Damper settings

I moved into a house with a Pine barrens Coal Barron coal stove. I am having very sporadic success with the stove. My big issues are that some days the coal will not light at all, sometimes it stops around 225 degrees, and days when I do get a hot long burning fire, I'm not able to keep it going. I always start my fires with wood and have hot bed of coals before adding, but doesn't always take off. I empty the ash pan 2x a day, shake down coal 2-3 times a day, and have made sure there aren't any areas causing too much draft. Am I possibly just not setting the draft properly? Any advice on settings. I have 2 draft openings on ash pan, 1 on door, and the slide damper on top. What should be open and closed during wood fire, initial coal light, and active fire. Sorry for rambling, but this stove is driving me crazy!

That sounds like symptoms of a variable chimney draft. What kind of controls do you have on the stove pipe to control chimney draft?

Have you read over the threads in this forum topic >>> Popular Hand Fired Coal Stove Topics ? Coal and wood are two very different fuels in the way they burn. Trying to burn coal like a wood fire will not go very well. I'm wondering why you need to shake three times a day.

Th3 only control I have going up the chimney is the pull rod that moves a plate over the chimney opening.

Open the ash pan draft (henceforth called the primary draft) for the wood fire and to start the coal.

Open the 2nd draft (henceforth called the secondary draft, bypass damper, blanket draft.... blah blah blah)
for wood and you may or may not have close it to start the coal depending on the individual stove.

Open the pipe damper for wood and coal starting.

Put on layers of coal (and let them fire) until the stove is at capacity.

Then you can close the smokepipe damper and close the primary damper most of the way.

Use secondary air to control temp. The more secondary air, the less primary air, the hotter the fire.

After a few firings you should be better acquainted with the particular settings for your stove.

I, too shake down often, but that's because my shaker is terrible and if I let it go more than 8 to 10 hours I will lose my fire.

Are all gaskets sealing properly? Sounds like your getting more over fire air make sure door slide is closed

Ok..I found a slight break in my gasket rope on door. Replaced rope and used damper settings and had a great fire going. It ran around 375 400 for around 30 hours. Last night the fire started dying down. I emptied ash pan, shook it down, poked a few times to aid in air flow, opened primary and smoke pipe and added more coal. Fire continued at around 200 for a few hours but never took off. Wife just called and said completely dead. Is this an ash problem? Need to shake more???

Ijfrain wrote: ↑

Thu. Dec. 06, 2018 9:29 pm

I have 2 draft openings on ash pan, 1 on door, and the slide damper on top.

Once the coal fire is burning well, the draft on the loading door should be almost completely closed -- you should need very little air entering above the coal, just enough to make some blue flames to burn off gases that aren't burned within the coal bed. Ash pan openings should provide most of the air, from underneath the grates. Lots of air = big hot fire, small amount of air = slow fire for when you don't need as much heat. Firebox should be kept FULL of a deep layer of coal -- no piddly little two or three inch depths of coal.

Is the slide damper just to block the exit from stove to flue pipe? IF -- IF -- there is another path for flue gases to get out into the stove pipe, then slide damper should probably be closed completely once the coal is burning well. If the slide damper is the only exit from the stove into the pipe, then adjust it partly closed to keep too much heat from going up the chimney.

Pictures of stove, inside and out, would be helpful. We like pictures!

Ijfrain wrote: ↑

Mon. Dec. 10, 2018 9:42 am

Is this an ash problem? Need to shake more???

Most people shake down the ashes, then poke up through the grate from the underside to clear impacted ash. When done shaking/poking, you should see a glow through the underside of the grates when you look in through the ashpit door.