Buy a baro damper and thermostatic control?

Hello, folks,

About 2 weeks ago I got my Alaksa Kodiak hand-fired coal stove up and running. A local guy put up a SuperPro chimney, through the wall, and a manual piper damper and heat reclaimer. Hooked up the whole thing. This think burns wood great. The only problem is that when I try to burn coal I get all or nothing. I can get coal going for several hours, and then I wake up in the morning and it is dead. Like last night I fired up a 40 lb. bag of Blaschak nut coal and got it going nice and toasty. After it seemed very stable I went to bed (around 11 pm). My wife got up at 3am to feed the baby and she said the living room was nice and toasty, about 80 degrees and the coal was burning great. She looked at the magnetic thermometer we have on the stove pipe about 1 foot above the stove and it was reading 400. BUT this morning at 6:30 when I went downstairs the fire was out and the stove was cool to the touch. I don't get it. I had the pipe damper and bottom air vents like 80% open, so I can't figure out how it could be starved for air. It looked like the 40 lb bage I put in there was about 60 percent burning. So I'm thinking maybe my fire was too hot/burning too fast and the ash clogged things up? Or maybe I just should have added more fuel? The other thing I am thinking is that I should have a barometric damper on this stove and pay for the optional bi-metal thermostatic contol so that my coal heat is more even. What do you guys think? Spend more money for the baro and thermostatic control?

Craig

You don't mention if the coal was all burned up or the stove had just gone out. I'd guess, under those circumstances, that the coal would be all burned up.

The stove (IMHO) should be dampened down for evening. The bottom draft control should be nearly closed (to the point of a nice slow burn) and if using a MPD, it should be partially closed as well. Of course, the stove isn't going to be "pumping heat", as it would be during the day.

Sorry. I should clarify. It looked to me that about 60% of the 40 lb bag I put in at 10pm last night was burned by 6am this morning. None of the coals were burning. Most was ash, but it looked to me that about 40% was still unburned. I was bummed. Had to dig it all out.

i would switch to a baro , i dont have the bimetal thermostat but im gona get it and try it . if you only had 40 lbs of coal u need more than that to get a good fire going , when i started the fire i got a good bed of coals and slowly started filling the stove with coal . the stove can hold 120lb of coal so i would fill it almost all the way up , right now i use about 60 lbs of coal a day , at night around 10:00 i add 40 lbs of coal and in the moring at 5:30 i add 20 lbs of coal and it lasts all day .

My Hitzer has the bi-metal spring thermostat control that works so well I still wonder if things would work any better if I did have a baro damper. My flue temp does go up in a wind, and I realize that I am loosing some heat up the chimney, but wouldn't I also be loosing room heat up the chimney if I had the baro damper? The thermostat does keep the stove temps from running away when windy. Would a manual damper be the way to go to save stove heat from going up the chimney too fast?

Hey, now I'm psyched because last night I got the coal started at about 10pm and it kept burning until I left this morning at 8AM. I simply added more coal. I also dampened the fire some before going to bed so that it wasn't burning so wicked hot. Wow, this stove will cook you out of the house!

My stack temp, measured with a magnetic stick on thermometer on the stove pipe about a foot above where it leaves the stove is reading 400. That seems hot to me. I called the company and they said that stack temps should not get over 300F. But (of course) I forgot to ask where they measure it.

But I'm still wondering about the bi-metal thermostat which can be bought and put on the back. How does yours work, Grizzly? Do you have to plug it in, or does it work like a baro damper?

Scottsman wrote:My stack temp, measured with a magnetic stick on thermometer on the stove pipe about a foot above where it leaves the stove is reading 400. That seems hot to me. I called the company and they said that stack temps should not get over 300F. But (of course) I forgot to ask where they measure it.

That exhaust temp is way to high, didn't they tell you to put a baro on it when you talked with them? You are burning a lot of coal and sending the heat up the chimney, this is not the game plan here. You should get a manometer (this forum has a loaner program) or draft gauge to check your draft and add a baro if it is excessive, it sounds as though it is.

my stack temp right above the baro is between 150 and 200 depending on how hot the stove is cooking , the bi metal control has a spring that changes depending on the temp of the stove which adjust a door at the bottom of the stove .

Scottsman wrote:Hey, now I'm psyched because last night I got the coal started at about 10pm and it kept burning until I left this morning at 8AM. I simply added more coal. I also dampened the fire some before going to bed so that it wasn't burning so wicked hot. Wow, this stove will cook you out of the house!

My stack temp, measured with a magnetic stick on thermometer on the stove pipe about a foot above where it leaves the stove is reading 400. That seems hot to me. I called the company and they said that stack temps should not get over 300F. But (of course) I forgot to ask where they measure it.

But I'm still wondering about the bi-metal thermostat which can be bought and put on the back. How does yours work, Grizzly? Do you have to plug it in, or does it work like a baro damper?

bono answered correctly about the bi-metal thermostat. I will elaborat a little bit. On the back of my stove neer the top is a metal box with a length of flat spring steel made of two different aloys, one on the top and one on the bottom. When the spring gets warm, the upper of the two metals in it expands much more that the bottom causing the spring to bend downward. A light bead type chain attatches to the spring and hangs down the back of the stove and attatches to a tin flap about 4"X4" square. As the spring bends down, the chain lowers the flap over a air draft hole in the bottom back of the stove and reduces the flow of combustion air, causing the stove to cool. Cooling causes the spring to bend upward, pulling the chain and the flap upward, exposing more draft hole, causing the stove to burn hotter.

The amazing thing about this simple setup is how evenly the temperature of the stove is maintained. The metal box the spring is in has no bottom, so room air temperature also affects the action of the spring. Ultimately the adjustment is taking into consideration both stove and room air temperature, and maintains greater consistancy than the computerized thermostat on my Toyostove space heater.
I am not sure an add-on would be engineered to work as well as the Hitzer set-up, but I think if you have a draft that can be regulated by this method (most coal stoves don't appear to have) I think it could still keep you in a reasonable range of temp control.

wow,the only time my stove pipe hits 400 is when i am re filling it and i leave the bottom draft open too long because i forgot it
on the coldest nights,like in the single digits to zero or below,i set my draft acourdingly and my temps dont go above 300,my magnetic thermometer is about 10-12" above the elbow that comes out the back of the stove.
i found anything above that just sends heat out the flue and uses more coal,i do have a baro though.
when the temps are in the 30's i like to keep my flue around 200, teens and 20's,around 225-250. but thats with my stove in the basement,if yours is on your living floor,you may get away with less and still be very toasty

Hey, thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to get the bar and bi-metal thermostat. Last night I got about 40 pounds of nut coal going at 9pm and put some pea coal on top. It was going great when we hit that sack at 11pm. I had the manual pipe damper about 80% shut and the same for the air vents below, but it was still reading 400F about 18 inches above the elbow where the stove pipe exits the stove. I would have dampened it more but was afraid to lose the fire altogether. But wow, was it hot downstairs (I have it in our living room)!

Then this morning, at 7am when I want downstairs it was out completely But a lot of unburned coal there.

I wish the guy who installed my chimney and stove had put a baro on to begin with. But he didn't read the manual which says to install a baro. When he first installed the thing it was way too close to the wall and the wall was getting hot, so I had to have the guy come out again and back it up. Moral of the story--I probably should have done the install myself. Would have save a lot of money and aggravation. I think a lot of these contractors just install things the way the installed the last 10 or 20 of them without really paying attention to what the manufacturer says.

Craig