Getting Heat Out of a Hand Fired

hello everyone,

I have a friend who has a Vogelzang Sentry stove. I had posted about this before but wanted to see if I am missing something.

basically he doesn't get much heat out of it. his fire doesn't like to burn well. here are the details.

Right now he has no baro damper and his draft is .04 over fire and .06 in flue pipe. which isn't too bad. I know it could be better for a hand fired.

The only way he can keep the stove going is by keeping the ash door open. Otherwise it will be out or almost out the next morning. Even with this door open the fire isn't THAT great. Very little blue flame and such. the coals nearest the front (where the door is open) will get and stay red though.

The stove just doesn't throw heat period. It is a tin stove and probably not the best i'll give you that but the gentleman is in his 60's and just wanted to try to get some alternative heat going. and this stove doesn't do it.

is there anything I can do to try to help him out? From reading on here you guys mentioned heaping in a good amound of coal

right now his coal only goes about half way up the fire brick on the side. I just don't know that that is the issue. I think air is. I thought about trying to rig up a fan to inject air under the grates to get the fire going some... don't know if that would work or where to get something like that.

The coal he is using is the same as what I am using. his is nut and mine is rice but it came from the same mine and my coal burns very good, no issues. but I'm using a stoker and he isn't.

any tips, help , or tricks to help him out and get some heat out of his stove would be much appreciated.

Also I should note I thought of putting a large piece of steel on top of the tin. help radiate some more heat. but from what I see he just doesn't have the fire that I think he should.

Thanks

First thing to do is fill it to the top of the firebrick, if you don't you will have problems maintaing the fire and very little heat. Anthracite is very social and doesn't like being alone, it wants a lot of friends around it to burn well, in a large mass it will throb heat. You have more than enough draft (but should have a baro to limit it to around .06). Make sure there is no air leaking in the loading door, you can check with cigarrette smoke or a candle flame. Make sure any vents in the door are closed.

Does his stove have a tin shell covering the iron or cast iron firebox? Can you describe it in more detail?