DS 1600 General Questions and Concerns

newbie2015 wrote:OK, Why are you guys taking the pipe temperatures? I guess I am missing something? Or does it also work with the manometer? I am sorry for any confusion.

You have the body Mass of stove temperature, and the stack (stove pipe) temperature. Lets say the mass of stove is up to 400*, and stack temp is 225*. If you can lower your stack temperature, that means you're having less heat going up the chimney, and more staying in the stove, which transfers into the living space. If you get your stack temp down to 200*, that's better. 180* is better yet. 150* is better yet. Your manometer is one tool used for making these adjustments. Your manometer will monitor the chimney draft, while you make adjustments. EXAMPLE: Too strong of chimney draft will draw excess heat out of stove, and up the chimney; hence higher stack temps.

Thanks for the info. I have my manometer but have yet to hook it up. Not sure what to do with it, but will try to get it figured out. Running good so far. Getting dumped with the heavy snow as I type, and I can sure tell you, I am NOT worried about the electric lines!! So nice to know we will have heat no matter what! Even when the wind blows the door open. This old house needs so much work. Will be working on that door soon.

We can help you with the mano when yer ready. I'm happy yer having a good experience with yer new stove and using coal. Awesome!

and I was soooo impressed. Last night, the temps dropped to 32*. The wind changed direction, & blew hard. I put a cardboard box along the bottom of the overhead door, blocking a gap. The wind blew the box away, and blew directly into shop. Again, I blocked the gap under the door. Ran the stove up to 600*, using magnetic thermostat just behind hopper lid. It took 10 hours, and 40 pounds of coal to get the shop back up to temp....... and it's not even cold out yet. The stove went from a heat monster, to a mouse. I lowered my barometric damper setting to -.03, but didn't have draw enough to kick the coal fire in the pants. So, I put the setting back to factory recommended -.06. Coal fire kicked up, as well as stack temp. Maybe I need to plug the non-adjustable over fire air vents. My 30-95 is half the stove, and would have put the D.S. 1600 to shame. 50-93 would have driven me out the door. What happened?

cap off that Baro. if it's still in there, fix the door properly, get those insulating screens off it, it ain't furniture.

try to watch the weather forecast and ramp up ahead if possible.

perhaps you just found the tubes good down low, not so much up high problem.

it seemed to me that when the stove creates a bubble of heat around it's self the tubes stall somewhat because there's not good differential of (low / high) temp any more.

what to convert it ?

I'm going to try putting tin foil over the barometric damper to see what happens. Then, maybe start playing with the manual damper. I called D.S. Machine, and asked if the -.06 recommended draft setting in there directions was minimum draft, or maximum draft. They said minimum. That doesn't make sense, unless using a manual damper. If I set the barometric damper at -.06, you'll not get any higher draft. So how can that be a minimum. Now, if I cover the barometric damper, and close the manual damper, The heat will still be held down. Yet, a strong gust of wind can still draw a little extra air through the center of manual damper to liven the coal bed a little during the windy cold times. My draft gauge has jumped up to -.20 during gusts. That's a big sip of air to liven the fire. The barometric damper will never go above the set point of -.06. So, no extra sipping on the coal fire when needed. My ash pan vents are functional, should I need to crack them open a touch. I can also block the non-adjustable over fire air vents if needed. Lots of options to play with.

Did you change the bolts in the ash pan spindles to make them usable?

jremington wrote:Did you change the bolts in the ash pan spindles to make them usable?

