Private Hell, Hopefully It Gets Hot

After a lot of trial and error, I think I have a good nut coal fire going. After reading all of the posts I put the coal up to near the top of the fire brick. I have a steady and good flame over the whole heap of coals but the temp is only 200. I read that number off of the flue gauge before I closed the dampers on the loader door. I closed the ash door and set the dampers to two full turns from closing (there are two of them). Hopefully the temp will come up and I will have good hot coals in the morning.
The stove I have is a Baker Wood/Coal hand fired stove, as I said before I burn nut coal and this is my first year at burning coal. I'm glad I'm starting to learn some of this now before it gets really cold outside. I've found the learning curve is long but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I can't wait until "it gets easy after a while", as other people have put in posts throughout the forum.
Does anyone have any ideas of why my temp is low, I was hoping it would get around 350-400 degrees. Do you think I will need to play with the dampers more on the ash door? I don't think I should have the dampers on on the loading door since coal fire seeks the air from down below. Also I did not turn on my electric blower that sits on the bottom of my stove. I thought it would make my coal burn down faster.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(By the way the private hell is getting the hang of burning coal)
***From reading a different forum it sounds like I should have my stove pipe damper closed a bit, right now I do have it wide open. By the way, got up this morning and still have half of my coals and it is all glowing brightly. I'm in the process of shaking down, the house is a nice temp, then I'll load it up again and hope it stays good until I get home tonight.

I'm not familiar with your stove so perhaps someone here has better info to help you. Let me ask you a few questions that will be universally relevant though:

1. Once you get your coal lit, are you filling the stove up with coal all the way to the tops of the firebrick?
2. when you open the ash door, will your fire get hot? (May take 5-10 minutes or so..Be patient)
3. All air vents above the fire should be closed fully
4. Don't close the ash door until your fire is at the temp you want & then make sure you leave the ash door air vents open enough to maintain the temp.
5. What kind of a chimney do you have? (any manometer, barometric damper, etc)

Is this your stove?.....http://www.bakerstoves.com/

My vote says you do not have a barometric damper.

Air, air, air, it's all about the air. Where's it come from & how fast is it moving. You may have leaks above the fire. Furnace cement or high temp silicone them closed. You may have too little draft. Tell us the dimensions of your chimney & if it's inside or out. You may have too much draft, all the heat may be going up the chimney. Do you have a manomometer? It's time to get one so you know just what's going on with the draft.

Devil and Freddy
Last night was the first time I filled it to the top, the stove that you have on the link is what I have (only older). Even when the ash door is open I am right around 200 degrees on the flue. One thing I have done today is trying to regulate the flue damper. I had it at about a 45 degree angle. The chimney is 8-9", going out from the stove it might be a little less. I do not have a manometer or barometric damper on it, just a manual flue damper. Where do you recommend getting a manometer or barometric damper? Would it help to turn on the fan from underneath or is that just for forcing the hot air out?
Thanks for any and all help you are giving me.

jsw2759 wrote:Devil and Freddy
Last night was the first time I filled it to the top, the stove that you have on the link is what I have (only older). Even when the ash door is open I am right around 200 degrees on the flue. One thing I have done today is trying to regulate the flue damper. I had it at about a 45 degree angle. The chimney is 8-9", going out from the stove it might be a little less. I do not have a manometer or barometric damper on it, just a manual flue damper. Where do you recommend getting a manometer or barometric damper? Would it help to turn on the fan from underneath or is that just for forcing the hot air out?
Thanks for any and all help you are giving me.

Yes, I would recommend a barometric damper & a manometer but your stove should get much hotter without them anyway. (they'll help to fine tune your system but it should work without them)

Couple of thoughts:

1. Open you damper all the way. (describe your chimney please...ie height, masonry,metal asbestos, etc)
2. Are the spin air control totally closed on the top (load) door? (they should be)
3. When your stove is full, & you leave the bottom (ash) door wide open, are you still only reading around 200* on the stove thermometer? (what type of thermometer is it?....magnetic stick- on, probe?)
4. Are you leaving the ash door open long enough to raise the temp higher?
5. Is you stove drafting ok? (no smoke coming out of it?)
6. Do you have CO (carbon Monoxide detectors/s
7. What coal are you using?

What you describing is almost physically impossible so something is not right here???

Give it a while, the flue has to get warm and with only moving 200* air it wont get warm real fast, plus the weather as warm as it was isnt conducive to a strong draft. When it chills down and the draft picks up, then you'll get higher temps as the chimney suck the air from the coal bed producing more heat. I think I am in the same boat as you, mine just want to cruise at 200*-250*. My stove is a larger hand fire that rely's on natural draft to pull the air through the bed to get going strong. I'm in south central pa too.

sharkman8810 wrote:Give it a while, the flue has to get warm and with only moving 200* air it wont get warm real fast, plus the weather as warm as it was isnt conducive to a strong draft.

