Keeping This Stove Going?

I have had this stove for about two week. I can get it going just fine, but within twenty four hours it's dead. I fire it up get it going just fine adding a little coal at a time things are going great. Let's say I start this about 10am I leave it just adding coal a little at a time building a nice fire. About 6pm I shake it until I get red embers in the pan leave it until morning. This morning I go out it's about dead. This has happened ever time. I putz with it opening the draft adding little bits of coal but it goes out. I need help!

Do you fill the stove to the top of the fire brick? After shaking do you reload the stove? When you say you shake till you get embers in the ash pan, how many embers are you seeing? A few is ok, a whole lit is not. Are you sure you aren't dumping the fire? Sounds like uou might be shaking too much.

You want a good 4-6" of red coals before you fill it up. It could be you are shaking too much and don't have a good base fire yet.

Others will chime in soon. Be patient you'll get it soon.

Thats a good size stove. It holds a lot of coal. I think it has a Bi metal thermostat. Maybe it needs to be adjusted or don't use it and just try the ash door air.If it has an over fire air adjustment,close it. If it has a hopper. Use it. Check and make sure you are getting a good draft.
Coal fires are not adjusted by the amount of fuel you have, but by the amount of air coming from under the fire. As already stated by IOF fill that baby up and regulate
the fire from either the ash door air or adjust the thermostat. Also make sure you have good a CO detector. Coal only burns for set amount of time. Death is forever.

Edit: Also never shake a cool fire. Rev. it up first then shake until you see a nice glow reflected inside the ash pan.

Welcome to the FORUM my friend--Post some pix of your stove, inside & out, and the chimney set up so we can see what you've got there & make it easier for constructive help. It's a good stove, something simple is probably the problem.Where do you live? All this makes a difference--that's why that PROFILE space is there. I promise, nobody'll steal you. Do you top it off after your 6:00 PM shake down?

Welcome to the forum! Everybody goes through this to some degree when they first start up with coal burning. Pictures will help. There is a lot of experience on here to mine, be patient and I am sure you will be getting those 12 hour burns times very soon.

If you're starting a fire at 10:00am, there is no way you need to be shaking it at 6:00pm. With a new fire, you can go a full 24 hrs. before shaking it. Then every 10 or 12 after that. Are you burning anthracite? If your burning Bituminus, it may be whole different ball game. To get good help, the great people on this forum need details. Good luck and be patient. It will be worth it!

Assuming you filled the fire box, then if the entire load has burned you have to lessen the air.

If there is still plenty of unburned coal then you should have given it more air for overnight.

It will take some time to learn just how your stove behaves.

Kinda like a wife, you find out what she likes & you stick with it, but even then, she still might go out on ya.

I have to agree with the others. It sounds like your underdraft damper is open too wide. What kind of heat is your fire putting out? When you discover the fire has gone out, how much unburnt coal is left in the stove? If you have little or no coal left you have too much underdraft and your fire is running out of fuel; Close the damper until you find the setting that best controls your fire. If there is a lot of coal left, open the damper a little.

Do you have a stove front thermometer to tell you how hot the stove is burning? Can you get near the stove when it's burning or is it too hot? A stove front thermometer will allow you to see what heat the fire is producing by giving you a number - degrees - to relate to. Once you have that number you can adjust the underfire damper to control the fire and create the heat output you want.

Just a word about shaking the fire. You say you are shaking until you see embers in the ash pan. Do you have your ash pan door open while you do this? If so, you are releasing a huge amount of flyash into your room. Depending on your stove's location that may not matter but my stove is in the family room and since I hate to dust, releasing flyash is the last thing I want to do. Having a robust fire going when you are shaking helps fight the flyash, too, but if that door is open and you are shaking you will be releasing flyash into your room. My suggestion is to find another way to determine if you have shaken enough. On my Mark II I can see the red glow through the ashdoor damper - when it's a solid red, I know I have shaken enough. That also equates to about a 3 inch drop in my coal bed. I never shake or add coal with my ashdoor is open.

It won't be long until you've beaten the learning curve, take care, Lisa

Body Hammer wrote:If you're starting a fire at 10:00am, there is no way you need to be shaking it at 6:00pm. With a new fire, you can go a full 24 hrs. before shaking it. Then every 10 or 12 after that. Are you burning anthracite? If your burning Bituminus, it may be whole different ball game. To get good help, the great people on this forum need details. Good luck and be patient. It will be worth it!

I'm with Charlie on this one. We don't have enough details first off but just by his description, there is no need to shake a "new fire" that soon. Plus, forget about adding a little coal at a time. This is fine for the first 2 additions of coal but after that, get it ripping and fill it up to the top. I don't know how that stove works but I'll assume it's got a bi-metal damper control? If so, set it on 3- 4 and make sure it's not totally closed and forget it for the next 12 hrs. Then check and refill but wait till the next time for the first shake. If it's got a slide damper in front versus the bi-metal, try a 1/4 inch or so initial setting and see how that goes. As Lisa mentioned, I too look for the glow on shakedown but with the primary damper closed. I can see the glow start to appear through the slot that my shaker fork comes through. With bar grates it's just a feel or a slit on the dampers to see some red start to fall.

When I shake down, I hold my ash door snug--shake--open the door to make sure I've got a good red line all the way across my ash pan--if not--I poke from the top where ever I'm lacking embers. Very little if any flyash escapes. Of course I give it a few seconds to settle. Take your time on all this my friend--soon it will be second nature--even with all these good suggestions, it's your stove, you're there, all you need to do is figure out the combination. You'll get it.