Riteway Model 35C

Hi Scotty,

I suggest you post this on the Using Bituminous Page. The guys who burn BIT will see it easier there. The first thing that jumps out at me is that you are overfiring the stove. Do you have any thermometers on the unit? If not pick up one at Walmart or local hardware store. Knowing how hot the stove is burning can help you burn coal more successfully as well as protect your stove from damage. Most stoves can routinely burn at 500 or 600* but anything hotter is considered overfiring. Overfiring the stove doesn't accomplish much more in heat production but does cause damage to the unit. If you are running your stove this hot or hotter constantly to reach the level of heat your want, you need to look at adding a bigger stove capable of producing more BTUs or adding a second stove on the other end of the house. I'm sure the BIT burners will be a long. Pictures will help if you can post them. Lisa

My question, in order to make a suggestion is, what is the size of the coal you are using?

Even before quality of coal is considered, you need to have the proper size of coal.

Smaller size coal will burn slower, not yielding alot of heat but lasting a longer duration than a larger size.
Where as, larger sized coal will burn faster, with greater heat output for somewhat shorter duration.

Sounds like you may be using a smaller size coal compared to previous. Or maybe you're burning "Run of Mine" (ROM) and it would tend to burn as smaller sized coal even though it has some larger pieces in the mix.
Coal burns faster and hotter as the combustion air is more freely able to pass up through the coal bed 100% from underneath.

In short...faster, hotter...equals easy ability for the air to go pass through glowing coal bed.
Then you only need to have a means to control or slow down the rate of burn by a couple ways.
Adjusting air amount allowed in from bottom or adjusting the amount of exhaust gases before they exit...control both is even better.

Hope This Helps

Sorry for not being able to get back on here to reply to some of the responses to my original post.

I would have to guess that the type of coal that I'm using would be "run of mine" considering that it comes directly from the coal mines of east Kentucky. Some of it could be as huge as small boulders, while some can be as small as 'pea gravel' - it all depends on 'luck of the draw' depending on the particular coal vein that they happen to be blasting out of.

I found an online company that has replacement parts for my furnace, so I'll be ordering new innards pretty soon - I reckon I ought to go on ahead and replace all of the guts instead of just the grates themselves.

The area of my home where it's located is kind of difficult to describe - but it's not in an area where it can't "breathe" properly. I reckon the source of our present issues with the furnace would more than likely stem from the fact that the grates are warped, so cleaning out the ash pot is very difficult at best, and virtually impossible at worst. However, we've yet to awaken to discover any offspring or animals frozen to death, so it's evidently doing some work.

We're looking to replace the windows of our old "money pit" house within the next 6-8 weeks, so I am looking for dramatic improvement after we've eliminated the main source of outside air entering the home.

I figure that next cold season, I'll start mixing the fuel - burning wood and coal, as opposed to just coal. I recently learned that it's drastically cheaper to purchase coal during the warm months, so I'll be purchasing way more than I need, that way, I can sell some and make some extra money in the process.

I appreciate the responses thus far, and will make an attempt to get some pics up of how it's set up.

One additional question that pops into my mind at the moment has to do with the side damper. Someone told me that there's a thermostatic-controlled motor that opens and closes the damper automatically - do any of you know anything about that??

Scott

Yes, the Riteway model 37 has a control dial that operates a bi-metallic coil to act to regulate temps.
It is located on side of stove and has a chain attached down to air damper that feeds air into the under grates area.
As stove temps change, it changes amount of combustion air, more or less, to help to maintain a desired setting.

Do you know how to use the bypass damper w/ the rod out of the front? If it isn't functional, your heat is leaving the stove too soon and you're also missing the secondary burn of the flue gases, which w/ bit coal will get you some more heat.

Sorry to say, I got rid of one of those #37 temp. regulator recently, hauled to scrap yard w/ other things.
But, I kept all the cast iron parts, so, still have the grates, one is still straight other has a slight sag, but still worked fine.

If interested in cast grates you may send me a Private Message (PM)

Moved to the Bituminous coal forum for better exposure to our Bit coal burners..

Greg L

Maybe just cut the back side out of your ash pan...then put it back on w/ hinges...make it so when pushed back in against back of stove it would slide back up to normal position. When you carry it to dump you only have very sight corner cracks.

Ash level exceeding ash pan height is the #1 cause of sagging grates...they need ample air flow to keep the cast iron from reaching excessively high temps.

If you went to the bother, you could segregate a little of the different coal sizes. Bigger for faster, hotter and longer...smaller for slower, not so hot and it would be longer too.

Do a "Search" here at forum...top right corner...for Hitzer 82, it's same as your Riteway in many respects. I liked the improvement of another layer of fire bricks stacked above existing...for extra deep coal bed which lasts longer and troughs more output.