Question about a new stove

[bigben]

I just purchased a home with a Coalbrookdale wood/coal stove. the model is the Darby 1985. I lit a fire tonight for the first time and noticed that even with the flu closed and the inlets closed the fire still roared and burnt woood up quickly.
There is a cromb handle sticking out of the right side of the stove and it moves front to back. Does anyone know if this handle has anything to do with triming the fire.
I want to heat the house with the stove as much as I can, but at this rate I'll be up all night feeding the fire.

 

[Gooserider]

First off, I would check the sealing on any and all gaskets in the stove, and maybe go over all the seams with a stick of incense while burning to see if there are any leaks in the seams. With the air inlets closed you shouldn't have a real strong fire. It sounds to me like you have a significant leak somewhere

I don't know what your "chrome handle" does, but I would guess that it might be your "shaker grate" used to shake ash out of the coal bed when burning coal - if so you should see some moving parts in the stove grates when working it (with no fire) Alternatively it might be a control for a flue damper, which would have more to do with controlling the fire.

It is worth noting that at best a "Wood / Coal" stove is going to be a design compromise between the differing needs of the two stoves, and usually this imposes a cost on efficiency. Depending on where you are (you didn't mention in your profile) it might be worth trying some coal to see how that does.

If you prefer to heat only with wood, it might also be worth considering replacing the stove with a more modern high efficiency wood stove. The older stoves are less heat efficient and make much more pollution and dump more creosote in your chimney. A modern stove will give the same heat on about 1/3 less wood, for a longer burn time and less pollution.

Gooserider

 

[bigben]

Just realized, the glass in one of the doors has a few cracks in it. Thats where the air is getting in.
Now I have to figure out how to get the glass out and who can cut new glass.

 

[Gooserider]

Just realized, the glass in one of the doors has a few cracks in it. Thats where the air is getting in.
Now I have to figure out how to get the glass out and who can cut new glass.

That could definitely be a major problem. Usually it's fairly straightforward to remove the glass, typically you will find a few clips screwed into the inside of the door frame that hold the glass and a gasket to seal it. remove the clips, lift out the glass, and gasket, replace.... Often this is much easier if you remove the door from the stove so you can put it flat on a work bench. The only real trouble usually comes if one or more of the screws are seized up, which requires the usual sort of stuck screw handling. I would reccomend taping the glass thoroughly on each side to keep it together when you remove it, it will help in finding the size if you need to get a replacement cut.

Brace yourself when you go glass shopping - what you should get is not normal glass, but some stuff called Pyroceram, or equivalent - If you can't get a replacement part from the manufacturer, most good glass shops should have it, possibly a stove shop, your average hardware store probably won't. Downside is the stuff is VERY expensive - don't be surprised to see a bill for over $100.

I would replace the window gaskets in both doors as part of the job - if someone managed to break the glass, the stove has probably not been treated kindly, and may need them.

Gooserider

 

[KeithO]

There will probably be an ashpan with that kind of stove. Make sure that the ash drawer / door is properly sealed shut. You need a pretty major leak to get a roaring fire and since coal stoves always have a grate, the first thing I would look for is air getting in below that grate and feeding the fire. Many older stoves never sealed very well in the first place and warped even more from overheating. If you run a bead of stove cement around suspect areas and it cuts down on the draft you have found the culprit. You then have to look at the cause (warpage, no rope gasket, cracks etc) to figure out where to go from there.

 

[elkimmeg]

I agree with goose and Keith. That stove is setup to burn coal not wood. We here a can only make suggestions to try to help bring that stove to being safely operated. However if it it has been seriously over fired ,No advice here can correct warped parts. The glass replacement does not occur from normal coal operations. I suspect over firing Can you take some pictures and post them here? Pictures with doors open of the fire box

 

[bigben]

You guys are giving me great advise! I will tale photo's and post them.
I know I should replace the stove for a new state of the art stove and nothing would make me happy'er, but with just buying the house and having a list of things I need to buy as long as my arm..well you guys no the rest.
My last house had an insert with no glass and I hated no having that warm glow.
This house is a 1940's colonial with wide plank pine floors. I shut off all the lights the other night and sat in the foyer with a nice home brew and got the warm and fuzzys watching the flames and picturing it snowing outside in my mind.

