My New (Reconditioned) Chubby

Candyman,
Yes, 'flossing' is very important. When Chubby was in the living room, I'd lay on the floor to clear the ash. Now, Chubby is set up in the basement(cold floor), so I sit on a short stool, and with a mirror, play 'dental hygenist' to clear the ash. Works great.
And, William suggested a cookie sheet. Most definite. The ash pan is very hot, even wearing gloves, the cookie sheet catches anything, between the stove and the trip out with the ashes.
Sounds like you're doing good. Stay warm!
Cheers

lobsterman wrote:The few people that are not happy with the Chubby are those that try to burn it continuously very hot (500-600) to get more heat.

Maybe I'm off the mark here but I would consider 500-600 normal operating temps for a stove, not very hot! When I had my Chubby hooked up it saw these temps daily. It kept our house toasty and that's what matters! The only real issue I had with my Chubby was cracked grates. They seemed to sag and start to crack by seasons end every year. The crack was always in the same spot, right behind the primary air intake. Small price to pay to stay warm. I love this stove though, it is a beast. Customer service is second to none! Not much to go wrong on it and quite simple to use.

Chubby's can be run at 500 to 600 f with ease. There will be more ash if you run at these temps and depending on several factors a shorter burn time could also result. Every stove and install has its "sweet spot" finding that "sweet spot" getting "dialed in" is the key.

Hey, I found my Chubby's 'sweet spot'- in the basement!!!!
I don't have to lay on the floor to floss. Mark, I just had to add that.
Stay warm during this 'Montreal Express'
Cheers

Or replace wood mantel with stone mantel. Kinda like the stone they put on hearth. Or find a nice long peace of barn stone. :punk:

D-frost wrote:Stay warm during this 'Montreal Express'

22f here with LOTS of wind making it feel like the Tundra. I blame Nortcan for this weather and I think you should too! Still nice and warm though!

tcalo wrote:

lobsterman wrote:The few people that are not happy with the Chubby are those that try to burn it continuously very hot (500-600) to get more heat.

Maybe I'm off the mark here but I would consider 500-600 normal operating temps for a stove, not very hot! When I had my Chubby hooked up it saw these temps daily. It kept our house toasty and that's what matters! The only real issue I had with my Chubby was cracked grates. They seemed to sag and start to crack by seasons end every year. The crack was always in the same spot, right behind the primary air intake. Small price to pay to stay warm. I love this stove though, it is a beast. Customer service is second to none! Not much to go wrong on it and quite simple to use.

Running too hot regularly = cracked grate every year.

ONEDOLLAR wrote:Chubby's can be run at 500 to 600 f with ease.

Hey lobsterman, straight from a Chubby aficionado!!!

lobsterman wrote: Running too hot regularly = cracked grate every year.

500 to 600f shouldn't cause any problems to the grate. My proto Chubby has the same grate all Sr Chubby's have and in 2014 when I was tasked by Larry to quote: " Try and melt this stove". That is what I did and and am still doing now to a certain extent. I haven't been able to crack either a firepot or grate.

The most common misconception Larry and I see is some people feel they have to remove all the ash from the firepot by over shaking and over flossing. This is not the case as some ash is is actually good as it helps insulate the grates. Clearing to much ash can cause problems. I shake till I start to see a few coals drop and then do a couple of pokes here and there and sometimes a little flossing. Load her up with coal, set the air, close the damper and I know the stove won't need to be touched for at least 12 hours. As of all this week I have only been shaking down once per day in the evening and doing some lite pokng and flossing for the AM reload. She is purring like a kitten.

I think if you need that 600f temp on a constant basis in the winter you either need a larger stove or would probably do better to tighten up your house. Spending a few $$ of sealing up ones home from the outside air is a gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

tcalo wrote:

ONEDOLLAR wrote:Chubby's can be run at 500 to 600 f with ease.

Hey lobsterman, straight from a Chubby aficionado!!!

Hey, when I am wrong I admit I am wrong! Chubby Jr. running at 600 right now. Just for fun. It is F*ckin cold outside.

When it gets real cold I will push my chubby very hard. Like in the 7-800 degree range.
It handles those temps with no problems. I did have some issues with the grate warping and cracking but since leaving a little extra ash on the grate as one dollar suggests. My grate is now 2 years old. Even replacing it yearly was a small price to pay for the amount of savings this stove allows me.
LOVE my chubby!

OK still figuring it all out, as one person suggested I bought a small fan and placed inside my firepleace to keep the mantle cool. Works like a charm. I've lost the fire once so far and I'm thinking I didn't floss enough, since then been running smooth just trying to dial in the air setting for a certain temp. I had my wife watch Larry's video since she has saved the fire a couple times and she's luving the heat. Question, did I floss to much because the poker end was glowing when I was done?

Working at home, so... Chubby JR at 560. Exhaust at the bend, 108.
The JR has found its niche. In this cold weather I have been stuffing about 25 lbs per day through it using 3 shakes per day if I am around. I figure that is 10,000 BTU per hour into my kitchen/living area ($12 per day cost if I did the same with an electric space heater and that would be butt ugly). The convection keeps the furnace off with temps last night at 19. My furnace would have to run 2 hrs per day to put that heat into the house (cheap enough with gas and forced hot water) but it would not be concentrated where I want it. So 25 lbs per day with an efficient burn is a good cold-weather number for my application and surprisingly the JR can do it. It is an experiment this year. The JR with its removable grate slats is designed to dump a pot of cold ash for easy restart. A key feature is to be able to bank up and hold a fire. My record so far is 14 hr.

I don't think you flossed too much, my poker is usually glowing after every floss. This is my second year with the Chubby , I had my problems the first year with a lot of puff backs and losing the fire on many occasions . I wonder what brand of coal you are using. Last year the Reading nut bags were loaded with fines and very small pieces, I didn't realize it at the time being I had never burned coal. The Blashak bags were about the same. I didn't have much better outcome until I switched to Kimmels from TSC .. I have had zero problems this year since using Lehigh nut , coal pieces are relatively the same size and the coal burns much more complete to a fine dust. The reading burns ok when it's not as cold , but Lehigh burns good all the time . I wouldn't buy Blashak again , that's my expierienced with it . One thing I did change this year was loading coal after shake down. I put about 4 shovels in , but leave a glowing hole or eyeball in the center, wait about 10 minutes for that to catch then fill it up humped in the center. Once BuffaloBob gave me the instructions of leaving the eyeball in the center during fill up I haven't had problems. I hope this helps.
Dave

Candyman wrote:I've lost the fire once so far and I'm thinking I didn't floss enough, since then been running smooth just trying to dial in the air setting for a certain temp

Hard to say but depending on when this happened it could have also been a change in temps outside that affected the draft. Or it could have been not clearing enough ash when you shook down.Or fines in the coal. A Red poker tip is probably a sign you are flossing too much. 99% of the time I "run" each slot once and then poke a few times. That is it. The only time I ever had a red tip was a with my Jr trying to fish out the clinker from hell.

If it has only happened once I wouldn't lose to much sleep over it! It sounds to me like you are getting her dialed in pretty good. After a season of burning you get the ability to just look at the fire and no how it is going to react as well as how much ash is normal.