Hotblast Year 3

This load and the load before came from a coal tipple in Shelocta between Kittanning and Indiana.
I don't know where it was mined but suspect fairly close to there.
Prior year and part of my 1st year I got from a mine just outside Kittanning.

The first couple pick up loads in my first year were from a mine near Worthington which is between Kittanning and Butler.

Closest was, maybe 25-30 miles from Slippery Rock and the farthest was, maybe, 60.
Why do you ask about Slippery Rock?

Just put 5 shovels in @ 2:15.
Left the spinner 4 turns open
Shook out 3/4 pan of ashes and some hot coals.

larryfoster wrote: Left the spinner 4 turns open

I have almost 7 full turns on my spinner. When you first load up, that should really be wide open. You need as much air coming through the hot coal bed as possible to get fresh coal ignited and burning.
The MPD should be wide open also.
You can close the secondary down so that the draft in the chimney will help to draw more air into the coal bed. Then open the secondary all the way after you have a good burn going to help with burning the volatile gases.

larryfoster wrote:Shook out 3/4 pan of ashes and some hot coals.

Did you "vigorously shake, run a poker down both sides of the fire bricks on top of the grate "ledge", poke out all four corners, lay the poker flat on top of the grates and scrape them down and thoroughly shake again. Shut the load door for a few minutes (maybe 3 or 4) " to get the blow torch going before you added coal???

I'm getting ready to check out for the night and weekend.
I'll look in when a I have a couple of minutes over the next couple of days to see how you're progressing. Good luck!

Larry,

One of the primary causes of frustrating situations such as a stove putting out good heat one day but not the next, is rarely inconsistency in the fuel, or equipment. You've proven that your stove and chimney system are capable of putting out plenty of heat, and that your coal can do that too. So the question then is,... But why can't it always do it ? When the process of elimination gets to where you are now, fuel, stove, and chimney no longer being in question, then the most common answer is, inconsistency in proper ash removal. That's not a big deal for wood stoves, but it is SUPER CRITICAL for any coal stove !!!!!!!!!!

Shaking/clearing ash sounds simple right ? Well, going by how often we get questions about stoves not putting out heat, or dying with unburned coal still in them, it's one of the toughest things to learn about operating a coal stove.

And don't feel bad, your in the majority of stove owners (and good company ) . We've all been there at some time and had to learn that what we thought was good ash removal wasn't so.

As you know, ash left behind is dead fuel that is taking up space, not contributing heat, plus it's also restricting air flow through the firebed so that whatever fuel can burn will take longer to get burning.

If other guys are able to run a deep firebed that produces heat, with longer burn times, and tending intervals, with similar stoves and coal, then ash remaining and hiding where you can't see it might very well be the reason yours has been inconsistent.

I suggest trying KYspeedracer and Big B's help in how to clear ash, how much, and when, to see if it can make a difference in letting you get more coal in to burn affectively - so that you can get good, consistent heat output, everyday, not just hit-or-miss, along with longer intervals between tending.

Paul

Did you "vigorously shake, run a poker down both sides of the fire bricks on top of the grate "ledge", poke out all four corners, lay the poker flat on top of the grates and scrape them down and thoroughly shake again

Yes.
And contrary to popular belief, that's how I do it.
I may be guilty of not doing it EVERY time but there are many times the ash produced is minimal.

Shut the load door for a few minutes (maybe 3 or 4) " to get the blow torch going before you added coal???

Haven't done that and I'm not sure how much "blow torch" I'd have.
But, I'll try.

Paul, I readily admit to tending errors.
Quite often assumptions are made that aren't based on the situation on the ground.
I get that people aren't here.

But, to clarify...
My furnace door doesn't open without a poker going in and never has.
It was necessitated due to clumping and the need to break it and to get air underneath.

Since I made my L shaped poker it also runs through my fire bed.
Every time.
Just as Ky Speedracer suggests.

I'll see if there may be some more ash.
Past experience says there won't be a lot but if it helps performance, it only takes a few seconds

FYI, I knew I didn't need coal but went down to check what was going on with the big loading earlier.
Shook ashes and got @1/4 pan.
Had to break up the big dome before running my L poker through.

Hopefully, enough will burn down by later to add a good amount

Important question, please.


As the temperatures outside start going up, how do you keep a fire going so that you're not cooking yourself out of the house?
I assume, I would want to use the damper for primary air to really slow the burn and then open when I may want more heat like in the evening.

