I've Figured Out the Perfect Re-Loading Now

ok after all this time and I have figured out the perfect reload sequence for my Glenwood No. 6 .

There is no temperature loss , no sitting waiting for the blue ladies , almost a perfect load and go .

I have been doing this for the past 6 reloads now I believe .

-First I put the stove in direct and then open the MPD .

- then I open the primaries on the bottom of the stove to see as Rotate the grates until both sides show a little sparks coming down .

- I open the load door and feed the coal on top of the bed with a feed scoop and the bed slowly falls and I keep adding coal until it is a nice heaping cone on top . I then shut the door and open the secondary all the way.

- I put the primaries back to the setting I want to keep them on immediately after loading but leave the secondary open for few minutes and then shut it .

-I then put it in base heater mode and close the MPD . The thermometer at the top of the stove doesn't waver much if any . Heat stayed consistent and I am not waiting around as long as I was before .

My issue with the way I used to reload was this. I would use a 90° poker to push the coal bed down after shaking and sometimes before . The issue with this is it compacts the bed and causes ash to fill in air gaps which causes the stove to choke a lot for a little while dropping the temps while it Ramps up again and burning fuel that is not putting the same heat out through the stove . It would also cause me to take a long time in the morning . Buy letting the bed naturally fall and dumping the grates at the bottom it works very well and allows the bed of coals to have consistent air as previously before . In fact I do believe I am burning less coal this way and getting 100% ash .

It is really nice to finally figure it out when I already thought I figured it out ! Surprise surprise .

Smokeyja wrote:It is really nice to finally figure it out when I already thought I figured it out ! Surprise surprise .

No mountains left to limb? Conquered Mount Anthracite? My guess is you'll have new vistas to view, expansive horizons to be scanned...ash to be cleared.

Just when I think I've got it...I came home to a dead fire tonight.

tmbrddl wrote:

Smokeyja wrote:It is really nice to finally figure it out when I already thought I figured it out ! Surprise surprise .

No mountains left to limb? Conquered Mount Anthracite? My guess is you'll have new vistas to view, expansive horizons to be scanned...ash to be cleared.

Just when I think I've got it...I came home to a dead fire tonight.

I believe I can always learn more . But it was nice to know I could learn a better way today. I haven't lost a fire in the Glenwood since I got it . It's just such a good stove that even if you aren't doing that good of a job it still seems to be outstanding . That's why I thought I had it figured out but this just makes it that much easier !

The Warm morning on the other hand could be a handful some days . Losing a fire , fighting clinkers . But I am very glad I started out with that stove and had to fight my way to learn with it . It's still a good stove that's why I haven't sold it .

What do you think is going on with yours ?

Smokeyja wrote:[ I haven't lost a fire in the Glenwood since I got it . It's just such a good stove that even if you aren't doing that good of a job it still seems to be outstanding .

What do you think is going on with yours ?

Stove coal and some air leaks. Even with the primaries almost closed, I get eight inch blue ladies licking at the dome. I'll make it through the winter and tear her down again next summer and button her up tighter. I want to get the nickel re-plated so I'll make a project of it.

I have an Oak 30 and love it but I'm still looking for the perfect stove. What is the perfect vintage coal stove?

tmbrddl wrote:

Smokeyja wrote:[ I haven't lost a fire in the Glenwood since I got it . It's just such a good stove that even if you aren't doing that good of a job it still seems to be outstanding .

What do you think is going on with yours ?

Stove coal and some air leaks. Even with the primaries almost closed, I get eight inch blue ladies licking at the dome. I'll make it through the winter and tear her down again next summer and button her up tighter. I want to get the nickel re-plated so I'll make a project of it.

I have an Oak 30 and love it but I'm still looking for the perfect stove. What is the perfect vintage coal stove?

I mean this 6 is pretty perfect to me but there are a lot out there that I haven't tried out that are supposed to be pretty amazing . I would have the leave the opinion someone like William although I think it's a good question and possibly a good thread to start to see what comes of it .

Have you tried mixing in some nut with the stove coal ?

Smokeyja wrote:I mean this 6 is pretty perfect to me but there are a lot out there that I haven't tried out that are supposed to be pretty amazing . I would have the leave the opinion someone like William although I think it's a good question and possibly a good thread to start to see what comes of it .

Have you tried mixing in some nut with the stove coal ?

I normally mix nut with the stove but I was stove heavy and needed to balance out my supply so I went heavy on the stove. I'm getting some excess air from somewhere and that's not helping a thing.

I'll start the thread on the Holy Grail of coal stoves.

Smokeyja wrote:ok after all this time and I have figured out the perfect reload sequence for my Glenwood No. 6 .

