Newbie Having Trouble Getting a Good Fire - Harman Mark I

I just installed a thru the wall Harman Mark I hand fired stove with 316 steel Class A outside pipe. It worked great over the weekend when the temps were in the 40's. The temp has dropped to the 20's and 30's now and I can't get all of the coals to burn. I've tried different settings with the draft control, ash pan door open, stirring the hot coals with the unburned, etc. Last night it was only burning on the left side. I realized I hadn't shaken the ashes enough, so I shook it good, and then it was only burning in the middle. This morning same thing, only burning in the middle. I shook the ashes again and now it's only burning on the right side??? Puzzled! I'm thinking of moving my draft regulator closer to the stove. My pipe currently exits the back middle to a 90 then up 4ft to a 90, into the draft regulator and out thru the thimble. The pipe outside is above my roof line where it goes out the back of the house, and above the peak of the roof in the middle of my rancher. I'm not disappointed and know there's a solution. Just need help/suggestions, thanks! P.S. I don't think it's the coal since it burned great over the weekend. I'm using stove size coal right now, and the weather hasn't been real windy. Tomorrow is supposed to be windy at my place. Update: fire is out now. Starting over.

Unequal burn is caused by unequal air distribution, which is usually caused by ash blocking parts of the grate. Proof of this is how well it worked with a fresh fire. After a few days ash builds up and if not cleared equally the fire reflects it. Most develop methods to get around this by flossing with a small right angle poker from below or working at the bad spots from above or a combination of the two. Users of that stove or similar will be along to tell of their method.

Welcome Harley, it sounds like the stove is ashed up after a couple days of good burn. Most if not all box stoves do great with a fresh fire and then the corners and sometimes the rear, of just the front gets ash bound. NEVER stir a coal fire, this will kill it or turn a shake and load into hours of frustration.
Rectangular fire boxes need their corners cleaned by poking down and kinda slowly pried towards the center, same with the back or front if they don't respond to a good shake.
After a shake pull the ash pan out and kneel in front and look through the ash door at the grates. If the corners are dark then poking from under the grates with a length of steel with a 90 near the end and a 3 or 4 inch finger to poke up into the grates.
With a good bed of coals fill the fire box up to top of the bricks in a couples stages with the ash pan open and the load door cracked to allow over fire air. When the blue flames are dancing load'er up and set your primary air knobs. Some folks with your stove should be along but most hand fired box stoves have the same issues, don't worry you're only new once! Good luck Mike.

...NEWMAN.....I, I mean franco

Welcome to the forum! Getting the shakedown just right takes a couple sessions with the stove but you'll get it in no time at all.

Make sure to fill it all the way to the top of the fire brick during the reload, too.

When reloading that full there is a process to keep from getting puff backs. Before shaking down, get the existing coal bed livened up by opening the ash door for a couple minutes, then load up with coal leaving a corner of the fired up coal bed exposed so the flames ignite the volatiles of the new coal. Leave the ash door open for a couple minutes after loading it up like that...DO NOT leave the stove unattended with the ash door open!!! Then close up the ash door and set the spinner knob where you want it.

What the hell is a draft regulator???????????????? Are you tending twice daily? Filling to the top? You got some real good suggestions here, follow through & I'm sure things will get MUCH better.

freetown fred wrote:What the hell is a draft regulator???????????????? Are you tending twice daily? Filling to the top? You got some real good suggestions here, follow through & I'm sure things will get MUCH better.

MPD or Barometric damper I would guess.

I had the same issue with my MKII.

As Mike and Franco have it spot on, she's ash bound.

Any chance you have a manometer installed and can see the draft readings? I find on both my Mark's that too high a draft(and this might be coal burning in general) tended to burn out the coal faster and leave big clumps of ash which would restrict airflow.

A nice even .03" will produce baby powder over the course of 18-20 hours.

Same coal, just different conditions.

As said above NEVER STIR it. Been there, done that. Makes it worse.

Been burning a Mark I for 3 years now. Have a barometric damper. Used it first two years set at .06 using the guage printed on the weight. No manometer. This year I have it covered and it is more consistent. Every house/setup is different. Trial and error will tell you what works at your place.

Try shaking at 12 hour intervals. Shake quick and short a few times (watch the burning coal closely). Then open upper door and poke down the corners (don't stir). Then shake again until orange bits come through the grates. You'll notice a nice orange glow in the pan and then you'll know you shook enough.

Oh yeah. CO detectors. Get some.

