Locke Warm Morning 617-A

My name is Jonathan and I'm a coalaholic. The 617-A has four air passages cast into the firebrick, one in each corner of the stove. A lot of air (draft) from the area just above the grates bipasses the fire getting super heated on its way and then goes into the area above the anthracite just before it exits up the stove pipe. (Seams like a waste of hot air.) Sometimes some blue flame will be present in the passages. The cinder head that I am, I have been making sure those passages where clear everytime I loaded the stove. After reading this forum I have come to the conclusion the stove is optimized for bituminous. I have no bit easily available to try to prove it to myself but I got the bright idea that I should clog those passages with ash and cinders to force more air through the burning bed of anthracite. I got enough heat to make the top of my stove glow. (I was upstairs on the computer instead of monitoring it closely. At least I didn't set myself on fire!) So what did I learn? 1 If you make any changes in what or how you burn stay with it. 2 With the passages plugged the old draft settings don't apply. 3 My theory of "more air drawn through the burning coal bed" seems correct but one burn isn't conclusive proof. I have already flogged myself for seeing red so constructive comments only please.

Update. My stove is definitely running hotter with the passages blocked. I actually need to drastically cut back the air from the settings that wrked before and use my manual pipe damper to control it. Now I have to retrain my wife.

Yeah, the Locke Warm Morning stoves were built in Kansas City, MO I believe and indeed were designed to burn midwest bituminous. I used to see a lot of them 25 years ago living in southern Indiana. King was another brand of cylinder style batch burner stove, but the Warm Morning units with that patented 'flue' design worked better.

Another update. I have decided it is best to block the passages on the lower half only. There is a gap half way up and gases do enter and burn in them (passages/internal chimneys) providing I keep the slot between the bricks (part of original design) half way up open. By plugging up the lower half it stops too much air from bypassing the fire. I talked to someone in person today who grew up with three different Locke stoves, a 400, 617, and I forgot the other number. He seemed to think I was doing the wrong thing by blocking the passages. I'm not sure if he is correct or not. I still need to experement. He also told me I'm expecting too much from my 617-A. It was never meant to be a whole house heater. It is reasonable to expect it to heat my house down to about 25 degrees. Any colder than that I have to push it to hard (overfire). I have resigned myself to limit my skin temp just below the loading door to 800 degrees and that is probably hotter than I should run it. I never want to see it glowing again!!!

I also have a Warm Morning stove (model 521). I purchased it at an auction. I have not burned any coal in it yet. I am excited to try it with our western bituminous though. My hand-fed stove that I built is heating my house great, but as I patterned it off the Harman Mark III, it does not have the "internal" chimneys you are referring to. A problem I'm having with my homebuilt is that if I get the volatiles burning really good, I cook myself out of the house. A full bed of this high-volatile coal gives off way too much heat, way too quick. But I don't want to just load small layers of coal all day. I'd like to put a full load in and just change the air settings occasionally. It seems that is not working well. I get way too much heat the first few hours, then quite a bit less heat once the volatiles are gone. If I cut the air back during the initial burn to limit the heat, I get lots of smoke, probably more soot, and more explosions inside the stove, described on other threads.

I have been studying those holes or passageways in the firebrick. I'm wondering if they possibly allow just the bottom layer of coal to be burnt. As the air can bypass the top coal, you actually have somewhat of a "hopper" insider the stove. Michael Pease from "Pease Feed and Coal" told me that these Warm Mornings were designed to be filled with 100 lbs of bit. coal for the day.

This could be the answer to my problem, though my homebuilt stove does not have this design. I could probably get creative with some firebrick in my homebuilt and rig up some internal passageways. I'm going to try to get my chimney built for my Warm Morning in the garage yet this year and try it. I'll post results, but it won't be anytime soon.

Steinke

I grew up (well, I was in High school) when my father installed one of these. We burned Anthricite, and the chimneys use to burn bright blue almost always, but particularly upon load. We almost always burned the stove at a very low air setting, otherwise the stove would glow. We never had trouble with enough draft or air through the coal bed, but did have a very tall chimney.

It was a great stove, and heated that house for many years. I wouldn't block the chimneys.

i have a warm morning 460.....great stove.....we use it when the efm is broke or if I feel like burning wood.....it likes a stove/nut mix, we can get about 12 hrs out of it between shake/fill

I've been running my 617-A with the lower half of the internal chimneys blocked for 10 days now and I'm much happier with the way the stove behaves. From the ash door draft control to the top of the chimney I estimate I have about 19 feet. The stove is on the first floor and the flue is shared by an oil burner in the basement (For hot water and back up heat. The thermostat is off.) This is how the chimney was built by a profesional mason long before I bought the house. I have a CO and smoke detector and have never had any issues with them going off except when my wife was cooking or when I have added fuel to the stove with my manual stove pipe damper closed (dumb). The CO detector has never gone off. Before I blocked the internal passages I had to open my draft half to full open to get a good burn. Now I open it a 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch (ash door draft) and the loading door draft is closed or just open a crack for the same results. That is a huge difference in the settings. It is definitly more responsive. I have never measured the draft with a gauge but it always seemed sufficient. Skin temp below loading door 640 degrees right now. Draft open about 1/2 inch. Blue flames dancing on a full charge. Outside temp. 22 above 0. Inside temp 10' away from stove, back side of chimney, 1st floor eye level in my drafty house 72. I can live with that. For several years I religiously cleared those internal chimneys because that was how I believed it was intended to be operated but after observing it for the last 10 days with them blocked half way up I am convinced that with my coal/stove/chimney combination it is better that way. I do appreciate those who have shared there experiences with their Warm Morning stoves. I hope more with put in their two cents. Also a warning to anyone who experiments as I am doing; do not underestimate how hot your stove could get with the internal chimneys blocked.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww245/iwhanabi ... P16132.jpg This is a picture I took about 2 years ago. It took me a while to figure out how to post it on the internet.

cokehead wrote:http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww245/iwhanabi ... P16132.jpg This is a picture I took about 2 years ago. It took me a while to figure out how to post it on the internet.

HA! Diamond plate! Nice touch!

I had to do something so no one got burned walking by the stove. It is in a high foot traffic part of the house. Nice of you to notice.

cokehead wrote:I had to do something so no one got burned walking by the stove. It is in a high foot traffic part of the house. Nice of you to notice.

Jonathan, I guess you got small kids? I had to do something similar around our FireplaceXtrordinaire. See attached pic. The 'fence' is from Babies-R-Us, and has a little gate that opens up so I can load wood, clean out ashes, etc....
The kids are 7 and 4 now, and both know not to get near the FP, so we are done with the fence and I removed it last fall.
The DVC-500 was installed this year, and the kids were already 'trained' about the heat, so no fence required

cokehead wrote:http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww245/iwhanabi ... P16132.jpg This is a picture I took about 2 years ago. It took me a while to figure out how to post it on the internet.

Was that stove pipe galvanized?

Some things we learn the hard way. Yes it was galvanized. I had to open all the windows when I fired her up the first time. I won't make that mistake again.

cokehead wrote:Some things we learn the hard way. Yes it was galvanized. I had to open all the windows when I fired her up the first time. I won't make that mistake again.

Since the galvanized is all burned off now, and when you shut it down for the year, go ahead and take all the pipe outside and spray it with some Black Stove Bright paint to match it with the stove.