Yes, I did change the bolts. Not the size, but the length. I don't remember the lengths. If they were 1-1/4, I went to 1-3/4. The knob was threaded all the way through on the inside. I used the longest factory length bolt I could. I did not make a custom bolt. Here's what I did: Using a wrench, loosen the bolt from behind. Don't hammer on the spinner knob. The mating surfaces are rough, and drawn together by the bolt. Replace bolt with longer bolt. Spin knob back on the bolt, just enough to hold bolt in place for welding. A small weld on each side of the bolt head is all you need, as you don't want too much heat on the cast. I drilled two holes under each spinner knob, in corners of cast webbing. No specific size hole. I grabbed a drill bit that looked to be a little over 5/16". Mating surfaces, I left alone. They mated up close enough for me to be considered closed. Now, should I use the ash pan vents, they would be for adding a little full time under fire air, and not for running the stove. So, instead of cracking the spinner knob open, and calling it done, I thought I would take off the spinner knob, slide washers on the bolt as spacers, and spin the knob back on tight. This way the knobs won't accidently get turned out, having an over fire situation. Actually, the bolt heads wouldn't need welding using this method. Why did that not dawn on me till just now . NOTE: I would never consider this bolt thread safe for running the stove. For running the stove, you'd want a fine thread, machine type bolt.

OK, guys/gals, I've heard mentioned "The Sweet Spot" for the D.S.. Can someone give me an idea of the D.S. sweet spot? Temps, settings, etc.. I've also considered the coal not being as good as it could be. My uncles Mark-III does not do good on this coal. The HITZER's don't care.

........I'm getting there.......... Permanently sealed off barometric damper. Manual damper 3/4 closed. Dropped bolts into 6 of 9 over fire air holes, blocking them off (All member suggestions.......). I'm purposely holding shop at 70*. Thermometer is near opposite end of shop, next to outside man door. Temps feel quite uniform throughout. Stove literature says 24 - 48 hour burns. So far, this D.S. 1600 easily does 24 hours between tending's.......and that's not touching the stove what so ever. However, shaking at 12 hours is faster/easier. If Poking/fluffing up coal bed is needed, do a 24 hour tending. If I tend at 12 hours, 20 pounds of coal tops off the hopper. If I tend at 24 hours, 40 pounds of coal tops off the hopper. I would say that's quite consistent. Should I open the overhead door for a couple hours, it takes a good 1 - 1-1/2 hours to warm the shop back up with D.S.. For comparison, the HITZER 30-95 would warm the shop back up in about 15 - 20 minutes, with fan running. Turn the fan off, and I could feel the shop starting to cool. The D.S. warms the entire shop up, and holds it there, with NO FAN. Those are my findings for now.

Hey group. I finally got a thermometer installed in my stove pipe. Was going over 200 to start with. I still have to hook up the manometer, but I did some tweaking on my own. I had to move my weight to the left for a little bit and keep watching my temps. I have a 8 inch clay pipe, and have yet to get a cover on the top. Any how, I got the temp down to around 150 - 160 range! Started messing around some more. Found that if I move the air wash lever all the way to the left, my pipe temps went way down!! They told me that if I had the back temperature gauge opened up, that I would have to slide the air wash lever over. I could really feel the heat coming out after doing the tweaking. However, my barometric damper wants to stay almost open. It has some movement, but not sure if that's a good thing. Will be finishing putting the manometer into stove pipe and see what I get. Will be updating once I get my mano hooked up.. Stay warm my friends!

Newbie2015 had some confusion with pipe temperature readings and was reading temps above the baro. We passed messages and she is now all hooked up with a manometer settling in around -.04 (as read on the positive side of the scale) after tweaking her baro a hair. She's all set, and very pleased with her stove.. I just wanted to speak up on her behalf incase someone didn't understand her prior post, she'll post here on the board again soon...

Yes, the student jumped the gun on the guru. Thought she had it all figured out. NOT. Any way, thanks to Leon to the rescue again to help the newbie out! I just had someone ask about using pea coal in these DS stoves. I was told it was too small to use from the guy I get my coal from. He said it would fall between the grates to easy. I am using nut coal. And sometimes it gets caught when I do my shake. Any advise on the matter to help out this person??

Just use very short strokes when shaking the grate.

I bought 20 bags of pea for my D.S.. Haven't tried any yet. Still playing with nut size, and thinking pea may be too small. Time will tell. I believe the owner's manual said nut or pea.