Red hot slider bar

Hi all, Im new here and wanted to say hi and ask a few ??. I have a Clayton 1600 and have just started using bit coal this year. Actually just started using it this month. I have been burning wood for 4 years now and have got it figured out. Still haven't got the coal figured out as of yet. I am burning sewickley coal and it seems to be doing ok but I think it could do better. When I load the stove, the rod on the kidney slider gets red hot and this alarms me a little bit. Is it something to worry about or is it no big deal?. Also I can only get about three to four Hrs. of burn time without adding coal. In the morning when I get up the house is down to about 62* and the stove is hungry for fuel. When the forced air draft is running does the hand draft on the smoke pipe need to be open or is it ok if it is closed? any help would be greatley appreciated. Thanks Doc

you're better off not running forced draft at all. Fill the coal to the top of the brick (higher in the middle) and fill it up every time. Use large size coal if possible and "bank" the fire - push the red coals to the back w/ a hoe etc. and load fresh fuel in front thus leaving red coals exposed to light off the gasses from the fresh coal (or pull them to the front / visa/versa) Crack your secondary (overfire) air just a bit and control the heat of the fire with the primary (underfire/under grate) air control. I'm NOT a fan of MPD when burning bit coal - it's a soot catcher.

Sounds like you need slower fires with a much deeper fuel bed.

Ok Berlin, I will try that once the fire I have now burns down. Just refueled it. I have read so many threads about covering front to back and side to side that, that is what I have been doing. Makes sense about what you are saying though, the fuel bed is always half full of coals and it takes a while for it to all get caught up again after refeuling. Seems to burn realy fast because of not enough coal over a full bed of hot coals Thanks for the info, I will try it. Doc

One more thing Berlin, I don't have a over fire draft.

Good luck. Be careful without any overfire air, you run the risk of a massive backpuff. you'll always have some smoke hand-firing bit coal, but without any secondary (overfire) air you will have lots more & less heat output in addition to the increased backpuff risk. It might be worthwhile to rig something up - hopefully someone can jump in that has more experience with your specific appliance.

Yeah I open the load door a bit to overcome the poof thing and so far that has been working for me. Thanks

welcome,I believe your furnace along with all the US Stove/furnaces have a built in secondary draft in the firebox walls.Use the search button, top right corner and search for "burning bit. in a clayton" and read the "sucessfully burning ant in a clayton" this will give you a better understanding of using/burning coal in your furnace.The USS furnaces burn wood great, but are finiky burning coal, good luck and ask if you need help

Thanks Dennis, I will check it out.

Dennis wrote:welcome,I believe your furnace along with all the US Stove/furnaces have a built in secondary draft in the firebox walls.Use the search button, top right corner and search for "burning bit. in a clayton" and read the "sucessfully burning ant in a clayton" this will give you a better understanding of using/burning coal in your furnace.The USS furnaces burn wood great, but are finiky burning coal, good luck and ask if you need help

I cemented those air passage in so the air don't by pass the fire.

Op4_camper wrote:

Dennis wrote:welcome,I believe your furnace along with all the US Stove/furnaces have a built in secondary draft in the firebox walls.Use the search button, top right corner and search for "burning bit. in a clayton" and read the "sucessfully burning ant in a clayton" this will give you a better understanding of using/burning coal in your furnace.The USS furnaces burn wood great, but are finiky burning coal, good luck and ask if you need help

I cemented those air passage in so the air don't by pass the fire.

