How Hot Is Too Hot???

Hi Cap,
Yes it's only about 3 years old. It was replaced for free. He said the new one was just set in place nothing to hold it in. He was thinking of taking it out and having a few pieces of steel welded to it to stiffen it up a little.

On Saturday I got a first hand answer (in a manner of speaking) to my posted question, I picked up 10 bags of "NUT" instead of "PEA" as I had posted earlier, well.... In all honesty the word's that come to mind are Holy S- censoredx: --!! this stuff burns insane hot! If not slowed down and dampened.

It's way harder to get started then pea coal (the match light wouldn't start the nut burning).....wood fire did.

It(nut coal) burns completely different then pea coal (in my Russo c35 anyways) The 30min rule of seeing the effects really is apparent here.

When I burn pea I had to leave the ash door open and have a small fan blowing air into the door opening to get the heat up there in the 500* range, I made the mistake of following the same monttra with the nut coal :dontknow: on Saturday, that decision could have had a real bad out come ,if I hadn't thought "let me go check and see how the stove is doing with the new nut coal" when I rounded the corner the heat wave hit me square in the face, what had to be a 30* increase in air temp, and a new smell real hot metal I glanced at the magnetic stat on the rear exiting flu pipe it was at 655* and climbing fast! :shocked!: (stat marked OVER BURN at 600*) .... hence the following...... kick the little fan away from the ash door opening...swing the ash door shut... latch it.. close the ash door vent shut....and open the flu damper wide open to give the heat some place to go "outside via the chimney" within 30 sec. the temp drops to the 5's then settles out at 425-450* open the vents (A little) observe stove , fire, pipes look for warping??? when all checks out ok and I'm somewhat comfortable again crack open afew cold one's for stress management purposes only.
Sunday morning it was glowing embers I put nut on but it wouldn't get going? It was warm out about 50ish I chalk it up to being too warm outside so no burn however I'm still in the early stages of the learning curve.

Has anyone else ran into the problem of getting nut coal started with the match lite as well?

Jash

I have been burning nut coal for over 30+ years and always started it with wood. I may try the cut road flares next year to see if it works for me. Once I start this baby its on till spring, although this year I shut down once for a quick clean because it was so warm.
I really hate to restart.....

I never get my stack temps over 250-300 when reloading and once I open the ash door, I never leave the stove unless I close that door and set the air flow. Its just to easy to be distracted by something else.
Enjoy your new heat.

Interesting topic.
Something to keep in mind folks...How close are "combustibles" to your particular stove setup? Keep in mind combustibles include "your house"...lol
One thing you want to consider while checking all the temps (stove, flue etc) is how warm are nearby surfaces getting? As a "building trades professional" and someone who has lots of wood burning experience this is often the most critically overlooked part of any installation.
Without spending an inordinate amount of time researching, getting the numbers etc... I will quote as close as possible this: New kiln dried lumber (less than 1 year old) has a "flash point" (temperature at which 'auto ignition' is possible) of around 425 d/f. Older timber (100+ years and better) can have a flash point of less than 235 d/f.
Something to keep in mind anyway. Stack temps in excess of 550 for extended durations increase the likelyhood of 'flame erosion' (paper thin metal) on them sheet metal tubes.
Chimney fires? A coffee can full of water thrown on the fire in the firebox is sufficient to put out most chimney fires (just be prepared to close the door fast to avoid the steam...which is what will extinguish the fire in the flue.)
If you burn wood on a regular basis and are concerned about chimney fires...a fire extinguisher for the purpose is a sound investment. (ChimNEX or Chim FEX something like that is available for $20 at stove shops...looks like a big road flare...definately worth the piece of mind!)
...Small things to consider can make a big difference. The difference between a close call...and a visit from the boys' with the shiny red trucks and funky looking hats...lol
...Hope Y'all stay safe out there boys...

It's amazing how the different size coals burn. I just switched to nut from stove and the burn characteristics are very different. The nut seem to burn much hotter. I don't think the coal burns hotter, I think its the volume of coal. The stove hold more nut than stove. With stove I would reload and come back in 15 minutes and close the ash door on my Hitzer. Not with nut. If I wait 15 minutes to close the door with nut coal I have a real over firing problem. 600 degree stove temp and blue flames in the stove pipe. The nut take off very quickly where the stove is slow to get going. I really like the way the nut burns. It actually is a lot less work than the stove coal. There also doesn't seem to be as much ash.

Don

Hi Don, I think what you are experiencing is the increase in burning surface area. Coal seems to burn on the sides of each piece of coal that has air coming past it.

If you add smaller coal like Pea, you will have smaller pieces that touch each other in more areas, restricting the surface area that is exposed to combustion air.

Nut seems to be a good size for a lot of hand fire stoves. I used a mix of nut/stove because I lost a fair amount of the smaller nut pieces through my grates. I would pick out some bigger stove size hunks to cover the bottom of the fire, then load on the mix. This kept the loss of coal falling through the grate to a minimum.

Glad to hear you are happy with the nut size coal. It is usually easier to obtain than stove size too.

Take care, Greg L

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Greg

I can get both and one supplier will mix it for me. One thing I have noticed about the nut is, I can shake it and get about a half a pan of ash.
I reload and come back 12 to 14 hrs later and the ash pan is full. I don't seem to have to shake as much of the ash out of the bottom of the box with the nut coal. A lot more of the ash falls thought on its own. I'm not really loosing coal chunks in the shaking process. I think the stove just likes the nut better than stove.

Don

Yep, it sounds like your stove likes Nut size. To have a lot of the ash fall through into the ashpan on it's own is ideal.

Is the consumption rate about the same?

Greg L

Greg,

Hard to tell. It's been a lot warmer. If we get a cold spell I'll have a better idea.

Don

Sorry to bump such an old post but there's good information here.

I had a scary incident about 4 years ago with my old (bought used) Dutchwest Federal stove. I had just shaken the stove down & had a full charge of fresh coal loaded. I still had the ash door open & a roaring fire going( with the ash pan still about 1/2 way out )when I heard a sickening crunch. One of the shaker grates had broken & part had fallen into & jammed the ashpan in its 1/2 open position. (one end was still attached to the stove while the broken end had dropped down into the ash pan)
I couldnt push the pan back or pull it out & thus I had no way of closing the ash door! Panic time!! I tried to figure out how I could starve the stove from getting air but, with the stove temp climbing off the scale, I had my wife cal the fire dept who helped me unload the hot coal into a barrel out back. (Iwhile I was waiting for the FD to arrive..just about 10 minutes...I opened the top load door figuring that this would lessen the draft through the coals. I think it did slow it down bit)
If things were happening slower I would have shoveled sand onto the fire & into the ash door opening until it starved the fire of air...but I didn't think of that till later. (+ I had no sand available...I now keep a barrel of sand out back!)

In response to the post from Jash:

(the match light wouldn't start the nut burning).....wood fire did.

I use regular charcoal (in a hand fired unit). I put in enough to cover the grates, then soak the hell out of it with lighter fluid. Works every time.

If someone is about to chime in about safety, lighter fluid will not ignite like gasoline UNLESS it's sprayed on HOT charcoal. Light the fire in the 4 corners & the center, then close the door & only allow enough air to get in to keep it burning. If you leave the ash door open, then you'll have a roaring fire with flames shooting up the chimney.

Within 10 minutes, you'll have the charcoal lit -- then you can layer the coal on. If you wait until all the charcoal is burning, you can pile on more coal to speed the process up.

Using common sense, I found this to be the easiest, & quickest method.