Hitzer 254 and New To Coal Heating

Post Reply
 
BigT
Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri. Feb. 03, 2023 5:21 pm
Location: Harpersfield, OH
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 254
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Electric heat pump

Post by BigT » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 9:18 am

Thanks to many days of reading, I have a beautiful coal fire going this morning. Brief detail and then a question or two. My Hitzer 354 is in the basement and the ranch home is 1900 sq ft. Essentially I’m heating the basement and residual heat rising for the main living area. I had been over firing my stove this entire season but was able to hit 77 degrees upstairs by accident really. It hadn’t been very cold out but now that it’s about 10• I’m running about 70ish. We have a heat pump that kicks on sometimes and that’s my trigger to go see what’s going on in the basement. If the Hitzer is designed to heat 2000’2, then am I wrong for thinking that the heat will rise and make the living space comfortable as well? The wife doesn’t like intense heat is why it’s in the basement. New build and fairly tight home. “IF” I have a handle on the fire, my only complaint right now is the rear thermostat door clinking so often. It does wake the kids but now that they know what it is, they go back to sleep. Could I run a thin bead of high temp silicone around the perimeter to dampen the sound but still maintain a seal if needed? I’ve read about paper clips and holes being drilled and weights being added. I don’t have any temp gauges and I’m running the dampers that are on the stove, nothing inline on the flue. Is it wise to add thermometers to stove and flue if I’m not struggling at this point?
Pic of broken brick is old and I replaced them. Shaker frame was warped and that’s fixed too. Second pic was from last night and it was starting to over fire but I got that under control. Looking good this morning and I’m excited to learn more!

Attachments



 
waytomany?s
Member
Posts: 3746
Joined: Fri. Aug. 16, 2019 3:02 pm
Location: Oneida, N.Y.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harmon Mark II
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Looking
Baseburners & Antiques: Looking
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: newmac wood/coal combo furnace

Post by waytomany?s » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 9:36 am

Starting to overfire? The stove body is glowing red blow the loading door! You are approaching nuclear temps. You are far from having things under control. Uh yeah, you need some thermometers and something in your exhaust system, how else would you know heat output and have control over what the stove is doing?

 
User avatar
warminmn
Member
Posts: 8108
Joined: Tue. Feb. 08, 2011 5:59 pm
Location: Land of 11,842 lakes
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Junior, Efel Nestor Martin, Riteway 37
Coal Size/Type: nut and stove anthracite, lignite
Other Heating: Wood and wear a wool shirt

Post by warminmn » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 12:02 pm

it would probably be a good idea to get more of that massive heat upstairs so you dont have to run the stove that hot. Which is way too hot as mentioned. Im not an air movement expert but some others here are. It might involve cutting a small hole in the floor somewhere as a cold air return which moves the heat upstairs much better. Or using ducts. I'll leave that advice to others here that do those things.

Those hitzer flappers get a lot of mention on this forum. I dont think silicone is the answer. Try a real thin paper clip first just to see if you like the results. Member Hoytman recently started a post about his intake door flapper and quite a few things were mentioned.

 
BigT
Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri. Feb. 03, 2023 5:21 pm
Location: Harpersfield, OH
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 254
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Electric heat pump

Post by BigT » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 1:28 pm

waytomany?s wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 9:36 am
Starting to overfire? The stove body is glowing red blow the loading door! You are approaching nuclear temps. You are far from having things under control. Uh yeah, you need some thermometers and something in your exhaust system, how else would you know heat output and have control over what the stove is doing?
That redness happened instantly and I was very nervous. I thought that I was “revving” up the coals for the new batch. Apparently I won’t need to do that at this point. Here to learn and that will take some time. On my way to get the thermometers now.

 
BigT
Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri. Feb. 03, 2023 5:21 pm
Location: Harpersfield, OH
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 254
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Electric heat pump

Post by BigT » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 1:34 pm

warminmn wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 12:02 pm
it would probably be a good idea to get more of that massive heat upstairs so you dont have to run the stove that hot. Which is way too hot as mentioned. Im not an air movement expert but some others here are. It might involve cutting a small hole in the floor somewhere as a cold air return which moves the heat upstairs much better. Or using ducts. I'll leave that advice to others here that do those things.

Those hitzer flappers get a lot of mention on this forum. I dont think silicone is the answer. Try a real thin paper clip first just to see if you like the results. Member Hoytman recently started a post about his intake door flapper and quite a few things were mentioned.
Thanks for the lead on Hoytman. He encouraged me to start the new post that I have here. I will go find the other thread and see if I can heed the advice for the flapper.

 
waytomany?s
Member
Posts: 3746
Joined: Fri. Aug. 16, 2019 3:02 pm
Location: Oneida, N.Y.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harmon Mark II
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Looking
Baseburners & Antiques: Looking
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: newmac wood/coal combo furnace

Post by waytomany?s » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 1:52 pm

BigT wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 1:34 pm
Thanks for the lead on Hoytman. He encouraged me to start the new post that I have here. I will go find the other thread and see if I can heed the advice for the flapper.
Bill(hoytman ) mentioned something about that spot, now that I think about it. Have to check with him.

 
User avatar
Lightning
Site Moderator
Posts: 14658
Joined: Wed. Nov. 16, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Olean, NY
Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite

Post by Lightning » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 2:12 pm

Is there any fire bricks across the front where the steel is glowing?


