Our New Baseburner

jubileejerry · Post by **jubileejerry** » Fri. May. 29, 2015 9:05 pm

Hi Tom! You have a beautiful stove and a very nice home. It looks really comfortable! Jerry

bambooboy · Post by **bambooboy** » Sat. May. 30, 2015 6:45 pm

thanks jerry,still reading&doing search on forum to figure out my stove.don't think there is a operating manual out there.my closest coal dealer only has nut in bulk,after reading forum its looks like stove is my best bet. got a few months for research. tom

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Sat. May. 30, 2015 7:22 pm

I looked at the photo's of the chimneys. You have the standard metalbestos top on them designed to split the smoke stream in to three pieces. It is basically designed to minimize downdrafts due to wind loading. With all the tree cover around you I recommend you take those chimney caps off. That will remove all possible restrictions that could be caused by a chimney cap. Most chimneys in use with coal do not have a cap. A chimney cap is also there to act like a spark arrester and curtail sparks that travel in the smoke on a wood stove. A coal fire doesn't have sparks that travel up the chimney so no need for a cap.

Try it....you might like it. If not you can always put it back on.

Post by **Lightning** » Sat. May. 30, 2015 8:53 pm

How's that gonna work out when rain water runs down the inside of that metal chimney and mixes with the fly ash clinging to its interior wall?

Post by **franco b** » Sat. May. 30, 2015 10:08 pm

Have to agree with lightning. Unless stack temperature was maintained at 250 or above in the entire chimney it would be sure to rust out quickly.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Sun. May. 31, 2015 6:17 am

Well guys first off at the end of the season you clean it.

Second you coat it with a type of oil.

Third at the end of the season when it won't be warm enough to vaporize any moisture, you can put the cap back on just like I said.

Or you can do what I have done which is for the last week or so, burn wood. The wood smoke coating protects the metal. I used a metalbestos with no cap on a new to me chimney in two different houses now and I still have it stored in the garage. I burned wood in it at the end of the season to coat it and it still looks like new.

Take the cap off when your ready to start it and put it back on at the end of the season.

Routine maintenance for a metal chimney just like any other chimney.

bambooboy · Post by **bambooboy** » Wed. Jun. 03, 2015 11:20 am

all the info I have on this stove is coming from this forum.google,bing info,the little that's there comes back to you guys,&i thank all for that.have built a 7x9 coal bin out of 2x6"s got for a song at estate sale.no roof yet.from my reading,i'm leaning twd stove size coal,which i'll prob pick up in bags.any input on that,nut coal available locally at a plant nursery loose at 240 a ton picked up, but not sure on quality.will be asking questions till heating season. thanks again. tom

dlj · Post by **dlj** » Wed. Jun. 03, 2015 11:17 pm

Looks like you've put a lot of effort into installing that stove. But have you burned a fire in it yet? How do you know it's tight? Looks beautiful, but I can't see how well the bottom door seals, how well the other parts of the stove seal, etc. No photos of the grates? Insides of the stove? In the pic with the chimneys - which chimney is the one on this stove?

Since you have the stove installed, I'd burn some newspaper and see how it worked. Then build a wood fire and see if I could control it. If I were to have difficulties, then I'd start looking at seals and such. Those globe heaters are very beautiful to look at, but they are work to get to seal all that mica, doors etc... If you can't control your air in, you can't control your fire. We are still having cooler days (at least where I live) so I'd be thinking of some trial runs using easy to handle trials.

Stove coal would be good with that stove once you know it's working properly. Make sure the mica is really mica - we have one member here that bought one of these stoves and the mica was not mica - it was plastic. Did not make for a good burning stove. He has now replaced all the plastic with mica IIRC, and I believe that stove is now usable... But well before you really need to have the heat from that stove to count on, best to run some trials and make sure the stove is ready for prime time.

Just my 2 cents worth...

dj

coalnewbie · Post by **coalnewbie** » Wed. Jun. 03, 2015 11:36 pm

Stove coal would be good with that stove once you know it's working properly. Make sure the mica is really mica - we have one member here that bought one of these stoves and the mica was not mica - it was plastic. Did not make for a good burning stove. He has now replaced all the plastic with mica IIRC, and I believe that stove is now usable...

