Warm outside temp question
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- Location: Central NY
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 30-95
- Coal Size/Type: Anthracite/nut
Hello,
It is supposed to be 63 degrees on Sunday. Mid 30s to mid 40s after that. Any suggestions to keep my Hitzer 30-95 going when it is 63? The last time it was in the mid 50s I lost the fire. I have a 20 ft masonry chimney and a tight house, stove in the basement. I feel like I finally have this stove figured out with the cold weather, not sure what to expect with the warm weather.
Right now I have the bimetallic door set to 7, manual damper is wide open, vents in ash door open slightly. I have been getting 12 hours of burn time using nut coal.
Thanks,
It is supposed to be 63 degrees on Sunday. Mid 30s to mid 40s after that. Any suggestions to keep my Hitzer 30-95 going when it is 63? The last time it was in the mid 50s I lost the fire. I have a 20 ft masonry chimney and a tight house, stove in the basement. I feel like I finally have this stove figured out with the cold weather, not sure what to expect with the warm weather.
Right now I have the bimetallic door set to 7, manual damper is wide open, vents in ash door open slightly. I have been getting 12 hours of burn time using nut coal.
Thanks,
- Sunny Boy
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- Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
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If your chimney system has decent draft you can run with even higher temps, but you have to make adjustments. I'm in CNY, too and run my hand-fed range even when it gets into the high 70's and 80F.
To do that I sort by shovel and only put in the larger sizes of nut coal and none of the smaller chunks. That lets the firebed breath well. Plus, I have to open both the primary and pipe dampers more to get enough air flow as the outside air warms up and diminishes draft strength in the chimney system.
Without keeping the firebed breathing well and thus hot enough to keep a decent draft going, the firebed will slowly die out - as you've already found out.
Paul
To do that I sort by shovel and only put in the larger sizes of nut coal and none of the smaller chunks. That lets the firebed breath well. Plus, I have to open both the primary and pipe dampers more to get enough air flow as the outside air warms up and diminishes draft strength in the chimney system.
Without keeping the firebed breathing well and thus hot enough to keep a decent draft going, the firebed will slowly die out - as you've already found out.
Paul
- freetown fred
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Crack your ash door vents & use some window-stats as needed.
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I live in Pa and we had some warm days a couple days ago what I tried was not shaking the coal down as much as normal and that seems to bring down the temp on the stove and I was still a Able to restore the fire when I needed it and I keep everything else the same
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As Dreamcatcher mentioned, I personally keep a fair amount of dead ash on my grates. The stove and the draft does the rest. I have noticed that chimney draft goes down when the temps go up. This is to some sorts a way of regulating your stove temps. Also the stove can only be backed off so much, so then you must open windows and doors to try to even out your temps. I am not sure of your set up and no two stoves are the same so your results may vary, but some of these tips may work for you. Here's an interesting thing to bring up. I generally keep a certain amount of dead ash on my grates most of the time. I only shake down to where I see a few hot coals falling into my pan when the weather gets down to the teens, but most of the time I keep dead ash on the grates. I personally think this saves the grates. I had an old Estate heatrola that I hardly ever had hot embers on the grates. When the heatrola broke down, the grates were like brand new, with no warp age to them. The only reason the Estate gave up the ghost was because the cast iron firebox cracked beyond repair. But the grates were still straight as an arrow.
Again your situation may be different, so these are just suggestions to experiment with.
Again your situation may be different, so these are just suggestions to experiment with.
- ShawnLiNy
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When above 60* for more than 3 hours , I need to cover my baro with foil and open my ash door vent about 50% until dusk , we’ve had a few warm spells so I just let die , burn wood to cut chill and reload if low temps are expected
- Lightning
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In my opinion this indicates that the chimney lost draft (draft failure). Is your chimney interior? Or does it run up the side of the house where its exposed to outside temperature?
If its an exposed chimney it gets a little tricky because its at the mercy of ambient temperature changes. Your stove being in the basement is also fighting stack effect of the house. Being the house is tight, this stack effect is even more pronounced. So... to eliminate the competition of the home's stack effect crack a window in the basement open a few inches. This will bring the neutral pressure plane down to the stove's level so that the chimney doesn't have to fight for draft. This alone could very well solve the problem.
A technique that I also used was by adding secondary air to the fire. I don't think your stove has provisions for secondary. You could mimick extra secondary air by not securing the load door tightly which may or may not allow a little leakage into the stove around the load door. The key here is to let some in. Extra secondary air coming into the stove doesn't contribute to combustion with a low fire. Instead, it gets heated and provides more heated air mass to keep the draft moving along. This combined with lowering the neutral pressure plane will fix the outfire problem.
Start with just cracking open the basement window. If you decide to try the extra secondary air make sure the MPD is open so it can handle the volume..
Last edited by Lightning on Fri. Mar. 04, 2022 3:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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I have a magnetic surface thermometer on the stovepipe, above the baro damper. If the surface temperature at that spot remains above 90 degrees, I have never lost a fire. Your stove/chimney combination probably has a different base temperature requirement. I'm not sure how to arrive at the critical number except by experimentation.
- oliver power
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I'm with Fred....freetown fred wrote: ↑Fri. Mar. 04, 2022 9:36 amCrack your ash door vents & use some window-stats as needed.
- freetown fred
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Orrrrrr, ya could complicate the hell out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
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Ooh, me, me, me!freetown fred wrote: ↑Fri. Mar. 04, 2022 9:50 pmOrrrrrr, ya could complicate the hell out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
- Lightning
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Well you can have reasonable science explain what is going on or just believe in blind faith.. I'll take door #1 please and thank youfreetown fred wrote: ↑Fri. Mar. 04, 2022 9:50 pmOrrrrrr, ya could complicate the hell out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
- freetown fred
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How bout plain old fashioned experience Lee??????????????????
- Lightning
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Experience is great and useful.. but once you know the how's and why's you find that there might be better and more efficient ways to skin the catfreetown fred wrote: ↑Sat. Mar. 05, 2022 8:07 pmHow bout plain old fashioned experience Lee??????????????????
- oliver power
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Science is ok unless it confuses the operator before they get there heads wrapped around things. When it comes to burning coal, sometimes slow and simple are what's needed.