First fire in my new DS Machine Circulator!!

I got my new DS 1500 Circulator plumbed in yesterday, just in time for our first frost!

I have been working on this plumbing for about the past 3 weeks. Due to clearances, I wanted to use double wall pipe, as I did with the dutchwest. I had some old Duravent that was in good shape, but faded, and had to buy a few new pieces. It took a few return trips to the stove store to get all the right sections of pipe. The hardest part was getting the duravent masonry adapter to fit into the crock. The crock was slightly out of round, and it took a crazy amount of work, using my die grinder and abrasive stones to get it to fit.

Here's the pipe, mocked up :



Here is the Duravent MPD I added to the stove :




So, yesterday, I pulled the pipe back apart, and repainted the old sections :



I didn't have any coal, so while the paint dried on my stove pipe, I ran 2 miles up the road to Kuntz coal yard with my Prius and trailer, and got 500 lbs of nut. It's convenient but expensive. $232 a ton! -



I started it up in the daytime, with the bilco door open to let the "curing" smoke off of it. I started it with some charcoal. It took a couple of hours to get the coal fire fully established to the point that I could fill the hopper. It took alot more coal than I was used to for the initial fire, but it certainly doesn't use very much once it's up and running! I have the stove's bimetal t-stat set at 2, it seems that it's practically idling and putting out more heat than my old stove would!

Here's a shot while warming up:



And a picture where you can really see the glow of the coal :



Right now, it's 46 degrees outside, and it's 77 here at my computer desk! After running all day, the stove only took 1/2 of my coal hod. I'm very impressed with how little coal it has used! I'm looking forward to cranking this baby up when it gets really cold out!

Lookin real good LD

That's an install (and a stove) to be proud of! Beautiful!!!

That's the first time I've ever seen an MPD added directly to the body of a stove instead of placed into the flue pipe.

Those DS stoves sure look impressive, very solid build and it just looks like it would produce massive amounts of heat.

If it were not for my love of the older No 6 I could definitely get into one of those, I need to keep myself from seeing one in person as its rolling along.

Looks real nice LD and the brick work looks great too.

What engine block in the background ?

Great job and wonderful looking stove.

That is one nice stove!! Reminds me of mine. I had mine down to 219º (that's #2 on my dial) today and it was 77.6º in here today.

That Duravent pipe sure looks nice. I've been using single wall. What's the main difference in using the Duravent? Does it hold the heat better for better drafting? I've never looked into it. Your install is extremely nice. You'll definitely be happy with that stove.

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Now, to address some of the comments..

lsayre wrote:That's the first time I've ever seen an MPD added directly to the body of a stove instead of placed into the flue pipe.

I can't say I've seen it done this way, either, but it was the only option I had with the duravent. The MPD pipe section has the standard duravent fitting on one end, and the crimped section on the other, to fit into the stove. I think that MPD section was designed primarily with top-venting appliances in mind.

echos67 wrote:What engine block in the background ?

It's a 1976 Buick 455 block. Bored .030" over. And it's for sale!

I'm On Fire wrote:That is one nice stove!! Reminds me of mine. I had mine down to 219º (that's #2 on my dial) today.....

Where do you take the temp reading on your stove? I was using my handheld infrared thermometer and the temp of the stove varies quite a bit. Right now, with my dial on #2, I checked the top of the stove, about 2-3" behind the loading door, and it's reading 385º Also, how many balls from the bottom are you on the chain?

I'm On Fire wrote:That Duravent pipe sure looks nice. I've been using single wall. What's the main difference in using the Duravent? Does it hold the heat better for better drafting? I've never looked into it.

I wanted the duravent because of my clearance to combustibles. If I had used single wall pipe, I would have needed to cover the exposed wood. The house is constructed with southern yellow heart pine, which has a very nice patina on it, and I didn't want to have to cover it all up with fireproof wallboard.

The duravent inner layer is stainless, and the outer layer is galvanized and painted. The older sections were purchased in 1988, but were first used with coal last year. I didn't pull the pipe off in the spring to clean it, and when I took the pipe off in August of this year, the stainless inner liner still looked great. It's a good bit thicker than the flexible stainless pipe that coal is notorious for making pinholes in!

I'm sure it helps with the draft, but I don't need that in my situation. My 32' tall chimney goes up thru the middle of the house, and it drafts like crazy. It pulls a strong draft even in the middle of the summer.

Congrats on getting it up and running. Looks good!

echos67 wrote:What engine block in the background ?

It's a 1976 Buick 455 block. Bored .030" over. And it's for sale!

Good luck with the sale, now if you have a 4" stroke Callie's for a 6.0 LS Engine I would be interested !

LDposse,

I take my reading on the top just behind the hopper door. Seems to be fairly accurate. It reads about 250º but when I hit he stove with the laser near there it reads around 243º.