Oh, so THAT'S a puff back

Practiced my new found chore of poking under the grates for the first time tonight. Had the ash door open probably 5 or 6 minutes, got a whole lot of ash down that had been resisting the shaker grate and when I was done the coals above the grate were lighting the ash pan up like a the sun on a warm summer's day.

Got up off the floor, shut the ash door, put the poker away and decided to have one last look at the bed of coals...

Good thing I shave my head, my beard is still intact as are my eyebrows although I'm not sure how. Man that was one impressive fireball hiding out in my stove, it decided to come out and say HI as soon as I opened the door. No ash, no smoke, just the fireball. Apparently my heart is in pretty good shape as are my reflexes LOL.

Lesson learned, expect the unexpected and stand away from the door when opening it

I think I'm starting to power through the learning curve. Well plaid stove, well plaid.

Always give the volatiles some time to burn off before openinng loading door--more impt. is the stove OK?? Ya usually don't get away with a second time on that one

I just have to bump this..


Edit to add, IS the stove Ok...??

Yup stove is fine, everything came out of the door so no damage to the stove or flue... I won't be doing THAT again LOL. I think that I need to replace the gasket on my door though, not because of tonight but I grabbed 5/8 inch rope instead of half inch so the door closes and seals but I don't like the fact that the handle doesn't turn down all of the way now.

Man what a rush

Puffback with anthracite not so bad. Puffball with bituminous .... It'll make your house smell like crap for hours.

I've still never had a puffback with ant but with bit it just loves to stink my house up!

To lessen the chance of loosing your eyebrows only put a small amount of fresh coal on while you have the ash door open. By the time you are through poking it will be alight. Now put in a heavier load of fresh coal and set the air to a moderate setting, not full open. Give it some over fire air if the stove has the means. In 10 minutes or so you should have healthy blue flames, so close down the air more to what you desire till the next tending and leave a small amount of over fire air. Check that you are still getting blue flames.

So why did it puff when you opened the door and not with the door closed? With the door closed and the ash door open the air and gasses were racing through the stove and failing to reach the right proportions of velocity and air and heat to puff, though it can happen with the door closed too.

When you opened the door two things happened. A lot of low velocity air entered the door and sharply reduced air was being pulled through the coal bed. Everything slows down and the right proportions of heat and gas and air are achieved and boom. It's not that it suddenly got air from the open door but that it actually got less air through the coal bed and could ignite. If you blow softly on a candle flame it will stay lit, but if you blow too hard you separate the gaseous fuel from the point of ignition and it goes out. Always better to load in a few smaller batches to avoid extremes of gas buildup. Let new coal ignite more slowly so it has time to burn those gasses instead of wasting that potential heat up the chimney.

I keep my load door cracked open a hair after refueling. It seems to keep the gases diluted while the fresh coal is baking before it ignites to the cool blues.. Never have a flash with this method. It seems to make a difference with coal too. The white ash I burned last year seemed to flash quite often (after fresh was loaded) but this red ash I'm burning now, has never flashed. The nature in the beast

If your stove has an air vent in the loading door, leaving it slightly open will help. It was critical on my old Hitzer, if you didn't leave that spinner on the door open a turn or two, it would boom/bang and shoot flames up the stovepipe. One time I was outside when it happened and saw a mushroom cloud of flyash come out the chimney.

Lightning wrote:I keep my load door cracked open a hair after refueling. It seems to keep the gases diluted while the fresh coal is baking before it ignites to the cool blues.. Never have a flash with this method. It seems to make a difference with coal too. The white ash I burned last year seemed to flash quite often (after fresh was loaded) but this red ash I'm burning now, has never flashed. The nature in the beast

This is what I do as well. Its certainly cut down on my 'splosions quite a lot. I do have the anti-explosion louvers for my stove but haven't put them in yet. Mainly due to time constraints and I don't want to shut the stove down again.

Wow! Did you have MPD open and air over the firepot? That plus adding the full new load to a hot coal bed (I don't bother to layer) gives the blue flame in short order and then you know you are burning off the nasties and can shut the MPD. I guess I have never been concerned about a puff back in the No. 6. but each stove is different.

mudnut wrote:Man that was one impressive fireball hiding out in my stove, it decided to come out and say HI as soon as I opened the door. No ash, no smoke, just the fireball.

Always crack the door first and wait a few seconds before opening.And yes ,it certinly catches your attention and reflexes quick

freetown fred wrote:Always give the volatiles some time to burn off before openinng loading door--more impt. is the stove OK?? Ya usually don't get away with a second time on that one

Fred, didn't you mean let the volatiles burn off before locking down the load door? Ya know to keep a nice flow of fresh oxygen over the fire while volatiles are baking off? I leave my load door cracked open for about 30 minutes after a fresh re fuel for this purpose. Keeps the big flashes away while waiting for the cool blues to come out and play

I've had a few minor puff-backs in my Coal Gun since i began oiling my coal. I'm discontinuing the practice. It's adding nothing more than 100% volatiles to an otherwise very low volatile form of coal.

Larry, I tried oiling my coal last year with used motor oil. My basement smelled like a mechanic's shop. Then when I loaded fresh coal, the oil would go vapor and flash, leaving my basement smelling like I burnt down a mechanic's work shop no more oiling coal for me

i got to the point i could make a small one happen...just for effect...kinda like a tactical nuke....

i would leave a corner of glowing coal exposed when reloading and would fill it up except for that corner. i would leave the ash door open for a few minutes and the firebox door closed. when i could see the flames ripping up in that exposed corner i would open the firebox door quickly and close it quickly, the blue fireball would flash & roll across the freshly loaded coal bed. sometimes it was a bigger whoooosh than other times.

i would close the ash door when the blue flames remained on the fresh coal bed after closing the firebox door. after about 1/2 hour i would fill in the exposed corner if the blue flames were well established.