Venting Problems With Magnum???

pa coal cracker · Post by **pa coal cracker** » Sun. Dec. 23, 2012 8:46 pm

Had this stove since 2009, no problems until this year.
I'm getting the sulfur smell. ( not all the time)
Manometer reading in flue .06, fire box .06 ( burning buckwheat)
30 ft chimney (block withe clay flue) was cleaned in Sept. (hardly any dirt).
I do the basic cleaning every spring,I put a new glass in this year. All the gaskets are original (they seem ok).
Any sugestions? thank you

michaelanthony · Post by **michaelanthony** » Sun. Dec. 23, 2012 8:58 pm

Do you have a CO detector? If not I would get one, while I was at the store buying the detector I would buy new gasket and start there.

pa coal cracker · Post by **pa coal cracker** » Sun. Dec. 23, 2012 9:01 pm

Yep I have a detector

tsb · Post by **tsb** » Sun. Dec. 23, 2012 9:10 pm

Have you changed coal ? The Blaschak coal I got last year has a
funky sulfur smell in the hopper. Not real bad, but enough to notice.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sun. Dec. 23, 2012 9:55 pm

pa coal cracker wrote:Manometer reading in flue .06, fire box .06 ( burning buckwheat)

Throttle the air back a little, you want the fire box draft to be a lower reading than the flue draft. When the *over the fire* draft is equal or greater than the flue draft, the fire box can become slightly pressurized and will find any imperfections in the gaskets or back up into hopper and seep exhaust gases.

pa coal cracker · Post by **pa coal cracker** » Mon. Dec. 24, 2012 4:53 am

Turned the air back (.04 -.05) firebox..........(.06) flue
I agree this will certainly help if not totaly fix the problem.
How long between gasket changes, and is there anything else I should be doing along with yearly cleaning?
I have never removed the main feeder body, I check the mounting bolts making sure they are tight,clean and blow it out.

coalkirk · Post by **coalkirk** » Mon. Dec. 24, 2012 8:28 am

Have you always burned buck? The magnum prefers rice. If I try to burn buck in my boiler, which uses the same stoker as your magnum, I get the smell out of the hopper. Try switching to rice. Or a rice buck mix.

pa coal cracker · Post by **pa coal cracker** » Tue. Dec. 25, 2012 12:27 pm

I've been burning buck since day one, never had a problem.
I never had to change any settings up until now. The more I think about it the buckwheat seems bigger in size.
Which would let more air through into the fire box. Could be the screens are getting a little worn at the breaker.