Hitzer 503 Installation Photos

whoops..misunderstood. Yeah alittle graphite should do the trick.

Well guys....graphite didn't work for me....couldn't get it where I needed it...so I spritzed with WD40 and it's now a one finger operation.....life is good....

Hi Bear, guy’s

I went to the local ACE Hardware store, they didn’t have anything in paste form but they did have Lock-ease. Which is graphite suspended in something that evaporates quickly. For a couple of bucks I figured I’d give it a shot. Seems to be working for me, the door is no longer binding but I’m not at all sure how much graphite is in the joint where it needs to be. If I have to re-apply any time soon, I’ll try some of Bear’s WD-40 and see how that works.

Tom

It’s been some time since I posted anything here and I thought I’d check in and see how everyone is doing.

My season is going good. So far, I’ve used 2 tons of coal and have 1 remaining. If the winter stays as cold as it’s been, I may need some additional fuel.

One thing I have noticed is that I’ve learned that I have to poke the fire. The ash build up in the corners of the fire bed get to the point that even with aggressive shaking, they do not clear. Also if I poke or rake the coal bed, I find that the fire comes back a lot more consistent.

We’ve had some very cold nights here (central CT) down to -9* and I haven’t had to resort to the oil burning monster at all. I have noticed that my coal consumption is at 50 lbs / day.

How is everyone else doing?

Tom

Hey Tom,

Doing good, plenty of coal, my Monticello has a round firebox; I poke the fire all the time. I have been burning lump coal. The past few mornings I wake up to low 60's but it doesn't take too much to revive the fire. As long as there is a self-sustaining mass of orange in there I'm not worried about poking.
Fired up the aux. natural gas heater here this morning just for the sake of luxury and to test it.
My primary source of heat is anthracite coal- yee hah!
Just did a lot of snow shovelling- my wet clothes are hung up to dry and will provide some needed humidity inside today...

The 'rents 503 still on the first match!
They love it and the house is 70*!
The insulated liner has a draft that pulls the ash like a central vacuum!
40-60 lbs a day, all they do is shake, empty and fill!
They did not really believe me when I told them how easy and clean this would be!
Now they are converts.

My dad was picking up coal 12-15 bags at a time in the fall.
I said he really needed to get a good pile for the winter.
I go with my dad to pick up a pallet of bagged coal and he thinks we are going to hump 60 bags onto the trailer!
While he is inside paying, I have the forklift jockey placing the wrapped pallet on the trailer for transport.
Out he comes pulling on his gloves, preparing to help move 2400 lbs of coal.
The look of suprise and relief on his face was priceless!

tfaath -- Thanks for the question, doing a lot like you and CapeCoaler; we have burned 2 tons of our 3 ton stock of Blascak
bagged nut coal. Last year burned nearly all pea but like the pea no clinkers that don't easily break up. As with the others on nut we peke a couple of times/week. Regards, baldeagle

Hi Dann, Cape, Baldeagle,

Good to hear from you guys and it’s great to hear that you’re continuing to do well!

Bald, Still on the first match, it that incredible or what??? I shut mine down over the Christmas Holiday, the boss and I took some vacation and drove to Florida for a few days, other then that, it’s been a 1 match winter. As I mentioned earlier is I find that I did have to learn how to poke and rake in order to keep the fire “lively”. Other then that it’s been smooth sailing. Spring can’t be that far off … can it??

I do want to get in touch with Hitzer and suggest a couple of things that I’m sure they are very familiar with:

• Developing a fan system that is variable in speed
• Adding more surface area in the air ducts to improve heat transfer. ( I think the efficiency of the unit can be greatly enhanced by adding some heat fins inside this duct).

Stay in touch, happy heating!!

Tom

tfaath -- I have a variable fan speed controller purchased from the dealer with the stove, it reduces the fan speed ($20) significantly and 'till you can barely hear it. THE BIG but is (and others more qualified can add detail) if you leave it on the "auto" setting and it cycles at the slow settings (loweramps.?) the life of the fans will be shortened. You must move the 3-way switch to manual when using the lower settings; and then switch it back for hi-speed on "auto" As to the baffling'
I spoke to Dean at Hitzer - he was not attracted to adding baffles. I explained how we (steel industry) would have heat
exchangers,tundishes etc. modeled in clear plastic and then use smoke/dyed water to check for eddying,dead spots and
other characteristics for improved heat transfer. I believe they will pass on that approach as well. Best, baldeagle

hey Tom

thanks for update - that's some great coal consumption i.e. efficient - you probably have a well insulated house. I bought 4 tons and have I estimate about 1.5 approx left enough to get me through Feb and into March.

Interestingly I hadn't been raking my coals at all until just this week and found exact same as you that it greatly improves the heat output and levels the coal better than shaking. Only minor issue I have is the poker glows orange by the time I'm finished which over time will probably weaken the poker but we'll see. I usually stick it in my cast iron stove pot for some dramatic hissing.

In ref to the humidifier (sorry for very tardy reply on that one !)- I use it intermittently - I also got a warm air one just for the bedroom which I like better but the whole house one does its job when I turn it on.

am loving these heat wave days i.e. 20 to 30 degrees - no brainer for hitzer 503 to keep things warm.

