Coalpail.com Forum

I was absolutely able to get the draft to -.02 with just the damper. I backed the weight all the in the other direction and now the baro just cracks slightly where before it was 3/4 open. I think the Magic Heat is running a bit longer. I should have been keeping a record of it but didn't.


I'll try the probe over the fire. I open the ash door when I shake it down and when I reload.

to help with fly ash, open the ash door and take the ash pan out and close the ash door, NEVER walk away from the stove with the ash door open, even for what you expect to be just a minute. now take the ash pan away from the area you want to keep clean and dump it, if there is extra ash ( no burning embers ) in the bottom of the stove use the shop vac w/ filter bag to vac it out and or replace the ash pan.

do you have the original or recast shaker handle that fits in the draw grate tongue ?

if so, when you tend the stove pin the Baro door closed and open the MPD fully. then, open the ash door damper completely and wait a minute.

now any gas has cleared the top of the stove and the fire is picking up. put the shaker handle thru the damper opening and into the tongue. pull the draw grate tongue out the opening while watching under the grate. if you see ash but no glowing embers fall give the tongue a couple bounces.

at that point push the tongue back in and shake the grate back and forth to the limits of the opening till you see embers start to fall. take the shaker handle out of the tongue and set it aside.

now open the loading door and add coal then reset the ash door damper, the MPD and release the Baro.

hopefully that will go a long way toward holding the fly ash to a minimum.

Thanks for the tips. Last night I loaded and set everything to -.02. The mpd was closed to reach this. When I checked this morning the baro was at 0 and kind of bouncing below it. I have several carbon monoxide sensors thought the basement and house. None of them were going off. The stove was still alive and the coal was a hard mass that was very difficult to bust up. It took off again after a while. I think I need to set the baro with the mpd open a bit more.

make sure you have a fully recovered and settled fire before you close it down, then set the MPD to show -.03 and set the baro. to open at -.04

do you have a copy of the manufacturers operation instructions for this stove. i have them and can post you a link if you need it.

seems to me Bit. is a hard taskmaster and from here on you may be on another curve to learn it's secrets in THIS stove

I had some vague instructions I downloaded that basically said start a fire, get a good coal bed, add a scoop every 10 min. until full.

What I've been doing is: opening the draft and ash door, shaking the grate, let it get going good, poke it, another short shake, let it get going more, dumping a shovel full on it, open overfire air, let that get going, dump another shovel, let it recover, repeat until 2/3 full. By this time it's usually going pretty good. I then top it off and close the ash door. Close over fire air. Set damper.

This all worked really well but things slowed down considerably once I added the baro. When I set the damper now to -.02 it slows down to a crawl for about 20 minutes with very little fire in the 4 corner flues and eventually just smolders for an hour or two then it kind of just glows beneath the upper 2 or 3" of coal.

I kicked it up in between -.03 and -.04 before I left. Ill see how it looks when I get home.

I should add that it only used 3 five gallon buckets in the last 24 hours. A far cry from the 9 buckets a day.

Hmmmm

you are probably correct that -.02 is too low after you have done your tending based on your observations.

every installation and house is different and I have no experience at all with Bit. but, i'll just say, I've been using 1- 5 gal. bucket a day and less all winter with nut anth. it should also be noted that my house is on the small side ( just 700 s.f. ) on the first floor. we don't heat the basement at all and the second floor gets what ever goes up the stairs, and the stove is in the living room. this is very diff. than your set up and has no real comparative value.

I got home and the fire looked alot better. More of the coal was burned. The mano was still bouncing between -.03 and -.04. The wind had increased drastically. The night before when the mano dropped to 0 it was dead calm out. . Woke up this morning and it was still in on the same reading. I loaded it and and set it on -.04 and an hour later it was very close to -.03.

I think I'll try Franco's suggestions and get a probe over the fire. I'm reluctant to drill a hole in the door. I can remove a bolt from the door frame and insert there. I'll have to cut the bolt from the inside so next time it's shut down I'll do this.