Bopper

First of all thanks for all of the replies. Second, a draft regulator is (almost) the same as a barometric damper, with one big difference I think (see below). My problems seem to be the fact that I'm a newbie, allowing the ash to build up, and possibly a draft issue. I cleaned it out tonight, but didn't restart it yet. I don't have a manometer. I would like to better understand the use of the barometric damper before I re-fire. Bopper said "set at .06 using the gauge printed on the weight". My "draft regulator" from Fields Controls company doesn't seem to be functioning properly, doesn't have a gauge printed on the weight, and I think I need to either move it closer to the stove (it's at the top of my pipe right before the thimble) or replace it with a barometric damper that has a gauge. As a matter of fact, that is what I'm going to do. I will follow up with the results in a couple days after replacing the draft regulator with a barometric damper. Comments?

Harley76pa wrote:First of all thanks for all of the replies. Second, a draft regulator is (almost) the same as a barometric damper, with one big difference I think (see below). My problems seem to be the fact that I'm a newbie, allowing the ash to build up, and possibly a draft issue. I cleaned it out tonight, but didn't restart it yet. I don't have a manometer. I would like to better understand the use of the barometric damper before I re-fire. Bopper said "set at .06 using the gauge printed on the weight". My "draft regulator" from Fields Controls company doesn't seem to be functioning properly, doesn't have a gauge printed on the weight, and I think I need to either move it closer to the stove (it's at the top of my pipe right before the thimble) or replace it with a barometric damper that has a gauge. As a matter of fact, that is what I'm going to do. I will follow up with the results in a couple days after replacing the draft regulator with a barometric damper. Comments?

I did a google search and it appears that your draft regulator is a barometric damper. Is this what it looks like http://www.supplyhouse.com/Field-Controls-6-RC-6- ... il-or-Coal Take a look at my avator. I have a barometric damper about 4 ft off the floor. I'm set at .03 on the weight. You may want to try closing it all the way. Take a picture of it and we may be about to help. There should be a way to adjust it closed or foil over it. The barometric damper is there to kill the draft if your chimney pulls too hard. If you have the weight set to the other end it will open preventing the stove from getting the air it needs to burn. There are plenty of folks here that burn without the barometric damper and use the Manual Pipe Damper only. You may want to consider that instead of the barometric damper but I like the baro. on my setup. The folks on this forum will have the answers they have and continue to help me.

-Ron

It's good the fire went out - you need to start over.

Relight, and DON'T TOUCH anything for a minimum of 12 hours. If it burns out sooner, it's burning hotter than it should be for this weather.

When it's time to shake, POKE all around the fire with a skinny steel rod - I used a rear brake rod off a Yamaha on/off motorcycle - then shake until you start to see red coals dropping in the pan. Load it up, shut the door and walk away .. unless you need to make minor adjustments to the air intake.

If that stove has been run a long time without a thorough cleaning, I'd clean on top of the baffle plate, and inside the exhaust on the back of the stove - don't forget that opening runs the entire width of the stove, and will fill up with flyash. You need to get it all out of there, especially on top of the baffle plate.

A trick I used to cut down on excessive flyash was to shake with the ash and load doors CLOSED. I'd temporarily open the air intake wide so that I could see a glow inside, indicating it was time to stop shaking. I'd wait a few seconds, then open the ash door to have a look. If I had any dark spots in the lit up ash pan area, I'd poke those from above - that keeps the fire burning evenly across the width of the firebox.

Poke poke poke. And get a manometer. ..

I don't know about all this poking, I have a Mark II and she's been going a month straight now and I never poke.....but hey....I probably jinxed myself now. I do open the ash door for a few minutes and add a layer of coal before I shake. Last year was our first year burning and there is definitely a learning curve, but don't give up because it's worth it! I don't have any gadgets such as dampers or manommmeooomters or those things so I've no idea what that's about. My set up is fairly simple the stove sits in the fireplace and I put coal in and my house is warm, that's about it. Hardest part for me was learning to leave it alone. On warmer days this stove can go for a long time 15-16 hours and be fine, colder temps I load and shake about every 12 hours so my fire doesn't get too cold.

Good luck!

EPugs45 wrote:Hardest part for me was learning to leave it alone.

This is commonly heard around here!! Awesome that you have got the process down and are keeping warm! Very good burn times you are getting too.

In your Mark II you may find you need to scrape along the sides and front of the firebox every week or so to help clear built up ash. A lot of Mark owners (myself included) have noticed the ash builds up there after a while and the fire doesn't do as well in those spots and cuts down on heat output. I used a regular fireplace poker and just pushed it into the coal bed right along the firebrick and pulled it along the sides & front a time or two. Cleared a lot of the fine powdery ash from there and boosted my stoves output back up to normal.

Harley, how "thick" is your wall thimble?
Make sure your stove has some air, if your house is tight, it can affect your draft. Amazing what a cracked open window near your stove can do for the burn, and draft, good luck!