Those are interesting enhancements to the stove. I think the grate could be better designed to allow more ash to fall - purely a lay man's opinion and I have no exact solution in mind.

continued success to all owners !

Van

It's great to hear from everyone! As for me, I'm still in my daily routine without many changes. I'm still searching for the right restrictor/damper setting for keeping the house at the same temp depending on the weather. So far I've been having good results with the restrictor at 1/2 open and the damper at 1/3 open and/or the restrictor at 2/3 open and the damper at 1/4 open for "average" winter weather around here (20s and 30s). Either of these settings will keep the stovetop at around 300* give or take. When the outside temps dip into the teens or single digits, I'll leave the restictor at 2/3 open and open the damper to 1/3 or 1/2. Of course these settings don't come close to pushing the stove to its limits, which is nice. I do go through more coal than I probably could if I toned things down a bit and/or ran a ducted cold air return, but with things as they are currently, in order to keep the back bedroom at 64*, I have to keep the living room at 80*, and that means running the stove at 300* or so. If/when I get the cold air return done, I imagine I'll be able to turn things down a notch or two.

I've also been poking/raking like others to keep the back corners going. The gravity feed works okay with normal shaking, but to get things nice and leveled out, I'll move the grates up and down as well as the normal left/right rotations. I've found that lifting them up and letting them fall down makes MUCH more fresh coal fall down from the hopper. It seems as though this up/down shaking will collapse the air pockets underneath and allow more room for the fresh coal more than just plaint left/right rotational shaking. I've tried pushing down on the front ends of the grates to get the back ends to rise up and fall down, but it's not as easy as lifting the front ends, and the backs tend to get jammed up with ash/coal quicker (2-3 lifts), requiring some left/right shakes to free them up. So after a bunch of left/right and up/down shakes, I'll poke and rake to even things out. Most of the time this results in a more even and hotter burn.

I've gone through about 2.16 tons (108 40-lb. bags) out of my original supply of 4.8 tons. I had two "test burns" early on which used seven bags, so since 10/16/08 I've been burning continuously and used 101 bags out of 240. So I've got 132 bags (2.64 tons) left to get me through. Looks like I'm averaging just a hair under one bag a day (0.94 bags per day). Not bad! I had estimated a bag a day overall, so that's right on track. In theory, I can go through 6/12/09 with what I have left. I imagine it will get warmer long before then! Odds are I'll have a bunch left over, which will be nice.

I hope all the other 503 owners out there continue to enjoy their stoves as much as I have!

hey guys

couple of things

1. I have a few cracked bricks in the 503 - anywone else got same/replaced them. I plan to replace and of season but seems fine in meantime. I assume these are custom size and need to be ordered from hitzer ?

2. first time I saw little crumbs of coal on the hopper lip turn purple! - was pretty cool - I guess they had some gas or were small enough to combust on the spot - hadn't seen that before.

If rest of Feb is mild like this, we'll be in great shape consumption wise ! With overnight temperature around 32 house is 70 on the lowest possible setting !

Van

Hi, 503 owners. I was wondering whether or not you guys had an issue with the burning of the fire in any way without the use of a barometric draft regulator installed into the stovepipe? The 503 looks like a very well designed stove and the pictures I've seen on this post are tremendous. The fires really look great. Do you think it would be possible to burn buckwheat sized coal in the 503 after the initial fire has been established? Is there anything else for someone interested in the 503 would have to consider before purchasing one? Thanks, DOUG

Hi Doug,

Regarding the use of a barometric damper, because I use my 503 as an insert and in the fireplace, I don’t have the space to put a baro damper. As far as using it without the baro damper, I have not had one problem. Fire regulation is controlled by the ash pan vents and the manual damper (push / pull) rod. I find that running mine with the manual damper all the way in is the best. I only open the damper when I’m loading coal or shaking it down.

I’m not sure that buckwheat would work at all in the 503. Hirtzer recommends nut size and will tell you that it will run pea but you have to be careful when you shake it down. I have found during the winter a couple of bags with finer coal. The unit did not like the smaller coal at all. I have a difficult time shaking it down and getting the heat out of the unit that I came to expect.

As far as considering something else, I must say that the unit is well constructed. My wife who is only concerned about how warm the house is recently made the comment to a friend that the 503 has worked out well and we had the warmest winter in a long time.

Hope this helps, if you have any additional questions, please ask.

Tom

Thanks for the reply Tom. It sure is a great looking stove. I just watched the video on this forum about the 983 fireplace insert. Wow! I still like the gravity feed option of the 503 though. I was a little concerned about the non-usage of a barometric draft regulator between the stove and the chimney. I couldn't see were you would even put one. But after your reply, I'm convinced that it should not be an issue for most applications of a fireplace insert. I'm definitely going to have to look into the 503. I just hope it will fit into my fireplace without too much modification of the brick work. My fireplace dimensions are really close to the outside dimensions of the 503. Well, I'll have to do some more figuring now to see if I can get it to fit. Thanks for the help. DOUG