Trouble Keeping Coal Stove Buring

My trouble is a little different, I start my fire with wood, in my tasso boiler and then add Nut coal works great all day, Then in the evening around 10pm I bank the fire and close the draft or turn it back, Where my trouble is in the morning, I have a nice bed of coals, but I can not keep it burning, I have tried several things, I open the draft and add coal, fire dies a slow death, the next day I try opening the draft and shaking the grates till I see a little live coals in the ask pit. then I add coal. same thing, slow death, Then next morning I just add coal and open the draft, and use forced air from a shop vac. Still slow death. What am I doing wrong????

Hey Digger104, you might want to start a new thread...
Anyway, it sounds like either your coal bed isn't deep enough or you've got too much ash buildup. Are you shaking down the ash and adding a full load in the evening?

digger104 wrote:in the evening around 10pm I bank the fire and close the draft

Like braindead says, probably not a deep enough coal bed, or too much ash. Try shaking down a LOT more, until you see some live coals drop, not just a few embers.

But what do you mean by "bank the fire"? I don't think it's quite the same thing to bank a coal fire, as to bank a wood fire.

Also, what do you mean by "close the draft"? You can reduce the air inlet, and you will have to experiment as to how much you can reduce it and still keep it burning. But to close it off completely, I don't think you can expect it to go all night on zero air. Perhaps the air inlet has an adjustable minimum that remains open even when you close it "completely"???? If so, you may need to adjust it to a higher minimum.

Good luck, and give us feedback on how it's going!

Hi all,

I read all the recent posts

a) How high should I fill the stove? When you say fill it up past the firebrick...what do you mean? I am filling it up 3/4 full. Theres not much room left for the shovel at this height.

b) In the mornings the coal bed is full of ash, I shake the grate until no more falls out, but there is still ash in the bed especially on the sides. If I poke the ash too much the coals go out. Should I be shaking more often? Should I turn down the vents at night? I want it to burn hot all the time since it is rather small stove.

Things are getting better overall but not being able to keep the fire going day after day is a disappointment.

I reviewed your posts in this thread. It looks like you do not have a barometric damper. That might help. You said at one point you could get a six-inch deep coal bed, later you said your father in law encouraged you to load it deeper, and that helped some. When you burn it hot, it just barely gets through the night and you have a lot of ash buildup and may lose the fire (because it has burned most of the coal).

You say it is a small stove, and the pictures confirm that and show not much room for coal. It may be that the stove is just not big enough for the task you need it to do. It's a pretty stove, but its design may not be ideal for an anthracite burner.

If you reduce the air inlet at night and it will still keep burning, then it may go through the night without losing the fire, but you will not get the heat you need. The only other solution I can think of, is what I always had to do with my wood stoves -- get up at 3am and put in more fuel, which with coal means shaking down the ashes as well.

The stove looks fairly small. How much coal fits in?
If it holds less than 40 lbs I do not think you will get a high heat burn for a long time without topping off every few hours.
My MarkII holds 80 lbs mounded up and the 'rents Hitzer 503 holds 120lbs!
The inside chimney should work just fine with a coal stove.
I think you need a stove that holds more coal so it can throw the amount of heat you want it to!
If you are/were a wood burner, most here will confess to burning wood at some point; do not let the size of the stove scare you!
Coal burns different than wood and produces a more mellow constant heat rather than a wood stove roast then freeze cycle.

Hi All,

Yes, its a small stove, I didn't have the room to go much bigger, little ones running around. Perhaps its too small to run full steam overnight without being skaken. I will try to lower it down during the night. All I really want is a warm kitchen during the day without having to re-light it each morning. It holds about 15 lbs of coal and states it should go 12-15 hrs. Thanks for all the help everyone.

At 15 lbs you are just consuming the coal too quick, try reducing the air input it will just sit there and be warm.
Put a 'kid fence' around the stove to keep the fingers from getting toasted!
A stove that holds more coal is the answer to your problem.
There are many tall skinny stoves that would do. Google these!
Godin
Crane coal cooker
I am sure others are out there!

Hi all,

Last night I closed both vents, then opened each vent one revolution. In the morning I still had a good size fire with plently left to burn. I opened the vents full and within 1/2 hour it was hot again able to take on a new load of coal. So this works for me. I knew it wasnt going to heat my whole house due to its size and the size of the location in my kitchen, but it is now enjoyable with a warm kitchen. I do have one of those kidco fences, it seems to work out well. Thanks for all the help, it took awhile to iron out the wrinkles. I am sure I'll be back.

Hey Morso users! I'm a Dealer for a number of Coal Stoves, the Morso 1410 among them. It's a great little stove, and capable of burning up to 15 hours on a load. BUT, here are some tips:
1. Get a second front face grate. This will allow you to put more coal in the stove.
2. Get a second ashpan. The shallow Euro-stove ashpans fill up every day.
3. Specific to the Morso 1410, you have to 'rake'. Use the long rod with the angled end and push it in ABOVE the grate, yet UNDER the coal work it back and forth, even up the angled sides and into the middle. This does alot more good than the shaker grate. Here's the drill every morning & evening: Shake it until nothing falls thru, then rake it like a maniac, then use the shaker grate again.
-
I burned that little stove all last winter (Minnesota at 30 below zero in Dec & Jan). We close the store at 6 PM, and the next morning at 8 AM, the little guy is still burning. It seems to run a higher stack temp, but I'd put one in my own house in a minute.
PS - I've only got 12' feet of chimney, and I keep the top airwash knob open 2 turns, glass stays cleaner and you'll notice some nice secondary combustion/blue flames on top of the load.

thanks for the input. After 3 months of troubleshooting, we were able to get the morso 1410 to burn coal by what you mentioned. Rake it like crazy and shake at the end. Coal ash builds up quickly and will snuff out the fire. But once you rake it every 5 hours or so and add more coal it will burn well. Only problem is it won't go burn full throttle over 8 hours without a raking. I have to open it one turn on the bottom vent for overnight. The only other problem I noticed is the hole in the stove for the metal shaker arm wore out and its now double its size. Seems the cast iron wears out due to the friction of the metal arm. This was all done before we started raking instead of madly shaking. Now that spring is here, I miss the stove already.

BTW, what did you mean by second front grate and deeper ash pan? I can't see how either will fit. can you send pictures or links?

Re: 2nd Front Grate & 2nd ashpan
1. When you open the door, at the very front, at the bottom, is a 'gate' that allows you to put more coal in. It's about 3" tall, & the full width of the door. A 2nd front grate fits perfectly on top of it, & allows you to put in more coal.
2. The ashpan size stays the same, but I'd get a 2nd ashpan from your Dealer. When the first is full, pull it out, & simply install the 2nd empty ashpan. That way you're not scrambling to quickly empty the only ashpan & get it back into the stove immediately.
Sorry, I'm not enough of a techno-phile yet with cameras. I'll get it on here before fall, tho.
PS - you can probably get a 'heli-coil' to fill in the now-oversized shaker handle hole. Ask at an Auto Parts store. They'll just need to know the diameter of the rod.

Thanks for the info, I will look into all of those idea's you mentioned. I do love the little stove, I actually miss burning the coal, really sets the atmosphere in the kitchen.

my brother just purchased the same stove you have and was told it is a wood stove and would not burn anthracite.dont get me wrong its a nice little stove for burning wood but, coal I would have to say is out of the question.
for the same price of that stove you could have purchased a nice Harman mark 1
my 2 cents anyway