the dust

Well this is the story. I have had my harmon mark 2 for about 6 weeks and I love everything about it. I replaced my woodstove with it. My wife has been breaking my nutz about how dusty everything is and the babys feet are always dirty. Now she wants to get rid of it, and go back to wood which I think was just as dusty. Seems like the only time I get a lot of ash flying around is when I brush up the excess thats on the side of the ash pan. Other then that I am super careful. I thought of getting one of those vacumes that are made for sucking up ash and use that instead of useing a brush to clean in around the ash pan area. Anyone have any suggestions besides getting rid of the wife? Hmmm......

Hey Chopper--

I've been burning Harman's for 4 years. A Mark III and now the monster cooker SF-250. Yes, I create too much dust too thus the reason why I always cooked the coal in the basement.

But to minimize dust, shake it with both doors closed. After a few moments, open the bottom door, look for the orange glow. No glow, close her up and shake some more. Once cleared of ash, add your coal again waiting for the dust to settle prior to opening the top door. Wear safety goggles and keep a shop vac close by. Not much more you can do.

Be careful. I had hot coal pop out and strike me in the face thus the reason for the goggles. Luckily I was never hurt but I could of been.

Thanks cap,
Thats my problem, I open the doors to much when shakeing and dont give it enough time to settle. Plus after giving a good shake I always feel like I have to open the door and wait to see and orange glow. And when I dont see a glow I leave the door open and use my home made angled poker and poke from the underneath the grates till I see an orange glow.

Cap wrote:Hey Chopper--

I've been burning Harman's for 4 years. A Mark III and now the monster cooker SF-250. Yes, I create too much dust too thus the reason why I always cooked the coal in the basement.

But to minimize dust, shake it with both doors closed. After a few moments, open the bottom door, look for the orange glow. No glow, close her up and shake some more. Once cleared of ash, add your coal again waiting for the dust to settle prior to opening the top door. Wear safety goggles and keep a shop vac close by. Not much more you can do.

Be careful. I had hot coal pop out and strike me in the face thus the reason for the goggles. Luckily I was never hurt but I could of been.

Hey cap and i thought i was the only one that happen to about 2 weeks ago i was filling it up and a little piece of hot coal pop out hit right under my eye next to the nose and stucked there intill i wiped it away ouch i still have a mark never happened before and i burnt tons of coal the only thing i did different was i did not shut the door between shovels and when i turned around it got me so keep the door shut between scoops or where goggles

I know what you mean. I have a harmon in my basement and i also have an AHS boiler in my garage and the flyash out of the boiler is very bad. Especially if I am lazy and leave the combustion blower on while loading it. I had to powerwash my whole garage including the ceiling last week when we had that warm spell.
I think I am going to buy on of these this coming heating season.

It is available from AHS and you could prbably adapt it to your harmon.

ktm rider wrote:I know what you mean. I have a harmon in my basement and i also have an AHS boiler in my garage and the flyash out of the boiler is very bad. Especially if I am lazy and leave the combustion blower on while loading it. I had to powerwash my whole garage including the ceiling last week when we had that warm spell.
I think I am going to buy on of these this coming heating season.

It is available from AHS and you could prbably adapt it to your harmon.

ktm rider--How does the pictured device mount on and work with the AHS boiler?

I have a Harman Mark III and have no dust at all in the house. The first year burning with a differant stove though I had dust all through the house and my wife was not pleased at all. My techniche is I make sure I have a good fire going which means there is good updraft. Then I shake the grates and watch alot of the dust go right up the chimney. Then I fill will coal. I don't empty the pan util the next time I need to fill. So, the next time before I do anything else I empty the pan then I go throuigh my routine as stated above. And by the way do NOT dump the ashes from the pan into another container in the house. Either bring it outside or gently shovel it into another metal container gently. This process leaves my house dust free with 5 ton of coal.
Tom

Tom I am going to try to do it just like that, except I still need a vacuum to clean the ash that misses the pan and falls on the sides. Thats where most of my ash problems come from I think. I have to use a a small wisk broom to clean it up and then I gently put it in the pan and it puffs.

Bob,

That is a pic of a fly ash vent dohicky.... It mounts right above the door and then you run a pipe to the chimney/stovepipe with a "T" in the stovepipe. It sucks up the ash and smoke when you open the door.

Choper698,
I hear what you are saying about the ash that misses the pan. The same small clean out shovel that I have to empty my ash pan into another container is what I use to get the ash that misses on the side. It works out great and I don't have to worry about hoses, plugs and it only cost me something like $2.00.
Tom

chopper698,

Also address how you are placing the coal into your stove and if you are dampening the coal prior to placing it. My stove is similar to yours in that it is a front loader. I was getting black dust around the immediate area of the stove, despite how careful I was. To COMPLETELY cure this problem I wet the coal prior to loading. It will not affect the burn and in my experience it actually helps the ignition of the new coal after reload.

I too get the ash that falls to the sides of the pan and have to scrap that ash into the open ash pan. This was definately not the problem as I don't have the black dust and still have to scrape. If your stove has a blower shut down the blower before reload

I actually fill a spackle bucket up that has holes drilled in the bottom of the bucket. I then take the bucket and run water through it and it leeches out the bottom. I found it to be very effective as far as keeping the coal dust down.

chopper698 wrote:Well this is the story. I have had my harmon mark 2 for about 6 weeks and I love everything about it. I replaced my woodstove with it. My wife has been breaking my nutz about how dusty everything is and the babys feet are always dirty. Now she wants to get rid of it, and go back to wood which I think was just as dusty. Seems like the only time I get a lot of ash flying around is when I brush up the excess thats on the side of the ash pan. Other then that I am super careful. I thought of getting one of those vacumes that are made for sucking up ash and use that instead of useing a brush to clean in around the ash pan area. Anyone have any suggestions besides getting rid of the wife? Hmmm......

Reprint from my thread:

I have been heating my home with a coal stove for over 25 years & love it except for the fine dust it creates. Two seasons ago I installed a central vacuum system in the house & find it completely solves the coal stove dust problems for us! (My stove is in the basement family room of my 44" split entry ranch) I simply vacuum the stove itself, the exhaust pipes & fittings, the nearby hip foundation wall ledges & vinyl tiled floor & whatever dust/dirt is not caught in the central vac's cannister (located in an attached shed) gets merely blown out of the house through the vent.
I am, of course careful not to suck up any hot embers, etc.

Works like a champ!

Anyone else use this or other measures for dust control?
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Richard Jacobs