Low Idle??

 
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SheepDog68
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Post by SheepDog68 » Fri. Sep. 17, 2010 6:41 pm

Hey All,

I have been playing with low idle on my Kodiak and so far it seems to be able to idle way down when burning the pea coal I am feeding it!

I am measuring the temperature right above the door with a Fluke 561 IR thermometer.

I ran it down to 138 F a couple of days ago and thought I had lost it but it perked back up without an issue. It seems happy running in the 165-175 F range, but as demonstrated will run lower when needed.

I have been using a paper clip to keep the bi-metal thermostat from closing the air intake all of the way since it does seem to want a little air to always be moving through the stove.

After finding the right place for it I have not touched the bi-metal thermostat in several days. I liven the fire with the air intake in the ash door before I shake the stove down or in the case of the time I dropped it to 138 F to build the fire back up!

So who else is playing with low idle (It is the right time of year for it!!) and what kind of low stove temperatures are you seeing??

SD

:)


 
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coal berner
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Post by coal berner » Sat. Sep. 18, 2010 11:30 pm

SheepDog68 wrote:Hey All,

I have been playing with low idle on my Kodiak and so far it seems to be able to idle way down when burning the pea coal I am feeding it!

I am measuring the temperature right above the door with a Fluke 561 IR thermometer.

I ran it down to 138 F a couple of days ago and thought I had lost it but it perked back up without an issue. It seems happy running in the 165-175 F range, but as demonstrated will run lower when needed.

I have been using a paper clip to keep the bi-metal thermostat from closing the air intake all of the way since it does seem to want a little air to always be moving through the stove.

After finding the right place for it I have not touched the bi-metal thermostat in several days. I liven the fire with the air intake in the ash door before I shake the stove down or in the case of the time I dropped it to 138 F to build the fire back up!

So who else is playing with low idle (It is the right time of year for it!!) and what kind of low stove temperatures are you seeing??

SD

:)
Just Remember you want to keep a eye on the stack temp inside the stove pipe if the temps get to low the stack pipe can loose it's draft and you will have CO in the house coming out of the air inlets on the stove especially in warmer weather when the draft in the chimney will be low It's fun to play but watch how low you go be careful You don't want to
wake up Dead

Use a Probe thermometer inside the pipe that is the true reading of the exhaust gas temp and how well the stove is
operating and has enough draft to pull the exhaust gas out side

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Sep. 19, 2010 7:54 am

The only way to find out what your stove will & won't do is to play with her---# 1 priority in all research is to make sure your CO alarms are up & functioning--I haven't started playing with the Hitzer 50-93 yet,but last spring--warm,cold--warm,cold--I had her down real nice,pretty much what you are describeing---I was happily surprised she would work so well in low,low mode---again--safety is always our primary issue :)----I ended up drilling a couple of 5/16 holes in my rear flap--I got that suggestion here on the FORUM somewhere--saved on the expense of paper clip :lol:

 
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nortcan
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Post by nortcan » Sun. Sep. 19, 2010 12:13 pm

Hi, yes experience is the key of it but I think that a lot of factors influence the way a stove works. One is the kind of stove you have. For my case, it was very hard to be happy with it when new.I did try all I read but without satisfaction.The 2 first years were only frustrations and as I already wrote, I was just on the point to get back to wood burning. It's the reason I modif. it so much. Now the stove rects always the same way according to what I do and want it to do. V.C. don't make anymore coal stoves because the stove was not so performing in it's original condition. Small things in the desing can make big difference on the way it works...
Salutations from Qc

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Sep. 19, 2010 12:42 pm

Well put nortcan--I'll say this for the umpteenth time--your stove is like a good woman,find out what she likes & stick with it :)

 
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SheepDog68
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Post by SheepDog68 » Sun. Sep. 19, 2010 12:45 pm

We are still sleeping with the window open and a fan blowing in nice cool fresh air each night, so the chances of CO managing to sneak past the two new CO detectors and fight past the fresh air blasting in the window are probably pretty low.

