Junior Chubby Snuffing Itself Out.

I sold my Chubby to my father in law when he looked at it this fall. Instant love. I then found a Junior that my son refinished and he bought that for his little get away. Having a heck of a time keeping a fire overnight with it.

I know the firepot isn't very big, about a gallon and a half of coal fills it. The coal we've been using is like range coal, from pea sized to nut. What happens is the fines plug up the grate.

Do you guys think strictly stove coal would take care of this? We've already done the shake and poke from the bottom but it doesn't seem to help much.

This is in a well insulated building running low temps on the stove and just better than 125F on the pipe before the barometric damper. When the grates are clean it's got a hellacious amount of draft, especially when starting a wood fire to get the coal cooking.

Screen out the smaller stuff so it is mostly Nut...

Manufacturer recommends nut coal. Although can mix in some pea coal.

That seems to be along what I was thinking, pick your pieces so they are on the larger end of nut. Will give that a shot.