1990s hand fired wont get to temp!! help

I just raked it from the top, left ash door cracked and topped it off with coal for the night. I will let it shut down tommorow and check pipes.
PS- Sucks not having a window for viewing!

Sounds like a plan

I suspect that air is bypassing the coal bed. Inspect carefully around the bricks for any openings that will allow air to rise outside of the grates.

I'd love to see a couple pix of the inside --ash area & feed area--plus hearing how she did last night--you should have a line of red embers the entire width of the ash pan. A narrow line but covering the entire width of ash pan. Having poked/raked from top plus cleaning black pipe should do her.

Found problem! This morning I shut it down, eptied it out,clean,inspeect, all OK. Took stove pipe apart- problem found!
Were block chimney ends and turns into 90 going into basement and stove pipe starts it was all loaded up from creosote from burning wood for past 30 days with damper 3/4 shut. The last time I burned wood prior to switching to coal (last week) I burned a creosote burning log, I believe that all the creosote fell down chimney and cloged the inlet of chimney pipe connection. When I inspected chimney from top it looked clean and spotless, all debri was down at bottom!
Loaded it up at 10am and it has burning great as of 8pm without touching it, 78deg in basement and 72-74 threwout house in less than 6hrs!! What a relief!! I have noticed I need to keep MPD open, if I close it off 3/4 it starts to dwindle down. THX for all your help forum followers!!
PS- I will post a pick soon
PS- After shaking down, what is better- digging iron under coal bed area to relieve dust formation or from top? Seems to work well underneath.

Those creosote burning logs are nearly worthless...I know someone that did a controlled study to see how much of a difference they made. I forgot the exact number, but it was less than 1% difference...save your money.

Now burning anthracite is a different story, an overnight coal fire will do more for the chimney than one of those logs. I have experienced the same thing you just described. My chimney had servied a wood boiler for 30+ years. After a few months of burning anthracite I opened the chimney cleanout door and was shocked at the amount of dried creosote that had piled up. Over the course of 1.5 years I removed almost 15 gallons of crunchy creosote from the chimney. This past summer and I had the chimney swept, and got about 1/3rd of a pail of powdery (stinky) creosote.

Keep an eye on the chimney and stove pipe through the winter...you probably aren't done with the creosote.

PS- After shaking down, what is better- digging iron under coal bed area to relieve dust formation or from top? Seems to work well underneath.[/quote]
Just realize with the front door openin and knifing the fire the draft created by the door being opened helps carry ash into the passageways leavong the fire box. My old Buderus had an inspection door in the hopper that allowed one to look into the passageway exiting the stove. Also I always closed the bimetal draft control prior to shaking the stove and then reset it after shaking.

NICE rr

Fixed coal stove pic

Oh yeah, that's what were talkin about Post in the AM & let us know how the all night burn went.--12 hr tending, Yes???

That was after reloading it after a 10hr burn (8pm). It will burn another 10 hrs till I reload it before going to work at 6 am. Then it should burn a good 12-14hr before I reload it tommorow night. Or atleast that is my wishes LOL

Sounds & looks like your wishes have become a reality. OUTSTANDING

Burned good last night, about (10hrs) with good heat. I reloaded it this morning at 6am and did not touch it till 6pm when I got gome (12hrs). House upstairs did cool down from 72 to 66 when I got home today. Had plenty of red coals left but wasent really putting out alot of heat. So this evening I opened intake 2 more turns and I am going to see how that works for time and heat output over night and during longer day burn. Happy so far, now just fine tuning to get more heat output over long burn times to heat my ranch house from basement.

I forgot to ask. I have been shaking till I see red coals drop and then poke from bottom in dark areas till I see red.Is that ok? Should I be stirring from top? I thought it was better to not stick a poker in hot coals? I have noticed that when I shake it, only about 1/2 of grate is red, I have to poke surrounding area free of ashes to get red coals. Is that normal?

rr, each stove is a different personality--ya gotta play till you get the combination--DO NOT STIR coals I have a poker w/ a 90* om the end and just drag it along the outside (side) edges maybe once a week--other then that 6 to 8 short quick shakes does well on my Hitzer You should have a line of red embers in the ash pan all the way across or close to it.