Regulating the HEAT!!!

Well we just got out Coal Stove roaring, which is nice since we have had such a hard time getting it started, but now that it is started my house is literally 90 degrees almost 100 in the room with the stove and let me tell u this is with my front door open on a 34 degree day. We are not to sure how to manage the damper on the back if it should be closed or stay open or what.Can we even control the amount of heat the stove puts off? Some help would be greatly appreciated. I prayed for heat but not the bahamas!!

Well we just got out Coal Stove roaring, which is nice since we have had such a hard time getting it started, but now that it is started my house is literally 90 degrees almost 100 in the room with the stove and let me tell u this is with my front door open on a 34 degree day. We are not to sure how to manage the damper on the back if it should be closed or stay open or what.Can we even control the amount of heat the stove puts off? Some help would be greatly appreciated. I prayed for heat but not the bahamas!!

Hi Kreamer, welcome. Close the air vents supplying air to the fire. A coal fire once burning will only need a small amount of air to make plenty of heat. An opening the size of a postage stamp or two is more than enough.

Greg L

Thanks for the reply, all of the air vents are closed and its nothing but bright amber coals in there. Is it possible for the stove to get to hot. and should I have the vent open a little or just let the barometric damper do the work?

I haven't been following your thread so you may have already answered this but, are your gaskets ( rope) around the ash door and loading door in good shape?
If you have the damper completely closed and it is still throwing wicked heat, then you obviously have an air leak somewhere.
This is where the learning curve takes some time when burning coal. All stoves seem to work just a little bit different. It usually depends on how strong your draft from the chimney is working. If I were you I would totally shut the dampers and keep a close eye on it and see if that settles it down. if they are all the way closed and it still roars and thows a ton of heat after about 10-15 minutes, I would say you have some bad gaskets somewhere. Air is getting in somehow.

You should be able to control the heat output by the draft control that feeds air to the fire. If you can't, you may have an air leak feeding it from somewhere else causing it to run away. A cigarette or candle run around where there are joints may help you find it if there is one.

I don't have a Hitzer, but checked them out when I was researching.

Close the draft control on the Ash bin door all the way.
Close the draft control on the back.

Do you have a barometric damper on the stove pipe. if not, adding one will do no harm, and may help. Your chimney might be pulling too much air into the stove.

Yes damper is in place and all vents are closed down so I guess we see what it does thanks for all the input, GREATLY appreciated!!!

Yeah I have the same issue.. The Hitzer is making it feel like its mid August.

I found my front air damper was not tight when the front knob was tightened down all the way. I took out the metal slider from the front ash door and bent the flaps forward just a bit so when put back into place the far ends were touching the inner part of the ash pan door with the middle section bowed outward toward inner part of stove (just a bit). Then when I tightened the middle knob down, it would pull forward the damper, making a tighter fit.

I hope this helps. My back air damper has been closed for over 24hrs and the stove was very hot. So far things are starting to slow down. Still in the 80's in the house, but I can tell the red coals are slowly going down. Hopefully the air damper on the back will soon open up...

But yes, take a match lighter stick or candle and go around your doors, closed dampers, and see if air is pulling flame into your stove.

When I get mine going I give it a little extra air on the bottom and some on top to burn off the gasses. When it starts dancing red flames in there instead of blur ones, I close the damper in the stove almost tight but not quite (control chimney suction). Then close the top air as the gasses are gone now, next I start choking down the ash door air (bottom) until the fire seems to be dying down a little. This takes an hour from first lighting off the coal to this point which makes it about 86 degrees in the room. I turn on the furnace fan which starts mixing the air to move warm air and temper the rest. By bed time it should be down to 76 or so in that room and 68 upstairs.
Still working on getting it right!
drujinin