Question on My Hitzer

Every once in a while my Hitzer 30-95 has a quick poofing combustion in the hopper then may not happen for a while or the rest of the day, or even days. Any idea how to prevent that?

Sounds like it's not quite getting the volatiles burnt off before you shut it down. Can you add a little overair?

Also, is this happening shortly after a loading? Are you leaving a little glowing coals showing to burn off the gasses of new coal?

Just a few thoughts that might help. Someone else here will know better having the same style stove I'm sure.

Boris wrote:Every once in a while my Hitzer 30-95 has a quick poofing combustion in the hopper then may not happen for a while or the rest of the day, or even days. Any idea how to prevent that?

The word... HOPPER is used here,i take that as meaning that your stove is equipped with a hopper which should mean no worry about poofs,or so I thought. OR, are you using the word hopper to describe the firepot ? There are a number of members with that same stove,hopefully they have your answer.

B, do you have your ash door vents cracked a LITTLE? Are you filling the hopper completely at tendings? I'm thinkin that should fix that. There is no over-air.

I have the 3095 your stove 16 years .Note if you shake Real Hard you will flood or cover all the coal .On occasion I have done this so I crack the glass door until all the volatiles are burned off . So either shake But Leave a Red coal spot to act as a Pilot light .Try this jack

Are you talking about little poof, poof, poofs? Or are you talking KaBoom? I think you're talking poof, poofs....... If so, I've had that happen once in a great while. Seems like the times it did happen, I had the ash pan door open, and fire ripping. Then close her up before all gasses were burnt off. Creates kind of a vacuum in the chimney, causing a series of small poofs.

The chimney draft reminds me of being in a motor boat, moving along. Then you slow down suddenly, and the water pushes up against the back of the boat.

Nothing to worry about

Boris, your problem sounds familiar to me! I have a Hitzer 503 insert with hopper. Very similar design to your stove. Check out my 2010 post and tell me if the mini puffbacks in the video are what you are experiencing. Mini-Puffbacks: Consult Please. If you read the thread, you will see that people had many ideas about what might cause the puffbacks, but in the end, what was revealed by my coal dealer was that he had over-oiled the coal and had been getting complaints of puffbacks from his customers. He told me that in the year of my puffbacks, he had been using 2 gallons of oil per ton of coal. Half that amount seems to work better and is not associated with puffbacks. Are you using oiled coal?

Something I have done during puffback episodes in the past is to use a poker to pierce the coal bed in several places under the hopper so that fire and hot gases can more easily reach the hopper area where volatile gases were accumulating. Seemed to help.

I've experienced the rapid puff-puff-puff (woosh, woosh, woosh) repetitive pulsing issue when burning wood. It only happens when I damp the stove down all the way (for both over and under air). It never happens if I crack the over the fire air control lever even the smallest fraction open. Not sure about coal though, as I've yet to try it in my Comfort Max 75.

Never had it happen with ash door vents cracked 1/8"! I always like to KISS first before complicating the hell out of things. People not familiar with the HITZER hopper design--please stop with the mis-information!! B, what size coal ya using??

I'm using Reading chestnut coal. Not sure if it's oiled or not. Both over and under vents have air going through them. The bottom one has the holes open to pencil size or a little further sometimes.

B, where did you find an over-air?????????????????????????

Also forgot to add just poof, nut boom. I'd say it happens when opening the hopper and I'll have to check to see if it happens more when the hopper is full or empty.

B, NEVER let the hopper get empty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also--you have no over-air. You using a MPD or Baro???? Open hopper door real slow.

That's what was being said, so I assumed the thermostatically controlled door was over air. So it goes underneath the grate just like the ash door then? The hopper is sometimes empty when I get up in the morning so there's not much I can do about it.

You said a quick poof in the hopper. Are you talking a series of poofs? EXAMPLE: poof, poof, poof, etc.? Or are you talking a WUSH! when opening the hopper door? If a WUSH!, do as Fred says; Open the door slowly. That goes for the front door, as well as the hopper door.