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looking for help with a small franco belge 10.242 stove.

Its in 900 sq foot house in basement don't know the BTU size off stove and still working out running kinks in baro and stove it self and me lol.

will try to get some picture's soon

burning nut coal with hopper setting at nut setting or high

manometer reading at stove discharge very low at .10 inch's ? was expecting .2 to .4 ?

300 F to 400 F at top off stove on cast iron with lid closed 200's F on lid dial setting off 5 to 8

stack temp less than 200's some places almost can touch with back of hand taking temp with infared point and shoot temp gun with galv pipe could be false reading's but back off hand test pretty close?

coal are glowing nice with dancing ladies top layer off coal is dark with nice glow below

first nite stove seemed ok going to bed woke up to dead stove chamber full off hard light coal (like fired on high to long or over air?) but with stack mano reading off .10 to much air?
if I set the baro more sensitive stove seems to give more heat from top ( gases moving slower more time to give up heat?) im baffled to say the least?


Anyone with franco belge know how? Help

some pictures

DO some searching and reading on here, a few threads on similar Franco Belge stoves.

Franco Belge 10.1375 Newbie Questions

You stove is the smallest of the three sizes. The output is on the tag on the back of the stove. 4200 k calories divided by 252 equals 16,666 BTU. per hour over an 8 hour period.

The hopper should be set right on the top of the supports for nut coal. Above the highest notch which is for pea coal.

The type RC draft control you are using is not the best for this stove since it does not close airtight enough at low draft conditions. I would cover it with a piece of foil to seal it and do without it as the stack temperature of this stove is so low to begin with and the thermostat will compensate for changes in draft.

That stove especially in the basement is not big enough for your house. On the first floor it still might not be big enough. With the thermostat set that high you are probably burning through the charge of coal too quickly.

My advice is to sell it and buy the full size Franco stove which will double the output. You can probably buy one for the same price you sell yours for $200. Basements, especially those not insulated are bad news for any stove, much better in the living area.

thank you both for your advice

1st yes the link was helpful some off the info I had some was new and very enlightening ( *censored* that why that happened lol ).

2nd yes I think I agree if your BTU fig is correct this stove is to small at @ 16000 BTU's it is just going to take the stink off the place maybe warm the floors a little.The bigger stove at 30 thousand plus could be good but like u said non insulated basement. Plan for now insulate all the sills and the bulked door area look for new stove and use this like the primary's on the old Edelbrock carburetor very small but not bad with a second heat source coming in when load needs it.

Thank you

P.S. on side not I have broken three off the glass pieces with the poker/shaker rod ( don't ask ) do you have a suggested dealer or website for replacement glass seeing as all the franco belge units use these little pieces off glass?

You had mention this unit puts out @16,000 BTU's per 8 hours ? Is there a standard off BTU's per / hour / 8 hours / day ? is the larger franco stove u suggested considered an @ 100,000 BTU's per day unit? ( @30,000 X 3 = 24 hours? )

Thank you again for your help

I keep an eye on craigslist. Search Coal, Harman, even Wood Stove is worth checking out because people don't know their coal stove is a coal stove. I just upgraded to a Harman Mark 3 and it is big enough for me at a 2500 square foot house. With a coal stove, bigger is better because you can dial it down easily.

kstone wrote:P.S. on side not I have broken three off the glass pieces with the poker/shaker rod ( don't ask ) do you have a suggested dealer or website for replacement glass seeing as all the franco belge units use these little pieces off glass?

You had mention this unit puts out @16,000 BTU's per 8 hours ? Is there a standard off BTU's per / hour / 8 hours / day ? is the larger franco stove u suggested considered an @ 100,000 BTU's per day unit? ( @30,000 X 3 = 24 hours? )

Thank you again for your help

Woodsmans Parts or several others have the glass. It is Pyrex. The size is the same for all three sizes of stoves. If you need help to install let me know.

Output is in BTU per hour. the recommended tending and shaking time is 8 hours, so if the stove is putting out 10,000 BTU per hour at the end of 8 hours it will have put out 80,000 BTU. What you are concerned with is the BTU per hour. Your stove is rated by the maker at 16,600 BTU per hour which is an optimistic figure and represents maximum output. The importers inflated that figure first to 20,000 and then even higher to 29,000 which is just not true. The largest stove is rated at 48,000 which is also not realistic. The maximum amount of coal that can be comfortably burned in the large stove is about 50 pounds a day which translates even with 90 percent efficiency which the stove is capable of, to about 25,000 BTU per hour. Bear in mind though that most of the members here report using 40 to 50 pounds per day to heat their houses. 2 1/2 to 3 tons per winter.

Dear friends,
just kindly checking if anyone from you know what stands those two parts for (at the picture below)
In case anyone has a manual in PDF and can help me with that - will be much appreciated (happy to send some bux on paypal ect..)

Here are the links to pickets of the parts I was talking about.
https://ibb.co/kJFPLd
https://ibb.co/fDPjLd

I have some extra brackets that the hopper parts sit on, but no hopper parts for that size stove, which is the smallest size.