Godin 3726

It seems you are burning bituminous coal. Only anthracite coal is recommended for this stove.

Draft can be low until enough heat is in the chimney to increase it.

Because of the air pattern coal has to be above the front grate and gradually fill the stove up to the outlet. The coal gets its air through the front grate and very little through the bottom grate.It burns from front to back. If coal is not above front grate the air simply by passes the coal regardless of where you set the air control. To start, leave the air control open about 2 turns and gradually add coal until full, at which point you can turn down the air to 1/2 to 1 turn open. A barometric damper is the only way to keep consistent draft with changing outside conditions.

If burning wood or pressed wood bricks then a manual damper is preferred. If you can't get anthracite then wood is the best fuel for the stove.

I have a 3727?(that's the number on the inner top lid of the body under the decorative top lid), and I'm about to get it started tomorrow after I replace a rusted stove pipe elbow. Charging my camera battery to take some pics.

My stove has surface rust where the enamel/porcelain? has chipped off, not as good looking as franco b's. It is really nice looking stove. I tried last year to start it but it didn't work, or I should say, I didn't know what I was doing. The damper spinner was rusted shut, this year I took a propane torch to the backside reinforcing span, and it finally spun free! Now the damper works!. With the research I did on this forum I feel confident I can get this puppy up an running.

Will post pics tonight if the battery charges in time, have to get up early and buy some coal and an elbow before the snow gets bad. I will keep you updated on my success or failure.

Dave

Update on my first firing of the Godin.

Bought 15 @50lb bags of nut for $112.
Bought a 24gauge black stove pipe adjustable elbow for $10.

Installed the elbow, vacuumed the stove piping and the exhaust manfold. Took some dried branches, broke them up and placed them on the grate
along with 3 fire starting squares.
Turned the damper all the way out.
Lit the squares and watched the wood go up in flames.
In the meantime, I got one of the bags of coal and brought it into the house.
After about 10 minutes, I loaded some coal onto the burning wood and embers and closed the front door. I took a shower.
I came back from the shower hoping to see the blue flames dancing on the coals...didn't happen.
The coals near the front grate/glass were black.
I got some more wood, around one inch in diameter, and dropped them in.
I took my propane torch, and placing the torch through the grates, fired up the new wood.
Once this wood was burning good, I dumped some coal onto the fire. The coal started cracking and popping immediately. Good news.
Walked away and ate dinner.
Came back, opened top and saw the dancing blue flames on the last coal I dumped. The problem was, the coal on the bottom near the vertical grate/glass was still black. I took my poker and placed it through the grates and started poking a twisting. This served to mix the hot embers on top with the unfired coal on the bottom. Closed the front door and walked away.
Come back about 5 minutes later to see that the once dark coal was finally burning. Good news.
Filled the firebox about half way with coal and it's been burning ever since, now it's about 3 hours. When I started the stove it was 62*. Now it just passed 71*, the hottest my main floor has been all winter!! Love coal.

Any questions or comments. I am here to answer.

Dave

here's the godin we have. just found out I have bit coal. I've gotten it to burn a few times but have read that its best to use wood if you don't have anthracite. I think I have a draft issue because I can't get the thing to go without smoking up the house. I have lots more pictures in the "hurry! open the doors and turn on the fan" posts.

i have a 6" hole coming out of the stove to attach to the 8" flue. the chimney is 8-10" and square. it's at the highest point in the house. I have major creosote build up where the stove attaches to the flue and wonder if that would cause any draft problems.

coal newbie wrote:help. I just moved into a house with a godin petit. researched and found where to buy coal. now in the process of learning how to get this thing going. several questions:

1- does coal size really matter? what bearing does coal size have on the overall operation? (the only coal I could find was anthracitic, large-ish coal an hour and a half away. I've been breaking with a hammer.)

2- I've gotten it to burn twice without smoking out the house. I have filled the house with smoke several times. yesterday I successfully got it to burn where I could open the top and look down into the chamber. today I started it and it just smoked the whole time- what am I doing wrong? is the fire not hot enough when I add coal? REALLY NEED HELP WITH THIS ONE- tired of the smoke. makes me want to give up.

3- do you add your full load while the base layer is burning? or do you wait for it to burn down to glowing coal?
i am guessing the reason I get so much smoke sometimes is that the fire isn't hot enough when I add the coal.

4- should there be a gasket around the top lid of the stove? its just metal on metal and when its smoking it leaks out the top.

5- how does the draft knob and damper come into play within the whole system? do they work together? why would you ever close the flue damper?

6- my impression of a properly functioning coal stove is that it burns without smoke. when I get mine to work properly, the coal is added, the coal starts to catch fire, the smoke out the chimney turns from yellow to black, the coal catches fire, the smoke goes smokeless (and I can open the top of the stove without releasing a thick black plume of coal smoke into the room). tonight is the first night I got it to burn all through the night and it just now stopped smoking. I am afraid to add more coal and have it smoke all day-its driving me nuts!! should I start over with a new fire?

HELP!

Sure sounds as if you got mostly bituminous coal there for your stove in North Carolina.

Hello,

I'm a "newbie" too. Just purchased a small, used Petit Godin 3720. I'm interested to learn from the experience of this thread's posters. My wife will shoot me if I smoke-up the house! We live on an old farm and I thought I might temporarily install our stove in a 12' x 16' outbuilding on our property.
(The building used to store hay and small tools and was home to some feral cats.) It can't be harmed by some smoke and ash. My plan is to pipe up a simple chimney, this stove has a 4 1/4 " outlet, and just slowly play with the stove. Perhaps I should master burning wood in it first and then transition to coal? Would a 6" chimney be oversized and create draft problems? I read in another thread on this site that someone had good luck starting their coal stove with "Match Light" bar-b-que charcoal and then adding anthracite coal -- what do you experienced folks think about this?

