G111 Season 2

tcalo wrote:I do a thorough cleanout twice a day, whether it needs it or not. The only time I shake the stove once a day is when I'm idling through very warm days. I open the internal check damper and close everything else up, then the stove will easily keep chugging along.

Speaking of check damper, when I open the damper on my stove, there is no reduction in draft what-so-ever. I would think when exhausted air, is exposed to the ash pan area, the draft would lessen. Mine doesn't drop a point at all. I only open it when shaking down the stove, but it still mystifies me, when the draft doesn't react to it.
(TOTP, caught it )

Joe,

When I idle my stove back for a few hours I notice my draft drop with the check damper open due to the stove cooling some, but for short periods such as dumping my ash pan there isn't much difference. My thought is the air bypassing the pot is still being heated from the ash pit area which creates draft. You still have the same volume of air passing through the stove, it's just split between the coal bed and bypass damper now.

OK Tom, I guess I can make some sense of that. But on the other extreme, when I close or open my MPD, my draft has an instantaneous reaction, but the check damper has much less of an effect. I would think the comparisons would be similar. The MPD is a mechanical blockage, much like the check damper. Maybe it's the location, as you suggest.

Temps, (OATs) have risen to almost 50°, so I'm favoring the TSC nut today, with minimal shaking. Just adding to the pile. I know the pot will slowly become ash bound, but the house is running around 73°, which is comfortable enuff for us. We'll see what evening brings. Haven't looked at the long range forecast yet.

joeq wrote:Temps, (OATs) have risen to almost 50°, so I'm favoring the TSC nut today, with minimal shaking. Just adding to the pile. I know the pot will slowly become ash bound, but the house is running around 73°, which is comfortable enuff for us. We'll see what evening brings. Haven't looked at the long range forecast yet.

Yeah, our crazy weather. Bitchin' blustery cold this week and now more seasonal Indian Summer. I let mine go too long feeling confident I could save the fire with matchlite and I did but then loaded too much coal too early and smothered the fire. Did not go completely out but took 3 hours to come back up.

Been there, done it. Just put the stove in DD, as I'm off to the masses. OFN.

Just completed 1 week of burning, the beginning of season 2. Started on Matchlight, and haven't stopped since. Been burning a "little over" a bag a day, a little extra mostly because of trying to get the stove situated, but am slowly learning the ropes. I'm calling this a "shoulder" month, cause the days have been well into the 40s, and most nites barely hi-20s at the coldest. Been able to keep the house a comfortable 72-74 consistently, but tonite it got away from me, and almost hit 80°. I had heard the nite was to drop into the mid 20s, so I opened the MPD a bit more, and the stove temps went to the 550s before I noticed. I did slow it back down, but have to admit, it felt nice.
Tomorrow, back to work, so it'll be interesting to see if I can get on a convenient tending schedule, and as quick a recovery as possible. Enjoy your week all.

Been surviving another warm spell, and have been on Reading nut the past few days. It's been working well in the "calming down" of the heat. Altho the draft is still good, it's tough keeping the fire lit. It's really been choking up the pot with ash, but on the same note, I haven't been as judicious shaking it down in the morning. It's good in that the house isn't going over 72-74 downstairs, but of course recovery is slower, as expected. Looking like another cool down this coming week-end.

joeq wrote:Just completed 1 week of burning, the beginning of season 2. Started on Matchlight, and haven't stopped since. Been burning a "little over" a bag a day, a little extra mostly because of trying to get the stove situated, but am slowly learning the ropes. I'm calling this a "shoulder" month, cause the days have been well into the 40s, and most nites barely hi-20s at the coldest. Been able to keep the house a comfortable 72-74 consistently, but tonite it got away from me, and almost hit 80°. I had heard the nite was to drop into the mid 20s, so I opened the MPD a bit more, and the stove temps went to the 550s before I noticed. I did slow it back down, but have to admit, it felt nice.
Tomorrow, back to work, so it'll be interesting to see if I can get on a convenient tending schedule, and as quick a recovery as possible. Enjoy your week all.

It takes a while for the effects of the check damper to be realized. Pull it open and leave it open for a few hours and you see your fire cool WAY down. Leave the stove in base burner mode and pull open that damper. Have some patience and you will see the change.

