Hitzer what happened?

fpappal · Post by **fpappal** » Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 7:31 pm

I have been getting 12 hours between tending in my Hitzer 30-95. I use a poker every single time to break up the ash before I shake. Today I came home to this after 10 hours. It was 46 this afternoon. All the reddish coal in front broke apart with my poker. I gave it a good shake and the fire never came back. I flossed under the red coals, ash door open, window cracked, baro was around .02. Any thoughts as to what happened?

Now the stove and hopper are filled with coal. Do you think I can add some charcoal to get it going again? Or should I remove all the coal and start over? I was doing so well, not sure what could change so quickly. Just when I thought I had this stove figured out...

Post by **Lightning** » Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 7:48 pm

I think your fire was too weak when you disturbed it by shaking and poking. I would always open the ash door for 10 minutes maybe more and get it rippin real good before doing anything else. As far as relighting it, I used to make a valley in the fuel bed and put kindling there, light it, then put some coal on top but I didn't have a hopper full in the way.

BlackBetty06 · Post by **BlackBetty06** » Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 8:15 pm

Lightning wrote: ↑
Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 7:48 pm
I think your fire was too weak when you disturbed it by shaking and poking. I would always open the ash door for 10 minutes maybe more and get it rippin real good before doing anything else. As far as relighting it, I used to make a valley in the fuel bed and put kindling there, light it, then put some coal on top but I didn't have a hopper full in the way.

Problem with that in my experience is the stove body gets too hot, the thermostatic damper is extremely slow to respond so what happens is you get it ripping real good then it all but snuffs itself after you close. It up and then typically a nice dusty puff back follows after the bi metallic finally decides to open up again. This is unfortunately another downfall of no secondary air with low and slow burning in the Hitzer hopper stoves..

Post by **Lightning** » Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 8:39 pm

Ah... I see.. the only work around would be to leave the load door cracked open a hair after shake and load till things cooled down.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 9:23 pm

F, why the hell are ya pokin ash's every time?????????? Do you have your ash door vents cracked an 1/8'--put foil over that baro. That's why ya got a bi-metallic. & YES, lookin at the pix, if she's not goin by now, start over

Bad topic heading--it's surely not the HITZER.

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 10:08 pm

The dead coal in the pic, is that near the shaker rod hole? Air leak around the shaker rod causing the dead spot? I may not be right, just thinking out loud.

When I used to get dead spots like that in my Efel I would give it a little air and add some coal on whats still burning, no shaking. Then do it again when that gets going good. Dont shake until you have a real lively fire. It takes a while. I used to liven up the fire like Lightning mentioned too, puffbacks be damned.

leward · Post by **leward** » Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 10:49 pm

As Mr. Fred advised- I very rarely, almost never get the poker after our 50-93. Threatened our camp guys if they poked at it. The grates fock plenty far enough to dump all but the biggest klinkers. Pick them out with tongs if need be, but don't stir and disrupt your fire.
Anthracite is slow and steady and doesn't like being monkeyed with. Whether you can get and rescue an outfire is about the same as a trip to a casino. Me, I would just start over, I can get a fire going good in under an hour and I know that will work.

oliver power · Post by **oliver power** » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 1:59 am

As Fred said; Crack open the ashpan vents, and get rid of the barometric damper. Run the stove like it was engineered to run.

Going by the picture; She got to burning quite hot, flapper door closed, and you cut off the air. Flapper door stayed closed too long. When it did open, you have that dammed barometric damper barely letting the stove sip air. When the bi-metallic flapper opens on a hitzer, it wants a strong draft, not a sippy draft. It wants to liven that fire up ASAP, and then close. The stove can't do that with the barometric damper. Ashpan vents are the sippy vents. So in your case, being a warmer day, your chimney most likely cooled as well, reducing an already weakened draft.

Clean it out, and start over. It's your time to remove any nice size clinkers.

oliver power · Post by **oliver power** » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 2:13 am

leward wrote: ↑
Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 10:49 pm
As Mr. Fred advised- I very rarely, almost never get the poker after our 50-93. Threatened our camp guys if they poked at it. The grates fock plenty far enough to dump all but the biggest klinkers. Pick them out with tongs if need be, but don't stir and disrupt your fire.
Anthracite is slow and steady and doesn't like being monkeyed with. Whether you can get and rescue an outfire is about the same as a trip to a casino. Me, I would just start over, I can get a fire going good in under an hour and I know that will work.

