Need Help,Drafting Issue? Hitzer 50-93

Hey, don't these stoves comes with some kind of plate that needs to be removed? Or an I thinking of a different stove?

Different stove.

VicB wrote:Stove is brand new off the show room floor gaskets and door all seem to close tightly,even vacuumed them off to b sure! Oliver how would removing the hopper help? I like the hopper system idea, one if the reasons that drew me to the stove! I know where the permanent part of the hopper is welded to the firebox ceiling it is NOT welded around the entire perimeter seems to be an intentional 5-6" seam on the front sides left unwelded. Figure this is why if its rolling a long hot and pop that hopper door open she'll rip some flames out! And yep the MPD is functioning as it should. been in the vertical position since alarms started going off

From what I've gathered so far, you have a week draft, and tight house. If you were to add make up air, crack the ash pan vents open just a touch, and take that manual damper out (or leave it vertical), your stove would run just fine. Taking the hopper out was just something to try, and see if your alarms still go off. A hopper stove requires more draft, as fumes need to be pulled around the hopper. If you had to, you could run without the hopper but, efficiency would drop. Of course you'd want to keep the hopper in the stove. Should you want to take it out, open the front load door. You'll see one bolt in the center of the hopper. Take the bolt out, and the hopper slides off rails, and out the front door. Fred mentioned your chimney cap. Do you have one? If so, what's it like?

So I called hitzer on lunch break today. Spoke with a very nice man, I think his name was Dean. Talked longer than we should have! He's pointing me in the direction of a liner. Said it will Definitely improve my draft. Asked him about the not-welded portion of the hopper and he says that is to help prevent flare ups when opening the hopper. So that is intentional. Asked him about sealing around the shaker handle. He says you can but with out proper draft you can still get leakage at that point. Talked about the fan sucking fumes out the draft door in back. Also possible but cured with proper draft. I actually placed a piece of sheet metal next to the draft door between the fan and draft trying to prevent just that, still no help.

Right now my plans are to purchase a liner get things installed and get the stove up and running! Then I can try some of the suggestions posted above! I believe a fresh air supply to the fire box will be next. Im thinking I will probably fabricate something around the draft door and a pipe to the outdoors. I Definitely see a manometer in my future!

Nice. Good luck with all that.

To answer some questions: when I was burning the stove basically shake her down 2-3 times a day and keep the hopper full,make sure the ashes are completely clear of the grates.
The thimble is 6 1/2" from the back of the flue the same as that interior dimension of the flue itself.
The temperature of the stove is usually to hot to place your hand on the port side. The pipe really varies with the stove. Most of the time you can run your hand lightly along it. Before the CO sensors were installed and I was using the MPD, below the damper was hot didnt ever really feel around down there much. Above was usually touchable.
I was burning blaschack,bagged,nut coal.
Pics will be coming soon! And one of those dog-manometers sounds like the thing to have !!! Lol!

About the flow of air thru the thimble with the stove disconnected. The day I disconnected everything it was flowing out the thimble and up the chimney. Today it was coming into the basement thru the thimble. Got to be air displacement/shortage going on sometimes.

VicB wrote:Right now my plans are to purchase a liner get things installed and get the stove up and running! Then I can try some of the suggestions posted above! I believe a fresh air supply to the fire box will be next. Im thinking I will probably fabricate something around the draft door and a pipe to the outdoors. I Definitely see a manometer in my future!

VicB, For one, you're monkeying with the stove way too much. Once properly set, you shouldn't need to touch that stove at all, for a minimum of 12 hours. You should be able to go out 18 hours, and then some. A bed of coals doesn't like to be monkeyed with. Most tend their stoves every 12 hours. If your chimney is drafting weak, You need to keep that MPD open all the time, as to warm your chimney. Personally, I'd take it out, and fill the holes with 5/16 Allen screws. You should at least have a magnetic stick-on thermometer on the stove pipe. It should be reading, give or take, 175* - 200*. I may be wrong, but I think you're throwing your money away on the stainless liner. The suggestions above are not just blind guesses. They are real life experiences connected to the problem you're having. The problem we have is; without knowing draft, and temp numbers, it's hard to pin-point which, if not all suggestions need to be addressed. It's another reason we like pictures. A lot of times, we can look at a picture, and tell you what the problem is. I'd surly be looking at the things we mentioned, before spending big money on a stainless liner. Going by your description, you already have the best chimney you can get. You may have to insulate it. An interior chimney is always better.

VicB wrote:About the flow of air thru the thimble with the stove disconnected. The day I disconnected everything it was flowing out the thimble and up the chimney. Today it was coming into the basement thru the thimble. Got to be air displacement/shortage going on sometimes.

Again, Pictures???

If ya don't have a cap up top to slow/eliminate that down draft, I'd get one. I don't see where a liner is gonna help personally. They DO come with a cap.

I can see Dean's point that getting the chimney flue size down to the 6" round from the 11 x 6-1/2 with a liner should help. And you may have to eventually get to that point.

But before spending all that money, a free test would be to crack a window in the room while the stove is being run to see if it is a problem with the house being too tight to allow make up air.

Because even with a smaller flue liner, you will have draft issues if you don't have enough make up air.

If you have a manometer connected to the flue pipe you would see any measurable difference running with window closed versus open.

Keep it Sensibly Simple , do the small things first, get a manometer or magnehelic hooked up so you KNOW what the draft is doing,open a window or door to see if that helps. OR, start BIG ~~ tear the house down,build bigger & better,put the chimney in the center. The liner should not be the first step you take !

VicB wrote:About the flow of air thru the thimble with the stove disconnected. The day I disconnected everything it was flowing out the thimble and up the chimney. Today it was coming into the basement thru the thimble. Got to be air displacement/shortage going on sometimes.

Two story house? Flow reversal is pretty much guaranteed with a tight house once the chimney cooled, see "stack effect". Get a manometer before you throw your money away on a liner.

VicB wrote:About the flow of air thru the thimble with the stove disconnected. The day I disconnected everything it was flowing out the thimble and up the chimney. Today it was coming into the basement thru the thimble. Got to be air displacement/shortage going on sometimes.

Hooked her up to an exterior brick, clay tile lined chimney.

Outside block chimneys are heavily influenced by temperature conditions outside. I've noticed my chimney reverse too. During the summer in the late morning after a cool night, air will be flowing into the basement. Then after sunset when the chimney had warmed during the day, it flows out of the basement and up the chimney like it should.

But since this is happening while its cold outside, its likely that stack effect in the house coupled with outdoor temp influence of the chimney is causing the occasional downdraft you are seeing..