'Chinese Stove?'

Okay:

I got the chinese stove (which I have now discovered is really called a taylor's stove) going for three days straight. This would be great if I could keep it going. It eventually went out and I found that there was a cavity of space under the coal after three days because the coal did not settle downward and therefore neither did the ash. I have great draft. But the stove is not airtight. I can close down the pipe damper completely and also the (what's it called) small rectangular damper in the ash tray completely and still have enough flow.

You were all very helpful and I followed your advice trying everything. Here is what I discovered:

1. I must fill the stove to capacity.
2. I must make a bed of coals that covers the whole bottom of the stove.
3. I can close down the pipe damper (BTW is that called the MPD?) all the way and also close down the damper in the ash tray all the way because the stove is not airtight.

Questions:

1. Do you think I should make the stove airtight? I can do that with cement and those ropes they sell. The stove is bolted together and if the bolts break I can probably put new ones.

2. THe coal seems to burn too fast. AT what point should I start to damper everything down and is that the way you slow the burning?

Thanks so much guys. You really helped me.

-Ramona

2.

chinesestove wrote:It eventually went out and I found that there was a cavity of space under the coal after three days because the coal did not settle downward and therefore neither did the ash.

I've found that I need to poke down into those air pockets to fill the stove with coal. What you're experiencing is called "Bridging" where the ash forms a "bridge" over an air pocket. Break the bridge & fill with coal. You should be able to keep one fire going all winter, with decent coal.

A loose, non-airtight stove is not very safe,, how do you control the fire if you can't control the air, at least reasonably well??

I'd highly recommend sealing up all the gaps and cracks and crevasses.. with furnace cement and rope gasket material.

You want to be able to control the fire to the extent that you can make the fire go out from lack of air..

Once you have the stove sealed up, you can use the under-fire air control to limit the air to the fire, and slow down the burn rate.. lengthening the time that the coal will burn between fresh loads of fuel.

Greg L.