Lighting Harman Magnfire

Linc wrote:2- 40# bags in 3 days is not bad at all. That's less than 30# a day. Does the fire just go out or is there nothing but ash left in the firebox?

LsFarm wrote:Hello elvin, welcome to the forum. As you have learned, coal takes patience, and technique. Once you get it figured out, you will really love the fuel.

For the barometric damper. Use the 'rough' scale on the 'V' bracket, set it at .04-.05". You will be in the ballpark.. anything in that area will work with a hand feed stove. Right now with the weight all the way back you probably are near a .09-.12" wc, way too much draft.

You can control your stove will just the spinner draft control on the ashpan door, but with a baro installed the chimney draft will be much more consistant, making using the spinner draft easier and more predictable.

Like you have learned, just get a fire going, add some coal, keep the under fire draft open, let the coal get glowing, then fill 'er up.

As for not making it through the night, are you FILLING the firebox?? I mean a mound in the middle, with the edges of the coal pile up to the top of the firebrick?? You cannot add too much coal... coal burns from the bottom up, and your spinner knob controls this air to the fire... So fill 'er up.

Then, you will need to experiment, because every house, stove, chimney and their interactions are different. If your house is really tight, it will be harder for your chimney to draw air out of the house through the coal bed.. If you house is drafty, then you will have to turn the spinner knob down more to control the heat output from the stove. And this will also control the rate of coal use from the stove too..

You want to find a comfortable 'idle' setting for your spinner draft knob.[I'll guess around 1/2 to 3/4 turn out, depends on chimney and house] This is an amount of air that will keep the fire going, not going out for lack of air, but not creating a lot of heat either, next you need to find the 'really cooking' setting, [I'll guess around 3 turns out, again depends on chimney and house]. This is the setting you would use to warm the house up after you had it idling for the day. This setting will give you hot but not dangerous stove body and flue temps.. Other members with the same stove will chime in with these numbers, but I'd go with stove body, not over ~550-650*, flue pipe [outside of pipe] ~300* Again, these are rough numbers. You will have to develope a feel for what you are comfortable with.

Once you find your idle and full out settings, you can experiment with what gives you 'X' hours of burn with 'X' setting... Write it down. You may remember the settings this season, but will appreciate the list next year.

The weather changes most of these settings.. really cold windy weather will create more draft, so less air is needed, this difference will be less with the baro set properly. really warm weather will lessen the draft, you will figure it all out.


Take care, I hope the above helps some...

Greg L

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LsFarm wrote:Clinkers look like melted together rocks, pieces of coal, and brown glass.

Clinker.jpg

clinker3.jpg

clinker4.jpg

rberq wrote:Hello, elvinpw. Three things jumped out at me from your posts.
(1) baro adjustment - LsFarm covered that - as long as you have it leveled and plumbed you can set it pretty well without the manometer.
(2) filling the firebox completely to make it burn overnight - LsFarm covered that too.
(3) Emptied the ash box only twice in three days - that seems too little considering how much coal your burned - every time I have congratulated myself on how little ash I had, it turned out I had not shaken down enough. With my Harman, I shake twice daily and I have to empty the ash bin twice daily. I start shaking with fairly long strokes to drop out the large quantity of ash at the bottom, then go to short choppy strokes to vibrate out the ash but not to dump too much burning coal. But I always shake until I have SOME red burning coal in the ash pit. Then I look at the underside of the grates and if there's a lot of dark in some areas I poke up from the bottom with a bent metal rod to help clear the ashes that didn't drop. I like to see some red glow through the grates distributed fairly evenly over maybe 15 or 20 percent of the grate openings. Then I reload and go away for another 12 hours.

LsFarm wrote:Clinkers look like melted together rocks, pieces of coal, and brown glass.

Clinker.jpg

clinker3.jpg

clinker4.jpg

elvinpw wrote:

Rick 386 wrote:Elvin,

You have a Graingers store located down the road from you in Portland. You can order the Dwyer Model 25 from them. It is item # 2T650

If they have it in stock you can pick it up directly or have them ship it to you. Then you can set the draft and have the ability to constantly monitor it.

I picked up my own last Friday from the local store. They had a couple of them.


Rick

Hey thanks Rick for the tip! I've already looked them up on "anywho" and found them on Warren Ave in Portland. Know RIGHT where they are. Ony thing, is that they list themselves as "wholesalers" and sometimes those people get a little squirrely when a mere mortal tries to give them money. I'm all over it! Thanks a lot for the lead!

elvinpw wrote:The first light I was a bit nervous and it took me about a 1/2 day to summon the courage to actually LITE the thing.
My stack temp, measured about 2 feet up from the back of the stove rose to about 350 degrees, and my stove temp was about 550 degrees approaching 575!

Wood'nCoal wrote:

elvinpw wrote:The first light I was a bit nervous and it took me about a 1/2 day to summon the courage to actually LITE the thing.
My stack temp, measured about 2 feet up from the back of the stove rose to about 350 degrees, and my stove temp was about 550 degrees approaching 575!

