Draft Control?
- Freespirit
- Member
- Posts: 164
- Joined: Fri. Sep. 28, 2012 10:01 pm
- Location: Lancaster NH Coos County
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Alaska Kodiak
- Coal Size/Type: Pea or Nut
I have a very strong draft in my chimney I am planning on getting a draft gauge to check it. For the last 4 winters I had an Efel Ambassador 420 it had an automatic thermostatically controlled draft this stove was my first experience using coal. I have a regular stove pipe damper in my stove pipe which I always had in the same position except when I started it or I had to open her then I would open the draft all the way. I have never had a problem with my stove and my carbon detector has always been on 0 and I always had a nice blue flame. I had to retire the Efel and now I have a new Alaska Kodiak I am unsure how this stove will be because there is big differences between my Efel and the Kodiak. Everywhere I read on this sight everyone is saying they use the barometric damper. My question is if you have a really strong draft how would this affect the Barometric damper? Still trying to learn as much as possible love my coal heat. I wish before I had the stove brought in I had read this sight it would have been seasoned outside too late now tomorrow will be small fire # 1 to season my grates. I have a partial bag of coal left from last year good thing the coal I got today is streaming wet. I will cut a bag tomorrow and let as much drain out as possible then I will bring it in to finish drying.
- windyhill4.2
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- Joined: Fri. Nov. 22, 2013 2:17 pm
- Location: Jonestown,Pa.17038
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1960 EFM520 installed in truck box
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Crane 404 with variable blower
- Coal Size/Type: 404-nut, 520 rice ,anthracite for both
The baro will prevent over-drafting,it helps smooth out the wind gust draft increase,great piece to have in use with a strong drafting chimney.
- coaledsweat
- Site Moderator
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- Joined: Fri. Oct. 27, 2006 2:05 pm
- Location: Guilford, Connecticut
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Axeman Anderson 260M
- Coal Size/Type: Pea
The baro limits total draft to a set point, beyond that you are sending good heat up the chimney.
- Freespirit
- Member
- Posts: 164
- Joined: Fri. Sep. 28, 2012 10:01 pm
- Location: Lancaster NH Coos County
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Alaska Kodiak
- Coal Size/Type: Pea or Nut
The Alaska I have has a bi- metal thermostat which I am hoping will be like the Efel. I also had the blower added to this one so to see if it would make a difference blowing the heat away from the stove for better circulation.
- Lightning
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- Joined: Wed. Nov. 16, 2011 9:51 am
- Location: Olean, NY
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
- Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite
Freespirit wrote:My question is if you have a really strong draft how would this affect the Barometric damper?
Do you mean, "How will the barometric damper effect the draft?"
The baro limits the draft to a set negative pressure. By having a steady negative pressure in the stove your heat output will be smoothed out (if you have a manual combustion air control). Also, it will prevent excessive secondary air from carrying heat out the chimney (making the stove more efficient) if your unit has fixed secondary air inlets.
Since you have a bi-metal thermostat, you may not need a baro. If your draft exceeds the recommendation of the manufacturer (which is usually around -.05" of water column as read with a manometer) then you should use some kind of pipe damper.Freespirit wrote:The Alaska I have has a bi- metal thermostat which I am hoping will be like the Efel.
The manometer is a very valuable instrument for burning coal. They are cheap and easy to install.