I've Figured Out the Perfect Re-Loading Now

 
User avatar
Smokeyja
Member
Posts: 1997
Joined: Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 6:57 pm
Location: Richmond, VA.
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood #6 baseheater, Richmond Advance Range, WarmMorning 414a x2
Coal Size/Type: Nut / Anthracite
Other Heating: none
Contact:

Post by Smokeyja » Sat. Jan. 31, 2015 9:20 am

I'm sorry to hear that Bruno. The reason it seems to work out so well for me is it leaves a lot of air gaps in the nut coal . I am burning bagged Blaschak and the nut size is a good size . Even the Kimmels I have is a good size as well and I've figured it's burn as well . Before my procedure was this:

- open MPD and put stove in direct mode .

- open the loading door and use the 90 degree coal poker I made to push the bed down .

- close the door and open the primaries and proceed to shake the grates until red coals appeared .

- open the load door and load new coal in.

Ok there was a few problems with my first method . First I shouldn't have pushed the bed down before doing a shake down for ash . This was causing ash to mix with good hot coal and I wasn't getting much ash out which was causing the bed to also not get as much air and is why I might have had a week of off settings . This process also can cause clinkers . I also noticed bits of slightly unburnt coal in my ash pan.

The new method is where I clear the ash first and don't touch the bed and then load new coal . I have since then start pushing the bed down ever so gently and then doing a tiny grate movement to clear any settled ash . I then proceed to top the bed off . It doesn't lose temps on the stove . I also am getting more ash and it has zero unburnt coal in it .

I would give it a go again or a variant of what I tried when you have the right nut size or stove . But take the best bits and pieces of what you already know to keep the stove going with the best way that works for you.

Keep me updated I'm interested to hear what you come up with.

Josh

 
User avatar
Pancho
Member
Posts: 906
Joined: Sat. Feb. 01, 2014 4:00 pm
Location: Michigan
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood No. 8
Coal Size/Type: Stove
Other Heating: Jotul Firelight

Post by Pancho » Sat. Jan. 31, 2015 10:16 am

Smokeyja wrote:I'm sorry to hear that Bruno. The reason it seems to work out so well for me is it leaves a lot of air gaps in the nut coal . I am burning bagged Blaschak and the nut size is a good size . Even the Kimmels I have is a good size as well and I've figured it's burn as well . Before my procedure was this:

- open MPD and put stove in direct mode .

- open the loading door and use the 90 degree coal poker I made to push the bed down .

- close the door and open the primaries and proceed to shake the grates until red coals appeared .

- open the load door and load new coal in.

Ok there was a few problems with my first method . First I shouldn't have pushed the bed down before doing a shake down for ash . This was causing ash to mix with good hot coal and I wasn't getting much ash out which was causing the bed to also not get as much air and is why I might have had a week of off settings . This process also can cause clinkers . I also noticed bits of slightly unburnt coal in my ash pan.

The new method is where I clear the ash first and don't touch the bed and then load new coal . I have since then start pushing the bed down ever so gently and then doing a tiny grate movement to clear any settled ash . I then proceed to top the bed off . It doesn't lose temps on the stove . I also am getting more ash and it has zero unburnt coal in it .

I would give it a go again or a variant of what I tried when you have the right nut size or stove . But take the best bits and pieces of what you already know to keep the stove going with the best way that works for you.

Keep me updated I'm interested to hear what you come up with.

Josh
I am a newbie and a reformed bed poker/stirrer-upper.
I had what I thought were problems with bridging so, being new to burning dino eggs, I though I needed to poke and prod to get the ash/coal to fall to the grates.

That's not the case.

Throw 20 or 30lbs of coal on top of the bed and with some nice short choppy strokes of the shaker handle (as William shows in his video), it will fall evenly and the contents of the burn pot won't be fuggered up.

As to the OP's post.....i've been fine tuning my reload/shake routine. I've noticed the hotter I am running it, the less low heat time I have. If I am running it hot and I've done a proper shake, my low heat time is minimal and it doesn't go below 300(ish) on the barrel.

In the fall when I was running it low, my heat drop and recovery time were longer but it wasn't such a big deal as it wasn't cold out.

 
User avatar
SWPaDon
Member
Posts: 9857
Joined: Sun. Nov. 24, 2013 12:05 pm
Location: Southwest Pa.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 1600M
Coal Size/Type: Bituminous
Other Heating: Oil furnace

Post by SWPaDon » Sat. Jan. 31, 2015 11:11 am

Smokeyja wrote:ok after all this time and I have figured out the perfect reload sequence for my Glenwood No. 6 .

There is no temperature loss , no sitting waiting for the blue ladies , almost a perfect load and go .

I have been doing this for the past 6 reloads now I believe .

-First I put the stove in direct and then open the MPD .

- then I open the primaries on the bottom of the stove to see as Rotate the grates until both sides show a little sparks coming down .

- I open the load door and feed the coal on top of the bed with a feed scoop and the bed slowly falls and I keep adding coal until it is a nice heaping cone on top . I then shut the door and open the secondary all the way.

- I put the primaries back to the setting I want to keep them on immediately after loading but leave the secondary open for few minutes and then shut it .

-I then put it in base heater mode and close the MPD . The thermometer at the top of the stove doesn't waver much if any . Heat stayed consistent and I am not waiting around as long as I was before .

My issue with the way I used to reload was this. I would use a 90° poker to push the coal bed down after shaking and sometimes before . The issue with this is it compacts the bed and causes ash to fill in air gaps which causes the stove to choke a lot for a little while dropping the temps while it Ramps up again and burning fuel that is not putting the same heat out through the stove . It would also cause me to take a long time in the morning . Buy letting the bed naturally fall and dumping the grates at the bottom it works very well and allows the bed of coals to have consistent air as previously before . In fact I do believe I am burning less coal this way and getting 100% ash .

It is really nice to finally figure it out when I already thought I figured it out ! Surprise surprise .


 
User avatar
Smokeyja
Member
Posts: 1997
Joined: Mon. Nov. 21, 2011 6:57 pm
Location: Richmond, VA.
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood #6 baseheater, Richmond Advance Range, WarmMorning 414a x2
Coal Size/Type: Nut / Anthracite
Other Heating: none
Contact:

Post by Smokeyja » Sat. Jan. 31, 2015 8:30 pm

Damn! I tried pushing the coal bed down like my old way to double check the new way still worked a lot better . Yes it still does . Temps dropped . Waiting for it to come back up in the barrel ... Blah blah I should have just done it the new way. I'm just complaining that's all ;) .

 
KingCoal
Member
Posts: 4837
Joined: Wed. Apr. 03, 2013 1:24 pm
Location: Elkhart county, IN.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: 1 comforter stove works all iron coal box stove, seventies.
Baseburners & Antiques: 2014 DTS C17 Base Burner, GW #6, GW 113 formerly Sir Williams, maybe others at Pauliewog’s I’ve forgotten about
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
Other Heating: none

Post by KingCoal » Sat. Jan. 31, 2015 11:20 pm

well then you are a scientist.

cause no result is conclusive unless it's repeatable.

Post Reply

Return to “Hand Fired Coal Stoves & Furnaces Using Anthracite”