I don't have enough wood to let it burn out and re-light all the time.

How long into the spring do you go before you call it a season?
Thanks, as always

WOW...104 pages of posts in ~3~ months! I'll chime in here since I ran a Hot Blast for 20 years before it gave up the ghost...Although I only burned wood in it....

My setup is the furnace is in a 1000 sq ft insulated garage and the stove output is ducted through the attic using a 24x24 plenum that reduces down to a 8" x 24" trunk through the attic. The stove basically kept the 1000sq ft garage at 70+° and had no problems heating my 2500 sq ft single level with only minor heat addition during extreme ~0~ish weather...Gas logs, ceramic propane wall heater, electric furnace, etc easily made up the difference....My total heat bills remain low with this setup...

Anyway, I took the hotblast out about 4 years ago and replaced it with a Firechief. Both stoves had no issues heating my house...Even with wood. Now the Firechief is coming out at the end of the season and I'll be switching to an Ak-110 Leisure Line rice coal Stoker that I already have sitting in the garage! I'm finally tired of the amount of work it takes to burn wood.

I remember having the same issues in the beginning out of the Hotblast as you....Not much heat with the 2 round openings on top of the stove. So I cut those out to a square. Can't remember the size, but something like a 20" x 20". This helped but still not optimum. Next I took off the (2) 800cfm blowers and mounted a single larger squirrel cage fan and this did the trick! I'm guessing a 2000cfm blower. It was big....It seemed to double the airflow at the registers. My issues wasn't with the ductwork from the stove, it was air delivery from the small 800 cfm blowers. I ran it like this for 20 years...The newer Firechief has a 1800 cfm blower. I run it on high and its a lot more air flow than the (2) 800 cfm blowers originally on the hotblast.

The perplexing thing about your issue, is you are using coal instead of wood with the same furnace as I had...Even running the duct over head in the ~0°~ attic, it was easy to get 110° air out of the registers. Plus I don't think it matters if your duct isn't insulated....Its all within the heating space of your house. Any bleed-off of the duct should heat the area its in, which is still inside your house. That stove should run you out of your 1000 sq ft house w/basement with all the windows wide open...

I did a search of this thread to see if you had modified the blower/blowers on this stove...I didn't see anything....That's why I posted what I did to help my Hotblast perform better....Maybe something to consider? Maybe not! Just a different spin on the same furnace...

One major difference. He's also heating an uninsulated basement before the heat reaches the upstairs. Uninsulated ductwork can shed a lot of heat, and concrete/stone foundations and floors can soak up a lot of that shed heat.

Paul

2biz,welcome to the party.
Better late than never and thanks for your insight.

I've wondered about the blowers on occasion but think they may be adequate now that we've solved other issues.

Now, we're tweaking.

Adequate! Maybe?...But bigger is always better, they say! LOL...

I've never had an issue with draft. I have a double wall SS pipe that goes up through the garage roof and protrudes about 3' above the angled roof. Not even to the top of the ridge...I had a damper in the old 6" stove pipe for the hotblast that I think helped a lot, but made it difficult to brush the pipe. I eliminated the damper when I installed the Firechief, as they recommended it wasn't needed. I think with the Hotblast, it helped hold heat in the stove keeping it from going up and out the chimney....I believe Eliminating it with the Firechief cost me a little performance.

Good to know you've solved some of the issues. I just never saw where you tackled the blowers and exit opening, so I chimed in....I know it made a huge difference for my setup...I took the tweaking to a whole different level!

Something new, exciting and different happened today.

On my way home my wife called and said the carbon monoxide detector went off.
This was @ 1:45 PM
I had her open windows and doors and get the dogs outside.
I said she could go too.


I was home in about 10 minutes.
She had taken the alarm outside and it stopped.
Obviously.
We brought it back in and I set up a new second detector that I had.
So far, no new alarms.
I had filled the furnace around 11 AM full.
The primary and secondary air are wide open as well as the MPD.
Mano is @.05.
Fire is a slow burn

I suppose I should burn out and check pipes.

Any other guidance or suggestions would be appreciated

I thought you might have been sooting up again since I last posted about the possibility.

Glad everyone is safe.

I have 2 detectors sitting side by side on my DR table.
Both went up to 31/32 after the first alarm 1-1/2 hours ago.
Without me touching it, one went to -0- and the other was at 31.
After that, I reset them both few minutes ago and they're both still at -0-

I still think your sooted up.