New member intro and a few questions.

You're burning anthracite coal and that is fine. I don't know how big your house is but you probably don't want to run the damper that closed. I would try opening it a little and , using a straight poker, poke the fire from the top down. Don't stir the coals, just a straight downward poke to eliminate bridging that can occur with this type of stove. Next give it a good shaking and watch for red coals dropping into the ashpan. At that point stop shaking, let the stove recover a little.Now with a 90 deree 1/4 inch poker, "slice up through the grate through the ashpit door and , paying particulat attention to the corners, wiggle it and make sure the corners ar clear of dead ash. These feed the hollow flue block you will see in the 4 corners of the firebox. Do all this with the damper full open. Now , when the fire is going well, fill it up with coal. You should soon have a nice blueish flame coming from the 4 hollow corner flues in the firebox. At that point adjust your damper to 1/2 closed and just a little draft at the bottom. You should get good heat at that setting. If it is too little or too much adjust the bottom draft and damper setting accordingly. I use one of these stoves every day and, though they are real plain, a great heater. I use nut coal anthracite but they will burn bituminous ( soft coal ) or wood. My burn times run 48 hours with my 523 which hold 100 lbs of coal. Depends on how big an area you are heating and how hard you are running the stove. Your stove which is the same as mine though a little smaller should run 24 hours no problem. Just brush-up on your reloading skills in regard to the ashs in the bottom of the fire and you should have no more problems.

Ok... So I think I defiantly have an ash build up problem. Since joining and making this thread yesterday morning, I've been paying very close attention to what Ive been doing and whats been happening with the stove. Ive noticed the past few times I have shaken the ash down and out, The tell tale "little glowing coals" that fall as to tell me when to stop only seem to be dropping from the left side of the stove.

I'm going to make up some sort of poker today at work to try to loosen up what may be clogged on the right side.

Edit update:

Just as an experiment, I opened the ash door all the way and damper all the way and let it sit for about 10 minutes. This it what I ended up with.









It seems the right side of the stove isn't doing anything.

Good morning goddess... firstly, welcome to the board. Still hunting for a goddess after all these years? Trust me it's time to start looking for a Polish washer woman- they scrub floors on their knees still. Much more practical and much less expensive.