I Think I Messed up

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:10 pm

So I started a fire with paper, small pieces of kindling and a good layer of lump charcoal. Got that all going good. I put a layer of stove coal on that.....got it going. Put another layer of stove on that...so it's established.

Smothered it with a mix of stove coal and nut and both the barrel temp and stack temp plummeted to 200ish. It's still glowing down by the grates and I can hear it cracklin' but there are no blue ladies dancin' and no fire visible top side.

With all stove coal I can always see the fire so I know it's breathing.

Ssssoooooooooooooooo....do I need to put the nut on in a thinner layer before smothering it?.

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:12 pm

About 180F on the barrel and similar on the stack.

tcalo · Post by **tcalo** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:13 pm

Once the lower bed of coals is glowing you should be fine. Safe to fill the pot at that point.

Post by **ONEDOLLAR** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:14 pm

Give it some time and some extra air to get going. I bet she will be fine. It can take a couple of hours for the fire to burn its way upwards.

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:15 pm

tcalo wrote:Once the lower bed of coals is glowing you should be fine. Safe to fill the pot at that point.

That's how I did it with stove coal and had no issues. The nut size is MUCH smaller though.

Dare I scoop some out?.

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:15 pm

ONEDOLLAR wrote:Give it some time and some extra air to get going. I bet she will be fine. It can take a couple of hours for the fire to burn its way upwards.

The primaries are open all the way. I'm not comfortable with opening the ash pan door.....I don't want to wreck my grates.

Post by **ONEDOLLAR** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:17 pm

I wouldn't remove any coal. Doing so could compress things and disturb the lower bed. Coal doesn't like to be played with.. Leave it alone. Give the fire some air and of course keep an eye on it. My bet is she will do just fine.. If the coal on the bottom is lit the fire should spred. Just gonna take some more time as the bed if more dense with nut vs coal size. If you are not comfortable with the ash pan door open then don't do it. Make sure the air vents are open all the way and give it a few mins. The fire will spread.

tcalo · Post by **tcalo** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:17 pm

I burn nut. Once I have a good bed of glowing coal established I fill it up. Like ONEDOLLAR said, it takes some time to work it's way up. As long as you have a glowing bed you won't smother the fire.

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:19 pm

tcalo wrote:I burn nut. Once I have a good bed of glowing coal established I fill it up. Like ONEDOLLAR said, it takes some time to work it's way up. As long as you have a glowing bed you won't smother the fire.

Well....patience is a virtue.
I know have blue critters dancing all over the top.

Sorry, still new at this

tcalo · Post by **tcalo** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:21 pm

Pancho wrote:Sorry, still new at this

No worries

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:21 pm

Temps are coming up now.
It's all good. Thanks guys.

Post by **ONEDOLLAR** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:22 pm

Pancho

AWESOME NEWS!! No need to apologize. We have all been there at one point or another. Few things are better than looking at the Dancing Blue Ladies I say!

You will find nut is going to react differantly than stove size in these stoves. Just an FYI. Play around with various mixtures of Nut and stove size. You might stumble on a ratio that works for you and your set up. My crawford will burn Pea if I add two inches or so of nut on the bottom and she will hit 450f with it that way. So play around. Now is the time to do it before the winter truely sets in.

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:25 pm

ONEDOLLAR wrote:Pancho

AWESOME NEWS!! No need to apologize. We have all been there at one point or another. Few things are better than looking at the Dancing Blue Ladies I say!

Well, first time with nut coal and it was totally different that my previous two times with stove coal......not knowing what I don't know kinda freaked me out momentarily.

I'm gettin' there.

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 12:27 pm

ONEDOLLAR wrote:Pancho

You will find nut is going to react differantly than stove size in these stoves. Just an FYI. Play around with various mixtures of Nut and stove size. You might stumble on a ratio that works for you and your set up. My crawford will burn Pea if I add two inches or so of nut on the bottom and she will hit 450f with it that way. So play around. Now is the time to do it before the winter truely sets in.

Yeah, picked up a few bags of nut today just for the purpose of giving me a heart attack and playing with it before ole' man winter kicks me in the giblets.

So far I have taken off, landed and been able to walk away.

Pancho · Post by **Pancho** » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 1:13 pm

It's settled in at 250F on the barrel and 200F on the stack.

MPD past 45 and the check damper cracked open about a quarter inch.

I couldn't get it that low with stove coal.