I'm under the impression, the main benefit of the CD is to weaken or slow the draft, and hear it mostly being used during tending, to keep fly ash to a minimum. But from a logistics standpoint, with the damper located right in line with the exhaust pipe, I would think the influence would be instantaneous if a -.05 draft is running, and the damper quickly opened up. But it doesn't affect my stove and draft like that.
But William, you're right from what I've noticed, in that over time, it will take affect. When I mistakenly leave the damper open after tending, it definitely will prevent the stove from recovering quicker, due to the weak draft. As for using it to cool the stove down, I guess if I had a problem with it burning too hot, or too high a draft, then I could also use it. But as of yet, I haven't needed it for those reasons. I usually use my MPD for that purpose.
Today was another full day on Reading nut, and I don't know if it's because the temps are in the 40s, but it really doesn't burn as hot as the stove coal does. And again with lots of ash, and a slow recovery. Fortunately I didn't go anywhere tonite, so I had time to play with it.

Joe, I can't remember. Is the check damper on your G111 the internal type feeding from the ash pan area ? If so, it will take longer to act because the ash pan area air being hotter has less temperature differential to lower the stove pipe flue gas temps than if it was an external check damper feeding room temp air.

Nut coal typically burns slower with a bit less heat volume than stove coal in the same stove. That's because nut has smaller air spaces which tend to slow the burn rate. But nut coal puts about 10% more coal by weight in the same firebox as stove coal does, thus giving longer burn times.

Paul

Hi Paul, the check damper "is" in the back of the ash pan cove, so I can understand your explanation.
The nut coal traits have been explained to me also, but this Reading seems much slower and colder than the Kimmel nut that TSC use-ta provide. And yes, it does burn, but ashes up more than the Lehigh stove. But then again, there's more coal per pot with the nut, than the stove, so I guess it would be expected to make more ash.

If your Kimmel's was like what I had last winter, yes it burned quick and hot. So much so that it was almost as good as wood at recovering a near-dead fire.

But, because of that, a firebox load didn't last as long. I can easily get 12+ hours out of a firebox load in my range using the bulk nut - which my dealer said was from the Mahanoy coal seam. The Kimmels would only go about 10 hours under the same conditions.

The bulk this year is in between the two as far as burn times. As such I can extend it to that 12 hours for overnight burns by using the smaller pieces that tend to accumulate toward the middle of the coal bin - under where the end of the coal truck chute was dropping the coal. That gives me greater fuel density in the firebed with more air restriction through the firebed for slower, longer burn control.

During the day, when I want faster response and higher temps for cooking/baking, I shovel from the outer edges of the bin where the larger pieces, that can more easily roll, accumulate as the pile builds up during a delivery.

That's a trick that Richard told me about a few years ago and it's helped very much as a firebed heat output control since I started using it. I also save and use the fines to help slow down a too-hot fire with this years bulk that burns quicker and hotter.

Size really does matter !

Paul

So Paul, do you order a half and half truck, stove and nut? Do you have a couple bins to isolate the two sizes? The bags of Lehigh I've been burning, are a little inconsistent in the stove size dept. Maybe big pieces tend to break up easier, and also make more fines. I don't remember the Blaschack stove being as broken. the Lehigh does burn hot though. I'll give it that.

Joe,

None of the bulk dealers around here want to carry stove size. just not enough demand to be driving their 18 wheelers down to PA to get a load. One dealer does carry some bagged Blaschak stove, but it costs more.

In some Glenwood literature it recommends stove size coal for their ranges. So, I tried a few bags of that Blaschak stove a while back. Those bags also contained a wide range of sizes on down to lots of fines and puddles of water and fines slurry in some of the bags.

While just using stove size, it burned well and gave slightly higher heat volumes for the oven. Plus as you'd expect with the easier breathing firebed of stove size, it was quicker to response to damper setting changes than nut. But, it did not last as long.

Back when we were doing the Glenwood #6 magazine project I did a lot of measuring stove verses nut coal in the same space. It showed there was a difference of 10% by weight between the two sizes. My range's fire box holds about 20 pounds of nut, but only about 18 pounds of the stove size.

So, just using stove coal, I found that I had to check and add coal more often while cooking/baking dinner. And, all that's involved in doing that sorta displeases the cook when she's also trying to work at the stove. It doesn't take a genus to know that if you want good food, don't do things that make the cook mad !

That experiment pointed out that with the strong drafting chimney I have (built back at the height of coal use)stove size coal didn't help without it also having a downside. So, by better management of the dampers, nut coal works very well and lasts longer between refueling. And more importantly, the cook was happy.

However, if I had a weaker drafting chimney system, then I'd likely use stove, or at least a mix of stove and nut.

Pauyl