Got my new stove!!!

If you look at the coal bed in that DSM notice how the coal drops down at the corners...
Notice how the corners are filling with ash...
Burn the hopper down so you can get at the back corners...
I let mine go about 3" below the hopper bottom lip...
With my 20* poker I can wiggle it down from the top at the front corners...
And vibrate the ash down...
Same thing with the back corners but thru the now empty hopper...
Give it a few shakes poke again...
The DSM has a big pile of hot coals even at 400* so you won't kill a fire doing this now...
Load the hopper up...
Then vibrate the hopper with the 20* poker and get the coal up level with the firebrick front and rear...
That should be good for another 25# of coal in the hopper...
Now the fire should hit 500*...
The weight of the coal in the hopper makes the middle shake down real nice...
The edges and corners lack the extra weight so they need a little extra help once a week...
The back wall will ash up about 1" deep due to the steel bar below the back fire brick...
It makes a shelf for the ash to build up on...

Well, I'm not so sure I understand what you are saying Cape, but I poked down from the front with the poker. Then I went through the hopper and down the back side of the stove. I opened up the ash door and took a look and the front grate and the rear grate are still dark. I'm obviously doing something wrong.

I think I'm going to leave it well enough alone for now I filled my ash pan earlier with so much ash and clunkers and hot coal then I poured about 100# of coal through the hopper trying to clear the rest of the ashes out. I'm going to bed now. I'll be really surprised if it isn't out by morning and if it isn't, I'll load it up with coal and hope it'll continue to live on.

I need to get a different poker. It's too short to reach the back of the stove from the bottom and it's almost too short to get the back of the stove from the top.

I poke straight down to the grates then wiggle the poker...
I then bang on the grate a bit 2-3 times with the poker...
Like vibrating concrete...
Move over a bit then do it again...
I will drop about 6 cups of ash when I do this just along the front fire brick...
The lack of weight on the corners and sides reduces the effectivness of the grates to drop ash...
I throw the ash shaker full front to full back back to the front at least 4 times then peek for any red glow...
Twice again look for a glow...
Once I see the glow I give it a few short shakes...
Now I am burning some good 'Old Reading Coal'...
The kind with red paint on it...
So your milage may vary...
Clinker buildup will happen if the grates do not open enough to either grind or drop the bigger chuncks...
The ash that comes thru has some bone in it too...
The middle of the ash pan has pieces the size of Nut Coal...
Gets smaller to the edges...

Well, I shook down, poked, shook down, poked and my wife called and the stove is still doing it. My draft is good. I don't have it running balls out, its only set to 500* now.

I'm beginning to think it may be the coal? I'm burning Kimmel's Nut. Its a bit ashy but otherwise I haven't had a problem. I'm thinking the ash is clogging up my grates causing my fire to go out or begin to die.

Unless anyone else has any other ideas? I'm looking for another type of coal to just try to see if it is the coal. There is one Blaschak dealer by my house but he only carries Rice.

I have a DS #3 basement stove. And at least once a week I will give it a real good shaking.I open the ash door for a few minutes. Get the fire nice and hot. Then I do very short choppy shakes for about 30 seconds take a look and check the 4 corners to see if they are real ashy looking. Let it sit a few minutes. Then I have a 1/4 inch steel rod with a good bend in one end. I remove the ash pan. Then I go up thru the grates in the 4 corners and dislodge the ash from below. I then clean out the ash pit with a scraper that I have, into the ash pan. Let the stove sit a few minutes with air inlet at highest setting. Open feed door and check to see if the corners are nice and red. If not I repeat the cleaning one more time. Only had to do it once when I had some coal that was given to me from a neighbor. Was real high ash content.This usualy takes me about 15 minutes once a week. I work 12 hour shifts and this stove has never let me down. It heats my whole house.

I dunno. Now I think its the thermostat. And here is why. I cleared the ashes last night. In faqct I cleared it so much that my ash pan was full of hot coals. I then did it again this morning. Then my wife did it 1200 this afternoon. As of right now the stove is 400*. My wife says its still going down. She says the flap is open but only a little bit.

