Only 60* in House

The stove appears to be putting out enough heat regardless of how many turns and what type of coal and whether or not he used a manometer to check his draft. There is a heated air circulation problem. My opinion is to get out the $20 walmart box fan and experiment with pointing it down the stairs and up the stairs. Watch the thermometer and if you get an increase in temp pointing it down, it's a return air problem. If it goes up when pointing it up the stairs it's a supply air problem.
To use an old medical axiom, when you hear hoofbeats don't look for zebra's.

I know most people here think that every problem one has with a coal stove
can be cured with a baro..
However... he has a 75-80* basement, and a 60* living area.
While a baro may improve his efficiency in the burn,
his question focused more on what to do about the variation in temperatures.
If there is a 20* differential between the two floors, you can adjust that baro
all you want, and it ain't gonna help his issue....
Getting the stove up to 500* may indeed get the upper level warmer,
but at the expense of having a 95* basement......
Some of us that have messed around with circulating air, have
managed to get the two floors within several degrees.
For example, right now my basement is 68*, my dining room upstairs is 71*.

I'm extremely doubtful that his appliance is losing so much heat up
the chimney, that he can only get 350* with 2-3 turns.
I'd bet more that the stove isn't as full as it should be.
If his stack is the same temp as the stove, I'd agree... too much pull.
But.
I'd sooner believe that it isn't, and he either doesn't have the stove
packed, or he has too little draft.

Dan

Hi ezburn, I agree with ChuckSteak for baro...
An other thing I would suspect is that you miss an air return or loop. If you want warm air to go upstair you should have cold air going downstair but not only in the stairway. The problem is that warm air does not take the same path as cold one and sometime when both meet they form a sort of barrier. As I already said it is very important to SEE the natural path of the air in you house with all fans or blowers off. With a scent stick you will see your air movements but you should stop moving for a few seconds when testing. With a candle it is not so easy and the scent stick fume is very light and easy to follow. When you will know the natural air paths( warm and cold) then you can work with ...and boost them in the good direction.
good luck

Chuck_Steak wrote:I know most people here think that every problem one has with a coal stove
can be cured with a baro..

Dan

Not too condescending, huh?

After speaking with many people on here about circulation, I took the advice of Coalfire (BIG THANKS MAN!!!) and used some incense to see where the air flow was......I figured out I had 1 ceiling fan going the wrong way....change the blade direction and WALLA!!! My Hitzer 608 is keeping my house at 73 (2500 sq ft custome A Frame w/2nd floor master). Last this I am going to do to redistribute heat is put in 2 vents going ot the master bedroom....in one of them I am going to put a duct booster from Tjerlund to move hot air up. After much discussion with my father (coal burner/wood burner) and my uncles (wood burners) they said the vent 1 passive and 1 powered would balance the heat flow out make the whole house a steady temp and relieving some of the temp in the main room where the stove is. On Hearth and Plow they have door way corner fans maybe thats all you need to move the air up......

just a suggestion Robb,but I would listen to those arch/door corner fans for noise value--I have 2 of them that I don't use because they are so noisey they are ENTREEAIR products w/ only 1 speed

titleist1 wrote:

Chuck_Steak wrote:I know most people here think that every problem one has with a coal stove
can be cured with a baro..

Dan

Not too condescending, huh?

Gee, I wish I was privy to the thoughts of "most of the people here." It sure would be nice to have all the answers. Since I'm not, tell me isn't it better to take a minute and actually eliminate the possibility that the stove is not functioning at maximum potential for what ever reason be it the coal, the draft or user error then to start off on a wild goose chase which may entail cutting holes in floors and buying new fans and what not. Having burned a Mark II for several years now, I'm suspicious of a Harman stove that you have to open the "air intake valve 3 times to increase your heat to over 300*." Even Smitty whose stove heats a leaky farmhouse in MA gets more heat then that at 3 turns. Something just doesn't sound right with the stove. Of course that's only my opinion based on my personal experience. What value is that? So go ahead, skip over eliminating the obvious and start the saws. Have fun! Lisa

freetown fred wrote:just a suggestion Robb,but I would listen to those arch/door corner fans for noise value--I have 2 of them that I don't use because they are so noisy they are ENTREEAIR products w/ only 1 speed

And I have two variable-speed ones that I don't use because they don't move enough air to be helpful, and once they are attached to a door frame they transmit their vibration to the wood and make plenty of noise. I suspected there was a reason the stove shop suspended them from strings in the doorway to demonstrate them, and I was right. Plus the ambient noise level in the stove shop is much higher than in a quiet house, so you notice the noise a lot more at home.

lowfog01 wrote:I'm suspicious of a Harman stove that you have to open the "air intake valve 3 times to increase your heat to over 300*."

Agreed. My Mark I would probably melt down at that opening, and my chimney draft is not especially good.

titleist1 wrote: Not too condescending, huh?

Well.... if you read most answers to questions, that is the answer
that comes up the most often... germaine or not
and when someone offers an alternate solution/reply, it is usually
met with the same reaction as yours.
I'm sorry if I offended you.
But a baro does not solve every problem.
It is not the universal solution.
It can most certainly be a useful accessory.
and as I have said before I HAVE ONE.
I've never said 'don't use one'.
But it is not THE answer to every problem...

IMO... this OP's problem of a 20* temperature differential
between floors, had nothing to do with a baro.

I don't mind at all if you disagree with me..
But it didn't.

Dan

Chuck_Steak wrote:I know most people here think that every problem one has with a coal stove
can be cured with a baro..

Dan

lowfog01 wrote:
Gee, I wish I was privy to the thoughts of "most of the people here." It sure would be nice to have all the answers. Lisa

Of course, that is not condescending..

But back to the real topic, that of eliminating small problems,
I did not see anyone else ask, if he had a good charge of coal in the box...
that was caught, and burning well..
If you have 15# of coal in your stove, you can have your intake opened 3 turns
and you wouldn't get jack out of it..
But no one asked that either...
and I also don't recall suggesting any saws be started..

You compare all of the answers others have given to a variety of questions,
and compare them to how many I have responded to,
and then you tell me 'who has all the answers'....

If you want everyone to agree with the same solutions, then just print out
one answer to every question, and we will just reply "what he said"...
If you want open dialog to get differing points of view,
then let's do that...

Dan

blrman07 wrote:The stove appears to be putting out enough heat regardless of how many turns and what type of coal and whether or not he used a manometer to check his draft. There is a heated air circulation problem. My opinion is to get out the $20 walmart box fan and experiment with pointing it down the stairs and up the stairs. Watch the thermometer and if you get an increase in temp pointing it down, it's a return air problem. If it goes up when pointing it up the stairs it's a supply air problem.
To use an old medical axiom, when you hear hoofbeats don't look for zebra's.

Simple and easy to try.

Agree that there is an additional problem in that the stove requires 3 turns open and is not over heating.

I think chucksteak makes a good point--I would like to hear a number of other options rather then to be led to believe that if I bought a Baro,my problems would be solved--my understanding is that the Baro is a great fine-tune instrument--this situation is more then fine tuning---so starting at the beginning as chucksteak & others have suggested,sounds good to me---Lisa,I don't think that he inferred that he knew what everyone was thinking,but, just from reading posts,it seems that alot of people do suggest the Baro before checking out the basics--at least that's not what I read.

EZburn, has been quiet, I'm courious what he is thinking about trying, he has only two posts, first post started this thread and, second post clarified the situation, lets hear his thoughts.