2nd Day With Coal Stove

I got the fire going pretty good now, stove temp 500-600 deg house temp at 78 deg (HOT) outside temp 19 deg, need to work on controling air flow at bottom and air flow to the chimney.
I am afraid to throttle it down (don't want to loose the fire) took me this long to get it somewhat right

How long does the coal usally keep burning before I should check on it to refill?

Want to thank everybody again for all the info to help me get started, hopefuly this will work for me with the coal (is alot cleaner than wood)

Anything else I need to know please tell me

Just take a little draft out at a time, coal reacts very slowly to changes in draft.
After getting a good fire going and filled to the top of the brick with coal, you wait (warmly) for 12 hours to pass (this can vary a little with different units). Now you can shake the unit down. But first, open the ash door/ashpan and feed a lot of air to rev it up good, about 2-3 minutes. Ash pan back and start shaking, and don't stop until you see a bunch of small glowing coals fall into the ash pan. When you do, your done. Empty the ash pan, bank the fire and reload with coal and you are done for another 12 hours.

Thank you for the info, now on my stove I have a damper that slides in and out to control draft up the chimney should I keep it all the way open while burning stove or 1/2 way shut
I know when I burn wood I keep it almost closed(but wood is different)

Thanks
Tony

Hi Tony, I'd try that sliding damper at the 1/2 position one evening for several hours and see if it causes you any low draft problems. If it doesn't, then this is about like a hand damper in the chimney pipe, it just slows the air down, and may give more heat from the stove.

I wouldn't experiment with the damper just before going to bed, give it a try when you can stay with it for many hours.

Coaledsweat has made one of the most important statements about burning coal, everything changes slowly, try some change and give it hours and hours to react.

Greg L

Hello Greg, and thanks for the input
thats where I had it for about 2.5 hours and the stove been burning at 500 deg since the house has been at 77deg with it being 18 deg outside
looks like if I keep working with the stove trying different things I should be allright
Going to pick up more coal tomorrow for, so it looks like I am going to stay with coal more cleaner less trips to the stove...

one more thing should I be worried about carbon monoxide from the coal, I have a CO detector in the hallway just at the top of my stairs just in case

Thanks Again
Tony

Hi Tony, how did you do last night?? Any better?? did you buy a few firebricks to raise the door threshold a few inches?

If you have good draft, and are not trying to slow the fire down too much, you will not get CO in the house.. Once the temperatures moderate in spring, you may have to burn hotter than you would like to keep a strong draft. The draft is what will keep the CO going up the chimney..

Just curious... Greg L

Hi Greg,
Yes did a little better last night with the stove, it burned alot longer this time (8 hours) woke up this morning still had a nice bed of coals to work with
hopefully I learned something about burning coal

Thanks for everybodies help on the forum
Glad I found it, now stuck it my favorites

Tony

Good news Tony, the deeper the bed of coal, the longer it will burn. The larger the area, the more heat.

So if you want to burn longer, you need to mound up the coal as deep as possible. Also, a deep bed of coal is much easier to cut back the air to.. If you have a shallow bed of coal it will go out easier with low draft and air.

Here is a photo of my firebrick front wall.. Obviously it is a big firebox, holding a lot of coal. But I'm showing it so you can get the idea I'm suggesting about raising the threshold of your firebox just inside the door.

Take care, Greg L