Another newbie having problems

I have a Harman Mk2, I have no issues getting it started and a good fire going. After 12hrs I shake and add coal. The next 12hrs I have more ash on the left, so much the coals are not orange, so I poke it with the shovel and shake, but there is clearly still more ash. I then bring over some orange coals and pile on fresh coal, and then it goes out.

Do I need to poke and shake more to keep ash from building?

Thanks

For some reason more air is coming up the left side than the right side burning through the coal faster. The shaker arm is on the left side is the hole for the linkage worn making it larger than it should be? Is the gasket on the ash pan door sealing well or maybe it needs to be replaced?

You do need to shake it well at tendings so that you see a nice orange glow from beneath the coal bed and you have a few burning coals dropping into the pan. The trick is to be careful shaking to not jam the grates with a clinker or chunk of coal. Make sure you fill it evenly across the firebox too, if one side has less coal it will burn up quicker.

Usually with those stoves the front burns quicker than the back since you can have a deeper bed in the back of the stove sloping toward the front. Also on my Mark III I would need to scrape along the 4 sides with a fireplace poker to adequately clear ash every 3 - 5 days or so. The shaker grates clear the middle well but not the edges and ash would build up.

titleist1 wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 10:35 am

For some reason more air is coming up the left side than the right side burning through the coal faster. The shaker arm is on the left side is the hole for the linkage worn making it larger than it should be? Is the gasket on the ash pan door sealing well or maybe it needs to be replaced?

You do need to shake it well at tendings so that you see a nice orange glow from beneath the coal bed and you have a few burning coals dropping into the pan. The trick is to be careful shaking to not jam the grates with a clinker or chunk of coal. Make sure you fill it evenly across the firebox too, if one side has less coal it will burn up quicker.

Usually with those stoves the front burns quicker than the back since you can have a deeper bed in the back of the stove sloping toward the front. Also on my Mark III I would need to scrape along the 4 sides with a fireplace poker to adequately clear ash every 3 - 5 days or so. The shaker grates clear the middle well but not the edges and ash would build up.

I will replace the bottom gasket. When I shake, eventually it jams a bit and wait for it to burn a bit before I try again. I think I’m not clearing enough ash and it accumulates. I should be just shaking enough like 1/4” movement of the handle, right? I’m also filling to the top of the front bricks, should I bank it up the back to the taller bricks?

Thanks

I'd try a lil more range on your shaking. Also--L shaped poker for corners.

Bank it up to the top of the back fire brick.

Shaking is an art form!

Some go short, quick and choppy, some go long and slow....I am in the short, choppy group!

titleist1 wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 2:05 pm

Bank it up to the top of the back fire brick.

Shaking is an art form!

Some go short, quick and choppy, some go long and slow....I am in the short, choppy group!

+1

freetown fred wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 1:17 pm

I'd try a lil more range on your shaking. Also--L shaped poker for corners.

What Fred said. He's been using box stoves ever since they invented corners.

There's a reason many of the antique coal stoves came with one of these angled-tip pokers like the picture below. Doesn't have to be fancy. A simple piece of hardware store rod, with a bend at the tip enough to reach up through the grate bars, and a bent loop handle, will work fine. Think of it as a tooth pick for "flossing" coal grates.

And coal is not like a wood fire. Pushing/poking the firebed from above can make the problem worse by compacting the hot coals and ash, which cuts off some of the needed air flow feeding up and through the firebed. Only poke up through the grates to loosen coal ash that is stuck. The only time you want to poke from above to loosen ash is to scrape around the edges of the firebed between it and the stove walls.

Paul

I bought a l shaped poker from Amazon, it’s the flat bar kind, thought it would get between the shaker grates better.

So when I shake, the coal bed will drop a bit, I will not touch it beyond that.

I put new gasket on ash door.

I will bank the coal to the rear bricks.


Should I poke up through the grates more often

You only need to do any poking up through the grates in areas where shaking hasn't cleared the ash well.

When you shake ash you'll want to see a dim and even orangey-yellow glow throughout the ash pan area. That slight glow tells you the ash is not blocking air flow. If there are any darker areas it sometimes means that the ash didn't clear as well above that darker area. Then just try poking only up above those darker areas and watch for ash dropping down - just enough until you start to see some glow there.

You don't want to shake the grates so much that your getting a really bright glow in the ash pan. That removes more ash than needed for the fire to breath well and it may not leave enough ash on the grates so that they don't get over heated and damaged.

Don't get discouraged it takes time, trial, and error to learn how to clear coal ash without over doing it. As Titleist said, it's an art form.

If the darker areas feel hard, like unburned coal, then don't poke there. Those areas are likely clear of ash and that unburned coal should start to burn as the rest of the firebed gets going well.

Paul

Had a MarkII...
Bank as deep as the back bricks and then some...
Mound up from the back brick until it rolls over the front brick...
It will burn up the front first if there are no air leaks...
Short choppy strokes on that MarkII...
too much stroke and it will jam the grates with un-burned coal...

Thanks to everyone. Will update when I restart.

Thanks again

First thing I figured out after a few days of moving coals around and watching fire go out is anthracite can't be poked around like wood. The initial wood coals should be spread out to corners before coal but once coal is lit moving around doesn't work well for me. My Grandma had an old octopus coal furnace and memory was using a bar and breaking clinkers from bituminous thru the grates before shoveling more coal in. Forget that. Coaxing anthracite dust from bottom of grates and a light shake not poking fire is working well at keeping a continuous burn for me. Good luck.

So she is restarted, the heat recovery rig is doing a good job getting the hot air up into the main house and radiant heat into the basement. Hopefully all goes well with ash.

New gaskets installed, 2 turns out on the draft knob, coal banked up to the back bricks. I’m going to let it go till 6am tomorrow, so 15-16 hrs.

What do you guys think?

You guys still haven't figured out how sensitive this old farmer is!!!!

Sunny Boy wrote: ↑

Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 2:23 pm

What Fred said. He's been using box stoves ever since they invented corners.

There's a reason many of the antique coal stoves came with one of these angled-tip pokers like the picture below. Doesn't have to be fancy. A simple piece of hardware store rod, with a bend at the tip enough to reach up through the grate bars, and a bent loop handle, will work fine. Think of it as a tooth pick for "flossing" coal grates.

And coal is not like a wood fire. Pushing/poking the firebed from above can make the problem worse by compacting the hot coals and ash, which cuts off some of the needed air flow feeding up and through the firebed. Only poke up through the grates to loosen coal ash that is stuck. The only time you want to poke from above to loosen ash is to scrape around the edges of the firebed between it and the stove walls.

Paul