Hitzer 503 - a lot of ash after letting stove die out.

 
orrsmills
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Post by orrsmills » Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:13 pm

Hi Folks,

I have a 503 insert and love it. Heats my house very well.

My question is about the amount of ash, well maybe not all ash but what I would best describe as like sea shells in my stove after I let it burn out.

I have been burning non-stop since mid November. With the warm weather took the opportunity to let it die out and cleaned out the stove.

I had about a full ash bucket (5 gallon bucket) of ash and "sea shells" when I clean it out.
Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

I shake the stove in the AM and again around 6:00pm before I fill the stove for the night. I fill the stove once a day and shake twice a day.

Thanks a lot!


 
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Idlorah
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Post by Idlorah » Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:21 pm

The "sea shells" you describe are more then likely just coal the didn't get burned all the way when you let it burn out. Pictures help.

 
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ShawnLiNy
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Post by ShawnLiNy » Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:34 pm

Crunchy ash is just a tad too much heat fusing the silica and any other meltable minerals , either load on top or scoop out( ones that don’t get crushed roll around and accumulate any new stuff

 
orrsmills
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Post by orrsmills » Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:45 pm

ShawnLiNy wrote:
Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:34 pm
Crunchy ash is just a tad too much heat fusing the silica and any other meltable minerals , either load on top or scoop out
Hi, so you think Im running the stove too hot? I typically don't run over 450.

thx

 
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ShawnLiNy
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Post by ShawnLiNy » Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 8:21 pm

Not at all on you , different coal has lower fusability and letting burn out the hot stuff just had longer to stick together ( post a pic though so everyone’s looking at the same thing )!

 
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ShawnLiNy
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Post by ShawnLiNy » Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 8:23 pm

orrsmills wrote:
Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:45 pm
Hi, so you think Im running the stove too hot? I typically don't run over 450.

thx
Though stove temp has been constant ( less coal in the box means the fire box temps are much higher to maintain same temp with less and dying coals

 
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davidmcbeth3
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 11:49 pm



 
waytomany?s
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Post by waytomany?s » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 7:53 am

davidmcbeth3 wrote:
Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 11:49 pm
https://ryantpugh.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/1 ... ielsen.jpg

Stopping to clean out the 503 ...
Nah, that's when dinner.hits the table.

 
waytomany?s
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Post by waytomany?s » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 7:58 am

orrsmills wrote:
Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:13 pm
Hi Folks,

I have a 503 insert and love it. Heats my house very well.

My question is about the amount of ash, well maybe not all ash but what I would best describe as like sea shells in my stove after I let it burn out.

I have been burning non-stop since mid November. With the warm weather took the opportunity to let it die out and cleaned out the stove.

I had about a full ash bucket (5 gallon bucket) of ash and "sea shells" when I clean it out.
Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

I shake the stove in the AM and again around 6:00pm before I fill the stove for the night. I fill the stove once a day and shake twice a day.

Thanks a lot!
It's normal. Coal has.higher ash content than wood. That's the extra that's talked about. I had.burned my last bag.of stove size early in November. When I shut down early December and cleaned out there were still remnants of some pieces in there. Some coal.doesn't become brittle and fall apart.

 
Gian4
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Post by Gian4 » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 11:55 am

Hi Orrsmills
I've had my Hitzer 503 for 15 years and love it. I found the thing that made my tending easier, kept ash down leading to more complete burns and minimized grate wear is what we call the Riddle tool. I've included a link to a discussion about this. Hope it helps.
Hitzer503 Insert and Riddle tool

Gian4

 
Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 12:00 pm

ShawnLiNy wrote:
Fri. Jan. 06, 2023 7:34 pm
Crunchy ash is just a tad too much heat fusing the silica and any other meltable minerals , either load on top or scoop out( ones that don’t get crushed roll around and accumulate any new stuff
I get the same thing with nut coal running low and slow. I wonder if it could have more to do with the air flow and size of coal? I get fine ash with pea coal whether burning at idle or burning at 300…which is still low and slow for a coal stove.

 
waytomany?s
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Post by waytomany?s » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 12:01 pm

Hoytman wrote:
Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 12:00 pm
I get the same thing with nut coal running low and slow. I wonder if it could have more to do with the air flow and size of coal? I get fine ash with pea coal whether burning at idle or burning at 300…which is still low and slow for a coal stove.
Did you end up preferring the pea coal?