Now, when I got the stove and unwrapped it I noticed the housing that holds the stat was dented. I pulled the dent out but now I'm thinking its hanging up.

I feel like I am spinning my wheels here and I'm getting frustrated. Saturday was great. Hell, it was great up to Wednesday night. Now, its aggrevating me. I'm calling DS tomorrow to explain to them what is going on.

Maybe after being heated for several days the bi-metal of the thermostat may have slightly altered. What happens when you raise it to a higher number? By setting it to the lowest number (closed position) you should be able to lift and drop the flap to check for any binding.

I dunno. I can't put my finger on it. I came home the stove was sitting at 450* and it seemed like it was getting warmer.

I waited till 1800 and shook it down. I did 8 hard shakes, full motion. Then I did a whole bunch of very fast jerky shakes and noticed it cleared the front and back grates. It also evened out the coal pile, flattened it out so it was even with the top of the brick. It also completely emptied the hopper. I then filled it back up. It took a full bucket and two shovel fulls to fill it. About 35 pounds.

I think maybe the problem is that I am not shaking down enough? I'm gonna give it tonight to see. I'm still calling DS in the morning to ask about the stat.

Ok, couple of updates for you.

Firstly, my wife tends to freak out over things she doesn't understand which in turn sets me off because I'm not home to witness what is actually happening or has happened.

Second, I may have just figured out my issue in regards to being unable to clear the ash from the front and rear grates. To resolve this I found that if I do 8 large strong full range (front to back) shakes it clears or grinds most of the larger chunks or clinkers. It will also drop several hot coals into the pan. Once that happens I know it has cleared the center grates. Then, I proceed to do quick short fast shakes keeping the handle pretty much centered. When it grinds I know a clinker has fallen in between the grates and I will then move the handle the other direction to force the clinker down a little more then I slam it the other way to grind the clinker up. I do this about 12 times then look through the door. If I don't see enough red to the front and back of the grates I continue to do the short fast jerky motions until I do. This also completely empties my hopper and flattens out my coal bed which in turn fills the gaps at the corners with fresh coal. It then takes nearly two coal hods to fill the hopper. So my coal hod holds about 30 pounds of coal fully loaded to the brim. So, I am burning 60 pounds of coal a day officially (still much less than the Chubby; your mileage will vary).

Thirdly, I think I understand how the bimetallic thermostat works. Easiest way to explain it is to use a furnace thermostat as an example. You set your furnace to come on at 60 degrees. The furnace comes on and ramps up till the house is 70. Then it shuts off. Once the temp in the house reaches 60 the furnace will come back on. I currently have my bimetallic thermostat set for 4.25. When the temp of the stove falls a little below 450 (somewhere between 430 and 425) the flap opens, the stove ramps up to 500/550 then the flap closes. I confirmed this now twice after I shook down and reloaded my stove this evening. I also noticed that with the flap closed there are almost little to no blue ladies in the fire box. But as soon as the flap opens the blue ladies begin to dance. Also, in regards to making adjustments to the bimetallic thermostat I find it easier to make them when the flap is closed. This way you can easily see how your adjustments will affect the stove since at the time of the adjustment the stove will be on the low side of the heating cycle.

My house is currently 73.8* and it is 11* outside at 2144 at night. I suspect that as the temp drops throughout the night the stove may run a little hotter on its own. I'm guessing depends on draft and all that. I may also be way off base on all that I think I may have figured out. I'm sure if I'm wrong or off base even a little one of you nice gentlemen from the forum will correct me.

You are in the tuning part of the learning curve for your stove...
Cut back by 1 or 2 the full strokes and use more short strokes...
The first 3 long strokes drop most of the big ash and clinker...
The shorter strokes keep the red coals on the grate but let the finer ash pass...
The next long stroke session will drop the now burned coal that was on the grate and the clinker/big ash that came down in the last short shake...
But failed to get ground up in the shorter shakes...
I like to do a few short shake with the hopper full...
More weight to help the ash pass...
Take a peek at the ash that has fallen after each stroke...
You can learn how the stove and grates digest your coal...
60# sounds better; you seemed a little low on the coal consumption with the temps you were running...
The house is staying warm and you are learning how to best shake down your stove...
How is the hot air stratification problem going...
Are the fans doing the trick or will you be shortening the drops...

