My HITZER 50-93 Experience So Far

 
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Bobs86GN
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Post by Bobs86GN » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 1:12 am

Really pleased with the way this stove has worked so far. Starting the coal fire has been a piece of cake. I just make a nice wood fire with kindling (dry shop scrap pieces of pine and some oak). The total time it takes from filling the stove with kindling to a full coal fire and a fully loaded hopper takes about 45 minutes. I've done this 3-4 times so far because I have purposely let it die out due to warm temperatures. When I have restarted, I shake the ash and empty the bin but I have left the unburned coal on the grates and just thrown the wood on top. I keep the baro closed shut during the start up and keep the ash pan door open untill the coals are glowing. All the reading on this site has been a great help. My thermostat on the stove seems to be adjusted just right. I leave the vent holes on the ash door nearly closed (like 1/2 circles showing) and sometimes just a tick more. I've been using Bagged Blashack nut and also bagged nut from a grain store in Taunton Ma. These bags actually came with the stove when I bought it off of Craigslist. Both types of coal seem to burn pretty much the same but the unknown stuff may burn just a bit longer if anything. The house has been anywhere between 77-82 depending on outside temps and where I set the thermostat to. Mostly, the Tstat is down to a minimum setting and the stove is idling. Outside temps have been 40-50 degrees mostly. I am amazed how easy this whole process is. I only have to shake the grates once a day although I have done it twice on occasion. At this idle setting it really takes 1 1/2 days to accumulate enough ash to bother emptying it. I take the whole ash tray out the rear door and deposit it into a metal trash can. I made a poor man's central vac by keeping the shop vac in the cellar and with a series of pipes and an extension hose behind a cabinet next to the stove- it is hidden but right there when I need it. It actually plugs into a strip near the stove which I am able to use to turn it on or off (I leave the switch on the vac in the on position). There really isn't anything to clean up except for a few small specks of flyash from the times I open the glass door to just fiddle with the fire for lack of anything better to do. I know-I'm not supposed to mess with it :oops: I wish someone had talked me into burning coal 30 yrs ago. Other than the good excercise of cutting, loading and splitting wood (by hand) there is little benefit to messing with wood. Now that I'm old and feeble and suffer from a bad back I pretty much have had it with wood burning. I don't even spend 10 minutes a day doing anything with the coal stove. Now my wife is going to put me to work doing other things cause I have all this free time. ;) I do have a boiler in the cellar that I have had equally good success with burning coal. I just haven't figured out which one is going to be used more. Each have there own advantages (the boiler supplies hot water and specific zone and temp control through 5 heating zones). The cozyness factor and glowing coals from the first floor Hitzer as well as its ease of use is also tough to dismiss. Anyone else have both? What do you do? I figured the Hitzer might be more efficient and burn less but I need to do more testing.


 
dbev
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Post by dbev » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 7:45 am

Bobs86GN,
I get the exact same performance with my Hitzer 30-95. It took me about an hour for my first fire. I used some ash kindling and a little hardwood charcoal Saturday afternoon and it's been running ever since. I'm really pleased how easy the whole process has been, wish I would have known about coal a long time ago. I keep the front ash door vents closed and let the baro and thermostat do it's thing. The stack temp started out at 300F and has now settled down to 230F. The house has been from 78F to 73F this morning (2060sqft). I to am amazed how easy this has all been. After burning wood for 10 years this is like heaven. It turns out the local Aubuchon hardware a mile from me sells Blackshack too! Glad to hear from another Hitzer owner.

Dave

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RedRockHunter
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Post by RedRockHunter » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 11:37 am

i have been using a 50-93 as well. the stove works great, the hopper feed is very handy.
i've been running a side stove temp of 400 and a stack temp of about 300 heating 2800 sq ft. daytime highs here have been mid to upper 40s and 20 at night. house at 72 degrees. wife is happy. the dial heat adjustment works great for controlling stove temp. I did cut the size of the firebox down with stove brick for the warmer weather I will remove them after the real cold gets here.

 
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Rex
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Post by Rex » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 3:01 pm

Glad your 50-93 is working out!! This will be our second season using the 50-93 and just couldn't wait for the temps to drop.. Strange but true!!!

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 3:26 pm

dbev wrote:It turns out the local Aubuchon hardware a mile from me sells Blackshack too!
How much they charging for the Blaschak there? (My local Aubuchan has gone from $6.00/bag last winter to $8.50/bag this year!

I'm buying mine (by the pallet) at a coal dealer for $7.00/bag.
Bobs86GN wrote:I wish someone had talked me into burning coal 30 yrs ago. Other than the good excercise of cutting, loading and splitting wood (by hand) there is little benefit to messing with wood
Right you are there!..I burned wood one year & went right to coal the next...that was 27 years ago! :stretcher:

 
dbev
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Post by dbev » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 3:53 pm

Devil,

The local Aubuchon is getting $6.99 a 40# bag of Blackshack nut. I'm not sure if you get a price break if you buy it by the pallet. The local Agway has Kimmels and they do
give a price break depending on how much you buy. The guy quoted me $8.00 for a 50# bag by the bag and lower by the ton or by the pallet.