I figured this would be the time to experiment with everything and see where we were.

I have been keeping a log of each days temps (Inside, Outside, Stove and Stack) as well as the coal usage etc so that I can look back and try to run some numbers on it once I have run it for a while!! I also want to see how much coal I use over the winter and have some numbers to plug into my time/temperature calculations for later on.

So far the CFO has been pleased with what the stove is doing and expects to like heating with coal this winter!! She and the Labrador have both put their stamp of approval on the Kodiak which is going to make all of this a lot easier than the uphill fight it could have been!!

I also got a chance to show the new stove to some friends of mine who have been fighting bit through a Hitzer for several years and they seem to like the idea of anthracite, but still have at least a couple of years of bit left to burn!! Sometimes buying cheap coal from your neighbor who is a miner may not be the best plan for an easy burning happy stove!!

SD


:)

 
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david78
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Post by david78 » Sun. Sep. 19, 2010 1:25 pm

If they want to sell the bit cheap, tell them I'll come take it off their hands. :lol:


 
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SheepDog68
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Other Heating: Happy thoughts, good wool and a little propane.

Post by SheepDog68 » Wed. Sep. 29, 2010 8:00 am

Well I finally walked too close to the edge and lost the fire!! (18 days on low idle!!)

I had it down under 140 F for 4 days, but was getting some ash build up and lost it when I had to go out of town. Neither of the CO detectors ever noticed any problems even with running it this low so I must have a pretty good draft going on!! ( I still need to set the draft control, but think I will wait till it gets colder and I have a good hot stove going.) If I had been working out of the house that last day I think I could have saved it by giving it lots of air and letting it breath for a while, but c'est la vie!

Anyway this shut down gives me a chance to paint up the new bi-metal thermostat that just got put on the stove. It is still factory color not the new and improved color we painted the stove!! It also gave me a chance to see where the ashes where building up so I can play with a couple of different things and see what works for me!!

The CFO gave me the evil eye this morning and said she already missed the stove and the nice warm house to wake up to!! So I guess I had better tear it down paint it and have the fire going by this evening.

Hope you all are winding up your pre-winter Honey Do List as I can decidedly feel the chill in air the last few mornings!!

SD

:)

 
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Poconoeagle
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Post by Poconoeagle » Wed. Sep. 29, 2010 8:14 am

hey sheepDog, wev'e had the kodiak on lowest idle for its second week now. 1st ash pan full was 6 1/2 days worth. all draft controls shut...bi-metal control down. stove top temp measured at Right rear corner of top of stove just under 200 outlet flue temp under 100 burning nut. room @ 80 ish. window stats and ceiling fan made down comforter counterproductive to black-rock btu's! 8-)

Dwyer 25 has been between .02 and .07 usually hanging mostly at .04...

 
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SheepDog68
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Other Heating: Happy thoughts, good wool and a little propane.

Post by SheepDog68 » Wed. Sep. 29, 2010 11:38 am

So far I am very impressed with this stove!!

Since I am new to coal I am running it like a science project (Overkill I am sure!!) and am keeping a log of a number of things that I think I will want to look over for future reference!!

I am measuring my stove temps with a Fluke 561 centered right above the door on the front of the stove and centered on the "T" behind my damper. My inside and outside temps are measured with a Davis Vantage Pro II which I am repositioning today because I have not been getting good wind readings where it has lived for the past year or so!! I still have not hooked up the Dwyer 25 yet so my column for those readings is still blank.

I am even weighing my coal as I burn it so I can log the winters usage so I can get an idea how long the truck load I had delivered will last!!

Sure is nice to have the windows open in the bedroom to keep that room nice and cool for good sleep and then walk into a nice warm house!! Of course give it a few more weeks and it will be much easier to get things cool!!!

Next job is to learn to shake out the ashes better!! I do ok but I think there is decidedly room for improvement!!

