Hitzer 75 Coal Stove.

EarthWindandFire wrote:I just bought a Sperry STK-3018T infrared digital thermometer. Nice toy, I think my wife likes it more than I do. The outdoor temperature is 51 degrees right now and the draft is reading 0.04 and the thermostat dial is set at # 8.

The stoves temp, reading taken from the top, is 232 degrees.

The stack temperature is 164 degrees.

As someone here suggested, I'll use the digital thermometer to calibrate the Hitzers bimetallic thermostat, just for an approximation of the correlation between the dial setting and the stoves surface temperature within 25-40 degrees give or take.

how much was it??? where did u get it???

I have to admit, I only paid 20 dollars for the infrared thermometer, got it from a woodburner who listed it on CL. Patience is the key, wait for the deals to come to you!

I'm a little puzzled by the stove today, the house hasn't been as warm over the last couple of days. The stove was loaded with fresh stove sized coal last night and it never warmed up during the night.

I got home at 4:45 after casting my vote for Mitt Romney and took my usual draft and temperature readings. The draft is a strong 0.05 and the side temps on the stove were 275 and the top averaged 375 degrees. The stack temp was 210 degrees right before the barometrc damper.

The stove is dialed up all the way to 15, the highest setting. I have been shaking it very aggressively, enough so that large red chunks fall into the ash pan. My initial speculation is that the flapper on the draft box isn't opening far enough which is restricting the combustion air supply. Maybe I should adjust the chain linkages so that the flapper opens up more?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

How far is the flapper open with the max dial setting?

Are you sure you have done a thorough job of clearing the ash from the firebox? My dad's Hitzer will almost melt the paint off the ceiling if the dial is maxed out.

Technically, the angle is 330 degrees, which should not be restricting airflow. So, the problem must lie elsewhere, maybe the operator or the coal. This weekend I will be buying only nut sized coal. The outside temp was 38 degrees at 5 o'clock and the first floor was 70 degrees, so its not cold in here, but today was my test on how hot I could get the stove and it still needs to improve before the real test comes in a few weeks - the inlaws are coming for Thanksgiving!!!!

330 degrees...are you serious? I don't have an angle finder on me.

Do you have a manual pipe damper on the stove? If so, open it up. If not, try covering the baro with tin foil.

Is the firebox FULL of coal?

Do you shake the ashes until you see buring embers drop?

LOL..I did the actual angle just for you, Rob!

It's a little more than halfway between closed and being perfectly horizontal. Do I really need a stronger draft than 0.05, I thought that was strong?

What about the exhaust size, I ended up using 6" inch pipe even though the stoves collar is a 7", so I used a reducer from the stove and then the exhaust enters the 8" inch chimney thimble.

Edit: The firebox was full of fresh stove sized coal up to the top of the firebrick that I put in last night. Also, I shake until rice coal sized red embers and larger start falling into the ash pan. I shook again just now and I kept shaking until the grates started jamming up.

Just keep it wide open till it gets ripping then turn it down some. If you have a good orange glow from above in the ash pan after shaking then your good to go. No orange glow shake till you have one. Then leave it open till you get some temp close to where you want it to be, then close down to maintain.

SteveZee wrote:Just keep it wide open till it gets ripping then turn it down some. If you have a good orange glow from above in the ash pan after shaking then your good to go. No orange glow shake till you have one. Then leave it open till you get some temp close to where you want it to be, then close down to maintain.

To insure a nice, even fire one must be able to see light coming down from the grates. No orange light means you still have ashes or unburned coal. Practice make perfect.

Fire was out by the time I got home tonight, just a fifty pound pile of ash and coal chunks. My wife and I had to manually remove the ash by hand and vacuum out the stove. We then started a wood fire and gradually got the nut coal burning.

I don't think my wife is amused and she is definitely less enthused about coal than she was last year. Looks like hand-fired stoves are banned from this house and only stokers will be allowed in the future.

Even though the Leisure Line Lil' Heater was too small, it was a piece of cake to operate and made my wife happy.

C'est la vie!

A stoker huh? Wait till you tackle that learning curve It's ashame you couldn't get the Hitzer up & runninng, she's a nice stove.

Either your draft is poor, the coal is poor, or you are doing something wrong. My dad has a bad shoulder and a bad heart and he runs a nearly identical stove with no drama.

Fred I already own a stoker, ran last year without ANY problems but it was too small.

I only have one flue, so I had to disconnect my oil furnace to run the coal stove. If I had an oil-furnace as a backup this wouldn't be an issue. I would gladly pay for a tank of oil when the coal stove failed last night during a snow storm!!

So you gonna hook the smaller stoker back up, or track down another? Yep, I was watching on Accu-weather & figured you were gettin a good dose

The only difference that I can see between the 75 & the 85(I believe) is the newer one has an additional row of horizontal brick above the vertical ones making the fire pot 4 in. deeper, I have a 75 with a hot air jacket & blower in my garage, I don't get all the radiant heat but plenty of warm air blown out. Don't know if a deeper bed of coal would help or not, I only tried coal once & decided that wood would better suit me since I don't spend much time out there in the winter. It's just nice to have a place to get a warm on every once in awhile, if I ever get the $ to insulate then it might heat better but for now it's just too big of an open area.