Problems With Hotblast...Puffing Smoke Out Door

My hotblast 1557m has started poofin smoke out of the heat settings door on the feed door. Last week I had to replace my front shaker grate do to breaking off the tab for the handle. Ever since I fired it back up I have had trouble with it randomly poofing smoke out. When I went to replace the grate I noticed the front and rear grates were installed different. One had the fat part of the v up and the other had the small side on the grates. I made the front one match the rear one, I just don't remember which way that was. Would this be causing my trouble?

I am leaving a small air gap in the heat settings door I have tried leaving it all the way open or all the way closed and it doesn't matter, nothing helps. The bottom air screw is open 1 turn. I have tried adjusting that also.

I have noticed looking thru the heat setting door that I always have a strong orange flame burning, until the coal is almost all gone then the blue ladies start.

Any help would be great!
Thanks

I'm burning bit coal also.

What is your draft? Have you tried running more secondary air?

Cody,I don't have Your Stove,but here goes......Do You have CO Detectors and a Manometer ? Your Draft sounds non-existent....Shut that thing down....To me,when You shut down for Your Grate Issue,being Your burning Bit,You may have had Your black pipe going to Your Thimble collapse the Crud Layer(Soot) and block a good portion of it...Same goes for Your Chimney Flu.....I'd Shut It Down Now,let it cool and start a thorough cleaning...That'll give You time to get the straight story on Your Grate Orientation and Troubles corrected and then go from there.....Let Us Know !

Here is more information about the grate's orientation.
You want the openings of the grates, small side up or you will have jamming and/or ash compaction in the openings.

Grates Upside Down

As far as smoke out the secondary openings, its possible that soot is narrowing your flue pipe and/or chimney causing a draft problem like Bob suggested.. Bit coal is notorious for soot related issues like this. Other than that, try running more secondary air (combustion air thru the load door). Puff backs are usually caused from an inadequate amount of oxygen supply over the fire to burn the volatile gases being baked out of the bituminous coal.. If it burns too hot with the added secondary air, cut the primary air down completely (air at the ash pan door) till its under control, then add some in small increments.

The grate orientation shouldn't have any bearing on the puff back issue.
I don't think they are related.

My draft is running just over .05 and smoke was poring from the chimney pretty good earlier not long after filling. I won't fill it in the morning to try a clean out and see what I can find after work.
I have 2 CO detectors one in the basement with the stove and one on the living floor upstairs.

I'm going with the sooty pipe thing.

Cody, are you getting a "puff back" out of the secondary slide control on the load door? For example, after you load fresh coal, get it going good, then shutdown the slide control after it's burning good and hot, then it puffs smoke out of the slide control on the load door (if you have a baro damper it usually causes it to bounce open and closed at the same time the smoke puffs out of the load door).
If this is the case, then as Lightning said above, your not allowing enough secondary air into the firebox after you load it to burn off all the volatile gases. I run my secondary control wide open for about 30to 45 minutes before I close it up some. As he said, if it runs to hot, close the primary air knob down to regulate it, even all the way closed if necessary. Then start opening it up about a half turn at a time until you have it under control. You will kind of get the feel for where it needs to be. Then you can start there in the future.
I leave my ash pan door open and my load door open for about 10 or 15 minutes after I load bit. After it's burning good, I close the ash pan door and open the knob about 1.5 turns. Also close the load door and as I said, leave the secondary air (the slide control on the load door) wide open, or almost wide open, for awhile. If I try to close my secondary air down to soon, then it puffs smoke out of the door.

if your problem is having smoke continuously coming out of the load door, then that sounds more like a flue restriction.
if I remeber correctly, didn't you have a 6" thimble? Did you setup your 8" pipe then reduce it down and connect it to the 6" thimble? If so, that might be the first area to check to see if you have any build up of soot that may cause your problem.
Also, check out Lightning's post about the grates. It will make clearing ash much easier.

I cleaned out my flue last night. There was a little build up but not as much as I expected. I wish I had taken a picture but I forgot. I will light it back up tonight I also turned the grates so now both are the correct direction.

I will see how it goes tonight.

I am still having the puff back problem. Draft is set at .05 -.08.

I am thinking about building it a small room directly outside the house and piping the heat inside. Has anyone ever tried something like this?

You'll loose some heat to the outdoors that could be potentially helping to heat your house. I think the better plan is to keep trying to control the puff back issue.

Are you using BIG chunks of coal? Bigger pieces bake out volatile gases more slowly. Are you banking the fire? After shake down, push the hot coals to the back half of the fuel bed and fill the front half with fresh coal. Did you try closing the primary air and give it more secondary?

Keep experimenting. You'll get it..

Lightning wrote:You'll loose some heat to the outdoors that could be potentially helping to heat your house. I think the better plan is to keep trying to control the puff back issue.

Are you using BIG chunks of coal? Bigger pieces bake out volatile gases more slowly. Are you banking the fire? After shake down, push the hot coals to the back half of the fuel bed and fill the front half with fresh coal. Did you try closing the primary air and give it more secondary?

Keep experimenting. You'll get it..

I have coal that is sized from around 5" down to dust. It was supposed to be washed and sized as stove coal.... I got hosed on the deal I believe.

On this stove you can't fully close the primary air bc it has small nipples that keep the screw part barely open.

As far as the experimenting goes I am stumped. I had it running good until I had to shut it down to change the grate. Ever since then I haven't been able to run it right.

For what it's worth, I run quite a bit more draft with my setup. After load up mine runs between .15 and .20 on the mano gauge. It will fall back to around .10 after a couple of hours or so. I have a really strong draft on my flue pipe so my baro will damn near be wide open in cold weather.
I do use big lumps of bit. Like basketball size.
I added a MPD to my setup to get my draft down where all the anthracite guys like to burn (in the .04 to .06 range) and my setup just does not like that thing. I will probably end up taking it back out before next year.
I guess my efficiancy would be better if I choked it back somehow but bit seems to burn best with a lot of secondary air. I get 12 to 14 hour burns using 35 to 40 lbs of coal, lots of secondary air, a strong draft and very little effort and that works with my schedule.
It might be worth a try to back your baro off some and let it pull in a little more secondary air and see if that helps with the puff backs.
Also, banking is very important with bit as Lightning said. Don't cover a hot coal bed with bit and then shut her down or you will certainly be primed for a puff back.