He's burning bit. coal, so he needs some secondary draft

Ok, I refueled around 9:00 oclock last night and it is now 8:29 in the morning and I still have a full bed of coals. The house reached a temp of 69* and stayed there all night. The temps out side hovered around 27* with hardley any wind. If I could get just a couple more degrees I would feel like a pig in mud. I did have to adjust the limit switch on the shut off side of the forced air blower up to about 155. Before the adjustment it was burning so slow that by the time the blower shut off, it was blowing cool air. I did use the forced air draft all night because of the house being so cold when I got home last night. If I adjusted the forced air blower up a little more do you think I might be able to get the temp to climb a little bit?. Burn time is good but any suggestions on raising the temps would be great. Thanks. Doc

Dennis wrote:

Op4_camper wrote:

Dennis wrote:welcome,I believe your furnace along with all the US Stove/furnaces have a built in secondary draft in the firebox walls.Use the search button, top right corner and search for "burning bit. in a clayton" and read the "sucessfully burning ant in a clayton" this will give you a better understanding of using/burning coal in your furnace.The USS furnaces burn wood great, but are finiky burning coal, good luck and ask if you need help

I cemented those air passage in so the air don't by pass the fire.

He's burning bit. coal, so he needs some secondary draft

I burn both I use the feed door vent for that with bit.
The problem with this stove is ash build up. There's a one inch ledge around grates and it builds up fast. I have a piece of rebar that I slide down both sides.

Also I only use the door when loading and for about twenty minutes after. Then I shut it and turn ash door back to about half to one turn open.. It's 21 degrees out house is 73. Its my only heat in this house. I yanked out oil furnace because I kept using it ,I would get lazy and burn oil.

When I first got stove the heat output sucked. Much easier and better since I cemented those air passages.

Of course that's what worked for me can't say for anyone else.

Thanks op4. The door on my furnace doesn't have a draft in it but I am thinking of putting one in. What I am doing right now is leaving the door cracked a little bit until the fire catches up then shutting it and using the draft on the ash door to control the fire. You are right about the ashes. I have to empty them about 3 times a day. It still beats cutting splitting and stacking all that wood to keep the house warm. I am slowly getting the hang of this coal thing and all good things take time. I haven't had a backpuff in about four days. Lots of people have told me that i need to poke a hole down through the coal bed to let air in. What is you thought on this?. Thanks

I poke it to break up the clumps and to get a hotter fire when I'm home or cold day. If I'm leaving for the day I like the clumps because it just kind of idle's along.

Be very careful in fact don't leave ash or load door open. The fire can run away and will run away at some point.

You can drill a hole in the door say 2 inch for the air. Above that hole drill a .312 diameter hole tap 3/8-16 . Then out of 1/4 plate cut a round tear drop shape. Put a 3/8 hole in the top tang of tear drop. Bolt threw tear drop,door use heavy lock/split washer. I would also put a nut on the inside to lock it together. Instant door air control.

A nicer way is buy a spinner assembly from hot blast for like 15.00. The downside is you have to remove door and weld a 3/8 sq bar to the inside of door on center of hole. Drill/tap for spinner assembly.

Now remember if you grave dig my previous post over the last two yrs. I have made ever mistake possible with coal. So I might not be the best one to take any advice from.

Thanks again op4 for the information. The process Im using right now is to pull all the hot coals to the front and fill the back with fresh coal. open the load door about 1/4" and all but close the bottom draft. At this point I do not leave the fire unattended. I have a bucket to sit on and I keep a check on the fire untill it is burning good. Most of the time it takes about an hour for it all to ignite. I then close the load door and adjust the bottom draft. Im not scared of the coal just very cautious. My nephew burnt my dads home place down with a coal stove because he left it unattended and the ash door was left open. The smoke pipe got to hot and lit her off. This was a stove that my grandmother fired for 50 years without incedent.
If im understanding all of this correctly, the 3 holes in the front and back plates inside the firebox don't work the way they should so I need more air to the top of the fire. Does that sound about right?
I am going to get a spin damper for the top of the door but not till spring. I checked them out yesterday and the price is now around 30 to 38 bucks just depending on where I get it from.
Also I think I need different coal. The stuff I am using now varies in size from about 1/2" to 2" and im having a problem with bridging. I got up this morning to one solid lump of coal in the back of the furnace and not much heat output.
Any thoughts on all of this would be helpful. Thanks Doc