Hitzer Almost Went Out. Question

RLB112 · Post by **RLB112** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 7:11 pm

stove almost went out, now its real sluggish to get going. it bee 3 hrs and still no temp on stove or pipe. the coals are glowing but it wont liven up. any ideas? I tried leaving the ash pan door open and still nothing as well as put a fan blowing into the back damper.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 7:20 pm

Your grates are probably covered and clogged with ash. Try a gentle shake, not too aggressive or you will lose the fire. Or poke from below with a bent poker to open up a few air passageways to the burning coals.

Greg L

mason coal burner · Post by **mason coal burner** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 7:26 pm

you need to poke up threw the grates about 2 times per week . if the fire is to far goned just start over .

budster · Post by **budster** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 7:36 pm

mason coal burner wrote:you need to poke up threw the grates about 2 times per week . if the fire is to far goned just start over .

..is that with any hand fired stove ??..poking up through the grates I mean..

oliver power · Post by **oliver power** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 7:38 pm

Should you have run the stove a little hot (over fired), you may have developed clinkers on the grates, blocking air flow. Or, like Greg said with ashes blocking the grates. Seeing you don't know which, I'll second the starting over comment. If it's ashes, you can poke from the top. Don't even consider pokeing up through the grates on the 50-93. Way faster/easyer to poke from the top. Oliver

titleist1 · Post by **titleist1** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 7:52 pm

budster wrote:
mason coal burner wrote:you need to poke up threw the grates about 2 times per week . if the fire is to far goned just start over .
..is that with any hand fired stove ??..

I think it depends on the style of shaker grate or maybe the brand of coal you are burning. In 20 plus years I have never poked up through the grates to clear ash, however I have scraped a poker along the front firebrick from the top to lose the ash that accumulates there due to the shaker grate style on the Mark III.

RLB112 · Post by **RLB112** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 8:06 pm

its going and I see hot coals from underneath. I normally poke around the edges down to the grates to keep it cleared out. I wasnt sure if the stove cooling off as well as the pipe cooling off would affect the draft. its kinda goin now.

fastcat · Post by **fastcat** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 8:22 pm

Get her going good add coal let it get going again then shake the heck out of it and do the poke & scrape around the stove then give it a little shake and you should be good to go. Don't forget to empty the ashpan. How often do you shake? Should be every 12 hr and what I found with this stove is don't girlie shake it, MAN shake it 6 strokes

and you shouldn't have anymore trouble the rest of the season. Just watch that you don't get to many red coals in the pan, if so back up on strokes

.

mason coal burner · Post by **mason coal burner** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 9:44 pm

poke from under for air passages .

RLB112 · Post by **RLB112** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 9:59 pm

when I shake this stove I really shake it, ill shake it 20-30 times. anyways its up and running

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Mon. Dec. 20, 2010 10:42 pm

RL-just read your other post--soooo this is probably moot--I shake & top off 50-93 every 12 hrs--at the most--6 good shakes at the most--sounds to me like you probably have a bunch of half burnt coal on or in the grates & maintaining even temps--my God,if I shook mine 20 times,it would just about be like re-starting it--STOKER--they're automatic--no consistency needed