Cold Air Return. Do I Need It?

Hambden Bob · Post by **Hambden Bob** » Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 11:59 am

Larry,You've Come Far In A Month ! Stay with it,as Your seeing the Relationships that occur based on what You do. Always give Coal time to react,and give Your Unit Time to reflect what You've done to it....Make one move at a time,be Patient,and check results.....Believe it or not,Your Gaining on Learning how to Heat with this Unit !

larryfoster · Post by **larryfoster** » Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 12:16 pm

I've certainly tried a lot of different things.

There were some things I rejected outright because they didn't work for my situation.
Didn't mean they were wrong, just wrong for me.

While there are many similarities throughout, I'm learning there is no one-size-fits-all.

Ky Speedracer's success using bit helped me feel justified in sticking with it.

Just to keep the timeline a little longer:
From 10:40-12:05 I have been able to maintain a 375 temp
Have added no coal since 7:30 and still have a pretty good bed of coals. Probably will need to add in the next hour or so

larryfoster · Post by **larryfoster** » Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 12:57 pm

12:45. Down to 325 and the coals had settled.
Shook the grates and stirred. Lot's of powder which indicates a good burn.

Added 8-10 big lumps softball size and up.
Ash door is still closed with the spinner 4 turns, load door air closed.

See what this does

Ky Speedracer · Post by **Ky Speedracer** » Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 6:19 pm

Congrats Larryon your progress of dialing her in. Sounds like your getting there man.
I just got back online today and had a chance to look at the pictures that you posted of your setup. It looks like your stove/furnace is right at the bottome of the steps that come down from your living area. If that is the case, I would think you could just leave the the door at the top of the steps open about 6" or so and that will work almost as well as having a cold air duct piped in. It will just pull the air it needs from the living area down the steps if the door is open and right into the back of the stove. Hypo-allergenic filters will up with the ash and dust control.

larryfoster · Post by **larryfoster** » Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 6:58 pm

Today was a pretty good day.

Maintained mostly 350-375 all day.
Haven't added as much coal as usual.
Right now the coals are pretty built up in my fire chamber.
Hoping they'll burn down some.

Shook the grates a little bit ago and seem to have a clinker.
They seem to stuck far enough rolled over that I can't get the ash pan out.

I dug some but need to go back down

I didn't get hypo-allergenic filters but some thing with a finer mesh that the standard $.89 filter.
Paid $5 at Ace for these.
It was white but looks pretty dirty already

SWPaDon · Post by **SWPaDon** » Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 9:33 pm

I hope you got the ash pan out. A full ash pan with burning coal above will warp the grates.

larryfoster · Post by **larryfoster** » Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:15 pm

I did get it out.

I left it in a little while to burn down a little.
What ever was clogging it disintegrated it enough to clear..

I'm pretty anal about keeping the ash pan empty

24 hours in after the mods, I'm tentatively claiming some success.

(Knock wood

)

From 7:30 AM-8 PM, I only used 7 shovels of coal and that will last me until I bank a little before midnight.
Other than a brief dip to 300, it has maintained 350-nearly 400 for hours.

I'm sure there will be other issues but I feel I may have crossed a big hurdle.

Thanks again to all who offered their patience and suggestions.

I wasn't an ideal patient

Post by **Lightning** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 3:55 am

That's great man. Perhaps this gained plateau of success will give you new inspiration to pursue forward.

Thanks for the update!

SWPaDon · Post by **SWPaDon** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 6:27 am

Yes, you've crossed a big hurdle, congratulations.

larryfoster · Post by **larryfoster** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 7:17 am

It's too early to celebrate yet.
I don't want to end up like the Packers yesterday in the NFC Championship nor break my arm patting myself in the back.

Dirt is my next serious issue.

It's really bad.
If I solve that, happy wife happy life

SWPaDon · Post by **SWPaDon** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 7:26 am

larryfoster wrote:It's too early to celebrate yet.
I don't want to end up like the Packers yesterday in the NFC Championship nor break my arm patting myself in the back.

Dirt is my next serious issue.

It's really bad.
If I solve that, happy wife happy life

If you've gone a full day without burning wood, and the fire is still burning ................you done good.

The dirt issue, will clean itself up (pun intended) a lot as you gain knowledge on how to use your furnace correctly. There are ways you can fire the furnace and eliminate 90% of the dirt.

Just takes practice my friend.

Ky Speedracer · Post by **Ky Speedracer** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 7:35 am

Way to persevere with the burning!
What is your ash removal process. Are you dumping it inside the basement. The bit ash gets crazy airborne when it's hot...

larryfoster · Post by **larryfoster** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 7:53 am

I do have the bucket next to the furnace and dump there.
It definitely puts up some dust.

Hmmm.

Maybe I should change that procedure

hotblast1357 · Post by **hotblast1357** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 8:09 am

Dust Free Ash Pan Dumping

It works great, I made the same thing.

larryfoster · Post by **larryfoster** » Mon. Jan. 19, 2015 8:15 am

I'm going to take a look at doing something like that.