 
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Post by Hoytman » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 1:08 pm

waytomany?s wrote:
Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 12:01 pm
Did you end up preferring the pea coal?
Yes and no.

Yes (pea) for burning when it is colder outside say below 25F OAT. I still don’t need to run the stove hard (far less than 300 on stove doors) but nut wants to run…if you understand what I mean…which may be hard for uninitiated readers/coal burners to discern. The pea seems to slow the air flow just enough for me to get even more control of my already far too large stove for my house, as you know. I nice soft shaking of the shaker handle just seems to vibrate the ash right out rather than having to shake very hard like with nut coal.

Pea coal ash is the finest powdered ash I’ve seen yet with this stove. Virtually zero crunchy stuff…just nice, fine, white ash, and less ash too it seems.

Many are aware I added fire bricks laying on their sides at and across the load door opening of my stove. I did this for a few reasons. To protect the steel of the stove, also to further insulate the fire, to allow me to load and bank more coal in my stove, which proved to work very well and allowed me to load a full 110-120 lbs of nut coal when and if desired. With help from Freetown Fred I learned that as long as there are some glowing coal up front, then it is NOT necessary for me to burn off volatiles and allowing blue flames…which for me, with a full deep load, made for far too much heat into the house and so the blue flames ended up wasting heat up my chimney. So if it is glowing even slightly orange or if there is a single small flame I would close it up and let it ride…and ride it would using little fuel. Thanks, Fred!

With my stove, and help from Oliver Power, I discovered it isn’t necessary for anthracite to run on a deep bed of coal. A deep bed of coal in a stove far too big for a home means super long tending times making reving the stove a very unpleasant and tedious task. So loading level, or slightly higher, has allowed for much faster tending times and when cold out (below 20F) the entire fuel load has more even glow throughout. When above 25F and level loading, I just keep some glowing coal up front. (Oliver’s entire fuel load is red at all times and he loads in thin layers allowing each few shovels full to fully ignite. I cannot do this…as it’s still too much heat in the house.) By keeping coals flowing up front, I then later after a tend will cover the red coals with fresh coal which forces more air into the rest of the level, or near level fuel load, allowing the rest of the fuel load to catch fire underneath black coal towards the rear. Thanks, Scott!

As it turns out, I no longer load and bank any coal to the rear except for when I “want to”. I now load level with those front bricks…which stick up above the loading door lip. I load level to the rear with pea or sometimes just about an inch higher sloping slightly up on the rear bricks. I do the same with nut now, just slightly banking about 1”-2” up the rear bricks from level. Pea…I can load dead level front to rear, side to side most times.

No (pea) when burning in above 25F temperatures and it gets worse the warmer it gets. We have lots of temperature swings here and that alone makes using pea tuff in warmer temps, for me…because as you can see the stove puts off lots of heat with little air. So it’s just too hard to get the tending time and shaking just right to where it isn’t a fight…and it’s seemingly always a fight especially taking 30 minutes or more, keeping fingers crossed that you don’t kill it. So warmer OAT’s calls for nut and windowstats to keep things easy. The lower in temperature the stove burns in colder outside air temps the finer the ash is. If I have to burn it harder sometimes and I shake even a slight bit too hard it is real easy to love the shaker too far and dump good unburned coal. So there’s a fine line to walk to.

As long as I can walk that fine line and do things just right…well then I liked pea coal enough to want to keep at least 1/2-1 ton around.

I’m thinking mixing nut and pea coal 50/50 might just serve me very well.

Anyone mix it this way and like it?

 
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davidmcbeth3
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 2:44 pm

waytomany?s wrote:
Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 12:01 pm
Did you end up preferring the pea coal?
I ran pea in my 503...seemed like it was not needed...I can idle with nut coal fine.

If nut became unavailable maybe. I think any size that I can stove into the hopper is OK.

Manufacturers only give suggestions... pro tip: save space..store your coal on the sidewalk

 
waytomany?s
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Post by waytomany?s » Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 4:07 pm

davidmcbeth3 wrote:
Sat. Jan. 07, 2023 2:44 pm
I ran pea in my 503...seemed like it was not needed...I can idle with nut coal fine.

If nut became unavailable maybe. I think any size that I can stove into the hopper is OK.

Manufacturers only give suggestions... pro tip: save space..store your coal on the sidewalk
What's your address? Especially if you're storing coal on the sidewalk.


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