Crystal Crawford Moved in / This Winter Is Going to Be HOT !

Beautiful stove my friend!!! Nice job with her!!! I usually refrain from comment in this section as it is certainly not my expertise, but just because I am a stoker type of guy doesn't mean I'm not able to appreciate a fine piece of equipment when I see one!!! Very nice... Someday I too would like to try my hand at one of these beautiful base burners/base heaters... Enjoy Sir...

Don't get overly stressed about the leaks around the foot rests and the shaker handle. Those aren't going to really change the way the stove operates. The main things are the seams, for example, the area where the barrel fits on the base and the top casting where it fits on the barrel. All the seams in the base of the stove should be well sealed.
The most important part is the door fit and that the damper bars fit tight against their bearing surface. Those two things are the most important. You said the doors are tight already. The dampers are easy to adjust if they have a little play in them. There must be NO play in the dampers. Again easy to fix if needed.

The next thing you will learn is that these stoves draft a whole lot better than other types of stoves. The tall, thin shape allows for a free flow of draft through the stove. You will find that you need a whole lot less kindling and effort to get a fire started in the Crawford or any other stove of this type. With these stoves, less is more.

Thanks for all the kind comments on the Crawford. Overall the stove is in good shape for its age, I am thinking that is from World War I to the early 1920's.
Steve, thanks for the pointers on slowing the stove down. Last night I was able to lower the stove temp by 150* F by placing aluminum foil between the ash pit and the ash door. The stove temp, over the last 24 hours averaged 350* F without touching the stove. The fire is on its way out at the moment but I have a few ideas that may help the air leaks. This friday I plan to work on the ash door & foot rail hooks to make the stove a bit more air tight.

William, Thanks for all your help.... I would not have bought the Art Stewart or the Crawford with out your interest and knowledge. The great stoves from the golden age of coal burning are fun to restore and make excellent heaters.

Eddie

Eddie,

Way to go with the foil trick. That tells you that the door has a problem somewhere. Take a good look at the bottom of it. On my Star, there is a slightly raised lip that mates with the bottom of the ash door. Sometimes after shaking and emptying ash, you'll get some ash or cinder on that lip. This of course negates that bottom seal. I always make sure to brush that lip off good before closing and also the bottom of the door itself to make sure nothing is squished onto it. Also make sure that the little clinker door is good and flush as a leak there will be magnified.
Your right, they are great little heaters.

SteveZee wrote:Eddie,

Way to go with the foil trick. That tells you that the door has a problem somewhere. Take a good look at the bottom of it. On my Star, there is a slightly raised lip that mates with the bottom of the ash door. Sometimes after shaking and emptying ash, you'll get some ash or cinder on that lip. This of course negates that bottom seal. I always make sure to brush that lip off good before closing and also the bottom of the door itself to make sure nothing is squished onto it. Also make sure that the little clinker door is good and flush as a leak there will be magnified.
Your right, they are great little heaters.

You are correct. You must keep that area clean. A whisk broom is on constant standby with the Glenwood No 9. You are also right about the tin foil. The primary damper or the door is not fitting just right. It's very easy to fix,

Over the past weekend I worked on the ash door and how it fit to the stove body. With a set of feeler gauges I was able to locate the leak around the ash door. Also fixed the foot rest hooks that penetrate the stoves ash body. With a flash light in the ash pit I was able to locate the air leaks around the foot rest hooks and more around the ash door / stove body fit. The hooks now have a bead of high temp red permatex on the inside of the stove. After adjusting the hinge pins, the ash door still had too much of an air gap....So the ash door now has a fine bead of permatex ultra black around the edge. To make this fit well I taped the stove body, around the ash opening, with clear packing tape. After that, I ran a very fine bead of ultra black around the ash door and closed it. To speed up the cure time of the silicone, I placed a 300 watt halogen bulb up close to the ash door for about an hour. The ash door heated up to about 175*F....The ultra black permatex did not stick to the packing tape and it did make a fine gasket that you can not see with the door closed.
Now the stove will idle down to 300*F from a hot temp in the 600*F range. For the past 30 hours the stove has idled at 275-300*F at the fire pot, 115*F at the barrel top with a smoke pipe temp of 100*F. I just added a few scoops of Pea without shaking. The manometer is reading -.015 and the outside temp is 54*F.

Eddie

Eddie,

Very clever fix with the ultrablack since it remains rubbery and will not dry out and crack like furnace cement. I hope that it stays on the door though, time will tell. You have to have some control and it sounds like you've got it working well now It's obviously easier to go slowly up then come down from hot anyways.

Mine has been heating the whole house these last couple weeks in this mild weather. What I've done is to open the ashpit vents, check damper in back of the ashpan,(I'm assuming you have those?). I open them during high winds to act as a baro and to lower the stove temp on mild days. Anyways, they are open about 1/3rd, and the primary damper on ashpit door is closed totally. Then I open the load door secondary air damper all the way. In this configuration, after shake and reload (nut coal) the temp drops anyways to about 200 with a big reload all at once. Then it will just stay right around 200-250 for most of the 12 hour period I use between shakes. I could go allot longer but the kitchen range is a 10-12hr kinda guy so I'm used to that. Towards the end of the 12 hours it tends to creep up a little to maybe 300 but no biggie. I kinda like the fact that it self adjusts a bit at a given setting when the temps fall at night and chimney pulls a little harder.

