Hitzer 50-93 Ash Door Vents

hello, im new to site. just bought a 50-93 hitzer and left vents open for about 4 hours. the thing was blazing. nothing was glowing, just all coal in box was glowing. its only 2 months old, hope I didnt over fire it. vents in ash door

Hey im new too! Hope you didnt hurt your stove. My ash door vents stay closed, I've never opened them at all. Learn from this mistake and never take your stove for granted

Hello welcome to the forum, longs no metal was glowing it will be just fine. These stoves are pretty much bullet proof. Just barley crack the ash door vents a bit if needed and let the damper on the rear do all the work. If you think need to, fine adjust it with the manual pipe damper. Get a cup of coffee enjoy the heat and watch it burn !!!

John

thanks, no glowing just entire box was blazing. the flu wasnt red. don't have manual pd they installed an automatic one.

Hi guys,

I'm not sure of your level of expertise but remember the fastest way to cool off a coal stove is to throw more coal on it. You actually can watch the temperature go down on the thermometer. Everyone has a "the day I overfired the stove" story. Mine involves a beautiful orange glow that reminded me of sunset reflecting of the water. That was the day I brought a timer. I set it each and every time I'm refreshing the stove now. Take care, Lisa

orgeorgeor wrote:hello, im new to site. just bought a 50-93 hitzer and left vents open for about 4 hours. the thing was blazing. nothing was glowing, just all coal in box was glowing. its only 2 months old, hope I didnt over fire it. vents in ash door

Welcome.

I hate to ask the obvious, but why did you leave the vents open for 4 hours? I assume it was an accident. Lesson learned, never walk away from the stove with the ash door open or the vents left open.

Normally those vents are left closed or very slightly cracked open, and the automatic control on the back of the stove controls the heat output.

orgeorgeor wrote:thanks, no glowing just entire box was blazing. the flu wasnt red. don't have manual pd they installed an automatic one.

Hope you haven't opened up the "perverbial" can of worms.
Welcome to the club. Congrats on a very popular and efficient stove.

As mentioned, crack open the ash pan vents to about 1/4 moon shape, give, or take depending on stove performance, and outside temps. No need to go past full moon. In my shop, I barely cracked open the ash pan vents to like 1/16th inch. But that's the shop. In the house, do as mentioned above. When winter settles in, I ran my ash pan vents full moon, and even a touch more during the deep freeze. I was heating 3400 square feet (1700 basement, 1700 house). When ash pan vents get to be 5/8 or more open, now you stand the chance of warping the hopper, or hopper ring. The hopper/hopper ring are the first to be damaged due to over firing. If your hopper, or hopper ring is not warped, the rest of your stove is fine. The hopper does not warp easily. It takes a LOT of VERY INTENSE HEAT to warp the hopper. I'm talking heat that smells hot. The kind of hot that is reaching scary, yet not over fired, as if the ash pan door was left open. NEVER walk away with the ash pan door open. NEVER EVER!

it was by accident. nothing was glowing except for the coal. there doesnt seem to be any damage but I really don't know how I would tell. I closed everything and it dies down to a barely lit almost out ashy pile of coal. the vent in the back of stove was totally closed during this time. im guessing that kept it down to a slight raw. but lesson learned. and I can see how leaving the ash door open would destroy the stove.
thanks for the responses.

how can I tell if hopper is warped? im very new at this.
thanks

If your hopper is shaped like this, there's a good chance, it's warped.

hey, thank you for the picture. and no it does not look anything like that. its all still square when I open the glass door. ill have to wait to see what it looks like empty, but they are still all 90 degrees. ill have to wait untill its empty to look down from top.

You're looking at an extreme example. But even with the distortion, it still fed the pea coal.

if it was warped it would show up on outside wouldnlt it? its perfectly square on the two front corners. is there something inside that could be warped, or if its square on outside its good inside too?
again, thanks for your help.

If the outside condition is visually straight, you're probably OK. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.