Busted Franco Belge

 
Belgianburner
Member
Posts: 53
Joined: Sat. Feb. 14, 2015 8:15 am
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Surdiac Gotha 713
Other Heating: heat pump (electric backup)

Post by Belgianburner » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 6:50 pm

As Franco pointed out, the top of the stove is above the hopper, so it is never going to get that hot unless the hopper is empty. Actually, the glass radiates a good bit of the heat, so keep it clean. Does it seal tightly when heated? You might want to replace some of the gasket material if worn. You want the air coming in through the back port, not leaking in around worn gaskets.
And due to the high efficiency of these stoves, your stovepipe shouldn't be very hot either.

 
Nihon Lab Tiger
Member
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun. Sep. 21, 2014 9:47 am
Location: Central Maine
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Alaska Kodiak, Franco Belge 1375
Coal Size/Type: Nut, little bit of Pea
Other Heating: oil

Post by Nihon Lab Tiger » Fri. Dec. 09, 2016 2:18 am

No manometer yet, I need to get one.

So where should the hottest areas be? Maybe there's something odd about my setup, I don't know... but besides the glass the hottest place on mine is always top center, right in front of the load door.

The gaskets seem to be in okay shape but I'm going to replace them all this weekend to be sure. One thing I did just notice is that when it gets up past 350* or so, there appear to be little gaps opening up between the glass slats. So I'm also gonna try using the door from the other stove and see if that changes anything.


 
User avatar
joeq
Member
Posts: 5739
Joined: Sat. Feb. 11, 2012 11:53 am
Location: Northern CT
Hand Fed Coal Stove: G111, Southard Robertson

Post by joeq » Fri. Dec. 09, 2016 10:27 am

I'm not too familiar with your FB, but I owned a Surdiac 513 for a while, and it too had protective/decorative shrouding, that was tough to get accurate readings of what the stove was doing. On the back, it had a heat exchanger, (which was nothing more than a large cavity to extract exhaust heat from), and I used it for my temp readings. Then one day, a member recommended an IR gun, and with it, I was able to access areas unreachable any other way. Not sure about your shielding, or rear access, but you might be surprised.
Here's a picture of my IR gun contacting the cast iron firebox, not available with a thermometer. If you click on the top photo, you "barely" see the dot, between the heat exchanger.
IR readings 002.JPG
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IR readings 001.JPG
.JPG | 76KB | IR readings 001.JPG

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