Hit Me With Your Stove Shut Down Procedures

I use about 2oz. of Kerosene to start the charcoal. Now, if you don't like the smell of Kerosene. Get some good old fashioned Mineral Spirits. Mineral Spirits are a good odor free substitute for Kerosene in lamps and starting your stove. Be careful as a little goes a long way. Another good substitute is Denatured Alcohol. Oder free and easy to use. These are expensive solvents but they are excellent for starting fires. A gallon of either of these should last the winter.

wsherrick wrote:I use about 2oz. of Kerosene to start the charcoal. Now, if you don't like the smell of Kerosene. Get some good old fashioned Mineral Spirits. Mineral Spirits are a good odor free substitute for Kerosene in lamps and starting your stove. Be careful as a little goes a long way. Another good substitute is Denatured Alcohol. Oder free and easy to use. These are expensive solvents but they are excellent for starting fires. A gallon of either of these should last the winter.

I've bought two different brands of canned charcoal lighter fluid at Wal-Mart. With the EPA's restrictions on VOC (volatile organic compounds), the old very flammable lighter fluid is gone. Both brands of lighter fluid were just mineral spirits.

For what those quart cans of starter fluid cost me, I could have bought a whole gallon of mineral sprits paint thinner, or for even less cost, a gallon of kerosene,.... as William recommends.

Paul

ddahlgren wrote:How do you light it ... Will kindling above or below it get it going?

Kindling under charcoal will get it going. Newspaper to get the kindling going. Give it lots of air -- as in a roaring blaze -- at least at the beginning.

When Scott, (scalabro) "emphatically" insisted" trying the Matchlite charcoal to start my fires, and I did, I swear I'll never go back to wood, or try anything else again. It just doesn't get any easier or cleaner. 3 sheets of newspaper around the perimeter of 1/2 a bag, and my draft took off like a raging bull, and never went out. No extra liquids, no smell, no sweat. It now gave me the option of using my stove "part-time" in these shoulder months, and not worry about the many hours of start-up time, it took with wood. If I hadn't run out of coal a few weeks ago, I'ld've probably lit it on a few occasions.

wsherrick wrote:I am not taking anything down yet. We heat here well into May. Once I am absolutely sure that the heating season is done, I take down the pipe and inspect closely. So far I've gotten four years out of the pipe down stairs. I just take them outside and knock the crud out of them and then store them downstairs. The stove gets a complete vacuuming from the shop vacuum and a 100 watt light bulb goes inside until September. I haven't noticed any problems with corrosion or rust.
I think the key is keeping the stove dry, therefore; taking the pipe down is the critical thing. If the stove is in a damp place then some means of moving the air and providing heat is most necessary.
The light bulb in the Glenwood makes enough heat to cause a weak draw through the stove which goes a long way to keeping the inside dry.

You don't use any rust inhibitors on the stove internals....just keep it dry?.

We run into this alot with antique cars. Where the car is going to be stored has a lot to do with what is needed to prevent moisture problems.

Some cars are stored where it's always quite dry, so little , if any corrosion preventing measures are needed.

However, If near a large body of water that the winds often blow in from, the relative humidity is obviously going to be higher, so storage involves running dehumidifiers to keep the moisture levels in the storage area at, or below 50% - what most museums strive for.

And, a stove that is on living space floors is not going to get exposed to as much cold and damp as a stove in a basement.

Most years,... .... I remember to vacuum all the ash out of the range. I've never done the pipe at the end of the season - even forgot to clean it one season. All I do is close all the range's dampers and the MPD.

The range is 112 years old and the only rusty area is inside part of the water tank end because the top edges of Glenwood range water tanks don't seal 100% off from their housing. If used to heat water, some water vapor always gets drawn into the housing. I've never used the water tank to heat water, so what rust is there has never progressed in the ten years I've used the range. And we use it 9 months a year.

The stove pipe is now ten years old and while it's had some slight rusting inside, it's still fine. I've never disconnected it in the off season - just when vacuuming it out in the fall.

My brick chimney has the typical old time slate cap. The piece of one inch thick slate is a couple of inches wider and longer than the outside of the chimney. It over hangs the sides of the chimney so that no rain comes down the chimney.

The inside of the range has never been coated with any type of rust inhibitor. It's fine.

But,....... if that range was in the dirt-floored basement of this house, it'd be all rust by now.

Like they say about the three most important things in real state, location, location, location !

Paul

I imagine that the old stoves are most cast iron not mild steel? Also consider that it costs over $8.00 a month to run a 100wt bulb 24/7 here in CT. Leave it on for 4 months & you've spent $35 in kwh vs less then a $10.00 can of fluid film. The Fluid Film will also stop any existing rust as well as prevent new corrosion. I've seen some ugly corrosion photos of older Hitzers on this forum so I'm sticking with the FF.

JohnB wrote:I imagine that the old stoves are most cast iron not mild steel? Also consider that it costs over $8.00 a month to run a 100wt bulb 24/7 here in CT. Leave it on for 4 months & you've spent $35 in kwh vs less then a $10.00 can of fluid film. The Fluid Film will also stop any existing rust as well as prevent new corrosion. I've seen some ugly corrosion photos of older Hitzers on this forum so I'm sticking with the FF.

I multiplied 100W X 24 hr. X 30 days = 72000 or 72 kwh I took my power bill and divided it by the number of kwh used and came up with .26 so .26 dollar each. 72 X .26 =18.72. How did you come up with 8.00 per month?

Current kwh rate on my CL&P/Eversource bill is $.126290. .126290 X 72 kwh = $9.09 (1 month). You are evidently using your bill total with delivery charges ect. I was just posting the kwh cost to run the 100w bulb. Any way you look at it the $10 can of Fluid Film is a bargain.

JohnB wrote:Current kwh rate on my CL&P/Eversource bill is $.126290. .126290 X 72 kwh = $9.09 (1 month). You are evidently using your bill total with delivery charges ect. I was just posting the kwh cost to run the 100w bulb. Any way you look at it the $10 can of Fluid Film is a bargain.

The delivery charges are per kwh as are most of the taxes how can you just avoid them if they are charged per kwh???? They double the cost and quite real to my checkbook.

As I said the can of fluid film is a bargain compared to the light bulb. Thanks for confirming that. Now can we move on??

JohnB wrote:As I said the can of fluid film is a bargain compared to the light bulb. Thanks for confirming that. Now can we move on??

Sure can my point is your solution is way better than you said it was! I am on your side!

ddahlgren wrote:I took my power bill and divided it by the number of kwh used and came up with .26 so .26 dollar each.

Wow.. $.26 per kilowatt! I thought mine was bad at $.15 per kilowatt..

Lightning wrote: Wow.. $.26 per kilowatt! I thought mine was bad at $.15 per kilowatt..

Does that include all the various delivery, ect charges above & beyond the basic kwh charge. Added to the Ct. $ .126290 per kwh charge are Distr. charge, CTA charge,FMCC delivery charge, comb Public Benefit charge. All per kwh & on top of that is a big fat fixed $19.25 Distr. Cus service charge. Much worse if you have a business. It's $140-$150 a month whether you turn on the lights or not.

JohnB wrote:As I said the can of fluid film is a bargain compared to the light bulb. Thanks for confirming that. Now can we move on??

Whatever floats your boat. I like using the light bulb and I get good results out of it. A 60 Watt will probably work just as well. I like seeing light in the windows during the Summer months. It's a big world and there is always more than one way to skin a cat.