She Bridged on Me

DS Machine new style champion was bridged this AM when I shook it. First time this has happened. I have been running @ 500* for the past three nights with lows in the teens and was doing fine, 72* overnight. I have heard mentioned here that when running in the higher temp ranges bridging is more likely to occur. My DS has a 16" square firebox and I regularly slice the corners out from below, usually in the AM shake every third day. Might need to slice every day?
As far as the bridging goes after the first move of the shaker bar the whole fire fell about 3". Then I did about 10 shakes and had some light amount of burning coal fall with good glow from under the grates. Fire is running fine now but I did back it off to 400* for daytime with mpd set full closed and mano @ .04. Stack temp is usually near half of the stove temp but that's the norm for this stove.

My only experience with bridging has been with bituminous coal. Are you sure your stove didn't approach the overfire range. My D.S. has spiked way up in temp after tending. Just a thought........

In my experiences with bridging, I've found it to be a positive attribute that actually helps with consistent heat output thru an extended burn. With a bridge, coal doesn't settle on the ash below which tends to compact it and seal the grates up. Instead, the bridge suspended above helps maintain healthy combustion air flow up thru the grates.

But yeah, the bridge does need to be destroyed at tending so you can rebuild the fuel bed.

I agree with what Lee just said, I use the bridging to my advantage too. Since the Andes has triangle grates it can dump the coal very easy. With the coal bed bridged, I can give a complete turn of the grates which breaks up the chunks. Then I knock the bed down and just rattle the grates to get any loose ash out. FrancoB gave me that tip...thank you Sir!

Randy

Would it be possible to slightly round off the firebox corners with custom-cut bricks?