Out of Control

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justden
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Post by justden » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 1:13 am

I have a Hitzer 30-95 that was in the house I purchased last year, I love the stove and used it about 6 or 7 weekends last winter as we are only there on the weekends. The problem is the last two times I fired it up, it kept wanting to burn out of control, the fire would start to build and even if I closed the auto damper all the way it would take a long time for the fire to clam down. This happened as I was trying to get the full bed of coal burning, could I have been in to much of a hurry, or could the door gaskets be bad? Any ideas.

Thanks for your help,
Dennis

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 8:57 am

Here is an old trick for checking the door gaskets: Try closing a dollar bill in the door, if you can easily pull the bill out with the door latched you should replace the gaskets.

I have a Hitzer stove with a draft control similar to yours. I fill it with fresh coal and open the ashpan door to get the firing going, once the fire starts to take off I close the ash pan door and set the automatic damper. The fire will usually keep building for 15 minutes or so and the stove takes at least an hour to "level out" at a steady temperature. If you are doing the same thing (opening the draft wide open to get things going) it might just be the nature of the beast.

One other thing to consider, do you have a barometric damper installed?

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Mon. Nov. 17, 2008 9:15 am

Heat makes draft, draft pulls air through the fire, the fire makes more heat, more draft, more air and around and around you go.. you need to have a barometric damper to control the maximum draft in the chimney.. for hand feed stoves, usually .05" wc.. There are several threads on barometric dampers and their use and function..

If you have a baro already,, make sure it is not stuck shut,, that it is set correctly..

Then make sure your door gaskets are good.. if you haven't replaced them ever, they probably need it.. Also the sliding air control on the ashpan door often is loose,, see if you can tighten the bolt or friction on the slider to hold it in place better and seal better..

Greg L


 
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baldeagle
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Post by baldeagle » Tue. Nov. 18, 2008 3:42 pm

Justen ------ MarkV has it correct, we have a HITZER 354 normally used for weekend heating, after the fire is going well we
close the ash removal door and just go with the autoregulation of the supplied temperature adjusting damper. Fire is under damper control quickly ...........but! if you keep the door open until a full load of coal is really going it will take 3-4 hours to cool off. Our first couple of time we had a full load going and had to open the windows before the stove cooled down.
Baldeagle

 
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grizzly2
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Post by grizzly2 » Tue. Nov. 18, 2008 10:03 pm

I find that my 30-95 is very controlable with or without the baro. damper. I suspect you have bad door (or loading hatch on a hopper model) gaskets, or warped doors or openings. Another real posibility is if you have previously been a wood burner, you may not realize how long it takes a coal stove to cool off after closing the intake draft. By the way, make sure the draft door on the back of the stove is closing all the way when you want to shut it down. An adjustable magnet is used just inside the draft hole to keep the door from banging open and closed constanly as it nears the closed position. This magnet may be adjusted outward too far and keeping the draft door open a little bit wich would certainly slow the cool down you are looking for. :)

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