First Burn Questions

offcoursey · Post by **offcoursey** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 9:39 am

I started my stove(Glacier Bay) last Saturday and it is going well...still. It has been staying between 300 and 400 with stack temps between 100 and 200. I had my PUFF experiance on the second day. It wasn't bad thanks to the advice on this forum(my pipe was screwed together). I had the stove begin to roar with newly added coal but opening the load door for a few minutes fixed that. I'm learning! My questions are: Is my thermometers in correct locations? How high can my stove and stack temps go safely? How does my setup look? What is the range I should keep my draft and the low/high limits? The baro is set to .o5 and is working well to keep the draft there.

lobsterman · Post by **lobsterman** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 9:54 am

You got the PUFF because you fed too much air to a freshly loaded stove.

offcoursey · Post by **offcoursey** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 10:16 am

Yup... that's what I thought... I loaded the stove full with the ash door open. I had to walk away for a minute but I minute or two after I closed the ash door the PUFF occurred. Anyway, I learned that part. Thanks! Now, I load/bank the back of the stove and wait 15 minutes or so until I get good flames then I load some in the front a little at a time....it has worked so far. Thanks!

Hambden Bob · Post by **Hambden Bob** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 10:27 am

Ahhh...The Magical release of fresh volatiles. Stay with it,review previous post topics from this treasure trove of a website,and you will be a young Jedi of Coalburning no-longer! One of our Masters here has the phrase "As you burn,so shall you learn"

lobsterman · Post by **lobsterman** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 12:04 pm

offcoursey wrote:Yup... that's what I thought... I loaded the stove full with the ash door open. I had to walk away for a minute but I minute or two after I closed the ash door the PUFF occurred. Anyway, I learned that part. Thanks! Now, I load/bank the back of the stove and wait 15 minutes or so until I get good flames then I load some in the front a little at a time....it has worked so far. Thanks!

I guess people have different opinions about loading coal a little at a time. I don't do that. I open the door once after shaking and I load it to the top with coal, having previously closed down the intake air to my desired operating position and the damper fully open. Then I close the door and leave the damper open for a few minutes to vent the explosive gas that could be emitted faster than it could burn. Then I close the damper fully. I imagine each type of stove is a little different.

wsherrick · Post by **wsherrick** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 5:13 pm

Once the fire is established, I always load it up fully. Since my stove has a feature that allows a set amount of heated secondary air over the top of the fire, I never have issues with back puffs. I load it up, set the primary dampers and am done with it. Operating in this manner allows for a long period of even combustion and stove temperatures.
It looks like you have a secondary damper on the loading door of your stove. After loading the stove up, perhaps you should experiment with opening up the secondary damper until the new coal is ignited. This should eliminate back puffs. Leaving the ash pit door wide open allows for an increased rate of combustion of the new load of fuel and then when you shut it the newly heated coal has no air to burn off the large amount of hydrocarbon gas that are being cooked out of the fresh load of coal. That's why you need some secondary air for a while after loading to provide the needed air to dilute the gas and burn it off. The gas that escapes unburned up your chimney is lost heat and lost money.

mason coal burner · Post by **mason coal burner** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 9:37 pm

can to much fresh coal on top snuff out a fire say 8 inches give or take .

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 9:43 pm

If you have a solid coal bed, No...
But you might get a boom or two if you don't add secondary air..
A coal bed that is fading might get snuffed out...
Better to add slowly on a weak coal bed...

mason coal burner · Post by **mason coal burner** » Sat. Oct. 23, 2010 9:59 pm

my hitzer has a vent on the load door .

offcoursey · Post by **offcoursey** » Sun. Oct. 24, 2010 6:45 am

I thought the over fire draft control was strickly for burning wood. I will have play around with that when I start the stove up again. There is a larger learning curve then I expected but it is going well so far.

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Sun. Oct. 24, 2010 9:30 am

Not just for wood...
Just a crack will do...
With my DSM basement #4 I can get a very nice secondary burn above the coal bed when loading new coal...
When starting for the season it stays open a bit more to prevent booms...
The stove holds 180# and all that coal during the startup can make for some big booms...

I get a nice flame show thru the glass...
Kind of like a blast furnace...

mason coal burner · Post by **mason coal burner** » Sun. Oct. 24, 2010 11:38 am

you will get the hang of it in no time . do lots of reading on forum . I would like to have glass load door .

offcoursey · Post by **offcoursey** » Sun. Oct. 24, 2010 2:26 pm

Every time I load I think a glass door would have been great!...

ScubaSteve · Post by **ScubaSteve** » Sun. Oct. 24, 2010 8:20 pm

Welcome to the forum!! I learned everything from here. These are some great people on this forum, We will help you every step of the way.

HanSoSlow · Post by **HanSoSlow** » Mon. Oct. 25, 2010 2:19 pm

From reading this I think I'm at risk of a boom since I'm loading wrong - or so I think. I have not yet had the pleasure of a boom, but I'm sure its coming.

Here is how I load.

I open the ash door to get it going better - just a couple min.
Shake down with the ash door closed - checking to make sure I don't over shake
Empty as needed
With the ash door open - load enough to almost cover the entire bed - leaving some flame going
Close load door
Let it catch (5 minutes or so depending on rate of fire)
load
close load door
let it catch
Fill

All with ash door open

Let it catch

Close ash door

Done - set the bottom dial. No secondary air is added above the coal.

First Burn Questions

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