Maybe someone here can give me some help... I have a outside coal stove that i built my self... it burns coal very well all day and most of the night....here of late i have been having trouble keeping it hot overnight i load it about 9:00 every night and by morning (6:00) it seems to die down a good bit.... but stays buning as soon as i give it more air it gets worse!!!! can it be the pipe getting to cold overnight???and if so how can i keep this from happening??? it has a stack height of about 16' it never runs out of coal.... it keeps a good 5-6" bed of coals at all times( untill somtime during the night)I have even tried leaving the damper all the way open and the bottom draft all the way open.. with the top one closed..........I have even tried leaving the top one all the way open dosent seem to make any dif.with full draft it burns a little to hot( except for night time lol)Thanks for any help !!!! Troy

-- Troy Swift (ToyboyTroy94@aol.com), February 04, 2001

Answers

We finially figured out how to keep our outdoor wood stove running at it's best, with the flue hot enough against the cold outside air. During the day, we open the bottom draft all the way and have the top damper 3/4 shut. This keeps the flue pipe hot. Before, our flue pipe was not hot enough, with the damper open.

At night we shut the bottom draft to 1/2 and leave the damper at 3/4 shut. Leaving the damper open all the way lets all the heat out and the pipe stays too cold outside. Now we don't have the sticky creosote that we had before, and we get allot more heat. Keeping the top damper 3/4 shut keeps the firebox hot enough for the thermostate to stay running without kicking on and off too.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), February 05, 2001.

Somthing i didnt add in the original message... The stove i made also has a grate in it that i made..... when i built this i wasnt sure of the grate spacing for nut sized coal so i just winged it and made it anyway! it has 1/2" spaces with 5/8"bars.....maybe this is not the right spacing....?? should a coal grate be a cross hatch design or staight bar design??????/ thanks again! Troy

-- Troy Swift (ToyboyTroy94@aol.com), February 05, 2001.

Troy, you need an FXLCH chopper engine connected to a large airplane propeller to improve draft in your coal stack!!!!!! Do you have any donuts??????

-- Dave Griffith (sonygriff@aol.com), December 03, 2001.