riteway model 35c

Hi all" I have a couple of questions that I hope can be answered about my stove. Its a riteway #35c has any one ever heard of it. I tried to post pics but it says they are to big I will deal with that later. After I have a overnite burn of about 9hrs I have about 5" of ash. In the morning after I shake it down I have to start a new fire every morning. Am I shaking wrong there is a good bed of coals but it just does'nt catch again.I tried to refuel first that didnt work I tried to shake it first then refuel that also didnt work. Plus I try to keep a stack temp around 250 it did go to 400 once but I got scared of a chimney fire if thats possible with coal I dont know.I know the norm is shake morning an nite. I found if I shake it down every couple of hours I get a much better burn is this normal or am I doing somthing wrong.whats a normal stack temp for this 40000btu stove. Also if it helps 6" elbow out the back to a 36"stack [this is where the temp gauge is] up to another elbow then threw the brick in to a masonary lined chimney. Thanks for the Help Bob

Im not familiar with that particular stove but I can say two things. 1 - you should be shaking it twice a day till you see hot coals falling into the ashpan, and 2- you didnt have a chimney fire with a chimney temp of 400. Chimney fire of any concern would be much hotter.

The only way you could have a chimney fire is if you burned wood and have creosote in the chimney, coal will not leave a residue, just a little fly ash and that can't burn because it already has. I have run my stack to twice that temp.
You should shake at least twice a day, perhaps more depending on your stove. Open the ash door first and pull out the drawer to rev the fire up before you shake for a few minutes. I like to put about 75-100* increase in stack temp before I shake. NEVER SHAKE A LOW FIRE! rev it up first. After shaking you need to bank the coal before reloading or you will smother the fire.

we did burn wood but not alot just to get the coal going and a little before I knew how to get the coal started. Whats a average stack temp or is that a trick question. Also can you have a chimney fire with a little creasote in there from the wood when you just burn coal. When I bank the coal should it be banked towards the door where the bottom draft is strong or towards the rear. And by banking just push it up into a pile? I found the coal doesnt like to be moved around to much. Thanks for your input Bob

I burn in a Riteway 37. The stove was made in the mid 80's. I'm new to coal burning and had lots of trial and error during the month of December. Reading posts and asking questions here has made a world of difference. I heat approx 2700sq ft (3 stories. with stove in the basement). During temps of 0-10 my second floor (main living area is 68-70) bedrooms on 3rd floor 62-65. With temps in the teens and twenties my temps rise about 5-7 degrees. I shake at 5a and add about 30#. The next time I shake is about 730p. I then add another 30-40# now that temps are in the single digits. My stove has been running without a loss of fire for 45 days. (thanks to the help I've recieved here!) My wife and I estimate we will save between 1000-1200 dollars this winter by burning coal. I hope to improve on that next winter by adding some duct work. We presently have 1 floor grate above the stove and leave the basement door open for a cold air return. Please post pictures of your stove. Best of luck.
Dan

coaledsweat,

If you could explain the banking process for badxmple.[/code]

Hello badxmple, welcome to the forum.

When you have a very weak fire, you cannot bank it yet.. Like you said, the coal doesn't like to be disturbed.

Shake the fire, get the ash pan door open and get as much air to the coal as possible and get the coal hot.

Then add a thin layer of coal,, I'm talking 1-2" so you can still see the red coal throught the gaps around the new coal.. Let this new layer get burning. Then add another layer again maybe 2" deep, let this layer get burning.

Now you can 'bank' the fire. Rake the coal either to one end of the firebox or to one side or make a mound in the middle or even make a depression in the middle.. The idea is to have some hot burning coal piled up deep enough that when you add a thick layer of new coal, there is till some hot burning coal NOT covered by the fresh coal.

The area of hot burning coal acts like a pilot light to burn off the initial gasses from the fresh coal getting hot. These gasses need to be burnt off gradually, or else they can ignite all at once, and be like a minor explosion, this can be exciting..

Do a search for 'my stove backfires' There is a lot of info on that thread.

I personally didn't bank my fires. but I have a combustion blower, so I can really get my fire hot in a hurry. I don't get the accumulated fresh-coal gasses. But I have under just the right conditions had a bit of a 'whoosh' and a puff of fly ash out the chimney.. Not recommended for in home units.. Mine is outside in an outbuilding, with lots of fresh air.