Assuming I get this stove's operation more or less mastered, then I would aim to move it into the house, (we have an existing unused hearth with 6" manufactured chimney system), and use it for occasional ambiance fires and as emergency back-up heat during any lengthy power outage.

Please share your random thoughts and wisdom.

Thanks.

- Arnold Z.

Arnold Ziffel wrote:Hello,

I'm a "newbie" too. Just purchased a small, used Petit Godin 3720. I'm interested to learn from the experience of this thread's posters. My wife will shoot me if I smoke-up the house! We live on an old farm and I thought I might temporarily install our stove in a 12' x 16' outbuilding on our property.
(The building used to store hay and small tools and was home to some feral cats.) It can't be harmed by some smoke and ash. My plan is to pipe up a simple chimney, this stove has a 4 1/4 " outlet, and just slowly play with the stove. Perhaps I should master burning wood in it first and then transition to coal? Would a 6" chimney be oversized and create draft problems? I read in another thread on this site that someone had good luck starting their coal stove with "Match Light" bar-b-que charcoal and then adding anthracite coal -- what do you experienced folks think about this?

Assuming I get this stove's operation more or less mastered, then I would aim to move it into the house, (we have an existing unused hearth with 6" manufactured chimney system), and use it for occasional ambiance fires and as emergency back-up heat during any lengthy power outage.

Please share your random thoughts and wisdom.

Thanks.

- Arnold Z.

Welcome Arnold. How many pigs do you have on the farm? I had a friend nicknamed Arnold Z. in Philly.

The Petit Godin is a very easy & efficient design to use. I would focus most on setting up your stove pipe for best fit into your chimney. 6" shouldn't be a problem. How tall? Some users have draft issues when smaller stoves are attached to larger diameter flues which are not very tall.

Hi Arnold,

I've been burning Anthracite in Godin stoves for a while now and they have worked well for me. Right now I have a 3721 which is the larger brother to your 3720. The 3720's I've seen have outlets that are 110mm (4.33inch) OD or 97mm (3.82 inch) ID. Unless your stove has been modified you may need to have an adapter made up at your local sheet metal shop. If your 6" chimney is not very tall you may have draft problems. I currently run about 8 feet of 5" stainless from the outlet to the thimble, after that it is an internal masonry chimney with 8x12 clay liner that is about 20' long. If I try starting with charcoal the flue is too big and I don't develop enough draft to light the coal. I use some newspaper & dry wood to get the draft started. After that I add coal a little at a time until it is about half full. Once it is started I'll burn continuously for a month or so at a time. Adding coal at the top and removing ash from the bottom.

Keep an eye on the stove until you get it into a steady burn state. With a good draft they can take off quickly. A flue gas thermometer comes in handy until you get used to the stove. I usually burn my at about 600 degrees 18 inches above the stove.

Your stove is rated 5kw by the manufacturer, about 17,000 btu's. That is enough to keep a reasonable size room or a small, well insulated house comfortable.

The manual for your stove is available on the Godin website (http://www.godin.fr) but only in French.

Hello,

Thanks for the welcome and helpful replies. This is all new to me.

Now that I've caught the Godin Bug, I learned of a Large Oval that may be for sale through a friend. Question: The large decorative front faceplate or frame which the door shuts against has a couple of hairline cracks, is this normal, will these get worse? Also the opening, to the immediate right side of the door that the rod which moves the shaker grate sleeves through. has a missing chunk giving the impression of an oversized, irregular hole. Is this a weak part on Godin stoves?

One more question out of curiosity: Of the four common Godin stove models; small round, large round, small oval, and large oval which seems to be the most user friendly? Does any one model burn wood better in a pinch if we exhaust our coal? (Our use is occasional ambiance fires or short term emergency room heat -- no whole house heating).

Thanks.

- Arnold Z.

Hi Arnold,
I thought you had a small round (3720)? You should probably start with that before shopping around for others. All the Godin wood/coal cylinders have similar burn characteristics. The larger ones can hold more fuel so either you get a longer burn time or higher heat output. The difference between oval and round is cosmetic.

Are the cracks in the large oval in the cast iron or just the high gloss finish? Is the finish pitted? My 3721 was first installed around 1970 and has no cracks. The 3731 I had before also had none. The damage you describe my be indicative of the stove being over-fired. What is the condition of the fire brick? The door lintel?

As for "ambiance fires" the mica window on the older Godins are fairly small, the ambiance will mainly be in the heat they generate. If the door is left open the stoves will quickly overheat.

Hi KaptJaq,

You are correct, I do have a 3720 that I just got last Thursday. I was enthusiastically telling a friend about this stove and he mentioned that he knew of someone with a Large Oval model that might be available. I'm not looking for a second stove, I'm very satisfied with the model I have. BUT I was curious, I've never seen an oval version. I noted the cracks and was concerned that I might ignorantly crack my 3720 through some mistake in operating it. (turns out the oval isn't for sale anyhow).

Regarding ambiance, I don't need a fire view. I just enjoy stepping into a warm room with a stove quietly and faithfully providing that comfort.

Thanks very much for your help.

- Arnold Z.