How to Light a Hand Fired Coal Stove

Razzler wrote:Keep loading it until you have it up to top of the brick and blazing, then you can close the ash door and set the damper.

Umm, I'm supposed to keep the damper all the way open until the coals are all blazing blue (to the top of the door) and also keep the ash door open too (below my wood/coal door) and then start slowly closing the damper? I've been shutting the damper as soon as i get the wood blazing (with coals under it) and just feeding the coals as they get red - i have never done it to the top of the door (where the fire bricks end) so this will be a first try. heat is def rising lets see how long i can keep it going - been a few hours now haha

actually i have a wood stove in the family room (not as nice as the Harman 2 mind you) but it's enough to heat that section of the house - a good 68 degrees more or less - mixed with the living room heat it's comfy - just expensive to have both running - so i have decided to close off the family room unless i need to be in there - good thing hot air rises - it heats enough of the house well

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of the Harman 2 manual? I just bought this home 2 years ago and it came with the stove.

tvb wrote:

I usually will wad up a couple pages and stick it up into the stovepipe and light it. After a few seconds, you'll hear it whoosh upwards indicating some heat and the establishment of a draft.

Isnt that dangerous? Can't the chimney or house catch fire with all that soot up there and you're stuffing a fire up the flue lol?

What temp setting is your thermometers when you finally stop adding your coal for about 8-10 hours? I know some people say they can go 12 hours! The faster and hotter it gets, i notice my coal finally lights faster, speeding up the coal heating process - lets see if i can keep it going since i have that wood in there to help with the heat!\

By the way, I reuse my unused half burnt coals! Yep, once u get a good fire, toss those old used suckers back in and they will burn faster, hotter, and no waste!In factm, they are good for starting your coals since the pieces are smaller (if you are using stove coals like i am)

Razzler wrote:Can you get a different brand of coal to try?

How will we know if we have a bad coal supplier or we just suck at lighting coal? Anyone have any bad coal supplier stories to share?

woo hoo that works! I just lift my wood, keep tossing new coals under the burning wood - and as the wood gets hotter, so do the coals. I started opening the bottom door, and the wood and coals are definitely burning hotter and faster that I can faster fill my coal bin!. Just keep lifting your wood and tossing in new coals, and tossing new coals on the coals that are red and blue flames. This baby is stoking now - and while I have been fighting it since 11 am - its 4 pm and i tried that open the bottom door thing and feeding UNDER the wood, and now it's cooking!! Lets see if it will last now without me using the wood.

it's 5.43 pm and i have my first real coal fire! you can't miss it! Long tall high blue base with strong tall yellow tipped flames! No weak flames, not just plain red coals, but true tall flames. I haven't added any more wood since 3 or 4 pm and the last of the wood burned about 4.30 pm. My new and last round of coals are almost all lit. I just added a last round of coal where the log once stood since that area doesn't have as much coal. I opened the bottom ash door for a few minutes and let the new coal stoke. my stove is on 400 degrees, the room temp is 77, outside wintry mix rain/sleet temps are 14 degrees 100 percent precipitation! I'm in coal heaven!!! I can sleep through the night, I hope, woo hoo! I used 1 40 lb bag of coal and a dutch pot of leftover coal from previous failed attempts,

Isnt that dangerous? Can't the chimney or house catch fire with all that soot up there and you're stuffing a fire up the flue lol?

No. There isn't any creosote in my chimney because I don't burn wood.

CapeCoaler wrote:3 sheets of newspaper in balled up fashion to warm stovepipe to start draft

Some chimneys will make draft all the time. My chimney always has some draft even when the stove is cold so you may be able to skip this step.
If you get a lot of smoke rolling out of the stove when you first light it then you will need to "prime" (heat) the flue.

chicgurl1974 wrote:it's 5.43 pm and i have my first real coal fire! you can't miss it! Long tall high blue base with strong tall yellow tipped flames! No weak flames, not just plain red coals, but true tall flames. I haven't added any more wood since 3 or 4 pm and the last of the wood burned about 4.30 pm

Good for you!! You're done with burning wood for the rest of the winter! (Just add coal.......no more wood is needed)

Duengeon master wrote:Gentlemen you are going about this all wrong!! First you need a six pack then a wood fire then some coal in that order!! It almost and I repeat almost sounds like a chore the way you described it. try it my way It's much better!

I like your way the best!

just fired the 507 after reading this thread - holy cow! that was easy. we put the stove in to service and found another plant stand when the power went out in the big ice storm (seacoast New Hampshire). Couldn't get it rolling due to wet wood, lack of understanding, no power to google for help... the key seems to be patience, dry starter fuel, practicing BEFORE the emergency strikes. thanks for all the great info!

That tall slender 507 is one of the easiest stoves to light and keep burning. It's a shame they stopped making them. They are great little workhorses. Got a picture of yours?

Devil, This question is mostly for you because we have the same type of stove but welcome all input. I just restarted my stove yesterday after a shutdown and love the heat. I livened the fire this AM to the coals were bright and added a thin layer of coal ---I let that get going good and shook down until a few orange ambers were hitting the ash pan and now I am in the process of reloading the stove, ABOUT how long should it take to fill back up ? Right now I am loading some and waiting til it catches good and loading some more all the time with the ash door open and pipe temp at 300 degrees. Also ,Question on draft controls--I had draft at probably 1/3 and the house temp was 74 and outside was 1 below--Here's my question,At night have you ever tried cutting back on the coal draft and opening a LITTLE on the wood draft levers ? My farmer friend says he does it to help burn slower. He has a vermont castings.

Jack Magnum wrote:ABOUT how long should it take to fill back up ? Right now I am loading some and waiting til it catches good and loading some more all the time with the ash door open and pipe temp at 300 degrees.

Way to go Jack (relighting your stove)

I've always found that a new fire doesn't need any poking for about a week in the TLC, as the ash is powdery & should settle OK with just shaking down. As far as how long to refill, maybe 5 to 10 minutes tops..... when you're running the stove hot on cold days! You don't need to wait for each layer to catch, (I just do that when initially starting a coal fire because it is still weak until going well) just leave a section of the fire still blazing (not covered with fresh coal) & dump a full load of coal onto the other areas. Once the areas you "dumped" coal onto are blazing...maybe 5-10 minutes.....dump coal onto the area you left alone b4. (keep the ash door open during this whole procedure & only close it when the stove temp is rising again, after the final load)

Jack Magnum wrote:At night have you ever tried cutting back on the coal draft and opening a LITTLE on the wood draft levers ? My farmer friend says he does it to help burn slower. He has a vermont castings.

I don't bhave any draft controls on my chimney Jack because I have pretty poor draft anyway so I never need to lessen a strong draft. On very windy nights , I have sometime slid the secondary air controls up about 1/2 way to let the chimney suck some air from above the coal bed. To be honest with you, I don't really know if that saves me any coal or heat, but it doesn't hurt!