Thoughts or suggestions? Also some trial and error here.

[Babaganoosh]

Ok. Quick background. Bought the house in July. It came with a 1980 Russo coal and wood stove. Definitely not epa and due to the placement of the air intake I get a rather mediocre wood stove. Although surprisingly it's not terrible.

Anyway. It has firebrick sides and a metal grate on the bottom with holes in it. Manual says you can burn right on the grate for wood. I know that Russo sells specially shaped brick for the floor edges. It's over 100 bucks. Pass.

I ran it for a few months with just the bottom and no brick on the floor. I haven't had any problems besides getting about 3 to 4 hours per load. One day I decided to add some brick. I put it on the sides of the floor. End result it that it took a bit more time to come to temp and it burned a little hotter.

Few days later i put in 2 more bricks on the grate which leaves a space for the front air holes but not the back ones. Benefit is a much more flat stove floor because the metal grate has a slight bow. Easier to fill with wood. I assumed and was correct that the back of the box wouldn't burn as well due to the covered holes. Now it didn't burn badly, remedy is to just rake everything forward a bit after a few hours.

At this point the stove easily takes 20 more minutes to come to temp but it burns hotter and holds temperature twice as long as it originally did. I even had hot coals when I got up for work. Granted that's 330 but originally the stove was room temperature at that hour with no floor brick. Not even a hint of heat. The one caveat is due to the higher temps I go thru a load a little faster.

So my question is if it's possible to add some air intakes in the sides or one side and get a better slower burn? Basically line the floor with brick and close the air that's below the brick and grate. I can weld and have access to the tools to do the job. I'm not gonna go crazy beyond that because although this is in my den/converted garage there will probably be an ideal steel hybrid in the living room in the future. I'll probably keep this stove in th e den since its apparently an add on to the hvac system and it gets chilly in there.

Here's a few pics.


Grate with side bricks above



Bricks on grate above

 

[Babaganoosh]

Here it is just starting up with a few envi bricks and a Rutland firestarter.

 

[jatoxico]

How about coal?

 

[Babaganoosh]

How about coal?

Well I did think about that and I'd need to add a barometric damper plus I can't find the basket that's needed to burn coal anywhere.

Plus the fact that wood is free for the most part for me starting next year when it's seasoned. It's not worth buying coal for me since I do have natural gas. I hate forced hot air heat and I absolutely love the feeling of a house heated with wood.

 

[jatoxico]

Ah, was just thinking small amount when your looking for extended burns. What's it worth? If it has any resale I don't know if I would modify it much. If it's an anchor then I suppose why not.

 

[Babaganoosh]

That's true, I could probably get a few bags just for more extended burns but then still have to deal with the barometric damper situation. I believe you aren't supposed to run one when you are using wood.

I'd still like to know if anyone knows if I can put some sort of air inlets in the sides. If there's a certain type that would work.

 

[russo1978]

I am looking for a manual for my 1978 Russo (Glassview side loading wood stove). I am trying to set this up in my home. Can someone pleeeease send me a copy of the manual?

Thanks,
Jesse

 

[3650]

Sounds like a good candidate for some secondary air tubes. If you can weld and fabricate it should be a fairly easy task.

 

[Babaganoosh]

Sounds like a good candidate for some secondary air tubes. If you can weld and fabricate it should be a fairly easy task.

Guess I'll have to research a little bit.

 

[coaly]

Simply putting coal on the bottom isn't going to burn. It needs to be elevated to get air up through the coal bed. Even if it ignites and burns where the holes are, it's not going to spread and keep burning. Wood will burn over the holes, getting air like little jets, and burn elsewhere in the fire box because it doesn't care where oxygen comes from. Coal needs it to come up through between every piece. Coal requires a high temperature mass to drive out coal gas from the fresh coal on top, and needs air coming up through entire fuel bed to spread. When you loose that critical fire bed temperature, it dies. You won't even achieve the high enough temperature to ignite the entire fuel bed. If you could, you don't have secondary air to allow coal gas above the fire to ignite. Stoves for coal use covering a grate completely have an air inlet above the fire as well. Oxygen is depleted going through coal bed and a secondary inlet is provided above the coal bed. This is where the oxygen comes from for the blue flames on top. An elevated basket allows air around the sides to bypass the coal bed to get to the top for this combustion. No where near as good as ALL the air coming up through the coal bed and a second source with just a little air added. Excess air going around the fire and not used for coal gas ignition slips up the stack cooling it and reducing draft. You can't control secondary air with a basket type. It's more of a conversion to make a wood stove capable of burning coal. But not as efficient as strictly designed for coal only. All coal stove owners may not see an adjustable secondary air source, since some grates have air leakage holes around the sides or slots behind the glass to bypass fuel bed. European stoves use thin glass strips like panels instead of a one piece glass that gets air from between the glass panels.

When conditions are right, you can produce enough coal gas above the fire and be too rich to burn without admitiing oxygen until you crack the door, and WOOF. Major blue ignition. It can ignite explosively.