Ready to rip out my coal stove and put in electric baseboard!

[coldinnj]

Berlin: The direct insult / flame is not called for/ needed / nor appropriate. I speak from knowledge and experience. Read my original post carefully and correctly, I stated that there were other problems to look into also. That being said the design of most coal burning stoves is not an air tight one. The POC (that is Products of Combustion0 in case you did not know) do not come into the living space as they take the route up the chimney based on laws of physics that I asm to busy to explain now. If the draft is good enough this will happen. However even with a bad draft or many leaks the telltale smell of sulphur comes with BAD COAL.
As too looking for leaks one good satrt is: if the system was not cleaned out thoroughly at the end of the heating season then the ash that lays in the system, be it pipes or stove body, will get wet from moisture collection. This will result in acid leeching onto the metal parts hence eating through them. Look for hidden holes especially where the ash would lay in the pipes.
These holes will allow the draft air to be replaced from these holes rather then from under the burnming coal bed, thus reducing your effective draft adding to your problem.
So as previously stated you have two problems.
1) Look into draft issues.
2) Have your coal checked as even with bad draft a good coal does not produce a noticable sulphur smell.
And Berlin please start talking from knowledge not emotion and rhetoric.

 

[berlin]

i apologize if i came off a bit harsh, but my goal was not to inflame you, but rather make it clear that the info you were giving was wrong. I am not about to get into a pissing match on qualifactions, however, i can assure you that i have extensive experience with coal both in residential heating and industrial; don't wrongfully assume that you're an authority on the subject.

 

[coldinnj]

Yes Berlin, you did come off a bit harsh. Try to remember all who post here have their motives. I am not in the selling end of the trade. I do not have the ulterior motives that could (hopefully not) tend to persuade others. My only motive is to share information and gain information from and with others as accurately as possible. I do not profess to be THE authority on the subject. But do not assume that I or others are not authorities in different fields either. I assume all know what they are talking about until proved eleswise. If they are incorrect I try to help them. I do not try to put them down or try to prove I am a better authority. That is a mistake. The old expression: those people who think they know it all, rally p**s off those of us who do. Can be applied. I do not know it all. But I do speak from knowledge. What I said has been discussed, analyzed and acceptaed by chemists, and people whose professions, careers and specialties are in the coal industries. Remember the goal is to help others. not to start bashing each other. That unfortunately brings one to question the motives of the one doing the bashing. I'd like to believe you simply made an error and just wish to help the individual also. Interesting I wonder how many different coals from different locations you have been involved in direct testing of. There is a huge difference in what can come out of a different vein at one mine alone.

 

[webbie]

The sulfur smell is that of the small amount of gases that burn on anthracite coal. When a coal fire is burning well, this gas is largely consumed by the small blue flames coming off the coal bed. However, when a stove does not have the critical mass to ignite these gases, they go up the chimney unburned.

Either way, they should not come into the house. The problem in this case is pretty evident - the chimney is not maintaining an updraft when the stove is banked. This is due to many factors, including operator and chimney.

Harry, even though a baro is generally for overdraft, it can help in other situations like this - example:

Stove works fine when running medium or hot - Now stove is turned down low - no heat. The chimney effectively stops drawing. The only place the chimney can get air from is through the coal bed, which may be ashed up or too full with coal, or the input air open only slightly. In a case like this, having room air enter the chimney through a baro - even the little that can leak into it, will help the chimney maintain a pull and make it less likely to reverse.

In other words, having continuous air movement up the chimney is ideal.

 

[Metal]

I know you said your house is not airtight, but something to check also is if you have negative pressure in the house. Homes today that are considered "not airtight" are still sealed up much tighter than in "the days of old." Things like hot water heaters, furnaces, bathroom vents, dryers, etc. can be competing with your stove and actually sucking air out of it into the room. Crack a door open and see if air is sucked into the house, this could be a sign of not enough makeup air in the house.

 

[elkimmeg]

Got to ask who installed this stove without reading the installation manual? I mean if the owner is asking us what a barometric damper is
he has not read the manual either. The manual also details the purposes of cleaning the stove and flue. It also details proper opperations
The owner has to take some responsibility for not taking the time to read his manual. If He did He would have known the Baro was required and recomended

Where is dealer support. Have you called the dealerto find possible solutions? who installed it? Why was not the chimney and stove cleaned in the spring?

Did you know the damage sulfur and coal ash can caused left in the flue and stove? Why the spring, because higher humidity occures in the summer?
It condensates and combines with sulfur creating sulfuric acid. Not only eats the metals but also eats away clay flue liners. Coal stoves have to be cleanned in
the spring or after the heating season has ended. Did you know the importance of an ash bed?