 
User avatar
McGiever
Member
Posts: 10130
Joined: Sun. May. 02, 2010 11:26 pm
Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 2:14 pm

Lightning wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 2:12 pm
Are there any fire bricks across the front where the steel is glowing?
Yeah!! That ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And
Yeah, where is Billy??
Why is the coal not full to the top of the bricks? As shown there is not enough coal to choke down the air flow. Very little resistance to air flow. What about draft control? You may have enough draft there to lift small pets off the floor!!

 
User avatar
Lightning
Site Moderator
Posts: 14658
Joined: Wed. Nov. 16, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Olean, NY
Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite

Post by Lightning » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 3:01 pm

Right below the load door seems to be a hot spot on my 503 also. The 503 does have a row across the front laying sideways. I'll see 300-350 degrees there even when it's not running hard.

BigT, fill that fire box up at least 8 inches deep and control the heat output with the primary combustion air. I think you'll have much better results.

 
Hoytman
Member
Posts: 5990
Joined: Wed. Jan. 18, 2017 11:30 pm
Location: swOH near a little town where the homes are mobile and the cars aren’t
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 354
Coal Size/Type: nut coal
Other Heating: electric, wood, oil

Post by Hoytman » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 3:42 pm

In the bottom picture…

Does your stove have bricks inside under the door lip. That stove should have them bring it is newer. Older 354’s may not have had them. I installed bricks under the load door of my 354.

By the way. Is your stove a 254 and not the larger 354? Looks like a 254 to me. Anyway…

Do you ever close the damper above the stove (push it in) when the stove is hot (like in that bottom picture)?

Is your stove top vent or rear vent (I didn’t pay attention)?

Blower (on back of stove) model or radiant?

There should be NO weights put on your air intake door flap.

This thread can be helpful to eliminate Hitzer thermostat flapper door noise.

Quieting Hitzer thermostat flapper door noise

Some of the pictures in the above thread are oriented wrong, so please excuse that. I wish a moderator could edit that thread and fix them.

Also you can try this below…and clicking on the (upward pointing) arrow will take you to the actual post/thread.
Hoytman wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 3:28 pm

Since the last post above and putting a paper clip on the flap it has started “tinking” some again. Likely time to add some anti-seize and lube things up again. Been a winter or two since I had to do that.

This flap rarely opens with this paper clip on the flap UNLESS I need to turn the dial up like for this cold snap. When it does open the flap tends to “float” in that space where the magnet pulls on the plate slightly. The noise isn’t nearly as loud as it used to be before lubing things up and/or adding the paper clip. This noise it still rare to happen for me.

 
BigT
Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri. Feb. 03, 2023 5:21 pm
Location: Harpersfield, OH
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 254
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Electric heat pump

Post by BigT » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 4:56 pm

Lightning wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 2:12 pm
Is there any fire bricks across the front where the steel is glowing?
There were no fire bricks in the front when I purchased the unit. Not certain if there’s room but I can check it out. That’s where the frame bent previously.

 
User avatar
Lightning
Site Moderator
Posts: 14658
Joined: Wed. Nov. 16, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Olean, NY
Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite

Post by Lightning » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 4:59 pm

Ok.. yeah you should certainly try to get a row of brick in the front. They would probably lay on their side like in my Hitzer 503.

 
Hoytman
Member
Posts: 5990
Joined: Wed. Jan. 18, 2017 11:30 pm
Location: swOH near a little town where the homes are mobile and the cars aren’t
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 354
Coal Size/Type: nut coal
Other Heating: electric, wood, oil

Post by Hoytman » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 5:08 pm

Dean at Hitzer told me some or maybe even all of the old stoves didn’t have bricks there. Not sure which but obviously some didn’t.

Like I said, my stove (1998 model), barely used when I bought it, had no bricks up front. I added them simply because the new stoves had bricks there.

Glowing steel is never a good thing and certainly to the point of bending or warping is never a good thing.

Is you basement finished? Sounds like it may be based on the fact people hearing the flap make noise. That shouldn’t be loud enough to be heard upstairs I wouldn’t think.

 
BigT
Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri. Feb. 03, 2023 5:21 pm
Location: Harpersfield, OH
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 254
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Electric heat pump

Post by BigT » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 5:12 pm

McGiever wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 2:14 pm
Yeah!! That ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And
Yeah, where is Billy??
Why is the coal not full to the top of the bricks? As shown there is not enough coal to choke down the air flow. Very little resistance to air flow. What about draft control? You may have enough draft there to lift small pets off the floor!!
Yes the draft is tremendous and I have heard a slight whistling if I crack open the ash draft. This is only happening now since I’ve learned to fill the box up so much. I used to only have it level with the door opening and had the flue choked about 75%. Always a fight to keep warm but now I’m re-learning everything that I thought I knew.

 
BigT
Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri. Feb. 03, 2023 5:21 pm
Location: Harpersfield, OH
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 254
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Electric heat pump

Post by BigT » Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 5:17 pm

Lightning wrote:
Sat. Feb. 04, 2023 4:59 pm
Ok.. yeah you should certainly try to get a row of brick in the front. They would probably lay on their side like in my Hitzer 503.
I didn’t know that I could/should modify anything but I have no problem trying. Thanks for the idea.


Post Reply

Return to “Hand Fired Coal Stoves & Furnaces Using Anthracite”