SD

:)

 
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Keepaeyeonit
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Post by Keepaeyeonit » Wed. Sep. 29, 2010 9:07 pm

Sheepdog,I'm new to coal too but I just had to light the stove on Saturday(just could not wait for the real cold)playing with low idle,I use standerd allen wrenches to set the gap in the draft control, so not knowing how to run this stove I started with a 1/8" then 3/16" and now I'm 3/32" with .02 wc stack 100* and stove 170* on a 16 hr burn so far but I'm trying to push it to 48 hrs,I had 34 hr on the last load using a 1/8" .03 wc stack 125* stove 180* and used 15# coal( nut,pea mix ).I have 4 co detectors and all is good so far even with temps pushing 70* and 80* inside, currently I'm very happy that I dumped the wood and switched to coal but it's only been four days so by the end of this winter I"ll know for sure.

 
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SheepDog68
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Post by SheepDog68 » Fri. Oct. 01, 2010 3:19 pm

Wow does burning nut make a big difference!!

Started the stove with a good sized load of Harmony Nut and at idle it was running us out of the house!! The stove was running at least 100 degrees hotter than with the pea coal that I had been running it with. Been adding pea into the hopper so it is starting to idle back down where it was before!! I think that I will be able to idle through a good portion of this winter if the Harmony Nut continues to put out that kind of heat!! :D

SD

:)

 
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Keepaeyeonit
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Post by Keepaeyeonit » Sat. Oct. 02, 2010 7:03 am

Sheepdog, what kind of burn times are you getting?I have been running a mix but I think I may switch to pea until it gets cold but I tried different brands of coal to see if one works better then the other bagged reading nut,bagged blaschak nut and pea,and bulk nut and pea(not sure what brand)but the bulk pea is burning ok.I did get 48 hrs on a load with a 30# refill(just guessing on the weight)I would like to see 15 to 20# or is that asking to much?,44* outside this morning 38 hrs on this load and the inside is 78*.My freeze baby wife said that maybe I got too big of a stove but I said just wait until it's 10* and the wind is blowing 20+ in January then it's not going to be big enough!

 
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SheepDog68
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Alaska Kodiak
Coal Size/Type: Harmony Nut, Lehigh Nut
Other Heating: Happy thoughts, good wool and a little propane.

Post by SheepDog68 » Sat. Oct. 02, 2010 11:23 am

When burning the Reading bagged pea coal (Once the stove is up and running) I have been averaging about 8 pounds of coal a day! (Averaged over 20 days!) This gives me a stove temp of about 170-180 F which has been good for the temps we saw during that time!! I did drop the stove temp to 140 F or below when it got warm for a week or so, but it is not as happy idling below 170 F and needs a bit more attention! (No more work just keep an eye on it!!)

Each morning I open up the air and get the fire revved up a bit before I shake it down and then top off the hopper!

So far I am just doing a morning shake down and don't even touch the stove in the evening, but expect that will change once it gets good and cold!!

One thing that I noticed is that I can slow down the burn even more by leaving some of the ash in the stove instead of shaking it out! I know that sounds counter productive and I did have to poke some air holes in it with my poker if I let it get too much ash and let the fire burn down too much.

Once there is an ash build up I have to give it a lot more air to keep it going, which is how I lost it since I was out of town and did not want to leave it opened that much in case something changed while I was away!! I should have revved it up good the day before and shook most of the ash out of it so it could idle along on its normal low air setting while I was gone, but did not!!

So burn times?

Since I have about 90 pounds or so of pea coal in my stove when it is full I suppose in theory I could go 10 or so days with out adding coal, but I expect that as it burned down the characteristics of the fire would change with less coal in the hopper and that time frame would become irrelevant.

I just upped the stove temps to above 200 F with the cooler nights we have now so we will continue to track what we are up against!!

SD

:)

 
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Chuck_Steak
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Post by Chuck_Steak » Sat. Oct. 02, 2010 7:17 pm

You guys have got some THIN blood!!
It was so warm up here in New England last week,
I couldn't have imagined touching off the old Mark....
Tonight is supposed to be the first cool night, but 60's tomorrow.
Just still a little too early for heat..
:fear:


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