HD Video: Tending a Hitzer Insert (983)

Dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of video on the internet on How To issues with coal stoves, I posted an HD video I made yesterday on YouTube (I'd have posted here, too, but the file [231 Mb] is too large for this website to display all of it at once). Since I posted it to the wider internet rather than just here, I took that as an excuse to address the "all coal is the same" issue, and tried to draw a few distinctions between bituminous and anthracite, in hopes of educating whoever might happen upon it. It's rather basic in its tending approach, and may not appeal, or apply, to many of the experienced viewers here. Also, although there are a variety of different stoves represented on NEPA Crossroads, the principles of tending to a hand-fired are similar, and so may be turn out to be useful to many here, especially new coal burners.

I'm not sure whether the window that will be embedded in this post displays the "Watch this in HD" option but, if it doesn't and if you have broadband access, you should click on the link to be able to watch it in HD on the YouTube site itself--the quality is much better in HD. I especially like the HD version of the first clip (a shot of a low fire with the fill door open)

A couple notes on the video:

1)I learned that it's very difficult to capture, on video, how interesting a coal fire can be to watch.
2) I made a few flubs on the narration that you hawkeyes (hawkears?) here will, no doubt, pick up on. Such as: my fire has been burning for 3 months, not 4 as stated. A few others as well. Oh well, I hadn't written out my narration ahead of time, so I just winged it.
3) It figures that, with the fire that emerges after I fill the stove in the video, that a piece of wood (or bituminous?) would be front and center, giving off a crackling yellow, high flame that doesn't look much like anthrcite burning. Eventually, though, this burns up to reveal a more typical looking, freshly-refilled anthracite fire.

Here's the link to the YouTube page that can be viewed in HD (click on "Watch in HD" link at lower right of image):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTsY5eGQD34

Very professional & helpful video!

I would just have added the reason why you want to burn off volatile gases is to avoid puff-backs which are always messy & can damage your stove/chimney pipe setup. (that a flame burns off the gases b4 they can build up & explode)

Nice!

Thanks Devil and CC.

Ashcat,

Hot Video.

Five stars..... I really like that 983!

RS

PC 12-47E wrote:
Hot Video.

I think the second (main) song of the soundtrack sounds like I lifted it from a porn flick!

EDIT: Not sure why YouTube window isn't popping up here, but here is the embed code:

You can't use HTML however if you wrap the URL of the video in the youtube BBcode tag it will work. Click edit on your post to see how i did it.

Also not you can upload video here and it will emebed automatically if it's WMV in silverlight player that is is compatible on the MAC and all major browsers. Other formats like AVI or MPEG are allowed but they will appaear as a link. There is a 50MB limit which is plenty for like 15 minutes of very high qaulity video if you use WMV.

Richard S. wrote:You can't use HTML however if you wrap the URL of the video in the youtube BBcode tag it will work. Click edit on your post to see how i did it.

Thanks Richard. I see that I was making it more complicated than it needed to be. The functionality of this board is second to none.

I did write the film in WMV (HD Video 1280/720), so it should embed fine here if it weren't for file size (231 MB). The YouTube window that comes up has a button in the lower right that, when clicked, provides an option to "View in High Quality", which is still less than HD but better than the "Normal Quality" that it plays in by default.

Maybe when I have the time and inclination, I'll try to post a <50 MB portion of the HD movie, in the Testing forum, to see how Silverlight handles it.

Thanks again.

Great video Ashcat! This helps anyone with a hand fired HITZER

Disk space is one thing I don't have a lot of, I'm not hurting but I have to keep it reasonable. I have a couple of profiles here that I'm going to upload and post so people will have directions on how to get the biggest bang for their buck. Or at least the biggest bang for my buck.

Try this post, it's not great but much better than a standard youtube clip. That will give you almost 13 minutes at that quality.

My New Puppy

Nice job on the video and narration.

Great video!

AWESOME! I spoke with a Hitzer representative yesterday as I zeroed in on the Hitzer model that would best serve my needs. He commented he had just seen your video and enjoyed how well it explained and showed the process. If you're not in the business of instructional media, you should be. Though Hitzer has finally caught up with production, I can see such a promotional video setting them back again to keep up with demands for the 983. Thanks for taking the time and offering it to the internet for anyone to view. ...

Jersey John wrote:AWESOME! I spoke with a Hitzer representative yesterday as I zeroed in on the Hitzer model that would best serve my needs. He commented he had just seen your video and enjoyed how well it explained and showed the process. If you're not in the business of instructional media, you should be. Though Hitzer has finally caught up with production, I can see such a promotional video setting them back again to keep up with demands for the 983. Thanks for taking the time and offering it to the internet for anyone to view. ...

Wow JJ, that's neat feedback. Thanks too to markvii and Bud63.

One of the shortfalls of Hitzer is not with their product, which is great, but with relative lack of user instructions/owner's manual. Their focus is on their products, not on marketing and instruction which, in a way, is how they should be. But more info to users would be helpful. I believe, but don't know for sure, that Harman provides more user info. I've wondered whether they are concerned about legal liability if they say anything, but they may also have liability in not saying much of anything about use, too.

I'm glad that the video is useful to you, and has been seen by Hitzer.

Hi My name is vern andrews from decatur In. I live 10 min from burne Indiana where they make the hitzer 983 . I was a hitzer shop getting some new fire brick. I was talking to Dean the owner of hitzer and he told me about your video. This was a very good video. You nead to get with hitzer and do more of these videos for them. I have been using the 983 for four years now and always find it intersting how other people burn coal .