Stove Temperatures and Duration

Just curious what temps your stoves burn and for how long. For example my Vigilant II, once its is cranking burns 600f to 700f for the 1st 3 or 4 hours then a steady 550f to 500f 3 to 4 hours after that and then finally 450 to 400 before I need to reload. (Usually about 11 to 13 total hours)These figures are when it is very cold out and the themostat is wide open. with thermostat 1/2 open I get a very steady 500f for like 10 to 14 hours. Are these good temps or could I squeeze more out of the stove with more practice? this will be my 3 rd season burning coal.

i have the same stove, had it for 5 yrs and I get the same temp reading as you do. how do u like the stove ??(i use nut size)

ScubaSteve wrote:For example my Vigilant II, once its is cranking burns 600f to 700f for the 1st 3 or 4 hours then a steady 550f to 500f 3 to 4 hours after that and then finally 450 to 400 before I need to reload.

I have a different stove but about the same size, & those temps & duration (I assume those are probe thermo temps) are about as good as I think you'll get.

I Love the stove, I grew up using a vermont castings defiant woodstove, and I remember having to add wood every 4 to 6 hours. I still cant get over how well coal burns, and how long it burns for. Very rarely do we ever use the electric heaters in the house. Only on the coldest nights. I use nut coal too, the pea coal falls through the grates too easily.

ScubaSteve - glad to see you on the forum! Another NJ-er - I'm in central Warren County. I have good southern exposure so the sun helps a lot with heating 10 yr old 3100 sq ft.

I got similar temperatures, a little hotter and reverse on the curve, to what you've reported. I began to use an IR thermometer last year. I had used a typical bimetallic coil stove top unit that seemed to be calibrated up the temperature of boiling water. I found the stove top unit read cooler than the IR temp readings. One stove top unit that I had from VC had two scales; one for stove top and one for pipe. The last one I bought only had a scale for pipe and read cool.

I fire with pea coal from a local Redding dealer. I tried nut but feel that I get longer more consistent temps from pea. It takes a while for it to get to the 500 -600 range, reading off the hottest place on the ground cast top, but it holds there for most of the burn duration. In usual winter weather, I typically do my charge-a-full-load routine, say at 5:30 am, and its good for at least 10 hours. At 10 hr, I'm reading ~ 700s but the fire will be thin on top. Within the 10-11 hour period, I top off with a few inches of coal and do my charge-a-full-load routine again around 13 -14 total lapsed time. Usually around 7- 8 at night. I throw what fits on top after a little shake around 11 pm and that it till 5:30 am.

I've never run my Vigilant II wide open. It would definitely over fire with the draft I have. My chimney is a straight 14" run of 6" SS insulated metal. From the ceiling down to the stove its about six feet of double wall SS pipe. I run under half way (near vertical stick) on the thermostatically controlled air inlet when the low temps are in the 30's. When lows are in the 20's I'm at about 2/3's of the stick travel and the routine time shortens by a couple hours. When low temps get in the bottom teens to high single digits, the stick is at 3/4 open and the stove is putting out mid 700's or sometimes more. At that point, it's about flat out for the stove and I'm going thru nearly 85- 90 Lbs a day. I do the charge-a-full-load routine three times a day then to keep the fire thicker. That works out to near the 50,000 BTU/hr it's designed for.

I'm still tinkering with my VC. I work 12 hour shifts but I am gone for about 13.5 to 14 hours and can still come home and get a roaring fire out of the coal left on the grate. I don't want to comment on the temperatures just yet but I can overfire pretty easily while the volatiles burn off, after that it seems to range from 300 to 600 over that amount of time. 8300 BTU bit, oiled Nut.

I'll add that the most thorough shake is in the evening. I saw somewhere on the forum that anthracite yields ~ 13,000 BTU/hr. That's the number I base my calculation on and it seems to be close given the stove top temps I've read. I hear ya on the 12 hr shifts, SAU. I know about 8 hr 28 day rotating shifts all too well and we're always concerned about the 12 hr. option. That's how I feel about that!

OT

Dude, I went back into construction for a while and was working 8's. I hated it! Out of 28 days I only work 14 and have 7 days off in a row 13 times a year. Most of the strip/pit mines work this schedule to maximize production through fewer shift changes. We also get 8 hours of built in OT, actually it's a 12.5 shift because we are paid to drive out into the, pit and for lineout. My father worked 8s all of his life and they brought it to a vote a few years ago, it passed and the old man absolutely loves it because he ties his 5 weeks of vacation into the 7 off and travels all over the place. I know a lot of people feel like the company is trying to pull one over on you, but the way I see it is that they are getting what they want, but they are wasting less of my time and money through fewer commute's. I must admit though, that if you are standing on a production line someplace it would be tough. I don't think I could stand on my feet for 12 hours.

Thanks for the in-depth info pea burner, My chimney exits out of the rear so my draft is probably not as good as yours. This will be my 3rd season so I guess Im still learning. ps Warren county is beautiful. Love it up there

Scuba, You're welcome. Sometimes I get too carried away with this stuff - at least that's the wife's opinion

SAU, a lot of guys like 12s. If it's set up right, it would be great with vacation strung onto the off days for certain. Check my PM to you about this.

Gotta go finish painting the stove pipe. Haven't needed a fire for a week. Going to be in the 70's AGAIN!

Suggestion for duration if someone is around to add a few shovels of fresh coal a few times (probably once or twice at low temps) during the day:

I now shake my stove down once a day all winter long. I'm around to add a few shovels if needed but I shake down late afternoon....Once a day! (cuts dust & time spent working the stove..May even cut coal use due to less coal wasted but I'm not positive about that)

I use to shake too often. Now I do it when it obviously needs it but I only want to see powder in the pan. It's done more often and more thoroughly when it's really cold out. Then, I'm putting some max amount of coal thu it. I figure if I see that nice red glow in the pan and maybe a few very small reds, all is well in the air department.