Glenwood Base Heater No. 6 First Burn

Post by **brunom15** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 2:05 pm

Hi All,

I fired up my new Glenwood No. 6 yesterday evening, my very first coal fire. An educational experience! It took me about 2 hours to get it going and fill the fire box full of coal. I think I was too impatient, adding too much coal at each stage. I think I also had too much secondary air going. Every time I had a nice fire going I would add more coal, only to watch the temperature gauge on the stove plummet and acrid smoke start making it's appearance. The nearest smoke detector got a workout, though oddly enough the CO monitors stayed at zero and made nary a peep. The stove ran fine overnight, and was at 500 degrees F. in the morning. I shook the bed, dumped the ashes and reloaded the stove with coal. Once everything was settled back to normal I closed the primary air vents even more, getting the stove down to about 450 F. The stack is running about 150 F. Now I'm trying with the manual damper closed about half way, to see if I can get the stove temperature down to about 350 - 400.

The barometric damper is set at it's lowest, but I'm still seeing an indicated draft of .05" WC. It doesn't worry me much, it's probably due to manufacturing tolerances and manometer gauge inaccuracy. The gauge accuracy is rated at 2% of full scale, which comes out to .06". If that's +/- .03" then I'm drafting anywhere from .02" to .08".

The basement is toasty warm, upstairs is about normal, but coal instead of oil heated. I love my new stove. Here are some pictures, enjoy!

Bruno

Post by **Smokeyja** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 2:20 pm

Congrats Bruno!

You are going to love this thing! You don't need that Baro with it btw. with this stove and a good draft that MPD can be shut all the way. Now see how long you can keep a fire in that thing . But you will probably have more fun with that in the spring when you can idle it down to almost nothing and keep a fire. Its rather Amazing how you can burn very warm in the stove but still put your hand on the outlet pipe. Welcome to the club my friend.

Post by **lobsterman** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 2:25 pm

A beauty indeed! I never saw one with a plated base or controls. Since everything looks perfect you might as well get some windex and clean your windows. You can ignore 99% of the advice you will get and just learn yourself from experiment how to tweak your burns. Except the baro, I would lose that. Have fun!

Post by **Smokeyja** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 2:29 pm

lobsterman wrote:A beauty indeed! I never saw one with a plated base or controls. Since everything looks perfect you might as well get some windex and clean your windows. You can ignore 99% of the advice you will get and just learn yourself from experiment how to tweak your burns. Except the baro, I would lose that. Have fun!

Now that you mentioned it I never saw the base plated either. however I do believe the controls were originally plated from the old ad.

glenwood_baseheater_front.JPG

glenwood_baseheater_side.JPG

Of course it just looks that way to me.

Post by **windyhill4.2** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 2:41 pm

That is a beautiful stove ! It should be the center piece in your living area not hidden down in your basement

Smart move with installing the baro as insurance to keep the draft consistent,best way to keep that beauty from over firing from draft rise especially when you aren't nearby to manually correct it. I would have to have that stove in my living room to stare at,

Not all houses are set up to accommodate that possibility tho.

Post by **Sunny Boy** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 2:59 pm

Congrats and welcome to coal easy street, as they say !

The baro may have been a part of why you had so much trouble getting it started.
Might have been killing the draft and why you had smoke backing into the house from too weak of a draft. The baro is not needed with a base heater. With time you may find that it just makes starting and reloading a pain.

The "nickeled base" was as an option, but this is the first I've seen the entire base actually nickeled. I think it looks good .

Going by the illustrations in the Glenwood literature "nickel base" looks like they meant just the dampers were nickeled - which doesn't really make sense. Anyway, my #6 has just the nickeled dampers also.

Yet another stove mystery to kick around on a cold day.

Paul

Post by **brunom15** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 4:25 pm

Hi All,

Thanks for all the kind words. Actually, this chimney flue has negative draft when cold, about .02" to .03" according to the manometer, so that's definitely part of the problem. But I'm pretty sure it was just my skills, or rather, lack thereof, that made it take so long to get it going the first time. Once I stopped putting too much coal on too soon, closed off the secondary air vent, and evolved some patience everything went smoothly. I was watching the mano and the temps carefully as I was going, and I definitely had draft, in the .03" range when the fire was smothered, and right about .04" when things were starting to go well. Also, I'm a "baro" guy - I can't be around monitoring the stove all the time, and don't dare just throttle it down with an MPD, particularly with the chimney's tendency to reverse. I'm experimenting with the MPD today, but in general I think I will always leave it part way open. I have CO Monitors in the stairwell and the main hall, just in case.

This particular Glenwood had the nickel base option - cost $4 way back then, according to the catalog. Costs waaay more now than that now! The vents weren't cheap either.

But I wanted everything on it that was originally nickel plated to be redone, and it's a beauty! The nickel base gives it good balance, aesthetically. I would love to have it upstairs, but sadly that's not a realistic option in this house. I would lose too much space in the living room. Maybe the next house. I am spending lots more time down in the family room now that the stove is here...

Bruno

Post by **Merc300d** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 5:03 pm

Holy shite ..... Never saw a nickeled base before. Looks fancy as heck. Congratulations on a fine coal burning appliance. They are coming out of the woodwork. Did you do the resto yourself. ?

Post by **brunom15** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 5:35 pm

Thanks! Nope, not me, went with a pro. Barnstable stoves...

Post by **Smokeyja** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 5:41 pm

brunom15 wrote:Thanks! Nope, not me, went with a pro. Barnstable stoves...

Good choice . That's where I had my 6 done.

Post by **nortcan** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 5:59 pm

Very nice stove Bruno, the nickel job is beautiful

Post by **ONEDOLLAR** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 6:01 pm

Congrats on getting your #6 up and running!!!!

Post by **hotblast1357** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 9:57 pm

I agree with you in being a baro kind of guy, boy they are awesome! I have one on my hand fed furnace and also on my coral Andes baseburner, I have never had a out fire problem or "lack of draft"

Post by **Sunny Boy** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 10:00 pm

Just as a question for historic purposes. Do you know if the base of your #6 was originally nickel plated before it was restored ?

Paul

Post by **windyhill4.2** » Sat. Jan. 17, 2015 10:14 pm

Paul,just read his post right after your previous post,he tells the secret there .

Glenwood Base Heater No. 6 First Burn

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