Crawford 40 Waiting in the Wings

Sunny Boy wrote:Steve,
Have you noticed if filling and banking the firepot up the back has helped any with draft control ?

Paul

nope not a bit. 10#'s of ash and 40#'s of solid nut Anth. don't mean jack to this installation.

you know what those round column things are that folks use to start charcoal in right ?

of course being Anth. not Char. you would think that you'd have a nice pile of black, not much involved yet coal sitting on top with blues burning off the top of it.

ah no, with stuff shut down as far as I could get it and the check full open, in 15 mins. the whole top of the bed was on fire too.

if we go back to the Char. lighter thing, it works off the induced draft of it's own heat, little to no over fire help cause there's fuel right up to the top, no flue, just fire pot.

that's only half my situation. I also have a flue that I use as a circulation system in the summer.

it can be 90* OAT and if I don't keep the elbow in the thimble pointed at the ceiling the cat has to stay around the corner in the dining room and kitchen.

tomorrow is going to be pretty nice here and I intend to rearrange the smoke pipe to take care of this. I pretty much only have the next 3 weeks to determine if this stove has a chance of making it here. otherwise it's going to have to find a new home, like a red headed step child.

I think you mentioned making the ash and clinker door tight, but I don't know if you did that. The air shutters might be difficult to make tight.

As Franco stated any chance you can seal around the perimeter of the ash door? What are your temps when the primary's fully shut? forget the dollar bill test when restoring my G6 I could pass pennies thru the ash door. Cementing flat rope gasket really did the trick and I can idle down to 150° no problem. I'd hate to see you sell a rare piece such as the C40 with out exhausting all options, that is unless T.O.M. Is a true performer for your home and draft condition.

Canaan coal man wrote:As Franco stated any chance you can seal around the perimeter of the ash door? What are your temps when the primary's fully shut? forget the dollar bill test when restoring my G6 I could pass pennies thru the ash door. Cementing flat rope gasket really did the trick and I can idle down to 150° no problem. I'd hate to see you sell a rare piece such as the C40 with out exhausting all options, that is unless T.O.M. Is a true performer for your home and draft condition.

first thing I did was seal up the load and ash doors. just did the clinker door though.

because of the way the grate arm comes thru the body there is enough bypass there to equal a 5th primary vane open about 3/32". that can't be changed, so when the rest is closed that's the idle adjustment. this stove has a spring and screw tension adjustment on the primary slide vanes.

i have no need to replace T.O.M. I've never used even 1/2 of his potential. the interest in the C40 is to see if it can heat this house while delivering a further fuel savings.

thanks,
steve

Canaan coal man wrote:As Franco stated any chance you can seal around the perimeter of the ash door? What are your temps when the primary's fully shut? forget the dollar bill test when restoring my G6 I could pass pennies thru the ash door. Cementing flat rope gasket really did the trick and I can idle down to 150° no problem. I'd hate to see you sell a rare piece such as the C40 with out exhausting all options, that is unless T.O.M. Is a true performer for your home and draft condition.

forgot to answer the low and slow question. today I recorded 143* as the hot spot. this was shut down to the grate handle leak, draft closed as much as possible and the check wide open. this after the wind fell off.

the fire was also on the back side of the burn cycle.

KingCoal wrote:
i have no need to replace T.O.M. I've never used even 1/2 of his potential. the interest in the C40 is to see if it can heat this house while delivering a further fuel savings.

thanks,
steve

[/quote]

Is it to early to tell if there is fuel savings?

yes, too early.

until tomorrow when I can get the stack set up the same as it was with T.O.M. there is no place for comparisons, just reports of current use experiences.

there are comments on the forum of this stove being able to heat about 2500 s.f. on 50#'s per 24 hrs. along with another of it cruising at 400* on 12#'s per 24 hrs.

i'm heating 600 s.f. directly and another 600 indirectly up the front entry staircase. T.O.M. does it down to 0* at idle on 40#'s per 24 hrs.

if I can control the over fire conditions correctly for the C40 I might be able to cut my daily fuel use to 26 - 30 #'s. a worth while experiment in my book.

See your private messages.

wsherrick wrote:See your private messages.

hoping you'll consider my PM reply

thanks,
steve

I guess time will tell.
It's funny even tho some members share the same stoves, with all the variables between coal, chimneys , house, and tending we all get different results. Heck my G6 is an exceptional heater and a great stove for my needs. I'm saveing roughly a ton a year and keeping the house warmer than the stoker so I'm happy. but I still can push an unexpected amount of fuel thru it, like this saterday we had -10° wind chills high of 20° and she ate 75lbs in 24 Hrs to hold a 600° berral temp . Even at idle I was expecting a little better lbs per day. The best I can do is 15lbs in 24hr. But hey at the end of the day I wouldn't trade it at all.

yep, in those conditions I wouldn't be the least surprised to see extra fuel burned. BUT, the stove kept up and the house was warm right ? gota love it.

here's a prime example of what i'm dealing with . today it's 50* OAT, 65 IAT, the stoves been out since sometime before 0430 and stone cold. it's in DD, MPD open, remains of 20+ #'s of nut in the pot and the Mano. is showing -.02 with the primaries wide open and -.025 with them closed.

pics and reports around 2100, see ya then.

steve

That IS odd Steve, the only time my stove has gone out is when it's run out of fuel.

scalabro wrote:That IS odd Steve, the only time my stove has gone out is when it's run out of fuel.

Same with my G109 Scott. It'll consume every last ounce of coal before going out.

KingCoal wrote:yep, in those conditions I wouldn't be the least surprised to see extra fuel burned. BUT, the stove kept up and the house was warm right ? gota love it.
steve

Ya your right and 75lbs isn't all that bad. I paid 210. a ton so im looking at 7.86$ to keep the house mid 70s for 24hours. Not to shabby, and its cheaper than a plane ticket to Florida...........

That's very odd, that with such a strong drafting system, the stove goes out with so much fuel remaining, plus enough heat remaining in the system that it's showing a fairly good draft hours later.

I can't think of anything that would cuase it, except not clearing ash as thoroughly and I'm sure Steve knows very well by now how to do that.

Paul