New Install Hitzer 50-93 Questions.

I posted some pics of my Hitzer I had installed at this thread (page 2) Cold Air Return?
I had heat ducts off the front and a cold air return piped to the rear blower. I worked pretty damn good, bu I finally updated to a stoker.

Bobbart wrote:Stove is 15' from stairs facing opposite direction. Basement is unfinished but we use if for exercise and playing pool. I seem to have the venting worked out. My biggest concern is why I woke up to a stove full of ash and only putting out 250 degrees? The hopper was still near full, it seems as if the coal got burnt really quick. First time I had this problem. It was quite windy here last night. I assume I have one heck of a draft. I have a barometric damper ordered to hopefully take care of that problem. Also what should I run the blower on the stove low or high? Is there any benefit to using one speed or the other?

Welcome to the forum Bob and congrates to another Mainer swapping to coal. I don't know the answer to you blower question but I'm sure Freetown Fred or any of the other Hitzer crew can tell you. Sounds to me like you need to do you're shakedown later in the evening especially on colder days. It's the last thing I do on both my stoves before heading to the sack. The hopper being full and allot of ash tells me that for whatever reason, the coal bed didn't sink during the night and use any of the coal in the hopper. This might be do to a build up of ash that bridges and needs to be poked down. You'll get a feel for it as time goes on but till then you might check on it if you get up during the night on the colder night like tonight! Best of Luck.

Well until you put a MPD in the stack the chimney must be trying to suck your stove inside out. I would not put in a baro due to the fact you need all the heat you can get right now and the baro is just going to suck the heat in the basement up the chimney. POKING, I didn't think about that, you might have a ton of ash under that fire so poke the heck out of it and along the sides and front all the way to the grates. Do this after you shake it and then shake it again after you poke it.

Bobbart wrote:Stove is 15' from stairs facing opposite direction. Basement is unfinished but we use if for exercise and playing pool. I seem to have the venting worked out. My biggest concern is why I woke up to a stove full of ash and only putting out 250 degrees? The hopper was still near full, it seems as if the coal got burnt really quick. First time I had this problem. It was quite windy here last night. I assume I have one heck of a draft. I have a barometric damper ordered to hopefully take care of that problem. Also what should I run the blower on the stove low or high? Is there any benefit to using one speed or the other?

bobart, is your stove looking anything like this prior to shake down/ top off?? If not, we need to work on the fire making aspect of all this. With your blower, how come you have it facing away from the stair well? Where is the heat getting blown to? How far between front of stove & outside wall?

My stove looks like that before shakedown. The stove is faced away from the stairs because I wanted it to face the other half of the basement where we hang out so we could see it and also I figured the blower would push the warm air towards that part of the house. Stove is about 1/3 of the way in the basement so the wall it is facing is a good distance away. It was actually working pretty decent yesterday. Plenty of heat coming from the stairwell, kitchen and bathroom were warm. But today everything is cold. 5 degrees outside here right now. 62 upstairs.

Coalfire wrote:Not sure if it was addressed, but your cold air returns must extend below the ceiling of the basement or they won't work. I would take them to the ground, but I think you can get away with 16" that should help with the natural airflow better.

Eric

To add to what coalfire says; When I was heating with 50-93, I installed registers about 16" off the floor, between the studding of my interior walls. Stuffed insulation in the wall cavity above the register openning, so that heat comes out register. Then cut the bottom of the wall cavity out from basement. Heat would rise from the basement, into the wall cavity, and out into the room (above the cold air). Another simular thing you could do is; Put a free standing box over the floor registers you have. Cold air is more dominent than hot air, and will surpress hot air from rising up into the living quarters. So, you need to allow the heat to rise above the cold air, which is at floor level. So, you have a bunch of floor registers. Take a box about 16" tall, and stand it over the registers you want heat to come out of. Cold air will go down the remaining floor registers. I assume you have hot air furnace. If so, PERFECT! Let the cold air follow the heat runs/ducts back to the furnace. This will act the same as coalfire said, by ducting the cold air near the basement floor. Put 16" high boxes over the non-ducted registers you have cut in floor for heat to rise. This will not effect furnace performance, should the furnace kick on, the air flow is simply reversed. Furnace shuts off, and natural circulation continues on, with cold air following heat ducts back to furnace.

oliver power wrote:

Coalfire wrote:Not sure if it was addressed, but your cold air returns must extend below the ceiling of the basement or they won't work. I would take them to the ground, but I think you can get away with 16" that should help with the natural airflow better.

