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Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Sat. Feb. 01, 2014 3:56 pm
by ONEDOLLAR
Gekko wrote:We'll this morning has been interesting...

9 hours after top off the parameters are the same except the barrel temp climbed up 490 ish and the stack had gone down to 150*

:up:
Gekko

I think you are just going to have to get used to warm temps and low coal usage. Just a hard fact of life when burning a Crawford :!: Happy you got her up and running!

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Sat. Feb. 01, 2014 4:24 pm
by scalabro
Thanks for the tips Onedollar!

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Sun. Feb. 02, 2014 11:01 am
by scalabro
Since today is a freak, I guess, I have decided it's the perfect time to see how Mrs. Crawford would do in the "shoulder months"

She 's still settling out so I'll keep an eye on her to see how low I can keep her idling in base heater mode.

The pics tell the story....

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Sun. Feb. 02, 2014 11:34 am
by Craw4
Nice! Pretty sweet stoves these Crawfords..

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Sun. Feb. 02, 2014 11:37 am
by joeq
A very comfortable day Scott. See how long she'll go at that low a setting. Looks very nice.

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Sun. Feb. 02, 2014 12:46 pm
by wsherrick
To run the Crawford for an indefinite length of time at extremely low temperatures, think about these things.
1. The thickness of ash on the grates, leave a few inches of ash on the grates,; the suspended fire pot insulates the fire from excessive heat loss. It will not go out, period.
2. Stove pipe damper: allow for more draft as there will be almost NO heat going up the chimney, this is important if your chimney has a marginal draft.
3. The Check Damper: This is very important: Use the check damper to lessen the draft through the grates. Experiment to see where the optimal setting is. Do not worry about the draft backing up or gas escaping into the house. Your Crawford has an INTERNAL check damper, it is safe to use at anytime unlike an EXTERNAL check damper which is found most often on the exhaust elbow out side of the stove.

Once you experiment, you can run this stove at 200-300 degrees for days and days. A full load of coal will last a few days before you need to re fuel.
Running at these low temperatures is one of the neatest advantages about these stoves of this particular design.
You will not have the huge loss of efficiency due to unburned gas being sent up the chimney with these stoves. The insulated fire pot keeps the fire bed well above the temperatures necessary to maintain combustion.

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Sun. Feb. 02, 2014 2:17 pm
by scalabro
Duh!.....my bad, I forgot about that damper.....I could have gotten temps down even further had I used my brain :woot:

These stoves are amazing that they can run so cold.....I'll have to experiment come early spring to see how long I can get a load to run.

Picked up the last 9 bags of Kimmels stove size today (I know, I know, but it's what they carry :oops: ) from the local Agway. It's forecast to drop into the single digits here later in the week, so I can open the throttle with what I guess is the proper size coal.

:cheers:

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Mon. Feb. 03, 2014 2:25 pm
by wsherrick
Another very good thing about the check damper is that it is very handy when shaking or cleaning the fire. Put everything in direct draft and open the check damper. All the dust gets sucked up the chimney. It really cuts down on the furniture dusting. You will save 100's on Lemon Pledge.

Don't forget to keep us updated this week on how the stove is doing. I expect great things from it and you and I am sure I won't be disappointed.

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Mon. Feb. 03, 2014 3:58 pm
by BPatrick
You would be correct...stove coal is the correct size. Also to help burning on a warmer day, use chestnut sized coal. It will not let the air through as easily and help you run your fire longer and cooler.

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Mon. Feb. 03, 2014 4:11 pm
by scalabro
wsherrick wrote:Another very good thing about the check damper is that it is very handy when shaking or cleaning the fire. Put everything in direct draft and open the check damper. All the dust gets sucked up the chimney. It really cuts down on the furniture dusting. You will save 100's on Lemon Pledge.

Don't forget to keep us updated this week on how the stove is doing. I expect great things from it and you and I am sure I won't be disappointed.
Neither of us plan on disappointing you Sir! :notworthy:

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Mon. Feb. 03, 2014 4:20 pm
by scalabro
BPatrick wrote:You would be correct...stove coal is the correct size. Also to help burning on a warmer day, use chestnut sized coal. It will not let the air through as easily and help you run your fire longer and cooler.
Yes Brian, I can see the difference already as last night I topped it off with kimmels stove size.

She is way more responsive with the stove vs nut, I guess because of the lower pressure drop across or through the coal bed?

I found a supplier who has Blaschak stove size so I'm going to try to get a couple bags of that also to see how it does vs kimmels .

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Tue. Feb. 04, 2014 7:32 am
by scalabro
All is well this AM.

OAT @ 15.5*

Stove barrel @ 400*

Kitchen @ 67*

Just shook and loaded up.....Houston we are go for throttle up!

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Tue. Feb. 04, 2014 11:48 am
by BPatrick
Stove coal will let the draft run better as when in "indirect Mode" you'll see that it naturally slows down the draft. It's amazing, with stove coal, you still get awesome burn times and a lot of heat out of the coal stoves.

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Tue. Feb. 04, 2014 12:53 pm
by Sunny Boy
BPatrick wrote:Stove coal will let the draft run better as when in "indirect Mode" you'll see that it naturally slows down the draft. It's amazing, with stove coal, you still get awesome burn times and a lot of heat out of the coal stoves.
Interesting ! And yet I would have thought the greater fuel density per cubic foot, combined with the combustion air slowing ability of using the smaller sized nut coal, would have extended the burn times even more ?????

My bulk delivery this year has a lot of larger than average size nut coal. It's probably closer to the stove/nut mix that some of the folks on here find works best in their stoves. It gave me a chance to see how larger sizes work compared to many years of just using nut coal.

Just curious, does anyone know what the difference in pounds per cubic foot of stove coal size, verse nut coal ?

Paul

Re: My New Crawford!

Posted: Tue. Feb. 04, 2014 3:02 pm
by franco b
Sunny Boy wrote:
BPatrick wrote:Stove coal will let the draft run better as when in "indirect Mode" you'll see that it naturally slows down the draft. It's amazing, with stove coal, you still get awesome burn times and a lot of heat out of the coal stoves.
Interesting ! And yet I would have thought the greater fuel density per cubic foot, combined with the combustion air slowing ability of using the smaller sized nut coal, would have extended the burn times even more ?????

My bulk delivery this year has a lot of larger than average size nut coal. It's probably closer to the stove/nut mix that some of the folks on here find works best in their stoves. It gave me a chance to see how larger sizes work compared to many years of just using nut coal.

Just curious, does anyone know what the difference in pounds per cubic foot of stove coal size, verse nut coal ?

Paul
You also have to consider the fire pot size and depth. The Crawfords have a deep fire pot so stove might work better than nut because it will breath easier.