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How to use Morso 1430 efficiently


cairanvanrooyen

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I have a reconditioned Morso Squirel 1430 which we love, but we are struggling to understand how to get the most out of it - the manufacturer instructions are useless. To try and better understand how to operate the stove efficiently we purchased a Valiant stove thermometer, which gives the temperature of the flue and gives an optimum range.

 

The stove has a bottom door for ash with a vent and a little knob under the stove that operates a further vent at the rear top of the stove. We use kindling and a couple of firelighters with coal most of the time. I tend to fire up the firelighters and leave the bottom door open until the kindling has burned and the coal starts to get red hot, then i close the door and leave both vents open. If i close the vents obviously the fire is starved and the fire dies.

 

My main questions are:

 

1. From others experience, how do you maximise the efficiency of your stove?

2. What is the best way to operate the bottom and top vents? Ie: when to open and when to close, how much and why?

3. We can never seem to get the temperature within the optimum range of the thermometer, i dont know why - we have got close, once when we almost half filled the stove with coal and it went nuclear. I am not sure what others experience is with these thermometers?

4. Any other advice for using this stove.

morso-1430-squirrel-dimensions.jpg

stove.JPG

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We have the squirrel with the vent on the top of the door, as well as the vent on the ash door.

 

Once lit, we set both vents to around 1/2 to 3/4 turn open from the fully closed position. The stove easily stays in overnight and in fact approaching 24hrs.

 

It is important to empty the ash pan regularly and riddle the grate to get rid of the ash, otherwise the ash stifles the fire. Generally the flue doesn’t run very hot because in the confines of a narrowboat you don’t need that much heat.

 

Worth bearing in mind that when the vents are open a lot, the fire burns faster but a lot of the heat / hot air goes up the chimney (and outside cold air is sucked into the boat to replace it).

 

Probably most important thing is to use the right fuel. Smokeless nuggets are best, and there can be quite some variation between brands and from year to year, in terms of how easy to keep the fire going and how much ash is produced. If, for example you use anthracite, it is really difficult to keep the stove going at a moderate pace.

 

We don’t bother with a thermometer, I think they are more relevant to burning wood. We do have an Ecofan - the franticness or otherwise of that, is a good indication of how the stove is doing.

Edited by nicknorman
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As Nick has said and to add

 

Find a coal you are happy with, a popular type is excel.

 

Nick's suggested vent settings are a good start, they are what I use but they will vary with how much heat you need and how windy it is.

 

Normally I clean the ash out once a day but if it's really cold I will clean it out twice.

 

Keep the flue clean, I do a quick sweep once a month, it can be done with the fire burning, it's just takes practice, keep the top plate clean.

 

The best advice is learn how your particular set up works

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11 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

As Nick has said and to add

 

Find a coal you are happy with, a popular type is excel.

 

Nick's suggested vent settings are a good start, they are what I use but they will vary with how much heat you need and how windy it is.

 

Normally I clean the ash out once a day but if it's really cold I will clean it out twice.

 

Keep the flue clean, I do a quick sweep once a month, it can be done with the fire burning, it's just takes practice, keep the top plate clean.

 

The best advice is learn how your particular set up works

Seconded. This is where very quickly, clinker and crud can form and completely block the flue, and I mean very quickly.

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Never let the ash get up to the riddling grate otherwise it will melt and they are not cheap.

A mix of anthracite and eggs like Excel or Supertherm works well. 

The top vent is to allow the fire to consume its own smoke as flame, irrelevant unless you are burning wood. On a 1410 Squirrel it  helps to keep the glass from smoking up if open half a turn.

Half a turn open on the bottom vent will let mine burn all night easily.

I have two front fire bars in and fill the fire with fuel last thing at night. It then burns all night and most of the day without adding any more.

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Everything that has been said above. In particular I would say steer clear of the 10 kg bags of (cheap) fuel available in some supermarkets. Tempting at first sight, it creates at least twice the ash of something like Excel , burns more quickly and seems less controllable. My opinion anyway

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....more seriously, I dont think the stove thermometers are much use if you are using them to try and achieve a 'set' temperature given by Morso. They are good once you have worked out how to use the stove and know where the 'set' temperature is. Work out what a typical tick over is to keep the fire in for 24 hours and see what temperature is recorded. Then adjust the vents to get to that temp. I use an infrequent red thermometer pointed just above teh 'morso' logo on the front and aim to keep it around 140-150°C. The wind makes a big difference on ours providing extra draw when it blows a lot. Our vents are normally set very similar to Nick's. Very worth while getting the 'coal inserts' to keep the coal more in the central area.

We ALWAYS clean the ash out once per day - usually the ash try is pretty full but not overfull.

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We have a 1410 (air controls on top and bottom doors as Nick says) on our boat. I have read that it is a good idea to add another set of firebricks to each side and the back of the grate. Is this actually a good idea, and what doesn't it do / why would one do it?

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10 minutes ago, Col_T said:

We have a 1410 (air controls on top and bottom doors as Nick says) on our boat. I have read that it is a good idea to add another set of firebricks to each side and the back of the grate. Is this actually a good idea, and what doesn't it do / why would one do it?

You can get a pair of angled cast iron plates at each side from Morso, at Morso ouch prices, for use with coal. Allows you to run a smaller, deeper fire with coal/smokeless, which seems to work better. I've got them. Some bits of fire brick will work too.

Jen

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3 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

You can get a pair of angled cast iron plates at each side from Morso, at Morso ouch prices, for use with coal. Allows you to run a smaller, deeper fire with coal/smokeless, which seems to work better. I've got them. Some bits of fire brick will work too.

Jen

That's what I referred to in my post above. The 'coal inserts'. Midland Chandlers have them. They work very well.

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43 minutes ago, Glynn said:

!st thing I did was remove that bracket that connects the two doors, much easier to get it going just be having the ash door open.

 

This is fine, but only when there is someone about to keep an eye on it. The bracket is supposed to stop the stove going in to a runaway, where the fire burns brighter, so draws more air in, so burns brighter, so draws more air and so on. I have seen a stove glow red doing this. Can lead to a boat fire in the worst case.

Jen

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Without removing the bracket it's almost impossible to get a decent draw from startup. I'm also wondering if it's got one of those skull cap thingies in the flue. They don't help much either. I bought one that was being removed from a house and it had one. No good on a boat.

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I reckon the brackets are there to try and prevent the stove roaring away from cold and heating up too fast and unequally the wafer thin cast iron body panels and top plate and cracking them. Morso have probably had loads of complaints and warranty claims over this.  The doors seem quality though. :)

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Funny isnt it, for years & years the ash door was seperate to the fix door. Suddenly a few years ago it all changes.

Its as if they assume the general public to be completely thick. which I agree some are......

Edited by Glynn
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