New (used) Harman Mk1 installed, and fired up

A while back I was considering a small coal stove. I recently purchased a used Mk1. This little stove is great. I cleaned it up, vacuumed it out, installed the stove pipe, and now it is ready for winter. I disassembled the BAD45, and stored it away in the shed. It worked great, but did take up more space with the radiator, the radiator shelf, the piping and the location itself. I placed the MK1 on four bricks which I cemented in place.

The install went great to include the stove pipe. I went ahead and lit a fire in the MK 1 so I could experiment with the stove and see how it operates, responds to changes in the under fire air control, and which method would be best to start it with. I first used fatwood...but that was terrible and left all kinds of soot in the stove. The member who sold me the stove advised charcoal. I had a full bag of match light, so yesterday I started a fresh fire. First I covered the grates with a little ash, then some fresh pea coal. I then shoveled some charcoal from the bag, and placed it in the stove. I lit the charcoal, and waited for a while until the charcoal pretty much ashed over, and then threw a shovel full of coal in the center portion of the grates. I then waited for the coal to ignite, and I then fired some more coal to the left (waited again) and to the right. Within half an hour, the entire bed of coal was lit, and I proceeded to build up the fire. When the fire was built up, I closed the draft control until it was a hair open. The other fire, I had closed the draft control completely, and the fire died out. I then left the stove alone. About 13 hours later, I went to check on the fire. I thought it was going to be out, but to my surprise it was still burning. I shook down the ash, shoveled some fresh coal in the stove, and it is still running. I'm wondering if I should just leave it on until heating season is over. I'm glad I experimented with the stove now and am comfortable with it, instead of waiting for the freezing cold.

The quality of this stove is great. The design and construction is outstanding. The only issue I have is the ash pan is too small to catch all of the ash when the grates are shaken. That requires shoveling out the remaining ashes. It's not a big deal for me at all as I used to shovel out far more ash than the stove would generate in 4 lifetimes from larger hand fired boilers. I would definitely recommend this stove to anyone. I will be looking to purchase another Harman Mk 1 in the very near future.

Thanks Fred. I decided to let the fire die out because the temperatures are going to be rather mild....that was 8 hours ago , and it is still kicking. There should be nothing left by morning, so once everything is cool, I'll clean it out and get it ready for the next fire. I couldn't be happier, this stove rocks!!

Hey
Vamp,
Good deal on the mark I and glad you like it. Any tinsmith or a sheet metal shop will fab you up a proper ashpan to the dimensions you give them if that small one proves to be a PIA. I just did that for my Glenwood 116. The one in there was a bit to small also. the width was perfect and i liked the sloping sides but it needed to be about 4" longer and now it is!

Yea, that little MK1 kicks butt. I heat 2500ft/sq with it no problem in northern ct. Only went through about 1.5 tons last year, toasty warm.

Bootstrap wrote:Yea, that little MK1 kicks butt. I heat 2500ft/sq with it no problem in northern ct. Only went through about 1.5 tons last year, toasty warm.

Wow that's amazing! You probably have a really well insulated house I'd bet? My old 226yr old can really "breath" as they say up here. I have two CO detectors, one on each floor but they've never even beeped unless I was testing them.
That's a big space for that stove and nothing for coal usage relatively speaking. Was that heating the house by itself, No other help? We did have a mildish winter last but Northern Ct can get as cold as it does here on the Maine coast.

SteveZee wrote:Hey
Vamp,
Good deal on the mark I and glad you like it. Any tinsmith or a sheet metal shop will fab you up a proper ashpan to the dimensions you give them if that small one proves to be a PIA. I just did that for my Glenwood 116. The one in there was a bit to small also. the width was perfect and i liked the sloping sides but it needed to be about 4" longer and now it is!

I'll probably wind up making my own ash pan. I made a really nice end cap for the work bench out of some tin and an aluminum door sill plate on the front to cap it off. It came out great.

Yep go for it. I made one for my old Herald stove last year and it worked well because I could get the exact size that it needed to be. Once laid out and marked, I gave it too my BIL would had a brake and spot welder access and that was that.

SteveZee wrote:

Bootstrap wrote:Yea, that little MK1 kicks butt. I heat 2500ft/sq with it no problem in northern ct. Only went through about 1.5 tons last year, toasty warm.

Wow that's amazing! You probably have a really well insulated house I'd bet? My old 226yr old can really "breath" as they say up here. I have two CO detectors, one on each floor but they've never even beeped unless I was testing them.
That's a big space for that stove and nothing for coal usage relatively speaking. Was that heating the house by itself, No other help? We did have a mildish winter last but Northern Ct can get as cold as it does here on the Maine coast.

I suppose my house is insulated pretty well. I also had 8 people living in it. This winter, I'm single now with my kid so just two people. I expect higher coal consumption. Plus remember, last winter was hardly cold at all.

The Harman Mk series stoves are solid work horses. Should give you many years of good service. Two things to remember though. Lots of ash will build up on the top of the baffle. Be sure to clean this area at the end of the season. Not easy to get to. Second the shaker will rock the grates too far and you can easily dump lit coal. Short choppy motion is the way to go with this stove.

That is awesome. I am glad it is working out for you. I am new to the Harman family myself as I purchased a Harman SF-250 last year to replace my Russo stove. It worked really well. The winter was mild last year and I am looking forward to some cold snaps so I can see how this thing cranks. Harman sure makes a great product. I am sure you will have many years of warmth from it.

Vin.