Backfiring Coal Stove

Indeed. I find I leave my MPD open more often then not--it does not affect usage nor heat out-put. Probably put it in there from habit of burning wood for 40 yrs.

Ditto what rob said, my father in law has two saey hannover 1's, one in the house and one in the garage, both hopper fed and both bi metallic controlled, he has neither a mpd or baro, and I give all the credit too the bi metallic control being able to automatically compensate for just about anything.

Good call HB--I forgot to mention the bi-metallic on mine & Robs 50-93's

hotblast1357 wrote:Ditto what rob said, my father in law has two saey hannover 1's, one in the house and one in the garage, both hopper fed and both bi metallic controlled, he has neither a mpd or baro, and I give all the credit too the bi metallic control being able to automatically compensate for just about anything.

I feel that if you want something close to a stoker, but no electricity a hopper fed bi metallic controlled stove is the Cadillac.

windyhill4.2 wrote:An mpd won't help this situation ,setting the baro properly would be a very good thing. In the absence of a draft gauge it would be better to have the baro set "heavy" & lose a bit of heat rather than "light" & lose the draft. A properly set baro will keep the draft consistent & will prevent the unnecessary loss of heat up the stack.

When I posted this,i forgot to look at the stove the OP is dealing with,yes he probably is better off with nothing in the stack. BUT,a baro controls the draft on a stove without the bi-metallic controller,an mpd will not adjust itself in the middle of the night when the draft under goes a dramatic change,a baro is always ready to keep the draft consistent.

Indeed they are HB my friend. Plus seemingly less headaches.

WH, MPD has no need to adjust itself if the stove has a good draft. As stated many times before--if your stove has varying draft--YES--a baro should solve all that.

freetown fred wrote:As Rob said, crack your ash door vents just a tad! KISS my friend.

I opened up the ash vent just a tad and closed off the baro. I just dumped the ash, shook it down and filled the hopper. I opened up the rear damper to get her hot again. I'll keep and eye on it and see if she backfires at me again.

-Ron

I guess this coal is making me lazy. I never even thought about opening up the ash vent or even adjusting the auto damper open to get the new coal burning. I just dumped the ash, shook it down and filled the hopper. This stove just runs itself most of the time. Man I love it!

-Ron

Not so fast RS. With the ash door vents cracked you shouldn't have to do anything to your back flap when tending. Are you getting a good line of red embers in the ash pan when you shake? If so, try & NOT do anything with your back vent next time you tend. If no good red ash in pan--something ain't right.

freetown fred wrote:Not so fast RS. With the ash door vents cracked you shouldn't have to do anything to your back flap when tending. Are you getting a good line of red embers in the ash pan when you shake? If so, try & NOT do anything with your back vent next time you tend. If no good red ash in pan--something ain't right.

Yes I get lots of red ash. So many that I let it there until it cools off before dumping it. I think opening that ash door vent did the trick and shutting that baro off may have helped too.

Nice RS. Ain't it grand when a plan comes together I always shake in the AM & top off--leave pan---shake in the PM & top off--leaving pan--I empty the ash pan every AM when ashes have had all night to cool some then start over with tending again.

rstrawsburg wrote:I guess this coal is making me lazy. I never even thought about opening up the ash vent or even adjusting the auto damper open to get the new coal burning. I just dumped the ash, shook it down and filled the hopper. This stove just runs itself most of the time. Man I love it!

-Ron

I love it when I get to help someone in the hand-fired section. Doesn't happen very often these days.

Avoiding a puffback is a matter of keeping the volatile gases diluted so they don't make the proper fuel/air mixture to flash, until the fire under the fresh coal makes it's way to the top to safely ignite them. You can keep the gases diluted by changing the amount of air entering the firebox.

I crack my load door a hair until it ignites. Works every time..

HUH??????????????????? Indeed Lee