Not only usable but sensational but that is after replacing 72 windows ouchy

. However, I don't think anybody else could be as is as dumb as I was. I do think that baseburners configured as mica stoves offer everything I want in a coal stove. However, Emory (Stovehospital) warns they do required more maintenance. It's a price I am prepared to pay but they are not for everybody.

bambooboy · Post by **bambooboy** » Thu. Jun. 04, 2015 7:49 am

Dj,upper chimney is coal stove,lower is oil furnace in closet on outside deck.stove is missing side skirts and holes are open.have thought maybe 4magnets inside or just foil.some hinges on doors need some attention.did burn charcoal last week.decent draft and top of stove did heat up pretty fast.Will have to learn base burner a little better for full benefit.stove looks to have been refurbished,but not by a stove restorer.the look is there and wife very happy with it,so it stays no matter what.question for members with mica stoves,do you burn wood or charcoal in fall or spring to take the chill out of room.have oil burner for backup,but may be using it more in future.June third,and burned soapstone in family room for our old bones. Sure to come up with more questions in future.Thanks to all. Tom

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Thu. Jun. 04, 2015 8:20 am

As DLJ mentioned, any air leaks into the stove will affect performance. Now is a good time of year to find and seal them before you need the stove full-time.

Any air leaks below the firebed will feed extra air causing the stove to burn hotter. The more air that leaks in, the more chance of a runaway fire.

Leaks after the firebed can cause the opposite. They dilute the hot flue gasses with cooler air and reduce the draft strength, making the stove sluggish to start and run.

You can test for leaks by having a fire in the stove and pass a piece of smoldering string over all the door edges, seams and mica edges. The smoke will get drawn into any leaks. Mark them with chalk to be sealed later after the stove has cooled.

Whatever you burn in the stove, how clean it burns will show on the mica windows. These antique stoves don't have air-washed windows to keep them cleaner, longer, like more modern stoves. They do need to be occasionally cleaned of soot, but burning wood makes the need to clean them happen that much sooner. That's one of the reasons why some of the folks who have stoves with mica windows have switched over to using charcoal to start them.

Combining both questions, if you burn wood and there are any air leaks before the firebed, because of it's ease to burn quickly, a wood fire will be tougher to keep under control.

Paul

dlj · Post by **dlj** » Fri. Jun. 05, 2015 10:02 pm

coalnewbie wrote:Not only usable but sensational but that is after replacing 72 windows ouchy . However, I don't think anybody else could be as is as dumb as I was. I do think that baseburners configured as mica stoves offer everything I want in a coal stove. However, Emory (Stovehospital) warns they do required more maintenance. It's a price I am prepared to pay but they are not for everybody.

Simon - I'm glad to hear you have that stove all together and it is running well! The globe stoves are sensational for sure! And, indeed require more maintenance...

I'd think if one of those stoves were nice and tight, you'd burn coal all the time, even in the shoulder months - what are your thoughts on that? I know with my Glenwood I started using wood in the shoulder months and then just dropped it as it's easy enough to run nice and low on coal when all the doors are snug. I can't imagine there would be any difference with one of the well sealed mica stoves... Plus, you'd keep the windows cleaner.

dj

dlj · Post by **dlj** » Fri. Jun. 05, 2015 10:13 pm

bambooboy wrote:Dj,upper chimney is coal stove,lower is oil furnace in closet on outside deck.stove is missing side skirts and holes are open.have thought maybe 4magnets inside or just foil.some hinges on doors need some attention.did burn charcoal last week.decent draft and top of stove did heat up pretty fast.Will have to learn base burner a little better for full benefit.stove looks to have been refurbished,but not by a stove restorer.the look is there and wife very happy with it,so it stays no matter what.question for members with mica stoves,do you burn wood or charcoal in fall or spring to take the chill out of room.have oil burner for backup,but may be using it more in future.June third,and burned soapstone in family room for our old bones. Sure to come up with more questions in future.Thanks to all. Tom

Tom,

Generally the holes where skirts attach do not connect into the fire region of the stove. I don't know your specific stove, so you'd have to check that to be sure. You definitely want to get all your doors properly sealed up. Especially any that can feed the bottom of the fire pot, but all of them are important. Once the stove is nice and tight, you'll find that you can likely burn coal and run nice and low. See my question to Simon, as he has one, perhaps he knows. Nortcan can also give you thoughts on that front, although his stoves are probably about as tight as they get... If you really want to get your stove tight, you should see if you can get him to set it up for you. I don't think anyone does more to get a stove sealed than Nortcan... Hahaha - Pierre - Are you listening? You should start a business...

dj