Got my new stove!!!

Still pulling air up? If so, maybe shortening the drop will help. Have you done the smoke/candle check yet? I found it very helpful to actually see what the air was doing.

Try pushing the air up first...
The cooler lower air will mix with and cool the hotter stuck up high air...
At least it is easier than shortening the rod...

Oops. Double post.

Yes, both of my fans are still drawing air up. Should I maybe have one blowing down? Maybe the hotter side? I did a smoke check prior to installing the stove and found some more air leaks which I fixed. But maybe I should do another one.

Looks like you're gonna burn up some coal tonight, the forecast low is supposed to be 6°.

Heh, we'll see. Came home and found the stove on its way out. Not entirely sure what happened. I have a habit of calling my wife every few hours during the day to check on the stove. Each time I called today she would reply, "Its good. 500*." Came home stove wasn't 500*, it was 400* house was 64*.

Man I was pissed. Still trying to bring it back from the dead. I don't know if I'm not shaking down enough, too much or burning too hot. I did notice that with 10 shakes I am not getting a lot of visible red through the grates. Especially this morning.

Filled it back up at 1700 shook it down and thought I dumped the fire, filled the ash pan up with red coals. I filled the hopper, and brought it back to 550*. Just waiting till 2000 so I can do another shake and refill. There is still a lot of ash in the fire box.

I'm On Fire wrote:Heh, we'll see. Came home and found the stove on its way out. Not entirely sure what happened. I have a habit of calling my wife every few hours during the day to check on the stove. Each time I called today she would reply, "Its good. 500*." Came home stove wasn't 500*, it was 400* house was 64*.

Man I was *censored*. Still trying to bring it back from the dead. I don't know if I'm not shaking down enough, too much or burning too hot. I did notice that with 10 shakes I am not getting a lot of visible red through the grates. Especially this morning.

Filled it back up at 1700 shook it down and thought I dumped the fire, filled the ash pan up with red coals. I filled the hopper, and brought it back to 550*. Just waiting till 2000 so I can do another shake and refill. There is still a lot of ash in the fire box.

Shake down till you see red. Thats what you need to do if you are going to be gone all day. And 500* is not to hot. DS is simple stove and easy to use, they rock!

I didn't think it was. But I dunno what is going on. I just did another shake and top off.

Something just doesn't seem right. If i look through the ash pan at the bottom of the grates, the middle is red but the front and back is still dark. Like there is a lot of ash buildup or no fire. I don't want to mess with it too much more. I'm really afraid I'm gonna just dump the fire. I also want to empty the ash pan, but there are a lot of hot coals in it.

Apparently, I have no clue what I'm doing. Thought I was doing good with the DS. Was even proud. Almost a week without any issues. Fire still doesn't seem to be too healthy; hopefully it'll get better before I go to bed. Don't have too many blue ladies. House is still cold; but kind of figure that will happen since it's going to be real cold tonight.

Time to break open another Sam Adams.

IOF,
I have the 96,000 BTU model DS Circulator - it was a Christmas present to myself in 2009. If your fire is cooling off, you may want to poke at the corners of the firebox to check for accumulation of ash - depending on the coal you're burning, it can build up in 4-5 days. If I don't poke mine down once or twice a week, the airflow can get cut down quite a bit.

Enjoy your stove

If i look through the ash pan at the bottom of the grates, the middle is red but the front and back is still dark.

About once or twice a week I have the same problem with my Harman stove. After shaking I poke up through the holes in the grates with a stiff wire bent into an "L" shape. I do this with the ash pan removed and then gently shovel out the ash. It seems I get an ash (or clinker) build up that shaking won't clear and it blocks the air passages through the grates. I had to do this just this morning, now the fire is fine. The fire will be slow to return, I sometimes add some wood or lumber scraps to speed things up.

Stuffing 25 to 50 lbs. of fines in stove yesterday probably did not help !

lobstah wrote:Stuffing 25 to 50 lbs. of fines in stove yesterday probably did not help !

I agree.

Nope, Lobstah and markviii, it did not. And I'm gonna tell you right now. It will be the last time I burn fines. They will be going to the bottom of the bin, then to the compost heap. Just not worth it for what little BTUs I get out of burning it.

Wood'nCoal, I did notice that when I came in. The corners had a lot of ash buildup. I kind of poked the front down, I'm not sure how to get the rear with the hopper in the way. I also noticed some clinkers in the bottom of the grates keeping me from shaking down. I just pulled one down with my poker. It was pretty big too.

I'm gonna probably hit it again in a few minutes.

Can you poke up from underneath the grate on that stove? That's the easiest way. It seems to be part of the burning routine for some hand-fed stoves.
The coal I have now for the hand-fed has a lot of fines mixed in, it's been moved around a lot. It may be contributing to my problems here as well.

I agree with Wood'nCoal, come from under the grates with an L shaped heavy wire or 3/8" rod. Poke up where the grey or dark spots are and the ash in this area should drop right into the ash pan. With the Buck Model 24 I am able to do this with the ash pan left in the stove. If you don't have enough room on the DS Stove remove the ash pan and put a baking sheet of similiar size in the stove to catch the ash that will drop. When the stove gets choked up with ash there is a big difference with the heat output. She needs a good airflow to burn properly.