Dave

 
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grizzly2
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Post by grizzly2 » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 4:11 pm

I started burning a Hitzer 30-95 last February, after 30+ years of burning wood. I love it too, and get the same performance and start up times as you other guys. I'll fire it up again in November. :)


 
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Post by Bobs86GN » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 11:06 pm

RedRockHunter wrote:i have been using a 50-93 as well. the stove works great, the hopper feed is very handy.
i've been running a side stove temp of 400 and a stack temp of about 300 heating 2800 sq ft. daytime highs here have been mid to upper 40s and 20 at night. house at 72 degrees. wife is happy. the dial heat adjustment works great for controlling stove temp. I did cut the size of the firebox down with stove brick for the warmer weather I will remove them after the real cold gets here.
My side stove temp is reading 350 and the stack (right after the 1st elbow coming out of the stove) reads 175, and just above the damper it reads about 110. Its pretty much idling. The outside temp right now is 42 and the living room is at 79. I haven't bothered to turn on the ceiling fan to move the heat around because it is 70 degrees in the coldest room in the house which is on the same floor but at the opposite end. It is warmer than 70 on the 2nd floor because I have an open foyer that acts like a chimney for the heat. The first floor is 1500 sq ft. and the 2nnd floor is 1300 sq ft. I built the house myself about 30 yrs ago. :shock:

 
RedRockHunter
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Post by RedRockHunter » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 8:48 pm

how do you get such low stack temps and high side temp?

 
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Bobs86GN
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Post by Bobs86GN » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 9:06 pm

I really have no idea. I wondered the same thing. That might make for an interesting discussion. It is a new thermometer from Lehman's. I actually measured the stack temp at the exit end of the first elbow. So that is pretty close to the back of the stove. I checked those temps again today and saw the same thing. If this link works it is a picture of my stove,pipe, and baro.
Ok ,I edited this and took temps again. This is what I got.
350 side (above the firebrick)
190 below the baro on the first elbow
115 above the baro as seen in the picture.

Only thing that might be different is I have added an aluminum shelf which I covered with aluminum foil. mounted it below the stove about 2" below the actual bottom that is where the ash pan sits. I noticed that on start up and no ash in the pan that the tiles were hotter than I liked below the stove. The tiles are not on cement board-only plywood. It keeps the tiles waaay cooler now. Maybe this reflects heat back into the stove and it has to radiate more contained heat off of the sides?
I'll snap a pic after and post it. It is nearly unnoticeable unless you are laying on the floor looking at it like when I am rolling around with my dogs. :D Not doing anything innappropriate :o

 
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Post by Bobs86GN » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 9:44 pm

All that shows is the part of the foil that I wrapped over the front edge of the aluminum sheet. I painted the sheet with a light coat of black but I found that with the addition of the foil it reflected much more heat. I could spray the very front edge of the foil with some black and it would be even more covert. It seems more noticeable in the photos than in the home because of the flash on the camera reflecting off the foil.I just drilled a hole in each leg and slid a screw into each hole. The screw isn't even threaded in-just a snug fit. The aluminum sheet had to be cut in half and reconnected together with a another piece of aluminum cut like a 1 x 12" bar. Two screws with nuts into each side holds it together. The shape of the legs (folded at bottom) prevented me from installing in one piece. Hey, maybe it has nothing to do with the temps but it keeps extreme heat off the floor.

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From below-Abby thinks I want to play.

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Bobs86GN
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Post by Bobs86GN » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 9:52 pm

Strange how the glowing coals don't show with the flash. It does have a good refill of coal on top of the bed though as I had shaken it down about an hour before the pic. I figured the temps were pretty stable when I read them last. Interestingly, I have what's called an IP camera which is a video camera that I can actually pan and check out the dogs and stove from my computer at work. The camera picks up a blue glow and /or blue flames that are not visible with the naked eye! Wierd. Thats another topic for another time though. It is one heck of a cool device that gives me alot of piece of mind. I might even let you guys try it out sometime when I have all my clothes on.

 
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Post by Qball » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 11:47 pm

I'm on my third season and like the stove. I don't think I bought the right stove for my needs, but I have adapted it pretty well. I haave it in the basement and have just completed some duct work from the front blower to move the heat.

Ducting Heat

 
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Post by Devil505 » Wed. Oct. 22, 2008 5:23 am

Bobs86GN wrote:The shape of the legs (folded at bottom) prevented me from installing in one piece. Hey, maybe it has nothing to do with the temps but it keeps extreme heat off the floor.
Were you really getting "extreme heat" on the floor under the stove? With the firebox sitting pretty high & so many layers of protection underneath (ash pan with ash in it, sheet steel stove bottom & legs) I would think the floor would just get warm?
Mine does.

 
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Post by Bobs86GN » Wed. Oct. 22, 2008 4:05 pm

It was hot enough to create a steam or fog if I wiped it down with a wet rag. Too uncomfortable to keep your hand on it for more than a second or 2. It was only on startup with an empty ash pan but I never got the stove cranking like it might on a wintry day before I put the shield on it. It has to knock off a 100-150 degrees minimum off of the floor temps I was getting before. Now it is barely warm. When I wiped it with a wet towel before it wouldn't sizzle but the water would evaporite immediately and create a steam like cloud right away. That was after lighting kindling and gradually filling with coal while leaving the ash door open. I WAS concerned. My old tempwood wood stove never had any heat at all radiating off the bottom of it. That is why I just used the ceramic tiles on a plywood base rather than cement board. I never envisioned getting rid of the old stove and when I did I never thought that the coal stove would radiate so much from the bottom.


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