Manual pipe dampers .. how, why, when

I just read this entire thread and I still dont know what to do

grumpy wrote:I just read this entire thread and I still dont know what to do

If you have an air tight coal stove you adjust the air inlet to control the heat. A barometric damper makes things a lot easier since it provides a constant draft so that the same inlet setting always gives the same air flow. So if you don't already have one get a barometric damper and buy or borrow a manometer to set draft with. You can get along fine without a manual damper. If you have a strong draft they can reduce the amount of air drawn in by the barometric damper, but they are not self adjusting like the barometric damper.

Well it is the horror stories I keep hearing like cherry red ,no baro, melted...ect.. thats what concerns me and my stove is old.. I'm working on a plan.

Burnt wood for 50 yrs.I picked up an old Hitzer 50-93 last yr.& rebuilt the whole thing.Put up a spanking new 6" double wall chimney--about 2' above the roof line.I'm used to a manual damper so I stuck with it.We heat a 200 yr old farm at the top of a hill--very windy--I think that my draft settings are more impt. then anything--except for shake down & filling the hopper I keep the damper about 2/3 closed--no problems & I've grown to really like & respect this heating system--common sense goes a long way---I have carbon monoxide alarms in stove room & at all stair wells----no problems.I think it's kinda like having a good wife--check out what makes her happy & go with it--cause if Momma ain't happy--nobody is

freetown fred wrote:common sense goes a long way---I have carbon monoxide alarms in stove room & at all stair wells----no problems.I think it's kinda like having a good wife--check out what makes her happy & go with it--cause if Momma ain't happy--nobody is

When she finds out you are wasting about a ton of coal a year because you have no baro damper you may have a problem.

What good is a Baro if your house don't leak air...

All houses leak air.. if not, when you turn on an exhaust fan in the bathroom, or kitchen stove vent or the clothes dryer, your ears would pop from the 'vacuum' in the house!

A coal stove needs a baro. Unless you have a really lousy chimney that barely makes .02-.03" of draft with cold weather and a wind.. then maybe not.. but I'd STILL install one..

Greg L

Oh goody, I can stir the pot further. My brother just got a new woodboiler(I know, I couldn't talk him out of it! ) and it came with a baro. I questioned this with the plumbing and heating buddy and he said many wood appliances come with baro's and insist you use them. Now, I have never seen one used in wood stoves and I have seen plenty of wood stoves. I first tried one last winter when I was burning a combination of wood and coal in an old boiler. I found the baro helped the wood tremendously as it does coal. In my case, the chimney was SS and came straight out of the top of the boiler and straight up and out of the roof. I was not concerned with creosote or chimney fires. The old boiler was so inefficeint it lost plenty of heat up the insulated chimney preventing much buildup. I also ran this unit with a manual damper and it worked better when BOTH were used in conjunction. SO, I advocate using both and a good dose of common sense when burning coal. Mainly, have good CO detectors in place.

Kevin

I have decided to install a baro for coal, I'll start with a tee and when the time comes for my first coal burn I'll put the baro in, With out a long story I don't know if I'll even get the chance this year. And I have a lot of wood for next year, but little for this year..or whats gonna be left of it..

Coaledsweat,I'm going through a 5 gal. pail in 24-30 hrs.This is a 200 yr. old farm house w/a 6" double wall straight from Hitzer 50-93 out the roof.NOW!!! if this 3 ton doesn't last till early April,yup--then I'm in trouble

coaledsweat wrote:

freetown fred wrote:common sense goes a long way---I have carbon monoxide alarms in stove room & at all stair wells----no problems.I think it's kinda like having a good wife--check out what makes her happy & go with it--cause if Momma ain't happy--nobody is

When she finds out you are wasting about a ton of coal a year because you have no baro damper you may have a problem.

I'm A newbie to coal also, but burned wood for about 20 yrs. Always had a MPD on the wood stove. Then I went to a pellet stove for the past 2 years, hated it, never heated good, always had trouble with jammed augers, and mech. problems just got rid of it and installed a Harman TLC 2000 hand fired stove. Because I pulled the pellet stove out in the morning , ran to the stove store and brought it home and put it in kinda quick, I never even thought about a damper, so it has nothing. I seem to be able to control it fairly well with just the slide air control on the ash pan. My house stays between 66 and 72, when it drops some I open the air a little and it goes back up to 70, its like 66 in the morning as I shut it down a little at night. Outside temps avg around 15 f at night and 25 to 30 f daytime. My stack temp is around 250 a foot up the pipe from stove and the stove stays around 400 avg. We have a lot of wind and this doesn't seem to affect it much at all. I burn about 30#s a day. Does anyone think I'll do better if I install a MPD or a Baro?

I spoke with some of the old shop guys out at Hitzer & they told me that they didn't use anything damper wise--the only reason I put my manual in was that we are on top of a hill & even w/ the wood stove I had back puffing on real windy days--w/ the hitzer I keep my manual closed about 1/4,it seems to keep more heat in the house--I've said this before the stoves like a good woman--find out what makes her happy & go w/ it--I have a Hitzer 50-93 hand fed & other then name,probably isn't much different then yours operation wise---Seeeeee ya-----just keep it safe!!!

Bigbird48 wrote:I'm A newbie to coal also, but burned wood for about 20 yrs. Always had a MPD on the wood stove. Then I went to a pellet stove for the past 2 years, hated it, never heated good, always had trouble with jammed augers, and mech. problems just got rid of it and installed a Harman TLC 2000 hand fired stove. Because I pulled the pellet stove out in the morning , ran to the stove store and brought it home and put it in kinda quick, I never even thought about a damper, so it has nothing. I seem to be able to control it fairly well with just the slide air control on the ash pan. My house stays between 66 and 72, when it drops some I open the air a little and it goes back up to 70, its like 66 in the morning as I shut it down a little at night. Outside temps avg around 15 f at night and 25 to 30 f daytime. My stack temp is around 250 a foot up the pipe from stove and the stove stays around 400 avg. We have a lot of wind and this doesn't seem to affect it much at all. I burn about 30#s a day. Does anyone think I'll do better if I install a MPD or a Baro?

been reading all these post just proves every stove and chimney set up is different haha no duh . well here is my humble ideas about mpd. ok here goes-- i noticed years ago that if you have a good fire burning and you decide to slow it down by closeing your mpd that if it is closed too much smoke will come out of the joints in the stove pipe between the mpd and the stove . and if mpd is closed all the way on a non airtight stove smoke may start escapeing from all its doors and leaky seams . so do i still use a mpd ..yes and here is why. once i have a good fire going i close my mpd a little at a time till my flames in the firebox or firepot stop leaning towards the stovepipe and lean more towards the top of my firebox . so i can get the most heat from fuel. BUT i never ever turn it anywhere near full closed because especially at night cause if flue gas builds up in your house its over friends. see alot of times a person as we all do tries to make a fire in a hand fired stove burn all night and there is nothing wrong with that .but to be safe i never fill my hand fired stove up to the max and try to choke it down with the damper orthe intake control then go to bed. i try to shoot for geting up at least one time in the night to see how shes acting and to place in a modest amount of coal to take in on into the morning . as has been stated here by others the outside temps or wind speed may change and effect draft one way or the other so it isnt a bad idea to check her once in the night. as far as baro dampers ive never had one and i dont know enough about them to comment. in closeing ill say to each his or her own just be careful...now ill shut up

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