New DS 1500: first week report, and some questions (long)

Are you having issues getting enough heat output from your stove?

If I let the ash build up on mine, it still makes plenty of heat, I just get annoyed seeing the perimeter of the stove not burning like the center! Right now though, I am burning bituminous.... So the hopper is not installed and I can easily open the top door to poke the corners.

I poke up from the bottom after shaking almost every time. Also I poke down from the top to get the front corners and front edge clear of ash, maybe every second day. Once every few days I try to poke through to the back corners and edge, but for some reason I don't understand, the front clogs up with ash much worse than the back. My firebox is smaller than yours, which makes it easier to reach the back corners.

Going to look into that Franco-Belge poker....where could I get one?

rberq wrote:I poke up from the bottom after shaking almost every time. Also I poke down from the top to get the front corners and front edge clear of ash, maybe every second day. Once every few days I try to poke through to the back corners and edge, but for some reason I don't understand, the front clogs up with ash much worse than the back. My firebox is smaller than yours, which makes it easier to reach the back corners.

Going to look into that Franco-Belge poker....where could I get one?

Both my front and rear grate are out on my 1600. Too much ash built up. I poke every day and can't get either grate to burn. It's still throwing out the heat but it bothers me to no end that the front and rear grates are out.

I also am not sure how you guys are poking from the bottom. The holes in the grates are tiny and my ash pan gets in the way of any tool I try to stick in the grates.

I'm On Fire wrote:

rberq wrote:
Going to look into that Franco-Belge poker....where could I get one?

rberg-Here is where I got mine. I like it because it's flat and fairly wide, it works well to curve down through the grate slots. It was $16.00 + tax.

http://www.kcstovesandfireplaces.com/

I'm sure they'd ship.

LDPosse wrote:Are you having issues getting enough heat output from your stove?

If I let the ash build up on mine, it still makes plenty of heat, I just get annoyed seeing the perimeter of the stove not burning like the center! Right now though, I am burning bituminous.... So the hopper is not installed and I can easily open the top door to poke the corners.

Can you ever get "enough heat" from your stove?

I'm getting plenty of heat, but I think it'd be burning a bit hotter at the same thermostat setting if the entire coal bed was burning evenly. I've been poking the back grate from the bottom every evening before shaking, to hopefully loosen the ash, but there's still a buildup back there. That said, after I shake down and the fire hots up again, I do see blues dancing all around the back of the hopper, so it can't be too bad.

Still, I agree with you, it's annoying to think you're not getting every last BTU out of that fire.

MarkV wrote:Can you ever get "enough heat" from your stove?

Well... This past week I let ash build up on purpose... It was getting a little tooo toasty in here! Flirting with 80F in the house is too much for me!

63roundbadge wrote:

I'm On Fire wrote:

rberq wrote:
Going to look into that Franco-Belge poker....where could I get one?

rberg-Here is where I got mine. I like it because it's flat and fairly wide, it works well to curve down through the grate slots. It was $16.00 + tax.

http://www.kcstovesandfireplaces.com/

I'm sure they'd ship.

Here's a picture of my old Franco-Belge poker. After reading your earlier posts, 63, I started using this to poke the front, front corners, and sides of the fire. Works great for that, but can't quite get to the back with the hopper in. However, I'm going to take mine to a metal shop and see if they can make me a longer one, maybe six inches longer over all, and about two inches longer after the bend. I'll post my results.

Looks to me a like a long piece of steel, with the one end folded over to make a handle.

BTW another possible source to order one of these would be AES Hearthplace in Newville, PA. Google them--they have a site. They had a source for Franco Belge parts; that's where I got my gaskets, glass, and occasionally the heavy internal replacement parts.

LDPosse wrote:

MarkV wrote:Can you ever get "enough heat" from your stove?

Well... This past week I let ash build up on purpose... It was getting a little tooo toasty in here! Flirting with 80F in the house is too much for me!

Yeah, I was worried about that, but I throttled it back a bit and, while the house got warm, it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it'd be. Around here, though, the sun wasn't out those couple warm days and that helped.

With my old Franco, I was always afraid if I turned it back too much, my chimney wouldn't draft, so I opened basement windows to moderate the temps in the house.

MarkV wrote:
Here's a picture of my old Franco-Belge poker. After reading your earlier posts, 63, I started using this to poke the front, front corners, and sides of the fire. Works great for that, but can't quite get to the back with the hopper in. However, I'm going to take mine to a metal shop and see if they can make me a longer one, maybe six inches longer over all, and about two inches longer after the bend. I'll post my results.

Looks to me a like a long piece of steel, with the one end folded over to make a handle.

BTW another possible source to order one of these would be AES Hearthplace in Newville, PA. Google them--they have a site. They had a source for Franco Belge parts; that's where I got my gaskets, glass, and occasionally the heavy internal replacement parts.

Poker.jpg

I'll post a pic of my poker (can I say that here?) later today. It seems to be of the dimensions you would like yours to be.

Pics of my poker:

20" long with a 3" hook.

63roundbadge wrote:Pics of my poker:

20" long with a 3" hook.

Nice. Same length as mine overall, but the length and angle of the hooked part on yours would make all the difference in getting to the bottom of the DS 1500 firebox, especially in the back corners.

Yeah, it works perfectly to reach all corners plus if I turn it 90 degrees flat I can slice through the top of the bed under the hopper to break up the ash in the back.