Very Excited About Our Coal Stove - Thanks King Coal!

I'll post pictures one by one to give explanations. Up first is a picture of this nasty coal, a hunk in the hand (his hand) and a jumble of hunks inside the stove on the grate. This is what we end up pulling out of this stove.

The stove has the ash pan/tray and above that is a little door that allows access to the ash bed or whatever doesn't shake down.

The grate is that round kind. You can see the rod that is attached that we can grab from outside and it has about 2" of travel. Inside, the "floor" of the stove is rounded in the corners, I suppose, like a funnel, the ashes are supposed to fall to the bottom/grate. The air inlet baffle or whatever it's called is down at the bottom and the adjustment is the knob on the outside. As we were taking these pictures, we discovered what seems to be a thermocouple. Anyway, now the dang thing won't seem to get lit. Never been this much trouble before.

I think the early picture I was referring to was "before setup" as the shaker grate looks right in these pictures. Thanks for the new pictures. My coal looks similar when I let the fire go out. I don't think I have any pictures from when I have shut it down, but it looks very similar to what I end up with.

It looks like you have plenty of room to slide a flat poker, a piece of 1/8 by 3/4 inch flat steel that you can purchase at the hardware store, over the grate to clear ash.

Cut a 24 inch piece and place one end in the hot coal bed until red hot, then bend the last four inches over on itself for a handle. Bending over a small one inch round helps.

Slide the poker over the grate in and out and side to side to clear ash from grate. This will be very effective and quick.

What you call a thermocouple is probably the thermostatic air control. Observe what happens when turning the air control knob.

Those large pieces in the ash appear to be clinkers. Hard pieces of ash fused together. They form when running the stove too hot or just having coal more prone to fuse easily. Red ash coal with more iron does this.

Take some time to look at how your air control operates. It probably is able to be set to open and close by itself in response to stove temperature setting. A setting knob and a thin copper tube to sense temperature. Then a rod going down to a round flap in the ash pan area to control air through the grate.

Close a dollar bill all around the lower door to check for tension on the bill when the door is latched. Air leaks here could lead to over heating and short burn times.

So he had a dickens of a time re=lighting the stove but eventually got 'er going. I gave him all the great info you shared with us.

The stove was cold by morning. He's out so I cleaned out the ashes/clinkers. Because there are more of those things in there that means we are still running the stove too hot, right?

I have a couple of questions that are probably somewhere else in the forum if you can excuse my not searching for them...

I'm going to give it a shot and I wondered first, how much coal is supposed to be in there? I'm guessing we aren't putting enough in if it's out by morning and he was banging the shaker at 10pm (I get up about 5:30am). Second, how do you guys get your stoves going. He's mentioned some different methods, squirting lighter fluid into a hot stove being one he's not going to try a second time. He's using cowboy charcoal to get it lit. He's mentioned using some kindling wood. I've got some starter blocks but they have paraffin so he's shying away from those. But now it's my turn and I was hoping you could tell me how to and how much.

Do you load it, douse it?? OH one more thing, the vent that allows air in under the charcoal: It's the strangest thing. If you can picture a manhole cover being lifted horizontally up off of a manhole, that's the action of this damper thingy, only turned sideways. When you adjust the knob, the disk that covers the hole pulls straight away from it. It seems like it's either open or closed. Once you open it, what difference does it make if it's a half inch away from the hole or 3 inches away from the hole? Air's going to suck in there freely, isn't it? Because if it's burning too hot/fast then we would have to restrict the air a little more, wouldn't we?

Anyway, if you got through all that, God bless you. Thanks for any help you can give.

The proper amount of coal is whatever is needed to fill to the top of the fire brick or fire pot. Coal likes a DEEP bed to work properly,the fact that the stove goes cold overnite is likely from too little coal in the pot.

NEVER squirt any flammable liquid into a stove.... Not a cold stove nor a hot stove.
Many members use charcoal to start their stoves,i usually use paper,cardboard & some scrap wood.... costs me nothing.

