Minor Explosion In Coal Stove

When shaking down the 30-95 after 12+ hours of fairly hot burns, The coal bed drops down enough to allow enough coal from the hopper to completely cover the burning coal. I have been getting a series of gentle "woofs". A couple days ago I got a real strong "POOF" . It slammed the baro. flap closed hard but still manages to blow a cloud of fly ash into the room through the baro. damper. When I think of it I try to shake the ashes down once or twice between the 12 hour hopper refilling, so I don't get as much feed all at once of fresh coal onto the fire. I still got some "woofs" at each shake down. Today I tried leaving the front feed door open a crack for maybe 15 minutes after each shake down. No more "woof" And I learned it all right here on the best Coal Forum on the internet. Thanks to all, once again.

Does the 30-95 have a over fire air intake?
Cracking that will do the trick!

Had my 1st yesterday! Just a minor deflagration *pop*. I thought, "What was that?" Then it dawns on me; Must have been some of the volatiles going off.

Checked inside after a few minutes wait...I'm no dummy...didn't leave a corner uncovered after the charge I had just thrown in. Oops. Won't do that again *knocks wood*

Burns, yeah I've had my share of them. Lost vision in my right eye last summer...long story of mtn. bikes, rock garden and downed pine log...sort of made me a clutz. Always bumping the feed opening when loading wood last winter. Coal hod makes that less likely now, as do welding gloves.

battle scars

Had a different kind of blast today. Went down and shook the stove down. Had a full bed of glowing coals. Eveything had come down out of the hopper some time before and was burning strong. Started to fill the hopper by pouring coal from the hod I had filled the night before. Suddenly it belched like a volcano. Couldn't believe the blast of smoke and steam. Really glad I wasn't looking down in as I poured.

What had happen was I had brought a bag of coal in the night before. The coal had been wet and it was frozen together in clumps. I had filled the hod with clumps and left them to thaw out. I don't know how much water had collected as it thawed out, but there was quite a bit and it instantly turned to steam when poured on the hot coals.

From now on I will let the chunks thaw out in the bags.

CapeCoaler wrote:Does the 30-95 have a over fire air intake?
Cracking that will do the trick!

No overfire vent. Usually the burning coal is not completely covered. When it is, at least now I know to leave the door cracked open for a little while.

I blowed up the stove tonight, first time this year. I loaded some nut in the firebox, being careful to leave an exposed spot uncovered. Unfortunately I forgot to open the ash door for awhile. Maybe I loaded a bit too much in.

I was standing in front of the stove at the time, right in front of the baro.

What a nice warm feeling...makes me kind of fuzzy....

Since I learned to always keep an open flame going when reloading coal I have never had a puff-back again. Anyone EVER have one when open flames were showing? (I'll bet not)
(sometimes if I rush things & shovel too much coal in & smother the flame, I'll uncover a bit & work at it (opening the load door for a few seconds) until I get a flame back)

Flame=No puff back.......No Flame=puff back

I wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. Dave (VigII) has personally seen me shovel in too much coal and then say "*censored*, it's going to blow up!".

Wood'nCoal wrote:I wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. Dave (VigII) has personally seen me shovel in too much coal and then say "*censored*, it's going to blow up!".

I'm thinking you should rig the door on your baro, paint each side of it different colors - Chevy orange inside , so it does a 360 when the pressure is "just right"

Wood'nCoal wrote:I was standing in front of the stove at the time, right in front of the baro.

What a nice warm feeling...makes me kind of fuzzy....

It'd be purdy to watch

My experience was the big Hitzer stove would pop when it was warm out. I learned not to open the draft up to get the fire going and then shut it down too quick with fresh coal. THe gases built up and one time shook the whole house and the stove was on a concrete slab! The baro damper would clatter. Scary. The new stove I'm getting, a DS Champion, has vents in the door. DS said you could actually put the fire out by opening them because it will defeat the draft through the coal. I wonder if there is a procedure to open them slightly when refueling to allow excess gas to vent? Has anyone heard of this technique?

After the big explosion I went searching for info and found out that stoves actually get blown apart by these explosions!

