First days with new DS1600 stove!

Finished installing stove Thursday evening and had it up to temp by 9pm. Very impressed so far with heat output at low setting and coal consumption after 48hrs of burn time. With temps in the high 40s during day and low 30s at night, house was an even 74-76deg. with basement 1 maybe 2 deg higher at the most. Stove was running at about 350-400, so I nocked it down to 200-225 for over night and will see results in morning. I have been shaking it every 12hrs, 3-4 seconds is all it takes,nice glow. Not cold out so its hard to tell, but very happy sofar!
I only have 1 cold air return (runs all the way to 6in from floor in basement) at one end corner of ranch and leave stairway door open at other end. I can feel heat coming off hardwood floor in bedrooms!
I am surprised at just how much draft I have with warm temps, I have damper closed all the way and was seeing nice flames. I am thinking of getting manometer installed, anybody no what i would want for a draft setting? Owners manual says I need a chimney of at least .06 draw, but no reccomendations? It does use a bie metal intake door for control.

It is good to have a manometer to know what your draft is. I will say this though do not worry to much what your draft is. They put that number in the book for lawyer reasons. you need a strong draft.

I never close my damper fully, keep it closed at a 45 degree angle, if it is going to be above 50 degrees outside I leave it open, no problem if I leave it closed cause I have, just when its warmer out like a little heat going up the stack Thats just me though. if you really need to crank the stove you will need to open up the mpd a little anyway cause the gasses need to get out for fresh air to come in.


Eric

Sounds like it's working out well so far RR. When the temps get colder you'll have a better idea though in particular the circulation in the house. As far as the draft goes, you could get the mono but I wouldn't bother unless you were going to use it to set a baro damper. You'll find that as temps go down, the chimney will pull harder. This works like an automatic thermostat on my Glenwoods if I leave the setting the same.

Starting with new chimney pipe and new stove its hard to judge, but it seems to draft very well. We have had warm temps past few days, high 40s daytime with lows of mid 30s at night. I have had manual dampner almost closed at roughly 85deg. when I was running stove at 450deg temp and still closed for the past 2 days running stove at 220-250deg temp. Coals seem to be burning well, I would have thought I would need more draft, but why open it more? loose more heat and I think it helps keep a lower stove temp and less wcwoal burn? Am I wrong or unsafe?
What is a good/safe low burn stove temp? 200?

Yep 200 is about as low as I go with mine. I've had it a little lower but it makes me nervous that I'm gonna lose the fire.

I have my stove on "Lo" on the t-stat, and the chain is on the 6th ball from the end. I usually run 275-300*.

How are you guys measuring your temps? A magnetic, bimetal thermometer, or an infrared? Where on the stove do you take your readings? I check mine about in the middle, between the hopper door and the hinge for the top cover.

As far as the draft goes, my chimney has an incredible draft, and I run the damper wide open. My stack temps stay very reasonable as well. I am running double wall pipe, and it is usually 110-120*.

ridgeracing wrote:...I can feel heat coming off hardwood floor in bedrooms!

Nothing like walking on a nice toasty floor when you wake up in the morning!

I measure mine with both a magnetic up under the top skirt on the barrel and I also have an infrared that confirms the readings. This is about as far from the firepot as one can get so it represents the overall stove pretty well. On the kitchen range, I just use the gauge on the oven door.
For you guys (with DS) I'm not sure where the best spot is without seeing one but I'm sure the others can suggest the best spots.

This my third yr. burning coal, I measure my stove first by walking near it. That tells me alot, and then putting my hand close to the pipe about a foot above the stove, this tells me even more. If I need more info I hit it with the infrared and see how it's doing. I get 3 or 4 readings around the loading door and on the pipe above the baro. The magnetic was faulty in regards to accuracy because of the air jacket and also it would stick at high temps and the temp. gun is wicked cool!

I read mine from the top just behind the hopper door. I also take a reading at the stove outlet then another one as it goes into the chimney. I have magnetic thermometers at all three spots but only use them as a rough guesstimate. If I want an accurate reading I use the laser at the same spots. Its usually 50-80° less than the magnetic gauges.

I believe I have stove set up to my house configuration. Chain is also adjusted to 6th ball showing. Last night I had it on lowest dial (1) and had a stove temp of 200-225. Woke up to a warm house but it did drop to 68-69 threw out house. This was after a 36hr non-shaking and not adding coal. Just wanted to test it to see how well it lasted, very good with plenty of red coals, I did have to shake it longer than usual (8-10sec.) to get red coals to start dropping. I rurned dial to #2 setting and I get a stove temp of about 250deg. with a chimney temp of 170deg (damper 90%closed). Wife likes house warmer House is now 70-71

yep sounds like its dialed in pretty well.

ridgeracing wrote:Owners manual says I need a chimney of at least .06 draw

For my DSM 1300 I have the slider on my baro set to .04, but I don't have a manometer, so I don't know how accurate that is. However, the stove temperature falls off by 50 to 100 degrees after 7 or 8 hours, as ash builds up. A higher draft might make the fall-off less -- I will be trying it when we get some more stable weather.

ridgeracing wrote:What is a good/safe low burn stove temp? 200?

I have run as low as 150 with no problems. Nothing but black coal visible, no red except way underneath. As long as the stack temperature above the baro stays above 90 degrees it has been fine. To tell the truth, I have been unable to turn the thermostat dial down far enough to kill the fire. Even with the inlet door totally closed, the stove leaked enough air to stay burning.

I'm On Fire wrote:I read mine from the top just behind the hopper door ... If I want an accurate reading I use the laser at the same spots. Its usually 50-80° less than the magnetic gauges.

I measure mine at the same place, based on previous advice from IOF. (And my wife says I never listen to anybody!) My infrared heat gun generally tracks very close to the magnetic thermometer, within about 10 degrees. However, some places on the stove are MUCH hotter than this spot. Both back and front, right above the firebricks, can be 200 to 300 degrees higher, also just below the flue outlet.

I have made one minor adjustment to my 1300: I blocked 3 of the 9 secondary air holes just below the load door, because I felt like there was too much air coming in. I don't know how really to measure that -- here's a question for our mechanic, Eric: can I put an auto-style oxygen sensor in the stove pipe to gauge whether there is too much combustion air, or not enough? Or is there stuff in the flue gases that would kill the sensor? Don't laugh, I'm serious.

rberq wrote:
I have made one minor adjustment to my 1300: I blocked 3 of the 9 secondary air holes just below the load door, because I felt like there was too much air coming in. I don't know how really to measure that -- here's a question for our mechanic, Eric: can I put an auto-style oxygen sensor in the stove pipe to gauge whether there is too much combustion air, or not enough? Or is there stuff in the flue gases that would kill the sensor? Don't laugh, I'm serious.

I was curious, the drilled secondary holes, are they just bringing fresh air from ash pit to flow above fire?

rberq wrote:Can I put an auto-style oxygen sensor in the stove pipe to gauge whether there is too much combustion air, or not enough? Or is there stuff in the flue gases that would kill the sensor? Don't laugh, I'm serious.

Not sure if the coal exhaust would damage the sensor or not, but in this situation, you would need to use a heated O2 sensor. The stack temperature of most coal stoves is well below the 600* F temperature needed for proper functioning of a regular O2 sensor.

Sounds like an interesting project!

ridgeracing wrote:I was curious, the drilled secondary holes, are they just bringing fresh air from ash pit to flow above fire?

There is a small tube on each side of the stove that feeds the secondary air holes. If you shine a flashlight in against the mesh sides, you can see the air intake holes, just below the level of the door.