FIRST MATCH 2012 -2013

I ran my boiler all summer, but I let it burn out and cleaned it and then I immediately re-fired it on Sept. 29th, so I guess I can say that my first (and hopefully only) match of 2012/2013 was lit on September 29, 2012.

Last year I was a member of the two match club. Shooting for one match this year.

Started my Alaska Kodiak last Saturday---28 degrees at night, now it's 60 and windowstats are doing their job quite well! I always use charcoal instead of wood to start, and this year because we bought a chiminea for outside, I have an excess of fire starters. I put a couple of pieces of fire starters under the charcoal, and lit them. A welcome byproduct of the fire starters was that since they kept an active flame, soot never accumulated on the window glass.

It just keeps getting better!!!

It just got too warm outside yesterday, the temps were over 70 degrees and the fire went out by itself. Not a bid deal, I fired it up two weeks ago to check out the stove and never really needed the heat, I was just wasting coal. The stove is still full with about 80lbs of coal, not quite sure if I should clean out the stove and start fresh or try relighting the coal bed using a cup of diesel fuel?

Nope, don't do the diesel. The only way to restart it with that much coal in the stove is with a torch (if you have one) from below. You need something that gets 900 degrees or better to ignite that initially. Other than something from below you'll probably have to start fresh.

My Glenwood 116 has been on a week friday now and we've had some warm days lately too but this thing will idle really well on stove/nut coal mix. It's right at 200 right now with the once primary closed and the other just the tiniest hair open. I find that as long as I shake it once or twice a day a day, it can hold 200 24/7.

No, please, don't try the diesel.

I seen this somewhere before???..."slow and steady wins the race!" ...it applies in this case too!

I just cleaned the stove out, not much unburned coal left except for the very top layer near the back. Most of it was ash and not a big loss, the Hitzer is now ready for an October 28th restart because the next day, the high for Connecticut is forecasted to be 46 degrees.

EarthWindandFire wrote:I just cleaned the stove out, not much unburned coal left except for the very top layer near the back. Most of it was ash and not a big loss, the Hitzer is now ready for an October 28th restart because the next day, the high for Connecticut is forecasted to be 46 degrees.

Excellent!

By cleaning it out were you able to locate any areas that the ash liked to sit that wasn't able to be shaken down ?

Keith,

I was amazed at how much ash was in the stove. Every shovel full of coal I brought out was fine ash or burnt chunks. I did get cheap and set aside any good pieces of coal in a bucket because I had just loaded the stove with fresh coal before it got too warm yesterday. I ended up removing nearly ten gallons of ashes and about 5 gallons of good unburnt coal.

Had my 50-93 started up twice and let it burn out cause it got so warm in here,got family coming in from out west so I might have to fire it up tonight for the Cold blooded westerners!

Only way is to empty and start fresh. I tried years ago to revive a full stove, pee'd in the wind and finally emptied it anyway.

I am SO LUCKY. It can be 75 out and my stove idles so low yet stays lit. I have only a 13 foot total chimney, but I believe my roof configuration blows upward enough to keep a draft. I seriously only have the inlet air shutter open 1/8" or less. I think it would run on just the leaking air if it was closed.

Cheap heat for now and all season.

I lit the stove on the 12th. This is my third year. I was able to use one match last year and I wanted to try again this year. So far so good! The stove won't idle less then about 250*, which it looks like it will have to do most of this week. It lights real easy but it's more fun to try to keep it lit. The house is holding steady at about 77* and the windows are open during the day. I anticipated that coal may be hard to get later so I have 4 tons in the basement. I used just over two tons last year.

Let mine die as well. Took about three days to go out. I'm going to relight around November.

When I have a firebox full of coal & no fire, I just dig a hole in the center, fill it with charcoal, soak it in diesel, fire it up and off she goes. Takes a bit longer to catch than covering the entire grate surface, but still gets the job done without cleaning everything out -- I hate doing that.

First light with a reduced fire box. Added 8 bricks on the left right and front. No cement, simply sitting on the grates. Let's see how the spousal unit enjoys the heat.