CapeCoaler wrote:You are in the tuning part of the learning curve for your stove...
Cut back by 1 or 2 the full strokes and use more short strokes...
The first 3 long strokes drop most of the big ash and clinker...
The shorter strokes keep the red coals on the grate but let the finer ash pass...
The next long stroke session will drop the now burned coal that was on the grate and the clinker/big ash that came down in the last short shake...
But failed to get ground up in the shorter shakes...
I like to do a few short shake with the hopper full...
More weight to help the ash pass...
Take a peek at the ash that has fallen after each stroke...
You can learn how the stove and grates digest your coal...
60# sounds better; you seemed a little low on the coal consumption with the temps you were running...
The house is staying warm and you are learning how to best shake down your stove...
How is the hot air stratification problem going...
Are the fans doing the trick or will you be shortening the drops...

I have the fan above the stove blowing down and the one furthest from the stove blowing up. I'm still trying to get the heat moving in the house. I still think finishing the wall next to the stove would help. As all my heat goes up and over the partitioned wall into the kitchen. Then it takes it forever to come back to the living room.

It is currently 0* here, stove is around 490* on 13.5 hours since shaking down last night at 1800 the house is 67.6*. Not too bad considering how cold it is outside. I'm curious to see if my furnace will kick on or if it'll just sit at this temp until the outside temps start to rise.

Right now the hopper is still full from last night, only about an 1" has dropped into the box. So when I do shake at around 8 this morning or so it'll have some weight on it (I'm trying to hold out long enough for my daughter to wake up, she was able to sleep through the banging of the Chubby being shaken down but not the DS; which is weird because the DS doesn't make half the noise the Chubby did. )

So, I should do: long, short then long? Or short, long, short? Guess I'll play around with it to see what works best. I'll let you all know how it goes after I shake down this morning.

Long,short,fill hopper,short and done...
The long strokes open the grates wide...
Big stuff can fall thru...
The deep ash bed keeps the hot coals from falling thru...
After a few big shakes the ash bed is shallow and big strokes are going to let hot coals thru...
So you do the shorter strokes which just rock the grates...
The gap between the grate edges allows the finer ash to fall thru...
but the bigger hot coals can not get stuck...
The other big stuff is now also on the grates or close to it...
Add coal to the hopper for more weight...
A few short shakes to knock some more fine ash down...
Waiting for the next cycle of big shakes to clear the grate of the big stuff that has migrated down...
I peek at the bottom of the grates to see when I get to a slight glow in the center...
That is when I go to the short shakes...
The short ones bring the glow to most of the grate area...
If it is dark in the corners it is time for some pokes...
I go from the top, go down to the grate an just wiggle the poker a little bit...
The ash drops thru and to the grates...
some short shakes and the corners are clear...

i think it was the fines messing with you and the poking also helps . i had the same problem with fines for a week or two . i got bulk coal this year . seems like alot more fines do to more moving the coal around . started sifting coal this fixed the problem . never had any problem with bagged kimmels last year .

I had a bad experience with Kimmels. Besides all the trash I found, the amount of ash it produced used to only allow me a 12 hour max burn. As soon as I switched to Blaschak, I doubled my burn times with half the ash.

Mason, I'm not so sure what it was. It could have been the fines. I know I won't be burning fines any more.

Smitty, I've not any issues with Kimmel's. I don't find much garbage in it, the occasional twig or bit of wood but I just burn it anyway. I do notice it is a bit on the ashy side so I make sure I shake down real well. Other than that it lights easy and it puts out some heat. I've not had any short burn times either, other than when I was pushing the Chubby and I'd go 8-9 hours before shaking down. Now, with the DS the longest I've gone so far is 18 hours.