Eric

To add to what coalfire says; When I was heating with 50-93, I installed registers about 16" off the floor, between the studding of my interior walls. Stuffed insulation in the wall cavity above the register openning, so that heat comes out register. Then cut the bottom of the wall cavity out from basement. Heat would rise from the basement, into the wall cavity, and out into the room (above the cold air). Another simular thing you could do is; Put a free standing box over the floor registers you have. Cold air is more dominent than hot air, and will surpress hot air from rising up into the living quarters. So, you need to allow the heat to rise above the cold air, which is at floor level. So, you have a bunch of floor registers. Take a box about 16" tall, and stand it over the registers you want heat to come out of. Cold air will go down the remaining floor registers. I assume you have hot air furnace. If so, PERFECT! Let the cold air follow the heat runs/ducts back to the furnace. This will act the same as coalfire said, by ducting the cold air near the basement floor. Put 16" high boxes over the non-ducted registers you have cut in floor for heat to rise. This will not effect furnace performance, should the furnace kick on, the air flow is simply reversed. Furnace shuts off, and natural circulation continues on, with cold air following heat ducts back to furnace.

Thanks Oliver Power this is very interesting and by using the wall cavity that could be easily repaired it would save alot of floors. I think if I were to keep my stove in the basement beyond this year I would have to give it a try. Great info.

Ok so pretty much the same thing as last night. I shook the crap out of the stove filled hopper at 9:30. Stove temp was 500 degrees. I checked on it around 12:30am and it was still going strong at 500, even though my house is still ony 62 degrees. Got up at 5:30am and stove is only at 350 degrees. I don't understand it. I should maintain temperature longer than that. What I don't understand is my hopper level has just barely gone down. After burning all night shouldn't the hopper level go down a decent amount? It was only 58 degrees in the living room had to kick on the oil furnace.

Took some pics to show you what I wake up to.

**Broken Image Link(s) Removed**


After I shook it this morning my hopper is empty and I have alot of ash.

Bob,

Sounds/looks like the stove is working as hard as it can. 500-600 degrees is as good as it's gonna get. If that isn't enough at temps like today, then your stove is undersized for the application and you need a larger unit or a more efficient circulation or both. Have you considered having the stove on the main floor? That unit would easily heat the house from there. Add the basement in and it's a big ask to heat the whole deal. Particularly considering that basement is unfinished. I think your asking too much out of that unit. You'll need to put it on the main floor for best performance. 2500sqft is good size and at the top limits for that size stove and that's at ideal placement and flow. The basement (unfinished) is sapping the heat. If your stove has to be there, then you'll need to upgrade and probably insulate the basement too.

PS: when you got up to check at 12:30 did you shake down? I would have given it a little shake and helped that hopper along. I shook and fed both of mine at midnight last night. This morning they were ripping.

Pix of stove process this AM--there is no reason in the world why that stove should not heat that whole house. Personaly, I'd turm it towards the stairs but that's something you're going to have to play with. Plenty of red coals under that last pix.--Topped off with one hod as usual. Get the ash cleaned out on your left side & poke the coal to the rear next time you top off. According to your pix--that hopper is far from empty?? I still contend that you're just not getting the heat moved from the basement UP. Try a box fan blowing towards the stairwell. Set it about a foot from the front of the stove. Did you crack your ash door vents?

Your pic of the fire shows a ton of ash built up under the coal on the sides and front, guess you haven't poked it very well.

The pic of my fire is in the am, that is the problem I am having. After I shake there is no ash and no dead spots. It burns great and then in the am it looks like the pic full of ash and the hopper has barely moved. I just assume that the hopper should help push the ash down during the night and keep a steady temp. I might be asking to much from the stove but the dial does go to 15 and I am on 10.5 . It is burning good today but I am having a hell of a time getting the air to move. 78 in the basement 59 upstairs.

freetown fred wrote:Pix of stove process this AM--there is no reason in the world why that stove should not heat that whole house. Personaly, I'd turm it towards the stairs but that's something you're going to have to play with. Plenty of red coals under that last pix.--Topped off with one hod as usual. Get the ash cleaned out on your left side & poke the coal to the rear next time you top off. According to your pix--that hopper is far from empty?? I still contend that you're just not getting the heat moved from the basement UP. Try a box fan blowing towards the stairwell. Set it about a foot from the front of the stove. Did you crack your ash door vents?

I'm seriously considering turning the stove around and facing toward the stairs. The stairs are on the far end of the house tho. What sucks is if I use a fan on the vent above the stove it makes the stairwell a huge cold air return. So if I turn the stove facing the stairs it should make the vent above the stove a cold air return.It might work better but I don't know if I can get heat to the far end of the house that way.

The missing factor is also the great unknown. What is your chimney draft? Your stove may be 500 degrees and simply burning too fast. Install a MPD.

I have a baro and MPD in my Hitzer 50-93 setup. The baro does its job as we live on the windy side of a lake. I have the MPD closed when I get the stove settled down after shaking and filling.

In the coldest days as in teens I may blank off the baro with foil.