I don't know guys.....I have a terrible drafting chimney (very weak) but if I have a full stove & leave my ash door wide open ...even on 70*+ days I'll have a roaring (400*-500*) fire on my hands in less than 10-15 minutes! Unless you have bad coal, I can't imagine why you guys wouldn't have the same thing???

(You guys getting any puff-backs?)

I had a heck of a time yesterday to get it going hot, its like it didnt want to really fire up. It caught and I had a bed, and then i'd add coal, and it wouldn't do anything, didnt want to catch the newly added coal, even with the ash pan door open. I ended up using a small fan blowing in the ashpan door to get mine really going. My current batch of coal is harder to get going than the blaschak I had, but I think it burns longer/hotter with less ash, both are fine.

sharkman8810 wrote:I had a heck of a time yesterday to get it going hot, its like it didnt want to really fire up

Starting a coal fire in warmer weather can be time consuming but once it's going, it should blow you out of the house, if you let it.

Two thoughts:

1. You must FILL your stove completely!! (coal is not like wood....It NEEDS as deep a bed as you can make)..FILL IT!!

2. Even poor quality coal SHOULD burn hot. (You may have shake down problems & less heat, but you still should have heat.

I wouldn't worry too much. On days when the outside temp. is between say, 35 - 45 degrees, I cannot get my stack temp. above 200F either. The stove still happily maintains my thermostat setting of 70 degrees though! As the winter season treads on & the air temps drop, you should see your stack temp. increase.

Manomonmeter:
**Broken Link(s) Removed** If you keep your eye out on eBay you can get one a bit cheaper. Do not get the #27. This is a #25, it reads lower draft much more accurately.

Cyber36 wrote:I wouldn't worry too much. On days when the outside temp. is between say, 35 - 45 degrees, I cannot get my stack temp. above 200F either. The stove still happily maintains my thermostat setting of 70 degrees though!

I thought we were talking hand-fired's here??

Now I'm all confused!! (my normal state of mind anyway!)

Edit: I am confused!!....I misread the word "MY" as "It's" in your last sentence & thought you were talking about a stoker.

Manomonmeter http://www.grainger.com/product/2T650
Barometric damper http://www.patriot-supply.com/products/showitem.cfm/1940
Maybe try some different coal. If you burn 100 to 150 lb of different coal you will know if thats your problem.

I do get puffbacks, one has to be careful loading up. I can't just get it started then load her up. Loading her up is probably total 80-100 lb. Doing that is alot of volatiles at once and with a hot bed under it is a good way to get a bunch of gasses at once, plus then you open the loading door, and you get a big puffback. So you can't just fill the bed to get it working optimumly. The book recommends using stove coal if your draft is kinda week, and that may not be a bad idea. Or maybe a mix of stove and nut.

Update --- I came home and some how my grate got turned (wife said she didn't shake it or touch it) and I lost my load of coal into the ash pan. I knew I shouldn't have said that I had success, a sure way to have Murphy to show up after my gloating.
1. My stove pipe (metal) goes up about 3-4 feet and then has a 90 degree bend to the outside stove pipe. My damper is completely open.
2. Spin air controls are closed on the loading door, except when I put in a new layer of coal, this way I don't get puff backs.
3. When the stove is full, I wasn't waiting for the heat to rise. I added a new layer of coal and then let the gases burn off. Sounds like I should wait until the temp comes up before closing the ash door for the night.
4. See #3.
5. The stove is drafting okay, no smoke except when I start with a cold stove and the pipe is heating up.
6. Have CO detectors but it is a leaky house (built in 1920's), the CO hasn't been a problem.
7. I'm using Kimmel's Nut coal, they are only about 40 minutes away and it is convenient right now. We decided to go this way instead of getting a loose delivery to the house since it would be a bear to rig a coal chute.

Questions:
1. When do you rake the coals? I thought when you have a good bed going you shouldn't mess with it otherwise it will go out.
2. When you put in a baro, how do you regulate it?

I usually put a layer of coal on and then wait 10-15 minutes, until I see blue flame coming through before adding another layer. Last night I had my bed angled to the back up to the fire brick. I probably could have put more in on the sides but not in front, otherwise it would come out of the door.
Tonight I'm using wood and I can get my temp up to 400-450, I'll try again for a coal fire tomorrow.