NosmoKng wrote:My experience was the big Hitzer stove would pop when it was warm out. I learned not to open the draft up to get the fire going and then shut it down too quick with fresh coal. THe gases built up and one time shook the whole house and the stove was on a concrete slab! The baro damper would clatter. Scary. The new stove I'm getting, a DS Champion, has vents in the door. DS said you could actually put the fire out by opening them because it will defeat the draft through the coal. I wonder if there is a procedure to open them slightly when refueling to allow excess gas to vent? Has anyone heard of this technique?

After the big explosion I went searching for info and found out that stoves actually get blown apart by these explosions!

If you have over the fire air knobs or vents on your stove then use them if you stove does not then crack the loading door for a few minutes after loading freash coal to leave the gases go up the chimney most combo stoves have them on the door like Harman because most Sq box stoves Coal stoves are nothing more then a modified wood stoves with shaker grates in them .All the wood stove had over the fire air vents / knobs to burn wood you need it . Stoves with out over the fire air vents / knobs are design to burn Anthracite coal they are coal stoves more then combo wood & coal stoves. Also with a combo stove You can burn soft coal Bituminous because of the over fire air vent / knobs . And any

Real Anthracite coal stove will have shaker grates & straight wall fire box not a slanted one. Slanted are more for wood / soft coal burning but there are a few that can burn Anthracite in them with good results . Bottom line if you have over the fire air vents / knobs use them when reloading your stove . If not crack you loading door for a few minutes until you see flames coming up threw the new coal fire bed that goes for over the fire air knobs / vents aswell open until the fire comes up then the air vents / knobs can be closed or just cracked a bit. I know many people who burn there older DF Harmans with the knobs cracked a bit to control there burn better and btu output.

Fired up the new stove today - finally got a skid of Blaschek Pea in. It's gonna take me a while to learn how to run it. Had the blue ladies come out once and had one slow explosion that whistled through the door vents. Loaded up with coal and the fire went dormant - dont know if the draft is too light - its damp and raining outside with a high of 50 today - or if pea is too fine for my setup and I'll have to go with Nut so the fire can breath better. Seems like the draft is real good though but have to find the fine line between a roaring fire and a nice stable heat producer. Might not be easy.

NosmoKng wrote:had one slow explosion that whistled through the door vents. Loaded up with coal and the fire went dormant - dont know if the draft is too light - its damp and raining outside with a high of 50 today

As it gets colder the draft will increase and this will go away, it's tricky for a beginer in this weather but it won't take long to learn. Coal is a excellent teacher if you are paying attention. .

NosmoKng wrote:Fired up the new stove today - 8<... loaded up with coal and the fire went dormant - dont know if the draft is too light - its damp and raining outside with a high of 50 today - or if pea is too fine for my setup and I'll have to go with Nut so the fire can breath better. Seems like the draft is real good though but have to find the fine line between a roaring fire and a nice stable heat producer. Might not be easy.

Nah, you'll learn its needs quickly like coledsweat said. Still air and 50's temperatures make it tough to keep a good draft pulling. I see from your avitar that you have a baro. I don't operate my hand fed with one but do know some operators that have them wedge them closed when they recharge their fire. This keeps all the draft pulling through the fire which helps when recharging, especialliy in the weather you discribed. Some also crack the ash pan door to add extra air to the old fire before adding new coal. When you add new coal, keep a little hot part of the old fire exposed. This will help light off the gasses from the new coal before they build up and cause the puff you've already experienced. Wait till the blue flames are going strong before topping it off all of the way. All this info is probably in this thread somewhere and for sure on this forum! Have fun going at it

A few tips for you that might help you out. Wrap a piece of tinfoil over the baro to seal it up for now. You won't need it until it gets a little colder. Check your clean out door at the base of the chimney to make sure it is sealed up. Cement or silicone where it meets the cement, tape the door to the frame if needed. One mistake beginners make is the fire itself, it is nothing like wood. With wood, if a flame is present just throwing wood in it will get it rolling. It takes a day or two to actually get a coal fire up to speed and build a suitable fire bed. You may have to run it hotter than you need to get the thing going properly, once there it can be turned down to a lesser output for comfort (this is where windowstats come in )