There is no temperature loss , no sitting waiting for the blue ladies , almost a perfect load and go .

I have been doing this for the past 6 reloads now I believe .

-First I put the stove in direct and then open the MPD .

- then I open the primaries on the bottom of the stove to see as Rotate the grates until both sides show a little sparks coming down .

- I open the load door and feed the coal on top of the bed with a feed scoop and the bed slowly falls and I keep adding coal until it is a nice heaping cone on top . I then shut the door and open the secondary all the way.

- I put the primaries back to the setting I want to keep them on immediately after loading but leave the secondary open for few minutes and then shut it .

-I then put it in base heater mode and close the MPD . The thermometer at the top of the stove doesn't waver much if any . Heat stayed consistent and I am not waiting around as long as I was before .

My issue with the way I used to reload was this. I would use a 90° poker to push the coal bed down after shaking and sometimes before . The issue with this is it compacts the bed and causes ash to fill in air gaps which causes the stove to choke a lot for a little while dropping the temps while it Ramps up again and burning fuel that is not putting the same heat out through the stove . It would also cause me to take a long time in the morning . Buy letting the bed naturally fall and dumping the grates at the bottom it works very well and allows the bed of coals to have consistent air as previously before . In fact I do believe I am burning less coal this way and getting 100% ash .

It is really nice to finally figure it out when I already thought I figured it out ! Surprise surprise .

How can you add room temp coal and assuming 12 hrs worth in this weather and not lose any temp while getting it hot enough to burn.

Easy. The coal sits beside the base of the 6 and when I reload there is still a good half of a firepot full of hot coals . The new coal is not cooling down the burning coal and I am not dropping temps on the stove.

I reload 20lbs each time .

Smokeyja wrote:Easy. The coal sits beside the base of the 6 and when I reload there is still a good half of a firepot full of hot coals . The new coal is not cooling down the burning coal and I am not dropping temps on the stove.

I reload 20lbs each time .

Unless the coal in the bucket was burning you had to add BTU to it that took heat from the stove to raise it to burning temps. Possibly whatever used to measure temps moves so slow it seems like it did not change.

i think the point is, that the coal sitting beside the stove could well be 100 + *'s when it's put in the stove. which will absorb considerably less BTU to bring to burning temp than not pre heated.

i have 2 hods of coal sitting next to my stove that I brought in from the bin in the garage ( 30* at best ) at 5:30pm this evening it's now 88 *'s.

since I have a hopper and am burning fairly slow, shaking down and refilling 1/2 the total capacity of the hopper every 12 hrs. my fire doesn't see ANY coal that isn't about what 900 *'s ?

i check stove temps. with an infra red and don't see any drop after re charge, though the stove will climb some and go back to where it was.

ddahlgren wrote:

Smokeyja wrote:Easy. The coal sits beside the base of the 6 and when I reload there is still a good half of a firepot full of hot coals . The new coal is not cooling down the burning coal and I am not dropping temps on the stove.

I reload 20lbs each time .

Unless the coal in the bucket was burning you had to add BTU to it that took heat from the stove to raise it to burning temps. Possibly whatever used to measure temps moves so slow it seems like it did not change.

I also have a stove that is a giant hunk of cast iron and retains heat very well.
My stove is keeping a consistent temp and I don't need to have a whole slew of instruments to verify that . To be honest I don't care about the break down of BTUs . This stove keeps the house well beyond warm when it's idling . Just imagine if I really wanted to let out some heat out . And all with out electricity I might add .

Maybe check out an antique stove , especially a base heater , in person sometime you might just start to see out of the modern sheet metal box.

Interesting, I'll have to give that a twirl when I return home!

brunom15 wrote:Interesting, I'll have to give that a twirl when I return home!

It sure was a game changer for me ! I hope it works out for you as well.

Smokeyja wrote:

brunom15 wrote:Interesting, I'll have to give that a twirl when I return home!

It sure was a game changer for me ! I hope it works out for you as well.

I'll report back Friday after reloading in the morning. Firing mine back up tomorrow night.

Didn't work out for me, though that may be due to subtleties of technique, or the coal. The particular bag I was on was full of small pieces of coal, probably what would be called a mix of pea and rice, rather than the nut it was labelled as. My stove went down to about 200 on the barrel, and stayed there for pretty much the whole day, even with the primaries wide open, secondary partly open then later closed, mpd open, direct mode. I'm guessing the fire simply got smothered, and couldn't get enough air. I'm sticking to layers for now, with 1/3 to 1/4 of the existing fire uncovered at a time.

I may invest some time and some extra buckets in sorting coal as I open the bags. The 200 degree barrel wasn't a joy for the day, but it would actually be pretty good for overnight. I might also get some stove coal, to get the fire up quickly.

Bruno