stove adequately before we turn in for the night. My intention will be to keep the stove going day and night once the temps are more seasonal here. I've been poking around with the manual pipe damper on the back of the stove, the ash door, the ash door vents and the side ports as a means of controlling the intensity of the burn. The fire is relatively slow (relative to wood fuel that is) to respond to my adjustments, so I'm just going to have to keep poking with it until I acquire the skill.