At What Point Do You Old Timers Get Sick of Us Newbies?

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UpStateMike
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Post by UpStateMike » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 4:15 pm

Hopefully never, but please feel free to show me where any helpful info is hiding. Here's my story:

Last year I burned a couple of bags of coal in my garage stove. It's an old parlor stove called a Round Oak. Very cool stove and this encouraged me to look into a stove that I could burn wood and coal inside the house as there was no way I was going to just burn oil this year.

So this summer I bought an Elmira Oval with coal set up and I got it for a fair price. I got a cook stove because 1) it burns both wood and coal, 2) we can use it to heat and cook on in the event of a power failure and not rely on the grid. 3) it's a nice stove and should I decide to sell it it should hold it's value to at least get my money back.

Early October I finally got around to cleaning it up, getting the pipe hooked up after the chimney in the house was inspected and repaired correctly.

By late October I was burning wood in it to get a handle on it and make sure there wasn't any glaring problems.

Saturday I went to a local yard and bought 6 bags of Blachack (sp) coal and tried it out. All in all, things went good. I'm at work right now, who knows if the wife has done anything with the stove.

Lessons learned so far:
I should have tried to research more stoves before buying one, but that's life. This one will do what I want, but I have run across 4 or 5 models that seem a better fit for my needs.
I should have inspected the stove much better and made sure it was ready to go. I assumed it was because the PO had used it in their home. I now realize I have to replace bricks and inserts and I probably could have negociated the price accordingly.
You can't be too safe when it comes to solid fuel heating. GET A NEW carbon monixide and smoke detector. Install the stove pipe properly.
Take your time getting things working right, have a back up plan. I have a full tank of heating oil for the furnace so I don't have to force this to work.
Learn everything you can, and then keep asking questions.

Specific annoying newbie questions to follow...

 
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CoalHeat
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Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 4:53 pm

I only know a few members who grew up around coal. The rest of us were newbees once. The worst ones are the guys who burned wood for years and then switched to coal and expect it to burn the same way, or just don't know any better. They are a pain and ask all the stupid questions.

Cold Chimney?

Oh...and I am not an "Old Timer"!!!
prune face.jpg
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ANDES STOVE 2.JPG

My stove.

.JPG | 119.7KB | ANDES STOVE 2.JPG
Last edited by CoalHeat on Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 5:04 pm, edited 3 times in total.

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 5:00 pm

Welcome Mike.

Here are a few threads you may find helpful

How to Light a Hand Fired Coal Stove

Shaking a Hand Fired Stove ?

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 5:08 pm

UpStateMike wrote: Install the stove pipe properly.
Three screws in each joint?

 
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captcaper
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Post by captcaper » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 5:23 pm

Newbee's have much to offer us "old timers"


 
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UpStateMike
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Post by UpStateMike » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 6:52 pm

Freddy wrote:
UpStateMike wrote: Install the stove pipe properly.
Three screws in each joint?
That seems excessive to me. How about I just kiss two of them and then go to the next joint?

 
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Cap
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Coal Size/Type: Nut and Stove
Other Heating: Heat Pumps

Post by Cap » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 7:07 pm

Oh...and I am not an "Old Timer"!!!
You are looking much better today John, your color is good, & looks like your energy level is up. :P
Vitamins? What's your secret?

 
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UpStateMike
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Post by UpStateMike » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 7:23 pm

thannks fo the links and warm wecome. I appreciate the assistance!

 
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stoker-man
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: 1981 efm wcb-24 in use 365 days a year
Coal Size/Type: Anthracite/Chestnut
Other Heating: Hearthstone wood stove

Post by stoker-man » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 7:29 pm

Most of us boomers in the Lehigh Valley grew up with coal. Automatic ash systems overflowing onto the floor and cold trips to dump ash in the back yard. We all started somewhere.

 
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UpStateMike
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Post by UpStateMike » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 7:32 pm

I thought I'd share a picture of a mural I did about 7 years ago. I don't know jack about burning coal, but I have some other skills. lol
train mural.jpg

mural I did for the local model rr museum

.JPG | 1008.4KB | train mural.jpg


 
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CoalHeat
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Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 8:33 pm

Cap wrote:
Oh...and I am not an "Old Timer"!!!
You are looking much better today John, your color is good, & looks like your energy level is up. :P
Vitamins? What's your secret?
Thank you,sir. :D

 
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Freddy
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Axeman Anderson 130 (pea)
Coal Size/Type: Pea size, Superior, deep mined

Post by Freddy » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 9:29 pm

UpStateMike wrote:How about I just kiss two of them and then go to the next joint?
Because two kisses makes your kness loose. Three hold you soild.

Draft & design school, page one: There is strength in triangles.

 
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UpStateMike
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Post by UpStateMike » Tue. Nov. 18, 2008 4:19 am

hehe. You are correct Freddy! There is three screws in everything except the one on the stove. There is only two screw holes in the casting, so I put some longer ones in there.

Update for the coal experiment. Last night I came home from work and there was still a really nice coal bed in the stove. Shallow but going strong. The wifey did exactly nothing, so it worked out perfectly. Well, she turned on the oil furnace, so that's something.

After getting home I decided to load it up. I was a bit heavy handed and forgot completely everything about banking it, so it took some time to get going well. But now the stove is loaded and burning great. Nice thick bed of coals and the bell dampers are closed up. Burning at about 350 on the top of the cooking surface.

Still lots of bugs to work out with this thing, but so far I see a truckload of bagged coal in my near future.

 
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UpStateMike
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Post by UpStateMike » Tue. Nov. 18, 2008 3:15 pm

This morning I did the shake and emptied the ash bin like a good trooper. Not too many unburnt pieces overall. Most chunks are small and probably just fell through the grates either when I poured the coal in or shook the grates.

After getting the stove up to about 350 for some reason I decided to close it down tight, and ended up being too tight and starved the fire. Temps were down around 200 so I had to coax it back to life. By around 7 it was glowing red and needed some more coal.

Unlike last night where I dumped in WAYYY to much at one time, I poured a thin layer on top, closed it up and took a shower. After getting dressed, I checked it and the fire had nice blue flames coming off the bed so I poured in about 2-3x more than the first layer getting it to about the top of the bricks.

I had left the shaker door open (on the ash pan door) and opened all the bells about a 1/4 inch.

I made sure the furnace was all the way down and told the wife to CHECK the stove and turn it down if it needed it. She had a Dr's appointment for our month old son at 11 so she was going to turn it down. She said that by around 10 a.m. the stove was up to about 500! Sweet. She closed the shaker door, and the front damper bell, and left for her appointment. She got home to a nice warm house and said the stove was still around 400 and going strong when I called around 3 p.m. Sounds like good bread and or cookie baking temps to me!

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