Fire in the Stove Pipe and Through the Hopper Door

try filling the hopper first! (your's must be low to start with which is causing a hopper fire) then shake, then top off hopper off again, I think your hopper level is just getting to low, it should never be low enough for it to ignite.

+1

I get a flame upon opening the hopper door once in 100 times. Each time I swear I'm gonna fill before shaking, but complacency reigns and I live to be startled again.

I think it's just a perfect storm of gas amount and in rushing air that combust.

If I was a bit smarter I'd fill the hopper before shaking. Nah, I'd rather roll the dice.

I see upon reading other entries "perfect storm" seems to sum it up.

Been there done that with the old Buderus hopper fed, really a wake up call when blue flames come out at you I know other have said fill and shake. I always liked to shake and fill just in case I had to poke from the hopper side to get the ashes free in the dead spots. My stove had a shaker grate and the sides would ash up over time. All stoves are different. With time you will know when the blue ladies might want to show themselves out of the hopper door. With that being said open the door slooowly and it will be less eventful.

As long as the ladies jump out at me instead of my ROOMMATE, we're ok...

I'm sure the same stove would react differently in another location with a different chimney and surrounding terrain. I'm far from an experienced coal burner but common sense tells me the environment the stove is in has a huge effect on its performance and peculiarities. I'm running two stoves right now, the old Wehrle baseburner at my store (Blaschak nut)and a Locke 120 at home (Kimmels nut). They seem to require entirely different shake-down, poking procedures. The Wehrle likes it twice a day, early in the morning and late at night. It almost doesn't want to be messed with in between. The poking is done from the sides of the firepot toward the center with a paddle-shaped poker, then the center grate is dumped and finally the shaker handle is moved side-to-side to clear small ashes from the air holes around the bottom of the fire pot. By then the ash pan is full and I take it to dump it. I leave the ash door open while I do that and the damper is wide open with the baseburner valve in the direct mode. When I come back I pour a scuttle of coal in the top to fill the magazine and shut the door when I see the ladies, then put it back in baseburner mode and turn the damper to 45 degrees again. Good for another 12 hrs.

The Locke is totally different. I only do it once a day, after supper. I shake the crap out of it for quite a while, pull the grate open once or twice and make sure it's all the way pushed back in, and take out the ash box. Since the ash box is a rectangle and the stove is round, some of the ash falls beside it instead of in it. I made a little scraper on a long handle that has a curved end to cup the ashes and clean out around the sides all the way to the back. I put the ash pan under the stove and pull the ashes out with my tool and they fall in the pan. There will be enough ashes to completely fill the pan. I have another hooked poker I use then to push down through the coals from the top and the whole coal bed just collapses to the bottom of the stove. I take the ashes outside, then put one scuttle of coal on and leave the ash door slightly open with the damper wide open. After 10 minutes or so I see the ladies, then put one more scuttle-full in and close everything up and put the damper back like it was. I see blue flames coming up through the new layer and up both sides through the chimney bricks. It's fun to see that happen. I admire the engineering in that Locke brick system. All I do in the morning is peek through the little holes in the filler door to look at the fire, fill the water can I keep on the stove top and go eat breakfast. I only lost the fire a couple of times this winter due to being gone from home or being sick with the flu.

I am having a blast with both stoves for different reasons and the best part is my wife likes them too. It sure makes it more enjoyable to have these old stoves when she likes them too. She doesn't want to try to work with them but she likes them anyway and that's all that matters.

Hey Jerry,

nice to hear from you again and that both stoves are working well.

i'm intrigued with your tending practice on the Locke 120. are you running the stove nearly full ?

i have yet to get the fire built a full 16" in my stove. I have also never pulled the draw center of the grate, been afraid to drop the fire.

our recent cold snap forced me to take the short tube hopper out and run deeper, I also finally got the stove running at a steady -.02 with a deeper fire, which has made a big difference.

i'm going to try your shake and recharge technique and schedule and see how it goes.

EDIT: one more question. are you leaving the top loading door open while you wait for the blues ? Buck's vid. made it look like he might and I've always wondered about that.

also, I can see the chimney flame throwers thru my windows how are you seeing them, thru the top secondary ports ?

thanks,
steve

KingCoal wrote:Hey Jerry,

nice to hear from you again and that both stoves are working well.

i'm intrigued with your tending practice on the Locke 120. are you running the stove nearly full ?

i have yet to get the fire built a full 16" in my stove. I have also never pulled the draw center of the grate, been afraid to drop the fire.

our recent cold snap forced me to take the short tube hopper out and run deeper, I also finally got the stove running at a steady -.02 with a deeper fire, which has made a big difference.

i'm going to try your shake and recharge technique and schedule and see how it goes.

EDIT: one more question. are you leaving the top loading door open while you wait for the blues ? Buck's vid. made it look like he might and I've always wondered about that.

also, I can see the chimney flame throwers thru my windows how are you seeing them, thru the top secondary ports ?

thanks,
steve

Hi Steve!
I have had the best results running the stove as full as I can get it. It seems to help make the blue flames travel up the chimney bricks instead of through the coal so much, and I think that makes more heat come off the stove. Maybe I've just been lucky but I haven't dropped the fire by pulling the grate one or two times, but I never poke at the fire from the top until after I shake and pull the grate. Sometimes I have to work at getting it pushed back in because a large piece of ash gets caught. I don't know if you'd call them clinkers because they're light and easy to break up. If I shake and pull the grate without poking first it seems like all the coal on fire just hangs in the stove in one big unit, but when I do poke it, it all falls down at once. I close the lid after I load because I want all the draft I can get to go through from the bottom of the coals. I can open the little door on top to peek through and see the blue flames, then close them when I'm satisfied it's all working ok. I have left the little door slid open to let a little air go in those holes, though. It seems to get the blue flames on top of the coal going.

Speaking of Buck, I've tried to contact him a couple of times since I got my coal from him this summer but haven't heard from him and haven't seen him post anything on the forum. Does anyone know if he's ok? I enjoyed my time at his place and learned a lot from him. Jerry

Nope, not a peep. I also hope he is well.

Hhmmmmmmm, no contact from Buck. that seems very uncharacteristic, I wish someone was closer to him but, I know he's even more isolated than I am.

i'm assuming you have his phone # too along with email ?

thanks,
steve

looks like he also went "ghost" on forum too, no "last visited" record under his profile.

If I did the search correctly ,Buck47 last posted on Sept 30,2015, that is a bit worrisome . I have enjoyed following his projects & really enjoyed the picture from his porch,looks like a very nice place to sit & relax ....... during warmer weather