To stoke or not to stoke?

No you should not use the WMO or safety switch with a chimney. It really won't hurt anything but it may be a nuisance especially in warmer weather.

I just got off the phone with Jason at Hitzer ( that's what customer service should be like every where)he told me that you use a baro with a chimney vent to to prevent a overdraft and possible hopper fire and that the noise from the 608 is not as bad as my 983( )so I will see what the others have to say(especially the hard core hand jobbers )thanks again.Keepaeyeonit

not sure why it would not work with a chimney, i have done a lot of adjusting and dialing in using a power vent. i have noticed that when your firing rate is above 15 % and you loose draft the switch would trip off pretty quick. when the stoker is at low or minimum fire it takes a couple of minutes to shut down. i currently try to run at about .03-.04 iwc. if it were me i would fail to the safe side and use a switch. i'm sure others have maybe ran into this and chime in. i would just think that if your burning the stove in warmer weather and loosing draft, which in turn means dumping CO into the house its not a good thing.

modell79 wrote:not sure why it would not work with a chimney, i have done a lot of adjusting and dialing in using a power vent. i have noticed that when your firing rate is above 15 % and you loose draft the switch would trip off pretty quick. when the stoker is at low or minimum fire it takes a couple of minutes to shut down. i currently try to run at about .03-.04 iwc. if it were me i would fail to the safe side and use a switch. i'm sure others have maybe ran into this and chime in. i would just think that if your burning the stove in warmer weather and loosing draft, which in turn means dumping CO into the house its not a good thing.

You just said it. The purpose of the WMO-1 is if you lose draft, it will then shut down the stove. Normally with a chimney there is always some draft. Granted some members here do have issues with their particular chimney but the majority do not. That is the main reason to have a manometer. So you can see exactly what amount of draft you have. It is a lot better than just holding a candle by the chimney and watching the smoke rise up it.


Now modell79 you are using a power vent. You do not have any draft on your stove without that power vent running to suck the gasses out of the stove and house. THAT is the reason for needing the switch installed. A stoker will self extinguish within 10 minutes without air being forced up through the coal bed and the appliance will stop the burning process. A hand fed stove cannot use a power vent due to the amount of coal available to burn if power would fail. There is no way to stop the burning process.

I realize you guys are fairly new here. We all were at some point. It would do you well to use the search capabilities of this site to do a little research. Most of the topics have been discussed numerous times. And some members have offered their experiences both good and bad on trying this or that.





Rick