Hope this helps, Greg L

Thanks for all your info greg. By the way do you know what a safe stack temp is? I have a wood burning temp gauge should I go by what it says is a clean burn just to be safe? Again thanks to you all for your great help Bob

welcome badx,I heated my first house years ago with wood,alway's paid more attention to stack temps so I didn't get creasote in my chimney.Now that I burn coal my stack temps are usually much lower around 150 to 250 during a long burn,as long as you have draft the fire will keep going.To me when I see my stove at 5oo and the stack at 200 that means my hard earned $ are staying in the stove and not going up the chimney

Hi tstove Thats what I did too burned wood for years. But now with coal I see the different temp.I quess its safe to say that all my heat is staying in the stove at 300 stack temp. I must say that my stove is really cookin at that temp. I was going to put the gauge on the stove itself to see how hot that was. I think I will do that next time I am up at the farm. Thanks for the input Bob

I think I figured out how to make the pics smaller hope they come out

I'm coming in a few years too late on this forum, but was sincerely hoping to glean some useful information from someone with experience with the Riteway model R37.

My wife and I have a rather large family (us 2 plus 7 offspring), and purchased an old farm house back in 2003, which was constructed in 1882. When we purchased the house, it had no heat source at all. Over the years, we have experimented with various forms of heat, usually ending up "living" in 2 downstairs rooms, while closing off the remainder of the house.

During late summer 2009, someone very graciously blessed us with a free Riteway R37, which has been a true lifesaver in terms of heating our home. Winter before last was our first season using it, and we were literally overwhelmed at the amount of heat that this unit puts out. (As you will learn later on in this plea, while the unit may have been "free" when initially given to us, we have more than paid for its' retail value more than once just in coal prices alone.)

I guess that at this point, it would be best to let y'all know straightaway that we strictly use coal - no wood whatsoever. (The nomenclature on the side of the unit states very plainly "Wood/Coal", so we assumed that it would be alright to burn strictly coal.) We've had some dangerously hot fires in this unit, and at present, the grates are warped/falling out. I've located some replacement parts online, and will be ordering new insides for the unit as soon as I can clamor together the funds. (We'll have the parts within the month of March - toward the latter part.)

This winter season has been especially harsh for us, and for some reason that we can't figure out why, we've gone through a very unusually high amount of coal this season - approaching our 7th ton! At $110/ton, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this isn't the most economical way to heat our home. Also, for some odd reason, the performance of this unit has drastically decreased since last winter season, and again, we can't figure out what we're doing differently this season as opposed to last season. We haven't frozen to death, but nor have we been comfortably warm unless we were to go to one of the upstairs rooms, which is a physical impossibility for me, given the fact that I'm missing my left leg at the mid-thigh level.

What I'd like to know, if at all possible with the scant information provided, what am I doing wrong? I am a self-admitted novice when it comes to heating with coal, and honestly have just been "winging it" until I could have the chance to speak with someone who has a vast wealth of knowledge when it comes to burning strictly with coal as the heat source.

If this is an issue that you feel would better be addressed over the phone, then I have no problem at all in providing you with my Verizon mobile number. Whomever you are, we desperately need to talk to you, we need for you to teach us whatever you can in order to help us drastically reduce the overall cost of heating our large home during the bitterly cold winter months. (Maybe it's just because this winter has been the harshest on record for the previous 45-55 years.) We did begin heating almost 6 weeks earlier than we have in years past, but even during a "normal" winter, we still use, on average, 4.5 tons of coal, which I personally think is still a tad on the high side.

I do thank you for your patience and time in reading my desperate plea here, and I sincerely trust, hope, and pray that someone out there will be able to come to our assistance before we end up bankrupting ourselves while attempting to remain warm. (Okay, that was just a little exaggerated, we aren't going to bankrupt, but sometimes, we've honestly felt like this unit is doing exactly that to us!)

Advanced heartfelt gratitude for any help that you may be able to offer.

Jon "Scotty" Rogers
Washburn, Tennessee 37888

Tes2fy,

You should post pictures of your set-up.

What do you have for flue dampers? Do you have a MPD or a Baro or both? What kind of coal are you burning? Anthracite? Bit?

Sounds from your description that the stove is now pretty beaten up. Maybe it's too small for the space you are heating?

dj

I used a Riteway 37 for 4 or 5 years mostly with wood, but the last year i used it i tried burning Anthracite coal in it on a regular basis and didn't have much luck with it. The troubles i was having with mine was that the grates were warped or sagging from over firing it so i would lose to much of the hotbed of coals into the ash pan then i was limited on the shaking levels because everything was jammed up in the shaker grates. My stove was also a free stove that my dad gave me, it was bought new by him in the mid seventies i think the have some potential to be a good burning unit if they are in good shape, because my buddy bought a new Hitzer 82 that looks almost like a twin to the Riteway 37.

At $110 a ton in Tennessee you have to be burning bit. coal, which comes in many grades and varying amounts of BTU per Lb. Have you switched suppliers this year? Has the stove temps decreased? Is the ash-pan door gasket in good shape? Are you keeping the stoves internal damper closed after you establish a good fire? Have stack temps increased?

I wish I could get coal at $110 a ton!!!! I'd even burn bit. at that price.