First Burn Tonight !!!

Well, I waited long enough and fired the old girl up tonight. Had a heck of a time getting it going, and to my embarrassment, my wife got it going. Once we finally got a good coal bed the stove began smoking pretty good. Some of it was from the paint on the new stove, but it was coming out of the seal between the door and the stove mostly. The temp outside is about 55, so I am guessing my 30 foot chimney wasn't creating enough draft in this warm weather? There is negligible wind, and that was never a problem with the wood stove. I wqasn't able to burn it long enough to dial the stoker in, but figured that needs to be done in realistic burning weather anyway. I'd be interested to hear what you experienced folks have to say.

John

I just got an axeman anderson 130 boiler and I have always burned wood. I couldnt believe how hard it was to light also. I used six coal mice to no avail. Not all at once. Then I just used good dry pine and it worked fine, go figure. With my boiler the ash height is critical as well as the grate temp. Thick fire vs thin fire. Im sure its going to take some time to get it completely dialed in but so far so good. I am so glad that I made the change to coal because it is so much less work. Good luck!

hi John , I don't know. i'm sure one of the draft and chimney experts will give ya some ideas.

The darned coal kept falling off the end so we placed some foil on the end to keep it on the grate. My buddy uses matchlite charcoal to light his which I what I started with, but in the end I had one small piece of oak left over from my woodstove and chopped that up pretty small and it lit in no time at all. Pretty easy actually.

kootch88 A 30 ft. chimney should draft good all the time. What is the size of the flue? Is it a close match to the size of the outlet from the stove?

I believe it is 8 inch and actually it is probably 3 stories plus the 2 feet above the ridge of the house. It is sin the middle of the house. I am thinking I need to clean it too, because last year I burned 2 cords of smi dried wood late in the season due to my inability to get good dry wood.

Sounds like a good chimney to me. I think you're right, cleaning it would be a good idea.

If I remember correctly, a masonary chimney may need pre-heating to get adequet (sp?) draft.

You should always heat up the flue before starting your fire, to make sure your chimney is drafting right from the start. There's some good ideas to heat it up posted here: How to Create an Artificial Chimney / Flue Draft

Kootch, it might be wise to get the chimney swept if you used it for wood a lot and it hasn't been done especially if you have a barometric damper on it. I've not heard of any real occurrences of this but if the creosote in the chimney catches fire and you have a barometric damper you're in deep *censored* because you have an enormous amount of oxygen to feed the chimney fire.

Having said that others have reported that the coal will dry the creosote out and it flakes off eventually, like a self cleaning type deal. However I'd imagine this may actually present another hazard if a whole lot of it comes down at once and blocks the flue.

I have no personal experience in this myself, I'm just pointing out some things I've read. Personally if it were me the chimney would be swept before I used it.

I 100% agree with Richard's post and suggestions.. a 30' chimney should be drafting plenty to vent a stoker stove..

I wouldn't try burning coal in the stove again until you can verfy the chimney is clean and unobstructed.. You don't want CO in the house or a chimney fire.

Greg L

Kootch, it might be wise to get the chimney swept if you used it for wood a lot and it hasn't been done especially if you have a barometric damper on it. I've not heard of any real occurrences of this but if the creosote in the chimney catches fire and you have a barometric damper you're in deep *censored* because you have an enormous amount of oxygen to feed the chimney fire.

Having said that others have reported that the coal will dry the creosote out and it flakes off eventually, like a self cleaning type deal. However I'd imagine this may actually present another hazard if a whole lot of it comes doesn't at once and blocks the flue.

I have no personal experience in this myself, I'm just pointing out some things I've read. Personally if it were me the chimney would be swept before I used it.

Richard,

Me and my nephew will do it this weekend with me looking up the cleanout and pulling the chain and him pushing down from the roof. It is a pain cleaning a chimney this tall, but we have done it before. We do have the barometric damper, and you are right, with that attached there would be no way to suffocate the fire in the chimney if one ignited. Chimney fires are a serious problem here in Maine. The airtight wood stoves actually create quite a bit of creosote, regardless of what the manufatcurer says and even if you run it hot for 20 - 30 minutes a day that still doesn't quite clean it up unless the wood is absolutely dry, which it seldom is. Last year I pulled 16 gallons of soot from my chimney!!

With wood I never had to warm my chimney, even at -20 degrees. Is coal different in this regard?

A wood fire warms things up very fast. Much higher exhaust temps. Coal takes quite a while to warm and has significantly lower exhaust temps.

kootch88 wrote:The darned coal kept falling off the end so we placed some foil on the end to keep it on the grate. My buddy uses matchlite charcoal to light his which I what I started with, but in the end I had one small piece of oak left over from my woodstove and chopped that up pretty small and it lit in no time at all. Pretty easy actually.

Its been posted here before and it works great . Get a short strip of sheetmetal a little longer than the grate is wide . Wedge it in at the end of the grate . Keeps the coal from falling off when its going well just push it off into your ash pan and retrieve it later . Dave

Fired her up for the 1st time this season, I preheated the flue with a piece of newspaper, and the suction was so strong I didn't need to light another in the stove. Burned so well we needed to open the windows then it got a bit cold and the stove went into hi fire all night..It's idleing now I may just let it burn on idle for the next few days. There's a chill in rthe air,

let the season begin!!!!