Bigger Stove, Colder House?

The Kimmel's will light and burn faster and it burns hot. It should be able to get the stove hot enough to just about drive you out of an average sized home room. A firepot that size and full should have no trouble going 12 hours and producing a good amount of heat over that entire time.

I looked up the Oak 30 specs. It's a 16 inch pot which makes it about the same size firepot as the Glenwood Modern Oak 116 and the Glenwood #6 base heater size firepots. My #6 with original one inch thick brick lining holds an accurately measured 50 pounds of nut coal. See the picture below of 50 pounds nut in a #6 firepot.

Others with the 116 and #6 heat their modest sized homes with just those size stoves, so it should be putting out a lot of heat. With the back pipe, your 30 should be the equal of a 116 and close to the #6 in area that it can heat.

The more info we have, the better chance of finding out why it's not giving you the heat it should.
How far open are you setting your dampers after the refill gets going again ? Primary, secondary, back pipe, and MPD ?
Do you have a mano gauge hooked up ?

Paul

These stoves are not magic--that said--12 hr shifts--great, tend every 13 or 14 hrs--but do it if you want your desired results--if not--she'll make a nice plant stand

I don't have a mano, Paul. I just took this pic and you can see a full pot, robust flame and I can see coal glowing on the grates from viewing through the ash pan door.

The primaries are opened 1/3, the MPD is closed to 3/4's and the indirect is in use. I usually leave the secondaries closed. 500 degrees on the top of the barrel.

freetown fred wrote:--but do it if you want your desired results--if not--she'll make a nice plant stand

I'm fearful.

From that picture it sure looks like she should be throwing plenty of heat. It sounds like you've got a bunch of heat going up the chimney. Definitely check that stack temp and draft reading. The heats gotta be going somewhere if not into the house.

Very pretty stove btw, I'm sure you'll get it sorted out, those antiques were built to be relied on.

tmbrddl wrote:I don't have a mano, Paul. I just took this pic and you can see a full pot, robust flame and I can see coal glowing on the grates from viewing through the ash pan door.

The primaries are opened 1/3, the MPD is closed to 3/4's and the indirect is in use. I usually leave the secondaries closed. 500 degrees on the top of the barrel.

Yeah, that's a good fire.

You may have a strong drafting chimney system that is pulling a lot of the heat up the chimney. Without a temp gauge on the pipe there's no way to compare if it is.

Try closing the MPD fully and see if the fire keeps going at that level shown in your picture and does not slow down over time. If it can maintain that level , then the closed MPD will slow the flue gases down and hold more heat back for the stove to have time to transfer it to the room.

For about $30.00 a mano is a very good thing to have so you can adjust the dampers to their best settings after each reloading. Without it your just going by, "guess and golly".

Paul

N-Maine,
500* barrel temp is heating something. If it's 85* where the stove is and 60* elsewhere, maybe a slow speed fan to circulate the air would help. I have thermometers in every room, and adjust the blower speed on the 'Chubby' to balance the temp. Hope that helps.
Cheers

Thanks for all of the help, folks. I went out and bought an identical thermometer to the one I've had tracking the barrel. I put it on the chimney side of the MPD and it read just below 100 degrees while the barrel was reading right at 500. Not putting a great deal of faith in the accuracy of either of them, I reversed their positions. Barrel thermometer went to the pipe and the pipe thermometer went to the barrel.

Looking at them ten minutes later, the barrel is reading almost 500 degrees and the pipe is registering right around 100 degrees so they are pretty agreeable.

The heat is sweltering in this office but the dinning room is still around sixty-five degrees...about five degrees cooler than normal. The outside air temperature is also about forty degrees warmer than when the wife was complaining of being cold.

I'll start looking for an open window in the attic. Once again, thank you for all of the help. I'll keep you filled in if and when I find the culprit.

Lookin fwd to improvements my friend. Ya got one hell of a heat beast there:)

I haven't run a hand-fired stove for a while, but if you're using a bigger stove/burning more coal/creating more draft/etc. it seems like you potentially are increasing your need for make-up air. Maybe if you cracked open a window in the room with the stove it would suck less cold air into the other rooms and provide better balance?

Mike

freetown fred wrote:Lookin fwd to improvements my friend. Ya got one hell of a heat beast there:)

Thanks, Fred. I love the stove. Wish you had seen the before and after restoration pics. I've got a lot of hours in it but not much money. Perfect combo.

Pacowy wrote:I haven't run a hand-fired stove for a while, but if you're using a bigger stove/burning more coal/creating more draft/etc. it seems like you potentially are increasing your need for make-up air. Maybe if you cracked open a window in the room with the stove it would suck less cold air into the other rooms and provide better balance?

Mike

Back when I was actively involved in the masonry trade, we often put outside air kits in fireplaces and woodstove setups. I've been wondering how to do that on this without altering the stove too much.

Thanks for the input.

You're welcome, and good luck with it.

Mike

So you are running a larger stove the previously so it seems you would be sucking up more combustion air. How drafty is the house? You may not feel the drafts but combustion air is made up and arrives any way it can.

If you can provide combustion air (controlled outside air) close to the stove the far rooms will heat better.

What are the up stars temp you may be losing a lot of heat through your Stair well it is jest a thought