I'm almost out of bit so I'll try to find a tsc that sells anthracite. The nearest one has stopped carrying it and the manager refused to order any so I'll have to go a little further away. The coal mine has a 1 ton minimum and I won't use much of that before the season ends. I don't want a my hopper trailer sitting with coal in it all summer and I don't want to dump it on the ground.


. 1200 sf here pretty amazing that you just use one bucket a day. I'm definitely going to get a stove upstairs. I have a couple of parlor stoves I can choose from and I also have the little 414 that I need to make a barrel for. I salvaged some 16 gauge stainless a few days ago and I think I'll use it for the barrel. I'm not sure the 414 would be big enough to heat the upstairs though. The other two choices are my Florence hot blast which is missing most of its trim and the screw that adjusts the air intake on the back of the stove. The other stove is a round Oak that is complete and set up for bit. I also have numerous wood stoves but I don't really want to burn wood.

sooooooo, do you have multiple flues to be able to run a stove in the basement and one upstairs at the same time ?

if that is the case and you feel you can work out keeping the dust down up stairs why not put the 523 upstairs and the 414 down stairs. this way if you wanted to skip days of heat downstairs or just idle it you would be doing it with the smaller of the stoves.

That's an idea I will consider. I have a hobby shop set up in my basement and I have to admit that I am truly enjoying having all this heat in the basement... Lol. It's been a pleasant winter in my basement. I'm not sure the smaller stove would keep it this warm. TBH I probably don't need it this warm down there but it has been very nice. Coming up to the living area is always a disappointment.

I have about 16 feet of double wall stainless that I intend to put through the ceiling in the dinning room. That is pretty much the center of the house. I bought a used soapstone fireview a few years ago and intended on putting it in the dining room but I decided I really don't want to mess with wood. We heated our house with wood when I was a kid and I literally did all the work. All my dad did was run the chainsaw then drink coffee and watch lol. I really don't think I want all that work again. Especially with a bum knee, couple of ruptured discs and a hernia (getting old sucks).

So I was kind of thinking of leaving the 523 in the basement and putting one of the parlors in the dining room this summer. I'd love to have the Florence but it's not complete. The Round Oak is but I've read more good things about the Florence then the round Oak. Also, the round Oak needs a grate changed to wood grate to burn wood and the Florence doesn't. BTW, I have a few cords of red oak on hand. I have some choices. Which ever one I use I think I'll be buying anthracite to burn upstairs and restrict the bit to the basement.

Which stove are you burning just one bucket a day in?

FRANK the base burner and double heater converted DSM 1400 box stove.

20 pounds of Lehigh nut anth. in the morning and another 20 in the evening have been enough this year except for several days of brutal cold when i used an extra 20 pounds per 24 hrs.

the custom can and a half base heater / double heater i built from the basics of a Locke warm morning #120 did pretty much the same thing the season before this. it's needs to be remembered that i cut down the bricks in this stove to just 9 inches above the grates and all the rest of the barrel was then direct radiant surface pretty much like any barrel type parlor stove.

So $6 a day. Impressive. Is your house tight and insulated? Mine is not.

ummm, 40 #'s of coal costs me about $3.20

and my house is old and only has insulation in 2 sections of first floor walls and about 4 inches of ancient rock wool in the attic. new replacement windows last summer though and those really helped this year.

Oh wow. That's half what a bag is here. It might be worth dragging a trailer there for some..

Yes windows make a big difference. I listened to rattling windows in the dining room for a decade until one finally rattled out. I was forced to replace it. So I did the other two as well and I couldn't believe what an improvement it was. I've done a few more since. Only about 10 more to go.

that was kind of a trick answer. I bought 23 tons of Lehigh nut and made a killer deal on it. I had been buying 3-4 tons of bulk local for years and just got tired of paying $235 p.t. plus delivery, so went with a TT load at $160 p.t. delivered.

I fully understand about the windows. I did 8 upstairs over 2 years then put in 6 downstairs this past fall. nice to have at least that project done around here.

hopefully i'll get the rest of my 3 year plan done before I retire on 4-10-21 or 20 if I really hurry.