The air flapper is controlled by a bi-metal heat sensitive spring that will open/close as needed to keep the stove firing at an even temp,there are members here who can explain it's use very well.

Awesome reply windyhill.
The device that works the air flapper seems to be out of service. There's a knob on the side of the stove we can work manually but it's drive by a linkage and the coil in there (spring?) seems to not function.

Okay, I'm off to gather stuff to get this baby cooking!

Here is 30 pages of how to start the fire in a hand fed!!

How to Light a Hand Fired Coal Stove

Basically get a good wood fire going and add coal in layers allowing it to catch and then add another layer of coal until the fire box is full of coal to the top of the fire brick.

Give it more underfire air than normal when starting up. When the firebox is at least half full then start closing the underfire air slowly until it is at the normal running level.

As you mentioned you may be giving too much air if it isn't burning through the night or your not filling enough or both.

Good luck...please post back with the details of your success!!

So do you get a small pile of coal going then pile on more? That's kind of what I just did. Time will tell.

Oh, I just saw the link, thanks!

A thread that has a fire starting video if you would rather watch it than read about it.....

Quick Start Method Video

Your air control responds to stove temperature. The flap closes when the temperature set is reached and then will open and close slightly to maintain that temperature. You probably have it set to too high a number. Start by setting it about in the middle and observe what happens to the flap as the stove heats. I believe the type your stove has is controlled by liquid that expands and contracts as it is heated and cools off. You should see a thin copper tube. No spring.

Fill stove gradually to a few inches below the top door. Subsequent fillings should also be done in several stages to minimise any chance of puff back, which is a mild explosion from excess gas build up. Always open top door slowly.

Well H.S.......how did you make out last night getting the fire started and did it burn through the night??

So sorry about the delay in posting. Titleist your link (which I pored over poured over... anyway, I read) was perfect.

I started with an empty stove and got it burning and filled all the way up. I was so proud. Then the smoke detector went off. I cranked it back so far I smothered it.

The next day (yesterday) I got my gloves on and unloaded all the half spent coal. (which was cold by this time) What's odd to me - just an observation - is that same coal had been cherry red and when I pulled it out there was plenty of black left on it.

ANY who, in light of the article I gathered some sticks and twigs. My "expert" other half tried to hold his tongue because, of course, if it's not his way it's wrong. I struggled to get it started (I've decided I like those little firestarter blocks - as far as I can tell the paraffin burns off completely.) I also used the cowboy charcoal, too. Anyway, she fired up and I filled it up completely as instructed. The smoke detector went off again. I think the new stove pipe paint/coating hadn't completely burned off and that was the issue. Plus I did have it too hot. I was gunshy on the controls since I'd smothered it before. So I played with it until the temp dropped on it. I do need a t'mometer.

Last night I shook until the first embers fell, refilled and let 'er go. I got the flapper in a good position - it doesn't move automatically from what I can tell. I think those controls are not functioning. That's no biggee, it's an old stove. Yes, it's a coil of tubing, not a spring. But I adjusted the back flue to ensure it wasn't sucking the life out of my fire and had the flapper set as low as I could.

This morning it's going strong. I waited until I thought the sleepers wouldn't kill me and began shaking. Holy smokes. I shook it a LOT. The good news is, there was plenty of ash falling. The bad news is I had a lot of shaking to do before I saw the first embers fall and I stopped at that point.

I began putting coal in and forgot to do it slowly so I'm letting it catch up. I'm watching out when I open the door. I've used lots of the tricks I learned such as opening the slider to let more air in the room. I did that yesterday trying to get it relit. (I think my sticks were damp)

Just checked it. Burning good. I shook some more and the glow of the coals reflected in the ash pan - a lovely sight. I adjusted it to keep the temp low. I've got a pot of water sitting on top. (I thought I'd die the first night of real heat) Now all I need is cold weather!!

Thanks to all the patient, stove experts here. You know what works for you and that's what I needed to hear. I think I've got it!