Diary of a Surdiac

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. Mar. 16, 2015 5:37 pm

franco b wrote:That sounds easy enough. Just a few 4 letter words to ease the way.
I've found that 4 letter words and some stout drinks always make coal burning more entertaining..
I look at four letter words as "intensifiers".. :lol:


 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Mon. Mar. 16, 2015 6:29 pm

Image
"Intensifiers" I like it Lee.

 
Belgianburner
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Post by Belgianburner » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 7:46 am

I'm here to report that the hopper installation wasn't as bad as expected...it was much worse. You see, the seating of it was a walk in the park; it was fitting it into the stove that became a lengthy battle. After many failed attempts that ended in the hopper getting hopelessly stuck, the ultimately successful strategy was to get it started on an angle at the side that was ever so slightly wider, wriggle furiously until stuck, and then begin a lengthy "persuasion session" that involved a 2x6 and a hammer. I was ever fearful of cracking the hopper or front plate.

I'm not an accomplished curser, nor do I have a Connecticut accent (requisite or not), but I do know a gal* who is adept at "correcting" people (warranted or not), and I almost put her on the phone with my hopper. If anyone has a similar experience, what I'd suggest is to place your hopper outside or in the fridge the night before, then light a small fire to warm up your stove before installation. Might just make all the difference. Tip #2: Once you swing the hopper roughly into position, slide a piece of plywood under it. Then you can get yourself situated right in front of the opening, where you can see both sockets. Insert one side while the other rests on the plywood, then repeat. This made what I thought would be the hardest part the easiest (less than a minute).

The stove took quite a while to get going, even with ash door open, but when it finally did, I had to turn it way down. It was still 80+ in here after reining her in (28 oats). No ladies, just a bright orange glow lighting the room. It's below zero on the dial now, but maybe my dial is out of calibration. I predict this stove is going to eat more coal than the overfiring F-B, but produce a lot more heat.

* no, she's not my wife. :<P
Last edited by Belgianburner on Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 8:27 am

Hey, Joe I just watched your tending routine on page 21, my internet service has been intermittent for about 10 days now. I guess they are doing upgrades I was told, we'll see...

Very nice job on the video partner! Looks like you got a routine that works for you. That was the first time I've ever seen a hopper in action. Pretty cool. :D

 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 8:33 am

Lightning jogged my memory ,i think that is the first time I have seen a hopper feeding coal to a hand fed stove. I understood how that works,just never saw the hopper feed action b4, Thanks Joe.

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 5:24 pm

I'm glad it cleared some things up men, glad you got something from it. Sometimes words and photos only go so far with my "Forrest Gump" brain, and videos go that extra distance.

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 5:34 pm

Belgianburner wrote:I'm here to report that the hopper installation wasn't as bad as expected...it was much worse.
The more you do it John, the easier it'll get. But like I mentioned much further back, the engineers sure didn't make it easy for us. I ended up taking my 7 1/4 disc sander with some 60 grit, and grinding away some material on the edges of the aprons which were tight too.
The stove took quite a while to get going, even with ash door open, but when it finally did, I had to turn it way down. It was still 80+ in here after reining her in (28 oats). No ladies, just a bright orange glow lighting the room. It's below zero on the dial now, but maybe my dial is out of calibration. I predict this stove is going to eat more coal than the overfiring F-B, but produce a lot more heat.
You should be able to turn that puppy down if it's making too much heat, which will lower your coal consumption. I know you said the dial is on "0", but is the primary damper door still open? It should be closed tight on 0. Also, do you have a manometer to see how your draft is? How bout an MPD, or baro?


 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 6:11 pm

joeq wrote:I'm glad it cleared some things up men, glad you got something from it. Sometimes words and photos only go so far with my "Forrest Gump" brain, and videos go that extra distance.
I learned a lot from your video Joe, and it was nicely done also.

But you still talk funny :oops2: did I say that?.............. :bighug:

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 6:43 pm

Thanx Don....and you're still funny. :D

 
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Post by Belgianburner » Fri. Mar. 20, 2015 9:17 am

"The more you do it John, the easier it'll get."

I'd really rather not go through that fiasco again. Do you HAVE to remove it to clean the ports? Can't you just move it forward and fish a vacuum hose in behind it? Sounds a whole lot easier.

" I know you said the dial is on "0", but is the primary damper door still open? It should be closed tight on 0. Also, do you have a manometer to see how your draft is? How bout an MPD, or baro?"

It's working just fine, and doing a great job of heating the house. I was just surprised at how low I have to set the damper dial, compared to my other stove. This one has an MPD but no baro* (Inside chimney with adequate draft). My other has a baro but no MPD (outside chimney with fluctuating draft). I don't have a manometer on either (yet), but the temp just before the thimble is about 165 vs. 200+. so I think I'm losing a lot of heat up the chimney on that stove...maybe an MPD would help with that.

