Well, that was interesting.

Lemme know if anyone has had anything like this happen.

It was cold and windy last evening so I turned the stove up to 450*. This morning around 0630 I turned it up, I was a bit chilly; it was 71* in here. At 0715 I decided to shake the stove down and set it for the day. I was gonna wait till 0800 but since I've been up since 0300 I was bored. I shook the stove down, emptied what coal was left in the Hopper from the evening's charge and had blue ladies dancing with plenty of red in the bed. I started to get up off the floor to fill the coal Hodges and I notice all the blue ladies were gone. Then a second later...."WHOOSH!" A puff back. Scared the bejesus out of me because I was standing right next to it. I had an even red glow on the grates, though the front and rear grates still had ash on them; I can never seem to clear them, this Kimmel's coal this season is very ashy. I'm thinking it may have had something to do with that? My MPD was wide open and my draft was .08" at the time of the boom.

Now sinceiling I've fired up the stove in late October I've had two other puff backs. The last one was two nights ago when I shook The stove too much and covered The bed with fresh coal. But I honestly don't know what could have caused this one. It was weird.

The production of gasses exceeded the quantity of air available and needed to burn them, so they built up until enough air was available to go poof. Needs more over fire air. The strong draft probably was negated by the thermostat closing which probably coincided with the disappearance of the blue flames. I don't think it would have happened if the hopper had more coal in it to keep the stove cooler and the thermostat open longer.

That makes sense. I didn't even realize the bimetallic thermostat may have closed after I shook the stove down. I'm gonna have to pay more attention to that and maybe crack the loading door.

I know the extra ash doesn't help the situation any. I used to get at least 4x the amount of BOOM's on Kimmel's as I do with Blaschak (which produces 1/3 the ash).

IOF, Franco is right on . An other thing, when you refill the stove, you place the MPD full open but do you place the air control full open too?
Do you wait a few ""seconds"" after placing the MPD full open and before opening the magazine door to get the draft established?
Just questions.

Yeah I'm with Franco on this too.. I also have had the same thing happen. I modified my furnace so that combustion air has no choice but to go up thru the coal bed. I blocked every port that combustion air could bypass the coal bed. The result is WAY MORE heat in the house and less up the chimney. I bet its made my furnace go from 65-70% efficient to 80% or more efficient.. The side effect of blocking these ports? After loading fresh coal, I have to prop the load door open (just a crack - 8th of an inch all the way around the door) for about 30 minutes, until all volitiles are burned off. You might wonder how I found this out? The hard way, almost blew the flap outta the baro

I too had the blue ladies and nice glowing coal bed but I closed the load door too early, blue ladies ran off, combustable gases accumulated in the firebox and BOOM!

All good comments.
On my Vigll, I got the same air by-passing the coal bed. The air was by-passing from the horizontal front bars. So I removed all the front parts and replaced them with a 1/2" steel plate. Then all changed: as you said, the stove also got more efficient and much more cleaner to use, specially in a living room.
Later I drilled 2 holes in the front doors to get over the fire air and made flappers to get adjusment and control of the entering air.
But since more than 4 Yrs, I never had any boum, explosion of any kind,no puff back...

Just shook down the stove. I ran the stove around 500* - 550* today. I poked the front and rear grates and cleared a lot of ash. I then cracked the loading door a little bit. Shook the stove noticed the blue ladies dancing away. I shook a little more and the ladies disappeared again, so I opened the loading door a little more and they came back. I filled the Hopper and closed the loading door and MPD. Been about 10 minutes everything is all buttoned up and I still have blue ladies; but they are only one side of the bed, not across the entire bed. I have noticed this coal isn't burning the same as last seasons Kimmel's. Last season there was a lot of ash, but this season's Kimmel's is way more ashy; it doesn't burn the same this year as it did last.

Thanks for the pointers. I felt like I was doing really well and here I learned another thing.

Pierre,

No, I don't open the air all thee way before recharging. I let the bimetallic thermostat do all the work. I set it for the heat I want and I don't touch it again unless I'm making it warmer or colder.

I'm On Fire wrote:Just shook down the stove. I ran the stove around 500* - 550* today. I poked the front and rear grates and cleared a lot of ash. I then cracked the loading door a little bit. Shook the stove noticed the blue ladies dancing away. I shook a little more and the ladies disappeared again, so I opened the loading door a little more and they came back. I filled the Hopper and closed the loading door and MPD. Been about 10 minutes everything is all buttoned up and I still have blue ladies; but they are only one side of the bed, not across the entire bed. I have noticed this coal isn't burning the same as last seasons Kimmel's. Last season there was a lot of ash, but this season's Kimmel's is way more ashy; it doesn't burn the same this year as it did last.

Thanks for the pointers. I felt like I was doing really well and here I learned another thing.

Pierre,

No, I don't open the air all thee way before recharging. I let the bimetallic thermostat do all the work. I set it for the heat I want and I don't touch it again unless I'm making it warmer or colder.

Well, I don't know for your stove but on my V2, I place the bimetallic t. full open to have the best draft in the stove and evacuate the gasses out.

nortcan wrote:

I'm On Fire wrote:Just shook down the stove. I ran the stove around 500* - 550* today. I poked the front and rear grates and cleared a lot of ash. I then cracked the loading door a little bit. Shook the stove noticed the blue ladies dancing away. I shook a little more and the ladies disappeared again, so I opened the loading door a little more and they came back. I filled the Hopper and closed the loading door and MPD. Been about 10 minutes everything is all buttoned up and I still have blue ladies; but they are only one side of the bed, not across the entire bed. I have noticed this coal isn't burning the same as last seasons Kimmel's. Last season there was a lot of ash, but this season's Kimmel's is way more ashy; it doesn't burn the same this year as it did last.

Thanks for the pointers. I felt like I was doing really well and here I learned another thing.

Pierre,

No, I don't open the air all thee way before recharging. I let the bimetallic thermostat do all the work. I set it for the heat I want and I don't touch it again unless I'm making it warmer or colder.

Well, I don't know for your stove but on my V2, I place the bimetallic t. full open to have the best draft in the stove and evacuate the gasses out.

As soon as I start shaking the thermostat usually opens. It was wide open the night of the explosion. I've been cracking the loading door since this thread and it was suggested and I've not had any problems. The blue ladies start dancing as soon as I start shaking and they stay strong even after I'm done and I close it again.