I know the feeling, that uneasy sensation in the pit of the stomach, hands slightly trembling....beads of sweat forming on the forehead.
No problem, my stove runs 175 to 300 surface mounted thermometer on the stack all the time. Last week I forgot to close the ash door and when I smelled the paint on the pipes starting to smoke and closed the door it was up over 600.

It sounds like you are doing everything right. Just takes a little time and patience. Trust me on this, I know.

bugize wrote::shock: welcome to the forum elvin,
how is your burning goin? once you get the hang of burning coal you will love your stove. just a tip,if you have wood burning buddies come over,dont let them talk you into poking the coals like they do with wood...the poke and rake...this will upset a coal fire.
i have heated with wood most of my life and coal is by far better,for me anyways,to heat with i wish i done it earlier,this is my second year. i work a rotating swing shift and my fire is sometimes going 15 hrs between tendings and throwing heat still after 15 hrs.
i have my thermometer on my stove pipe 10-12 inches above the elbow on the back of the stove.when calling for more heat on our coldest days...i run my draft knob no more than 1 3/4 turns out and my stack temps are around 275-300.
i try to keep the stack temp below 300 only because it seems more than that ,i am sending heat up the flue and using alot more coal than need be. today for instance i have it 1 turn out my temp is about 200 and the house is 78...too hot for me but the g/f is compfy.
i shake until i see a glow from the coal bed in the ash pan,i empty my ashes once a day. you dont have to worry about creosote either,my stove has been running,non stop since the monday after thanksgiving.its kinda relieving to see the oil trucks going by the house to deliever to the others on my road. keep a note either on paper or in your head on outside temps,stack temps and where your running your draft knob. i usually check the forecast and set my draft accordingly,if temps are to be in the teens and low 20's...i set it to 1 1/4 turns out,this will give me stack temps between 200-225 and my house 74-76,BUT....each setup is different.i hope some of this helps you figure out the hand fed coal stove world. we are a barbaric bunch....some may even call us knuckle draggers.... .but for me its turned into kind of a practical hobby actually.

bugize wrote::shock: welcome to the forum elvin,
how is your burning goin? once you get the hang of burning coal you will love your stove. just a tip,if you have wood burning buddies come over,dont let them talk you into poking the coals like they do with wood...the poke and rake...this will upset a coal fire.
i have heated with wood most of my life and coal is by far better,for me anyways,to heat with i wish i done it earlier,this is my second year. i work a rotating swing shift and my fire is sometimes going 15 hrs between tendings and throwing heat still after 15 hrs.
i have my thermometer on my stove pipe 10-12 inches above the elbow on the back of the stove.when calling for more heat on our coldest days...i run my draft knob no more than 1 3/4 turns out and my stack temps are around 275-300.
i try to keep the stack temp below 300 only because it seems more than that ,i am sending heat up the flue and using alot more coal than need be. today for instance i have it 1 turn out my temp is about 200 and the house is 78...too hot for me but the g/f is compfy.
i shake until i see a glow from the coal bed in the ash pan,i empty my ashes once a day. you dont have to worry about creosote either,my stove has been running,non stop since the monday after thanksgiving.its kinda relieving to see the oil trucks going by the house to deliever to the others on my road. keep a note either on paper or in your head on outside temps,stack temps and where your running your draft knob. i usually check the forecast and set my draft accordingly,if temps are to be in the teens and low 20's...i set it to 1 1/4 turns out,this will give me stack temps between 200-225 and my house 74-76,BUT....each setup is different.i hope some of this helps you figure out the hand fed coal stove world. we are a barbaric bunch....some may even call us knuckle draggers.... .but for me its turned into kind of a practical hobby actually.

rberq wrote:Elvin, someone mentioned finding a Field Controls RC baro damper supplier. I got mine from F. W. Webb on Leighton Road in Augusta -- not TOO far from you. The other big supplier I know about in Augusta is Redlon and Johnson on State Street, but they have a big sign out front "NO RETAIL, NO EXCEPTIONS". Damned unfriendly if you ask me. Webb was happy to sell to me. The sales people call it a "draft control" and were flustered for a minute when I asked for a "barometric damper". Probably a good idea to call them before you make the drive to make sure they have the right one in stock -- I think it comes in 6, 7, and 8-inch flavors.

rberq wrote:Elvin, someone mentioned finding a Field Controls RC baro damper supplier. I got mine from F. W. Webb on Leighton Road in Augusta -- not TOO far from you. The other big supplier I know about in Augusta is Redlon and Johnson on State Street, but they have a big sign out front "NO RETAIL, NO EXCEPTIONS". Damned unfriendly if you ask me. Webb was happy to sell to me. The sales people call it a "draft control" and were flustered for a minute when I asked for a "barometric damper". Probably a good idea to call them before you make the drive to make sure they have the right one in stock -- I think it comes in 6, 7, and 8-inch flavors.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Another hopelessly addicted coal burner has joined the ranks!
You know it's bad when you think of ways to improve your installation and move the heat around.