New Fire, Why So Hot Below?

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Uglysquirrel
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Post by Uglysquirrel » Mon. Feb. 02, 2009 11:08 pm

Started a new fire after cleanout, adter 3 hrs, the god dam ash pan door is 440 deg and the fire does not want to increase in temp, using nut, got a full load burning coal, fire seems to respond when I have a foil over the baro, is it poor draft? Baro w/o foil on is .05, with foil .07.

This happen before 5 weeks ago when starting, after several hours things got cooler and things smoothed out. When everything runs well draft is .05-.06 w/o any foil on it

Anyone have this happen on a cold startup?

 
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Uglysquirrel
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Post by Uglysquirrel » Mon. Feb. 02, 2009 11:15 pm

Do I need to give more air? Opened the ash door and things really livened up, Comments?

 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Tue. Feb. 03, 2009 12:12 am

Less air or normal air.
No ash to insulate the bottom makes it hotter down below in the begining.


 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Tue. Feb. 03, 2009 8:16 am

CapeCoaler wrote:No ash to insulate the bottom makes it hotter down below in the begining.
Yup....I always have the same problem. Sometimes I have trouble latching the ash door because the heat has swelled the stove base so much. (I keep the ash door open typically, during start up) This problem goes away very quickly though.

 
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Cap
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Post by Cap » Tue. Feb. 03, 2009 6:12 pm

Uglysquirrel wrote:Started a new fire after cleanout, adter 3 hrs, the god dam ash pan door is 440 deg and the fire does not want to increase in temp, using nut, got a full load burning coal, fire seems to respond when I have a foil over the baro, is it poor draft? Baro w/o foil on is .05, with foil .07.

This happen before 5 weeks ago when starting, after several hours things got cooler and things smoothed out. When everything runs well draft is .05-.06 w/o any foil on it

Anyone have this happen on a cold startup?
Hey squirrel, Are you saying you cannot create enough heat due with standard settings on your baro? Probably due to the atmosphere today. Isn't the air damp due to snow & rain today in NE? The denseness of this air will certainly slow down your draft. Keep it foiled until your back up to speed.

 
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Uglysquirrel
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Post by Uglysquirrel » Tue. Feb. 03, 2009 6:44 pm

Lots of Good info here, the problem here is we don't start these enuf which is fine with me. Some thoughts:

* I was kinda panicing withthe high temps at the bottom,Nice to see others go thru the same thing.

* Good point about the humidity, it was 57 % humid and 38 deg at start up the draft did not seem right. Now its snowing, 28 deg though the chimney is warmed up.

* We understand our stoves and their personalities.

* As soon as I added more air (open pan door) the blues came in and it stayed ok all night.

* I slept with Mrs. Harman last night in the basement, woke up to check the temp several times. Don't tell my wife. Worry wart I am.

*


 
GRinRI
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Post by GRinRI » Tue. Feb. 03, 2009 8:46 pm

I noticed the same thing when I started my Hitzer for the first time. I worried the whole weekend. Slept downstairs to babysit it too. I've come to the conclusion that it was due to a new fire without any ash to "insulate" the ash pit. It's (relatively speaking) cool as a cucumber under the stove now, even running at high temps. It's good to know that others have noticed this same thing. (whew)

 
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Floydman89
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Post by Floydman89 » Mon. Feb. 09, 2009 12:19 pm

Same thing happens on my Hitzer 30-95...
When we first set it up .. back in Oct 08 ...
The bottom.. under the stove got REALLY HOT... along with the ash pan door..
once the ash built up .. it cooled off ...

I shut the stove down in Late November . .and installed a Baro Damper...
I didn't clean out the bottom of the stove completely ... Just pushed the ash away in the middle..
and started it back up .. using charcoal.. matchlight ... . it Fired back up .. no problems..
and leaving the ash there... underneath .. didn't get hot....

Saturday .. I was worred about the ash build up.. in the elbow .. off the back of the stove.. It was close to 50deg out .. so it was a good day to shut down the stove .. I clean it it ALL out ... all of the ash this time...
Fired it back up .. and the bottom got REALLY HOT again ... I went to dump the ash pan .. and burnt my fingers :shock:
Usually I can dump the pan. .. (no gloves).. . By sunday afternoon .. it was fine again ...

Burning Pea coal ...

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