Its your lucky day! As I sat down to respond, I noticed that mildly continental fireplaces sulfuric,

All day and into the evening I have a nice hot fire going but every morning it has almost out even with the air opened all the way. In the morning I must open the ash door to get the burn going again. I am new to burning coal and any help would be appreciated . steffy continental fireplaces New Member   Posts: 14 Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:02 am Stove/Furnace Make: surdiac Stove/Furnace Model: baronet 720
I was where you are 1 month ago. First, what type of damper are you using? Second, what type of coal? Pea? Third, are all of your seals working? Forth, ash in the exhaust ports? continental fireplaces Let us know! Wallknight Member   Posts: 35 Joined: continental fireplaces Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:17 am Location: Luzerne Co PA Stove/Furnace Make: Alaska Stove/Furnace Model: Kast Console II
Wallknight wrote: I was where you are 1 month ago. First, continental fireplaces what type of damper are you using? Second, what type of coal? Pea? Third, are all of your seals working? Forth, ash in the exhaust ports? Let us know! I am using a Field barometric damper, continental fireplaces pea coal, ash is ok but door seal may not be sealing as tight as it should . steffy New Member   Posts: 14 Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:02 am Stove/Furnace continental fireplaces Make: surdiac continental fireplaces Stove/Furnace Model: baronet 720
have you hooked up a manometer to determine the correct draft? That's made a HUGE difference to me. It should be around .4; I had been running closer to .9. Fixed that and I've had longer, hotter burns. Usually still glowing when I get up in the morning. Also, are you burning full open at night? Most surdiacs I've read of and mine as well, do best somewhere continental fireplaces between 2 & 3. Seems if you need to open the ash door, too, you probably have bad draft. A lot of people continental fireplaces also talk about getting better burns with lower settings. I've found this to be somewhat true as well. Coal is a strange burner! continental fireplaces Wallknight Member   Posts: 35 Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:17 am Location: Luzerne Co PA Stove/Furnace continental fireplaces Make: Alaska Stove/Furnace Model: Kast Console II
Which type of surdiac do you have? Is your hopper in the correct position for pea? The lower position is the one for pea. What I used to do before putting continental fireplaces the stove to bed each night was to shake it down well, top off the coal hopper, and turn it down. If it is very cold out and you are having to shake it every couple of hours you will have to turn the stove down. This stove is very finicky with the amount of ash which builds up. If you don't keep after it the stove will go out. You might also want to check your grate for clinkers. wlape3 Member   Posts: 2594 Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:38 pm Location: continental fireplaces Delanson, NY Stove/Furnace Make: Alaska Stove/Furnace Model: 140 auger, forced hot air
Its your lucky day! As I sat down to respond, I noticed that mildly continental fireplaces sulfuric, somewhat sweet smell - CO. Turns out, 3 things had happened (I was doing some experimenting, seeing how hot I could safely run, so this was NOT a normal occurrence) 1) Ash buildup in the trays reached the top and suffocated the coal. 2) I ran out of coal in the hopper, allowing some air in through my imperfect feed door gasket 3)Snowstorm got hear; pressure drop, etc All led to 0 draft. Moral of the story: keep the ash trays empty. Work on those seals! continental fireplaces Keep the hopper full. And recognize the CO smell before the sensor goes off. (You do have a sensor, right? Steffy? Are you still there? Steffy wake up!!) Personally, I use pea at the higher hopper level. When I've lowered it, I had reduced performance. The thicker bed seems to work very well for me. Wallknight Member   Posts: 35 Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:17 am Location: Luzerne Co PA Stove/Furnace Make: Alaska Stove/Furnace Model: Kast Console II
steffy wrote: All day and into the evening I have a nice hot fire going but every morning it has almost out even with the air opened all the way. In the morning I must open the ash door to get the burn going again. I am new to burning coal and any help would be appreciated . "even with the air opened all the way" is the clue to what is going wrong. To burn coal you need both air and unburnt coal. With the air open all the way the coal burns quickly and by morning all you have left where it is supposed to be burning is burnt coal. The fire tries to follow the coal up into the hopper, but there is no air flow through the hopper so it goes out. During the day you are shaking the ash down every now and then. That allows fresh coal to come down out of the hopper and replenish what has burnt. Through the night coal only comes down out of the hopper if the burnt coal crumbles as it turns to ash and makes room for the coal to come down. Some coal is better about this than others, but there are also things you can do to help it. When you shake down during the day you probably stop shaking at the first sign of burning embers. No sense wasting coal by shaking it down before continental fireplaces it finishes burning. But that leaves quite a bit of ash among the burning coals above, taking continental fireplaces up the space the burning coal can cru