PC 12-47E wrote:Over the past weekend I worked on the ash door and how it fit to the stove body. With a set of feeler gauges I was able to locate the leak around the ash door. Also fixed the foot rest hooks that penetrate the stoves ash body. With a flash light in the ash pit I was able to locate the air leaks around the foot rest hooks and more around the ash door / stove body fit. The hooks now have a bead of high temp red permatex on the inside of the stove. After adjusting the hinge pins, the ash door still had too much of an air gap....So the ash door now has a fine bead of permatex ultra black around the edge. To make this fit well I taped the stove body, around the ash opening, with clear packing tape. After that, I ran a very fine bead of ultra black around the ash door and closed it. To speed up the cure time of the silicone, I placed a 300 watt halogen bulb up close to the ash door for about an hour. The ash door heated up to about 175*F....The ultra black permatex did not stick to the packing tape and it did make a fine gasket that you can not see with the door closed.
Now the stove will idle down to 300*F from a hot temp in the 600*F range. For the past 30 hours the stove has idled at 275-300*F at the fire pot, 115*F at the barrel top with a smoke pipe temp of 100*F. I just added a few scoops of Pea without shaking. The manometer is reading -.015 and the outside temp is 54*F.

Eddie

Very nice Eddie, I like the " clear packing tape" idea.
Have fun with your stove!

I have revived the stove fire after burning 54 hours without shaking. Now that my underfire air is not leaking too much, the stove will idle very well. With the warm temps we have had I am glad that the stove will stay burning at 250* F in the fire pot. Before the fire was banked I did add about half an inch of fines and rice to slow the fire down...... We have blue flames with the fire pot @ 450* and the top of the barrel @ 350*.

Eddie

It sounds like the stove is running like it is supposed to. Years ago I did the Permatex trick on my Anchor Oak. Instead of using packing tape, I put a thin layer of Crisco around where the door fits onto the ash pit. It worked just fine. It should hold up for the whole season.
On the Crawford I didn't see a check damper. The internal check damper on the bottom of the stove allows you to perfectly set up how much air goes through the fire. Your Art Stewart has one I'm sure. They are very helpful and unlike the external check dampers on the exhaust collar of the stove, completely safe to use. There is no chance of exhaust gasses accidentally coming back into the house.

That's right Will, The check dampers are very handy and I find myself using mine to fine tune the Star Herald quite bit. They, more than anything, will tone it down if need be and they work great on really breezy, blustery days. I'm glad I have them and consider their position whenever I pull out the ashpan. They have worked really well on these warm days to keep the stove down about 200 degrees during the daytime.
I'm surprised that Eddie's Crystal Crawford doesn't have them? I'm trying to recall (in my foggy old brain) if Eddie didn't ask me about the little cleanout door in the back, on the back pipe elbow stand? If he has that cleanout, he must have the check damper in there? Eddie?..........Bueller......

SteveZee wrote:That's right Will, The check dampers are very handy and I find myself using mine to fine tune the Star Herald quite bit. They, more than anything, will tone it down if need be and they work great on really breezy, blustery days. I'm glad I have them and consider their position whenever I pull out the ashpan. They have worked really well on these warm days to keep the stove down about 200 degrees during the daytime.
I'm surprised that Eddie's Crystal Crawford doesn't have them? I'm trying to recall (in my foggy old brain) if Eddie didn't ask me about the little cleanout door in the back, on the back pipe elbow stand? If he has that cleanout, he must have the check damper in there? Eddie?..........Bueller......

Hi Steve,
Bueller is out for a spin in the Ferrari Daytona....But the Crawford only has a clean out door @ the bottom of the indirect pipe. I may have to drill & tap the cleanout door for several pipe plugs.

Oh yep I see now! (says the blind man). Mine has an elbow into the ashpit that has the cleanout door. On the other side is the checkvents.

Update on the Crowford indirect back pipe stove....

The stove has heated the 3,000. sq/ft house along with a Jotul 507 so far this heating season.
The Crawford does not need very much draft to produce lots of heat....
At the moment the stove barrel temp is 575*F and the Dwyer manometer is at -.02 WC.
The MPD is shut all the way and located between the stove and Barometric damper, ( about 18" between the stove & the MPD & another 18" to the Baro).
The MPD, when closed, will remove about 2.5-3.0 from the draft gauge ( manometer).
The Crawford will burn @ 450*F --550*F for 16-18 hours with out reloading coal.
The ash pit has not needed cleaning in five weeks of burning... The ash pan picks up 99.5% of the ash from the shaker grates. Try that with a Harman.....
I am very happy with this stove!! Heat output is about 10% more than a Jotul 507.

PC 12

Eddie

Nice job Eddie