 

[KeithO]

You didn't perhaps burn some dimensional lumber or very old dry seasoned wood ? If the wood is unusually dry it will always burn fast and many stoves are not "tight" enough to prevent overfiring, especially if the wood is split fairly fine. If you could tell us what you burnt, it may save you going on a wild goose chase...

 

[bigben]

It was 3 year old mixed wood. Oak, Maple. It was split to small and I figure that was part of the problem, but I burned the same wood at the old house and if I wanted to, I could have choked the fire right out.

 

[bigben]

I am working on getting new glass. I have another question. When burning coal, how do you light it. Do you start a wood fire and then add the coal. Also, how do you know how much coal to put on, seems if you put to much on it will snuff everything out.

 

[KeithO]

You need a good bed of coals from a hot wood fire. Coal needs a lot of heat to get going. The better the coal, the less volatiles in it and the higher the carbon content, thus the more heat it needs to combust. Then you need to layer on the coal. Thin layer and wait for it to take, then add the next layer, wait for that to take, then the next. Once it is burning hot, you can shut down the primary air some for a long long burn. See this link (broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/doc/tlc2000m.pdf) for instructions for the Harman coal stove. Page 9 of thr PDF gives pretty clear instruction. I will attach a copy of that page for easy access too.

 

[bigben]

Awsome, thanks. I can't wait to try coal.

 

[bigben]

Ahhh, the saga continues. I dropped off the fireplace doors at the glass shop. I told them I wanted to replace the glass, but was not going to be using the steel mesh on the inside and that the mesh obscured my view of the fire. The made a good point by suggesting we use a glass a little thicker than the factory to make up for the difference in thickness.
When we undid the bolts that hold the glass in place, we were surprized to see that the 9x9 piece of glass was actually 3 pieces.
each piece was 3 inches high. There is no way to get a good seal with a set up like that, so we decided to us a thicker glass and make it one piece....that the easy part.
There was a gasket all the way around the glass that was like the piece of plastic you can buy to put on the edge of your car door to stop chipping only it's made of some kind of heat resistand material.
I can't find this stuff anywhere and the glass place doesn't have any idea either.
Does anyone have any suggestions.
P.S, those 2 little pieses of glass cost me $207.00

 

[KeithO]

Visit your local stove shop and look at their stock of door and glass seal gaskets and ropes. You should be able to use a length of the glass seal that is used in modern stoves and it should be cheap. That was really expensive glass and I guess most of the cost was for labor ? Did they break down the price for you ?

PS: The reason for the 3 pieces of glass may be deliberate: If they used "ordinary" glass, it would have cracked from thermal stress if it was one piece. So to reduce the problem they use 3 pieces (so in essence they "pre-cracked" it). I can remember our family having a coal stove with more than a dozen small glass panes because of this issue and it worked. Even earlier stoves used little mica windows, but they were expensive and didn't last long.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Just realized, the glass in one of the doors has a few cracks in it. Thats where the air is getting in.
Now I have to figure out how to get the glass out and who can cut new glass.

measure it out , post the size. never know sombodys stock glass may fit. if not check specialty galssshops for 1400 degree rated ceramic glass , that is the requirement to replace the origional

EDIT: if the glass opening is 9X9 we carry a piece at 9 1/8 by 9 1/8 i wonder if it will fit , the glass is like 70 bucks a piece with gasket let me know if this is helpful i can have you take some measurments to determine if this would work, might save you a few bucks, but do NOT order without consulting me first please as sale would be final, lets be sure first.

 

[bigben]

I left a deposit and they already cut the glass. I am picking it up tomorrow. It was rated at 1400 degrees.
The size was actually 9x83/4 or I think thats what it was.

I saw an add for a gasket kit that contained a firbeglass gasket with some sort of a paint on glue that holds it in place. Maybe that would work.
I have visited a couple of stove shops locally, but they just sell the stoves. I am going to try and follow up on a few leads tomorrow.