Stove Going Out After Shaking

I have been shaking my stove as per manual at least 3 times daily and the stove seems to want to go out after each shaking... I am new at this and am running now as not to have issues when it really gets cold. I have a franco belge with a hopper I am thinking the hopper is set to high as it seems to feed too much coal. it is on the 2 notch. Looking for some advice...

God Bless...

Thanks for any advice.

Check the exhaust castings to make sure they are tight
and not cracked. There are bolted corners that can come loose and
kill your draft. You'll need to remove the tin work to see all the
areas that could be causing the problem. Also check to see if
the clean out door on your chimney is closed.

Tom

Set the hopper in the highest notch, you need the deepest bed of coal. With a shallow bed the coal will have a shorter run time and be exhausted sooner leading to what you feel is too much coal feeding.

What does the fire look like before you shake? Lots of glowing coal?

With a flashlight look at the thermostat door on the lower left to see if it is partially open.

Some coal does not shake easily, use the slicing knife as well to make sure you have really cleared the ash.

In the cold weather draft will be higher and the stove more responsive. What is the chimney?

Richard

I run a VC Vigilant with a hopper, different animal, but same principals apply. When I shake down my stove it does a couple of things, it disrupts the hot bed of coals and it dumps a new load of (relatively) cold fuel on the fire, both of those things tend to suppress the fire. The solution for me is pretty simple, open my thermostat all the way and open my internal damper to maximize the draft. After 10-15 min or so the fire reestablishes itself and I close things back down to "normal" heating mode. I suspect that you need to do something similar to maximize your draft to get your fire going again after shakedown. Good luck.

Thanks for all the info... a few things I found... 1 the Barometric damper somehow moved off level and was pointing down... 2 I was shaking the bed before making sure that the fire was hot... last night about 10 minutes after going to bed the gas detector went off and then that is when I saw the damper moved... of course I opened all windows and once I fixed the damper it worke fine.. after baby sitting the stove for about an hour andthe gas lower off to bed... get up this morning and I find a nice toasty bed of coal... turned up tstat let it go for about 20 minutes... shaked it down... left tsat up for another 20 and then down low.. Than ks for the info I kindof thought it was an air issue but was not sure...

Make a L shaped poker from a coat hanger...better if it's heavier than a coat hanger. A foot long with a 2 or 3" L. Bend a handle so you can control it. After you shake...and maybe not shake quite as much as usual.... Use it to come up from under the grate. It'll loosen the ash and allow better air flow.
The Franco that I saw has cast iron tubes that run from front to back. They must remain clear. Take the back tin off the stove and you'll see doors on the back corners. Open these doors and you can inspect and clean the tubes.