Question for TLC-2000 owners

Adamiscold wrote:I'm figuring brand new stove, so everything should be as tight as it possibly can be. I've been reading all the new postings and they have one on Barometric draft controls am I to assume that a Barometric draft control is nothing more then the winged damper control inside the exhaust stack and it adjusts automatically for you so you never have to touch it?

I guess I was hoping for an easier answer, like a yes or a no.

Okay.

Here's the deal:

If you have a "proper" draft (a well built chimney, or a properly installed external flue, with a good, consistant draft) then yes, you can do all your control merely from the air-flow on the stove. My Mom runs a Mk2 and a Mk3 and has no dampers, manual or otherwise, anywhere in her system. And they run fabulously, and solidly.

Manual damper you have to adjust occasionally, depending on atmospheric and wind conditions.

A baro simply opens to let extra air into the chimney/pipe when it needs it, such as when you have a wind gust, and if it's installed on a well drafting chimney, will actually _help_ with the burn control via the stove air inlet.

So, yes. All things being "good" in stove land, you _can_ run the stove, and control your heat output with nothing other than the air vent on the bottom and close adjustment thereof. (I think the Mk 2 runs "typically" with the vent open 2-fins of a turn, and "high" is about a full turn).

We're looking new everything, stove, chimney here so would a baro be a good thing to have since we tend to get a lot of wind gust's here in order to get the most bang for our buck with the least amount of work (ie babysitting)?



Sorry to have jumped in on your thread.

Adamiscold wrote:We're looking new everything, stove, chimney here so would a baro be a good thing to have since we tend to get a lot of wind gust's here in order to get the most bang for our buck with the least amount of work (ie babysitting)?



Sorry to have jumped in on your thread.

This is the first "combustion" device (other than an oil burner) I have ever had a baro on. Everything else has always been hand-dampered, and that includes four wood stoves and a wood/coal "warm morning" aeons ago.

_personally_ I cannot see a good reason to _not_ have a baro, unless you plan to burn almost entirely wood, as in that case it will creosote your chimney faster. (colder chimney means the unburned gasses cool and "stick" before they make it all the way out).

I think much of the resentment to baro's is the same as the resentment for computer controlled cars.. nostalgia, and a love of tinkering.

Call a local stove retailer/installer, and ask what they think. That's probably your best answer. Between that, and the install specs of the stove manufacturer. Most of us like to _think_ we know more than the engineers who built the things, and in some cases that may be true. But if Harman says "it gets a baro" then, IMHO, it gets a baro.

Thanks CBT, I'm just trying to get as much information as I can before me and the wife start going to dealerships. There's really not anyone near by that has coal stoves in there show room that we have been to so far.

Adamiscold wrote:Thanks CBT, I'm just trying to get as much information as I can before me and the wife start going to dealerships. There's really not anyone near by that has coal stoves in there show room that we have been to so far.

You are looking for what, a coal stove? Or a boiler?

CBT69 wrote:
You are looking for what, a coal stove? Or a boiler?

A coal stove maybe with or without a heating coil since it's going to be installed on the first floor completely on the other side of the house.

Adamiscold wrote:

CBT69 wrote:
You are looking for what, a coal stove? Or a boiler?

A coal stove maybe with or without a heating coil since it's going to be installed on the first floor completely on the other side of the house.

Well, I cannot reccomend Harman highly enough. I love mine(even though I've only had it a day and a half) but my Mom is running two for seven years now, and loves them, and I've yet to meet _anyone_ who doesn't rave about theirs.

They aren't cheap, but when I figured out the cost of the stove was 3 tanks of oil.. well, at that point, it becomes a moot point.

I'm not sure if you can get or fabricate a wet jacket for a stove, but it might be worth looking into.

I'm really trying to figure out all our options and be able to lay them out for the wife so we can make a decision and get it setup for next season. Thanks for help

Load that stove to the top of the brick and to the top of the bars. This is a great looking stove when its humming along.

I don't use a manual damper or a barometric damper. I adjust all the temperature in the stove with the bottom air. Shake twice a day unless it gets real warm out. One easy stove to adjust.
I've used about 2 ton since November 2nd.
This is all I use for heat and I stay very warm.

EasyRay wrote:

DSC_8549.JPG

Load that stove to the top of the brick and to the top of the bars. This is a great looking stove when its humming along.

I don't use a manual damper or a barometric damper. I adjust all the temperature in the stove with the bottom air. Shake twice a day unless it gets real warm out. One easy stove to adjust.
I've used about 2 ton since November 2nd.
This is all I use for heat and I stay very warm.

Good looking stoves aren't they!! I love my TLC-2000. One thing I did this year (my 3rd heating season with it) that you may want to consider is added another layer of firebrick to the top of the original brick. I hade found it makes loading easier, gives you longer burns & has not decreased heat output. Worth the $16.00 investment!

Okay, following the sage advice here, I filled it to the rim, as it were.

I gotta say.. as a life-long woodburner, I'm not looking back on those years with fond joy. Now, to move the oil tank out of the coal-bin in the basement, figure out how to keep the coal out of the sump-pump that was installed in it, and get a _real_ load of coal.

I'm finally resisting the urge to "tinker". Shook it and set it last night before bed, and this AM at 7:00, about 18 short shakes to a coal or two and a rosy glow, and loaded her back up, and she's ticking along nicely on the first "stop" on the air lever.

And it's 74-80 degrees in here, depending on where you are.

And my boiler has not come on in three days.

One thing, though.. I know these are rather hard to "blow up" as it were, due to the top air, but what I've found is easiest is to load coal on both sides, up to the top, leaving a "valley" in the middle with the flame in it, and half hour later, fill that valley in once theres flame in the other parts. That isn't a no-no, is it?

Nope, that is a perfectly fine method to keep some open 'flame' to burn off the volitiles from the fresh coal... Then going back and topping it off.

Perfect technique... how long did you say you have been burning coal??

Greg L

since 10:00 on Monday.

Sounds like you are doing great! I forget what you said that made me think to remind you to open the ash door for maybe 5 minutes or so until you see a strong draft going up through the coal bed before you add more coal or shake it down. So much easier than wood, isn't it?

Devil5052 wrote:

EasyRay wrote:

DSC_8549.JPG

Load that stove to the top of the brick and to the top of the bars. This is a great looking stove when its humming along.

I don't use a manual damper or a barometric damper. I adjust all the temperature in the stove with the bottom air. Shake twice a day unless it gets real warm out. One easy stove to adjust.
I've used about 2 ton since November 2nd.
This is all I use for heat and I stay very warm.

Good looking stoves aren't they!! I love my TLC-2000. One thing I did this year (my 3rd heating season with it) that you may want to consider is added another layer of firebrick to the top of the original brick. I hade found it makes loading easier, gives you longer burns & has not decreased heat output. Worth the $16.00 investment!

I may try that next year. I'll just cut them in half and stack em the same way. I really don't have a problem with coal on top of the brick. I just knock off any pieces when I'm done loading.

My wife loves the looks and that is the clincher for me.

I do get some bridging on the left and right side after I shake, but I use a straight poker between the bottom grates to slide in and move it a little so it will settle. Tap the top of the coals so they will settle. Finish loading on the sides and then give it another little shake.

Next year I think I'll try to double the brick on the sides so they will be straight up and down. That should stop the slight bridging problem. The slight angle to the sides is only good if you also want to burn wood.