carlherrnstein wrote:I hate to sound too simplistic but, all stoves are a metal box some are cast some are fabed out of sheet, its up to the operator to figure out how to, and to, control it.
I also would have a raging fire if I filled my stove up with a lot of coal. What I did to correct this was to look at the air inlet to see how open it is. If it is open a lot I only add a small amount of coal till the stove heats up till the air shutter closes down then I fill it up.
If its open wide when you add coal it will start giving off its gases and they will burn hot, the more coal you add, the more coal gas burns and the hotter it gets till the bimetalic shutter starts fluttering and slowing the fire.
I burn a wide mix of coal about egg to 8" peices.
Merry Christmas
I disagree totally with this (but i still love you Carl

) , all stoves are NOT the same, the design, the grate, the drafting, the secondary drafting, the shape all play a huge roll in how it preforms with different fuel. Im not going to get into to much of the technicality of best Bit designs but will say that Larger Cylindrical with slight funnel shaped firebox is more ideal for the Bit burner!