How to not get backfire in stove!

IOF, you got the new inducer installed? Did you try a new variable speed control on it?

Beeman wrote:I am totally with Buck24 and Tcalo--I always keep MPD open while shaking ashes and loading coal. Always have some open flames available to light volatiles. Once new coal and fire have settled in, I close MPD 3/4 of the way. Be careful up there in E-town!

+4 Same here.

MarkV wrote:

ridgeracing wrote:.
After burning 12-24hrs-
1- MPD is closed 95%, dont open, has not been opened since I started coal stove!
2- Shake stove for about 10 seconds, not touching anything else on stove!
3- I fill by coal bucket up, slowly open hopper door (to quick and smoke may come out) and fill hopper.
4- Open ash door and may shake 2-4 seconds till I see glow and small red coals fall, close or empty tray (2-3 days till full)
5- Top off hopper and close lid
6- Blue flames are always there or there within seconds. (On a 36hr+ burn and re-filled with 60-80lbs of coal, blues were there within a minute)

Ridge, do you close the hopper lid after filling hopper in step 3? Then re-open hopper lid in step 5?

Or do you leave it the hopper lid open while shaking in step 4, and then close in step 5?

Sorry, while hopper door is open I open ash door, shake more if needed, close ash door, top off hopper, walk away.

Thanks for all inquries and opinions, that is what i was looking for. I agree that opening MPD ensures fumes and gases get out better. But at the same time I wonder if it creates higher draft and more gases etc.? I did not mention it, but if I reload after around 12hrs or so on 300-450 stove temp doing my procedure with no open doors and just reloading from top after shaking, my blue flames never go out entire time. Only time blues go out are when red coal bed is low and i reload a large amount of fresh coal on top, then about a minute till blues come back. I have a CO detector 15ft away from stove and has never gone off.

I'm On Fire wrote:Every stove and setup is different.

OP, your techniques do not work and have not worked on my stove (DS Machines 1600)as they have yours. What I found to work on my stove has been opening the MPD 100% then cracking the glass door, shaking, reloading then waiting 15-20 minutes for the blue flames. Then closing the MPD and glass door.

BUT since adding these: all I do now is open the MPD 100%, shake and then wait 5 minutes and close the MPD 100%. Haven't had an explosion since installing them.

I am guesing our drafts to be much different. I wanted to ask, isint that the whole reason we have those holes drilled behind glass door? I see that these holes go directly to outside of stove/fresh air, same concept as cracking door, brings fresh air over coal bed?

Lightning wrote:IOF, you got the new inducer installed? Did you try a new variable speed control on it?

I did. I tried one that I had and then I had ordered one that was posted on here. Neither worked. The motor on the draft inducer is rated at 1 amp, it seems that all the controllers I've been seeing are 6. So, I'm still using the one that came with it until I can find one that'll work.

I have to now return the one I bought.

ridgeracing wrote:

I'm On Fire wrote:Every stove and setup is different.

OP, your techniques do not work and have not worked on my stove (DS Machines 1600)as they have yours. What I found to work on my stove has been opening the MPD 100% then cracking the glass door, shaking, reloading then waiting 15-20 minutes for the blue flames. Then closing the MPD and glass door.

BUT since adding these: all I do now is open the MPD 100%, shake and then wait 5 minutes and close the MPD 100%. Haven't had an explosion since installing them.

I am guesing our drafts to be much different. I wanted to ask, isint that the whole reason we have those holes drilled behind glass door? I see that these holes go directly to outside of stove/fresh air, same concept as cracking door, brings fresh air over coal bed?

I'm not sure. I always thought the holes were there to keep the glass clean. Either way, the holes are too small and don't allow enough air to pass.

I was told that they were installed to help backfire. With 8 holes at a 1/4 diameter each that is a good bit of air coming over top of fire bed from front to back of coal bed towards chimney flue. Out of curiosity this morning I did not shake or reload for 24hrs, tonight I shook it down to 6in of fresh coal on red coals + full hopper, it took just over five minutes to get blues. I am convinced that closed flue during reloading lets fire slowly light back up and prevents a box full of fumes. I understand that some stoves may let to much smoke out of hopper when reloading, but by slowly opening lid, I really dont get fumes out, reload and seconds later close lid. This all in cuiosity, not trying to tell anyone how to do it.

I've only got the holes in the front of the stove at the glass door. No holes at the rear.

How often do these flash-backs occur? Since this is my 1st full season of burning, I haven't ever been "blessed" with this concern, or phenomenon. What am I doing wrong? Are my gasses not as good as yours? Does my fire not have enuff heat? I see an entire thread on this topic from the past, and have yet to experience one.

joeq wrote:How often do these flash-backs occur? Since this is my 1st full season of burning, I haven't ever been "blessed" with this concern, or phenomenon. What am I doing wrong? Are my gasses not as good as yours? Does my fire not have enuff heat? I see an entire thread on this topic from the past, and have yet to experience one.

I don't know if you would get much of an exolosion on a surdiac, they do not hold near the same amount of coal as a DS 1600. So on reload your stove does not have near the quanities of gasses to deal with, I think also your fire bed not being as deep plays into it to.




Eric

Coalfire wrote:

joeq wrote:How often do these flash-backs occur? Since this is my 1st full season of burning, I haven't ever been "blessed" with this concern, or phenomenon. What am I doing wrong? Are my gasses not as good as yours? Does my fire not have enuff heat? I see an entire thread on this topic from the past, and have yet to experience one.

Dear Joeq, After reading your post on flashbacks I felt your pain of being left out of the flashback club. I too have never experienced a flashback boom burning coal and at times I have also felt marginalized and left out. I had a Franco Belge with the individual glass strips in the door and no MPD. If I tried real real hard and did everything wrong, I could get it to give a quick little flash of rolling blue flame that filled the firebox and danced like the aurora borealis for a few seconds but alas, no boom. I shook it down, filled the hopper with fresh coal, added fresh coal directly onto the fire and covered all the red, opened and closed the top glass door but alas, never a boom. The best I ever got was the firebox filling with what looked like boiling blue flames. Never a boom. The disappointment was intense!

I trust that you will be able to find a competent counselor that will be able to talk you through the feeling that your gasses are inadequate and everyone else has better gasses and that their fire is better than yours.

Keep working and hold your head up high. Study the topic and keep working and one day, you too will find a way to blow up your stove and spread ash and flying metal around your living room or basement or dining room or kitchen or sun room.

As for me, I have given up pursuit of the coal gas boom. Now I concentrate and work diligently on not putting things in my house that have a tendency to blow up for no apparent reason at what appears to be purely random times. Keep me in your thoughts as I walk this path of life bereft of coal gas booms.

Sincerely,

Pastor Larry

A man of the cloth is expected to give up certain things, but to forego all that excitement is dedication at its best.

Pastor Larry, how eloquently stated

Pastor Larry
Thank you for your words of comfort. As you know, we're all trying to be accepted by our peers, and the need arises when our paths begin to drift off in the wrong direction. Speaking specifically about coal gas explosions, I imagine my quest for such an experience should probably become terminated, and accept my situation without dismay. Besides, I have this invisionment of one of my girls , tending to the stove, and becoming involved in this phenomenon, and looking like the proverbial coyote (from the road runner show) with his "Acme dynomite kit", cindered black, smoking, and toasted from head to toe, while looking at the camera, holding a detonated stick with his white eyes blinking. I shall move on to pursue other avenues. Keep the faith brother, and thank you again.