Shaking a Hand Fired Stove ?

From previous responses I think I might be shaking the fire too much. Any advice would be helpfull.

I usually shake my Harman Mark II until there are a few hot coal laying in the ash pan. But I'm sure there are MANY techniques.

I shake until the ash pan is lit up enough to see -- not white light, but an orange light. Sometimes half of the pan will be in the dark & the other half will be bright -- I just keep going until it's as equal as I can get it, otherwise half the fire will be barely lit in 12 hours.

If I get a lot of big glowing chunks of coal falling into the pan, I pull the pan out, shovel them out & toss them back into the fire. If they're small, I don't bother -- gets to be tedious chasing all the tiny pieces that won't make a difference in heat anyway.

If you mean "too much" as in "too often", I shake once in the morning, then load up with coal, then once in the evening & load up for the night.

If you shake it too much .Doesn't that mean that you are just playing with it ?

I shake mine until I have red coals falling into the ash pan and I can see a nice red glow above the shaker. My Jotul shakes down very nicely using this technique. I guess shaking is kind of like an art form; you will eventually will get the feel of your stove and know when your shaking too much or not enough.

the snowman

Since this is my first Haman Mark III I've been playing around with it and If I feel the fire is strong still I use my poker to poke around to get a feel were there is a lot of ash or dead spots. I notice while doing this ash will fall down threw the grates as well. I then shake it down. Like one fellow posted somewhere I'll let the fire die out and empty and clean the grates out of clinkers that won't burn. If you don't they'll build up and you'll lose the space and jam the grates easy.

I'll add my 2 cents. The term "shake" is a little too aggressive. With "rocker" grates it's very easy to "dump" your fire in the ash pit. I've went and helped some people (first time coal burners) in the past who had "coal in the ashpan", or "I use a lot of coal" complaints.
All you want to do is "disturb" the ashbed above the grates, the ashes will fall through. Stoves or boilers with round, or circular grates, don't have this problem because the opening through the grate area never changes. Just short,gentle strokes on a rocker grate system is all you need to do. When you see small pieces of burning coal entering the ashpan, or a nice red glow above the grates, you're done. Never let the ash buildup underneath the grates so as to touch the grates or you'll restrict the primary air flow through them, and the coal bed. This lack of air flow will cause the grates to warp or crack. Good luck!

I found the problem. The stove I have is a furnace and it has a draft diverter that passes the exhaust up through the front of the stove and then back to the flu and last night I opened the diverter and allowed the exhaust air to go directly to the flu and the stove took off. It was twenty degrees last night and I had a window open all night.

Thanks for the input !

SMITTY wrote:Sometimes half of the pan will be in the dark & the other half will be bright -- I just keep going until it's as equal as I can get it, otherwise half the fire will be barely lit in 12 hours.

What I almost always find in that situation Smitty is the dark side will be below a bridge & air pocket above the grates. If I continue shaking down I might get embers from the dark area eventually but will pack the good side to tightly from over shaking. Instead, I'll poke into it (dark area ) from above, the coal bed will often sink like a fallen cake, into that air pocket. I then will give it 1 or 2 gentle shakes & fill up the air pocket with fresh coal. (as long as you keep a lively fire going on the good side you wont have any problems with this)
Everyone has their own technique. See what works best for you.

Good idea Devil!

I just found a use for this Yamaha TW200 rear brake rod that wouldn't sell on Ebay -- it's a perfect COAL POKER!

Devil505 wrote:

SMITTY wrote:Sometimes half of the pan will be in the dark & the other half will be bright -- I just keep going until it's as equal as I can get it, otherwise half the fire will be barely lit in 12 hours.

What I almost always find in that situation Smitty is the dark side will be below a bridge & air pocket above the grates. If I continue shaking down I might get embers from the dark area eventually but will pack the good side to tightly from over shaking. Instead, I'll poke into it (dark area ) from above, the coal bed will often sink like a fallen cake, into that air pocket. I then will give it 1 or 2 gentle shakes & fill up the air pocket with fresh coal. (as long as you keep a lively fire going on the good side you wont have any problems with this)
Everyone has their own technique. See what works best for you.

That's how I shake down my stoves Devel. That's exactly how. Due to everything "sinking like a fallen cake" , very little shaking needs to be done. Of course , should I not want a full glowing bed of coals , I don't poke. The HITZER stoves have a ledge on each side of the firebox. The ashes build up on the ledges. If I don't poke the edges , the ashes continue to build more , creating a smaller firebox. Works good in warmer outside air temps.