jthorell wrote: ↑Thu. Dec. 14, 2017 1:01 pm
Again I thank everyone for all the advice. Your knowledge humbles me.
After the CO alarms went off yesterday afternoon I decided not to let the fire die out on it's own. (no heat so no draft) I shoveled out the remaining hot coals and let it cool off. The house smells normal again and the Frau is back to Christmas stuff.
I opened up the stove to look for leaks between the fire chamber and the pipe. There are a couple seams that don't show any cement, so I will caulk those up today just to ensure they are not reducing my vacuum. Other wise, I have not found any significant faults with my stove.
I believe I have a draft problem due to my big (8"X10" clay tile) exterior masonry, 25 foot tall chimney that is cooling my smoke rapidly when it is very cold. Every time I went to base burner mode I could instantly smell flu gas from the top of the barrel (No where else)
I am discovering that much like wood, coal burning is more art than science . So I am going to apply more science.
I am going to try the AUTO-DRAFT® MODEL AD-1 INDUCER FAN FOR WOOD OR COAL STOVES made by Tjernlund. ($100 - $145) Then I know I will be drawing the flu gases up and out.
By creating more vacuum in the barrel my stove should perform like it used to in Grandpa's basement. (Who had and interior, 2 1/2 story brick chimney) And the sulfur and CO should go up he chimney.
The 2 days we had it running it really heated up our great room.
Comments??
I still don't think it's the chimney not getting hot enough. And I also think that using a draft inducer is chasing a non-problem while the real problem still remains.
A 25 foot chimney should be plenty high enough. Mine is 37 feet high, so that's 50% more chimney to heat if chimney heat loss were the problem.
And lots of exterior chimneys were built for coal at the time of that stove, that had no clay liners. And they were typically oversized by what we think of for stove chimneys today.
You'd be amazed at how little heat is needed to go up the chimney to keep a properly sealed coal stove running slowly in BB mode.
Example;
My 1903 coal range is hooked up to the original 1890's kitchen exterior, brick, no liner, chimney that is 8 1/2 x 81/2 inside. Like I said it's 37 feet tall and a lot of unlined brick to heat. Plus, the range is about the smallest model they made. It has a smaller firebox capacity than your stove - just 25 lbs of nut coal - 30 lbs stuffed full at night.
In oven mode, which is the same as base burner mode for you, it has much longer flues and much more heat extracting surface area than even very large BB stoves. It can run steady with a drop of the pipe surface temp to 100-105F just 2 feet above the stove top exit collar, and still keep on chugging all night long, even in warmer weather. That's more heat extraction than most BB stoves can achieve.
It never has died in 13 years for lack of draft, or backed up stink since I replaced the warped cooktop plates 12 years ago. And the cooktop has 10 removable plates that don't seal perfectly. It runs all night dampered down to .005 mano reading. Lower draft pressure than most stoves can still run at.
I strongly suspect you have leaks. Not one big one but many small ones that equal a big one.
I recommend you re-check carefully if there's any possibly way air can go from the ash pan area around the firebed instead of through it. Then any way air can leak in at the top or above the firebed.
Sometimes shinning a bright flash light on one side while you look at the other in a darkened room, will show a joint is not sealed as well as it could be. Even if it looks like internal joints are closed tight they may be opening as high heat on one side makes parts of the stove move.
We just had a case like that with another BB stove. Once sealed with refractory that BB stove works great again.
How tight is the loading door and it's secondary damper ? Can you close the door on a dollar bill and feel resistance as you pull the bill out ? If not you may be getting draft killing over-fire air leak there, too. Often it's not one big leak that's causing poor draft, but a bunch of small leaks that aren't easily seen, or they are ignored because they don't look big enough to cause a problem.
Paul