The 50-93 has straight vertical sides on the firebox. The entire back wall of the 30-95 is tapered. A little poking at each side at tending time is good practice on the 30-95. The 254 has straight vertical firebox walls. I don't have to poke the 254 either.

oliver power · Post by **oliver power** » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 8:02 am

So here we are again. A new day, and a fresh look at your picture. Everything in my prior replies to your post are accurate. That being said; I have a question for you. The fire doesn't look bad in your picture. So how did you put it out to begin with? I'm going to throw one more thing out there. Did the coal hang up in the hopper? Is your hopper warped on the back side. I see what looks like fresh pieces of coal on the fire.

fpappal · Post by **fpappal** » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 1:29 pm

Let me clarify, I only have a manual damper on the stove. When I said my baro was at .02 I was meaning the manometer reading. I am using a paint roller that I have straightened out to slide down the front of the stove to the grates. It is very thin and does not disturb much but I was finding the ash was not always shaking out. This was helping to loosen things up.

The hottest the stove gets measured from the upper left corner above the door is upper 300s. The coal in my hopper always seem to get hung up so I need to poke at it from inside the stove to get it to fall out, I then use the same poker to spread it evenly inside the stove. After 12 hours there is not much coal left to liven up, so I have been shaking the old ash out to make room for the new coal. Usually I am seeing nice blue flames within 5 minutes, maybe less. I feel like after a few weeks the ash builds up too much and the stove does not get enough oxygen.

So I have a dumb question. Is it possible my hopper is installed backwards? Should it be dumping towards the back of the stove (which is what you see in the picture) or should it facing the front of the stove when it dumps?

I am going to fire it up again, but temps are looking very warm for me next week. Thank you for all the replies.

oliver power · Post by **oliver power** » Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 1:44 pm

fpappal wrote: ↑
Sat. Mar. 12, 2022 1:29 pm
Let me clarify, I only have a manual damper on the stove. When I said my baro was at .02 I was meaning the manometer reading. I am using a paint roller that I have straightened out to slide down the front of the stove to the grates. It is very thin and does not disturb much but I was finding the ash was not always shaking out. This was helping to loosen things up.

The hottest the stove gets measured from the upper left corner above the door is upper 300s. The coal in my hopper always seem to get hung up so I need to poke at it from inside the stove to get it to fall out, I then use the same poker to spread it evenly inside the stove. After 12 hours there is not much coal left to liven up, so I have been shaking the old ash out to make room for the new coal. Usually I am seeing nice blue flames within 5 minutes, maybe less. I feel like after a few weeks the ash builds up too much and the stove does not get enough oxygen.

So I have a dumb question. Is it possible my hopper is installed backwards? Should it be dumping towards the back of the stove (which is what you see in the picture) or should it facing the front of the stove when it dumps?

I am going to fire it up again, but temps are looking very warm for me next week. Thank you for all the replies.

Hopper should be facing the front of stove. If facing the back, that is probably why the coal is hanging up in the hopper. Also would be why ashes are not shaking down. face hopper forward, and a little poking/fluffing at the sides during tending.

LouNY · Post by **LouNY** » Sun. Mar. 13, 2022 9:56 am

I have a Hitzer 503 insert so I'm not sure how similar they are.
The hopper in mine slopes toward the back of the stove,
looking into the hopper the top is closer to the front then the bottom is.
I normally only tend to mine once a day (24 hours).

fpappal · Post by **fpappal** » Sun. Mar. 13, 2022 10:36 am

I changed my hopper so it slopes towards the front. 15 hours later my fire was still going strong, I could never get more than 12 hours with it facing the other direction. I gave it a shake after 15 hours and I had a nice even flow of glowing ash fall into the ash pan. It has not even been 24 hours but I am already noticing a difference.

I actually almost got myself in trouble. I let it go for a while and when I came back my stove pipe was up to 600 F, I could smell the paint burning. The temp never got close to that with it the hopper facing the other direction. Next week is going to be warm, I am hoping for some 24 hour burn times. Thanks for the help.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Mon. Mar. 14, 2022 7:09 pm

Silly huh F--great ya caught it--good eye!!

I'm thinkin you'll be a lot happier now.

Hitzer what happened?

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