* I bought a 5" baro, but ended up using 6" pipe (no 5" in stock anywhere). You can't use a 5" damper in a 6" reducer "T" can you?

 
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Post by Lightning » Fri. Mar. 20, 2015 11:13 am

You could do that and it could work fine, but keeping everything 6 inch is best case scenario. The 5 inch section will likely reduce volume flow while tending and cause a little more mess in the house when drafting isn't optimum (such as on warm days).

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Fri. Mar. 20, 2015 8:19 pm

Belgianburner wrote:"The more you do it John, the easier it'll get."

I'd really rather not go through that fiasco again. Do you HAVE to remove it to clean the ports? Can't you just move it forward and fish a vacuum hose in behind it? Sounds a whole lot easier.

" I know you said the dial is on "0", but is the primary damper door still open? It should be closed tight on 0. Also, do you have a manometer to see how your draft is? How bout an MPD, or baro?"

It's working just fine, and doing a great job of heating the house. I was just surprised at how low I have to set the damper dial, compared to my other stove. This one has an MPD but no baro* (Inside chimney with adequate draft). My other has a baro but no MPD (outside chimney with fluctuating draft). I don't have a manometer on either (yet), but the temp just before the thimble is about 165 vs. 200+. so I think I'm losing a lot of heat up the chimney on that stove...maybe an MPD would help with that.

* I bought a 5" baro, but ended up using 6" pipe (no 5" in stock anywhere). You can't use a 5" damper in a 6" reducer "T" can you?
That's all fine and good John, but you didn't say if the damper was "CLOSED" when you put the dial to "0". It should be sealed tight, and you shouldn't be able to get even a .002 feeler gauge past it.
As for keeping the hopper in when cleaning it, it really doesn't "need" to come out, if you're doing a "mid-season" de-ash. Just allows you to get into areas to clean easier. But when you shut the stove off for the season, you really should take it out to be thorough.
your 5" baro will be OK if you can find a 5"-6" reducer. I needed one for the Surdiac, to hook up my 6" Metal-bestous chimney pipe. I found it on-line somewhere.

 
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Post by joeq » Sat. Mar. 21, 2015 10:55 pm

For some unknown reason, my stove went out quite a few days ago, and wasn't liking the Kimmel coal. I fought with it for a few days before, cleaning and scraping to keep it alive, but one morning it was victorious, and I wasn't. Because spring was almost here, I decided to let it stay out....until I heard yet "one more cold front coming through". While shopping with the Mrs., I saw "Matchlight" charcoal on the shelf at the super-market, and remember people saying how easy it was to start a coal fire. I tried it in the beginning stages of my coal life, and wasn't very successful, so I wrote it off, and continued to use wood. It would usually take hrs to get it going on wood, with lots of smoke, cutting small scraps, and slowly feeding it a little at a time.
So I purchased the small bag of Matchlight, and after vacuuming out the stove, (again), I loaded it with the barbeque coal,(the whole bag), mixed in a tad of newspaper, lit it, and off we go.
Immediately it flamed up, and the draft jumped to .05 and with the ashpan door open, we were on our way again. I swear, the charcoal was burning red in less than 5 minutes, and I started dumping small shovel fulls of anthy to it. Waiting only about 5-10 mins at a time, I added more coal, and maybe 45 mins later, I was filling the hopper cause the coal bed was established. No smoke, no waiting, (hardly, compared to wood), just a beautiful glowing orange coal fire. "How sweet it is". Problem is, I'm out of coal, using my last bag , to get it fired up. Tomorrow morning, I have to go to work a few hrs, and the stove will need to be fed. I hate waking up to a low hopper, and no coal to fuel it. I won't be able to get coal into it till about noon, once I purchase a few more bags from Westfield, after work. I'm turning it down low tonite, and hope it won't be too hungry, till I can get it some lunch. We'll see.
A couple pix of the new fire.
matchlight charcole 004.JPG
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more matchlite 001.JPG
.JPG | 35.7KB | more matchlite 001.JPG

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sun. Mar. 22, 2015 4:44 am

Those are pretty pictures, Joe. I hope the fire is still burning when you get back from work.

 
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Post by joeq » Sun. Mar. 22, 2015 11:21 am

Bedtime, 11PM, awoke at 5AM, and checked the stove. Bright and hot, and the hopper was still 1/2 full. I set it to #1 on the dial, (the nite B4), and closed the MPD about 45*. I only needed to be at work for a couple hrs, (fortunately), so I headed off to buy some more coal, and by the time I got home, it was past 9AM, which was a 10 hr burn. When I checked the hopper again, it still was 1/4 full, and the fire was slowing down, but very easily refreshed. Now I'm set for a few more days of comfort, as the cold spell passes. Once again, life is good. :)


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