Glacier Bay- Is It Me or the Stove?

I have been burning wood for 12 years ,( I got the hang of it ), but I'm tried of cutting, splitting, bugs, mice, ect.., with wood. So two years ago I bought this stove, a Glacier Bay and two ton stove coal. Last year wasn't too cold in WNY, so I burned wood and tried to learn coal as I went. Now I'm out of wood and struggling. I can get a coal fire going, but it will slowly die and jam up the shakers, or burn like a blast furnace at the steel mill. In the later case, I could slowly tame it, but in the morning after a shake, get cold spots, then the slow death. I have done loads of research, and still have questions. Most coal stoves I see have a V shaped firebox and a single shaker. If your not familiar with The Glacier Bay, the firebox is square and flat and has 5 shakers. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but it's driving me back to wood. The questions I have are 1, Is this just a bad stove? Should I dump it and get a Harmen, Hitzer, or a coal only stove? Question 2, I have read that I am to fill it up to the top of the fire brick, that would be 9 or 10 inches of coal. Two 40lb bags fill it up to that level. Is that correct? That seems alot to me. And if I do fill it up, and I get blast furnce, what do I do? Qestion 3, is . Is there a way to save a dieing fire? Like I said, in the morning I will have a hot spot in the middle of the fire box. I shake and the side shakers jam up, empty ash drawer, leave the bottom door open to air it up, but its a slow death, with jammed up shakers. I pushed the glowing coals out to the edges to try to get them going, but it makes it worse. I know I shouldn't have to wait till it dies, clean it out,( Hot rocks burn fingers ) and start over. Then sifting ashes for unburned coal. Thanks for any help.

welcome,and I hope I can answer your question,if not someone will.
1st. forget everything you know about burning wood
Q#1-I'm sure the stove is probally good,you/us need to get it burning properly
Q#2-yes,fill it to the top of the bricks,it's not like wood it will burn slower and keep the heat in the stove and not up the chimney
Q#3-I believe your dieing fire is from not shaking/clearing all the ash out

now then,try nut size coal it will burn slower and more even and not like a blast furnace
to slow down a blasting coal fire you need to close the primary air/below air and control it that way
the jambing of the grates maybe your shaking too soon(let the coal burn to ash) or shaking too much and unburnt coal is jambing the grates
to revive a dying fire you must have a clear air passages thru the coal bed by shaking/poking and never stir the hot coals or move them around
the hot spot in the morning is where the coal bed is free from ash,where you see the darker spots is where the fire is ash bound and needs to be cleared
this is all part of the learning curve and by the end of the season you will be warm and happy.
hope this helps and others will be helping also

Thanks for your quick reply. I know, I'm conditioned for wood, and that's part of it. I have a flue damper for wood burning, and it takes all my will power to leave it open. . And bottom air is a strange consept for me. I am trying something tonight. I put fire bick flat on both sides of the firebox, so only the center shkers are exposed. Its already fired up, so I'm going to ride this experiment out, and see what happens in the morn. I will try the right way( by the book) if/ when this fails. How do you know when to shake? and how much? I would shake untill some glowers drop down then stop. After that, if you keep shakeing, I learned it jams up. Should I poke the cold spots to free them up and hpoe it spreads sideways?

kjun coal wrote:How do you know when to shake? and how much? I would shake untill some glowers drop down then stop. After that, if you keep shakeing, I learned it jams up. Should I poke the cold spots to free them up and hpoe it spreads sideways?

usually 12 hrs is good.shake untill you see some glowing coals drop,look and see where they land in the ash pan then look up under the grates and look for darker spots and poke/slice from underneath to clear the ash.You will need to make a thin poker that will fits thru the grates to help clear the ash

kjun coal wrote:Most coal stoves I see have a V shaped firebox and a single shaker

that's describing a wood stove your stove is set up for burning coal with square sides

Can you post pic's of the stove, is it an insert or free standing stove? Do you have a manometer? You mentioned a damper for burning wood, is it an mpd ( manual pipe damper ) or a sliding baffle? The reason all the questions is the fact that I burn stove coal and I'm having excellent results do in part to the questions and input from all these coal burning whacko's that are reading what we are talking about.

That's a big fire box. What I think is happening is that you have the air too open trying to ignite all that coal and when it finally ignites it is too hot.

Try gradually loading the coal in layers and when a few layers are going good cut down on the air quite a bit as you load another layer. The idea is not to have the whole mass burning at once. With a good base and fresh unburned on top the air should be almost closed. Just enough to keep blue flames. It should take hours for the top coal to be fully ignited. By that time the bottom layer is turning to ash. Think of the fire as burning at the bottom and slowly working its way up to the coal on top. Remember it responds slowly.

The fire box is big to take wood. Coal will burn best in a more compact fire box. If you can close it down by adding fire brick and still retain the shaker part it will be a lot easier.

You need a good base. 4-8" of burning coal. The firebox needs to be filled. My stove has an 18"x24" firebox. It holds 120+ pounds of coal. Then it holds another 40-60# in the hopper. I feel like you aren't loading the stove all the way and you are burning too hot. Like it was stated earlier, load in layers. Then once you've got a good base fill the stove up, if you have a hopper fill that up. Then cut your air back. Coal is very slow to respond. Put a magnetic thermometer on the stove. Turn the air down, give it an hour and then check the temp. Want more heat? Turn the air up. Wait an hour then adjust the air as necessary. As for shaking, 12 hours is standard. Forget what you know about wood.

Well. resticting the bottom air worked pretty good. I went out after 14hr wk day. I am going to take the advice I got here, and tonight a build fire as described. I will post pics, of triumphs, or failures. Thank you all. Ps. hot rocks still burn fingers...

Started fire this morning. filled up to top of fire brick. HOT! Bottom air is 1/4 turn from closed . still hot. all glowing. I closed manual flue dampner, to try to slow down draft. see what happens.

Do you have a manometer? I wouldn't necessarily close the damper all the way without knowing the draft. Sounds like you are on your way though. Great job!

It worked. It slowed it down enough. Now its a comfortable heat. Lets see if I can keep it going. Tonight I will post some pics of sages. Maybe help someone .

I'm On Fire wrote:Do you have a manometer? I wouldn't necessarily close the damper all the way without knowing the draft. Sounds like you are on your way though. Great job!

make sure your co detectors are working incase you restrict the draft too much

Glacier Bay is definitely more of a wood stove then coal stove, but having said that... my father wrote a book I think would be fantastic for you to read through as it sheds some light for you as a new coal burner and will hopefully help you to understand some tricks, methods and facts that will hold true always.

thank you to our good friend here coalvet for taking the time to do this for us Crane 404 Owners Manual (scroll down to coalvets PDF, print it and read it), best wishes to you mate!

starting finish

Looks good, looks like you could add more coal too.