Reading Mahantongo Coal Stove

I have recently purchased a Reading Mahantongo coal stove - it is replacing an existing coal stove so I'm familiar with burning coal. I cannot get this stove to stay lit unless I keep the ash door opened - I am not comfortable doing this, but when I close ash door - the stove is out within a few hours - even with the door opened - this stove puts out very little heat. I've called Reading Stove to ask for some suggestions and they said they'd call me back - they never have. I sent an additional e-mail to them this morning and have still not heard anything from them. Does anyone know how to get heat out of this stove and how to keep it going? I'm loosing patients with it and I'm tired of waking up in a cold house. I've had this stove for 3 weeks now.

There has to be something blocking the incomming air. If the old
stove had draft, I can't see why this one would not. Maybe there is
a piece of cardboard from the packaging material blocking the air intake.
Or the thermocouple link is not adjusted right. There has to be some
easy explanation. Is the outside cleanout on your chimney closed ?
Bird nest in the chimney ? Do you have a hand damper that may have
broken loose from the handle and is in the shut position ?

Tom

Check out this thread. There maybe something there you can use.

Mahaontongo Stove Does Not Get Hot

My first thoughts were right along with Tom. Something has to be blocking either your intake valve or your draft. Are you getting any smoke or odor back in the room? Could flyash ash be blocking your chimney connector pipe? Lisa

I looked through the air intake to verify that the flapper opens and closes and it does. I read the thread that lowfog01 suggested, and that guy sounded like he couldn't get any heat out of his either - unless he took out the hopper or burned wood. I guess I could get the manometer and readjust if necessary. There does not appear to be any smoke or odor back in the room, and I looked straight up the stainless steel chimney liner when I changed the stove (it's installed in a fireplace - the air is completely blocked by a metal plate and sealed -so no bypass air) I tried putting tin foil over the barometric damper - and it still went out. I've tried 3 different coals - Reading nut coal, Blaschak nut coal, and the stuff they gave me when I bought the stove - nothing made a difference. The chimney is blocked with a metal plate from the fireplace cleanout door so it's not the cleanout door either.

Hi Richard,

I'd love to give it a try - blocking the secondary air - I'm looking at the pdf version of the owners manual, and I'm not sure where I would put the gasket material or fireproof insulation. Can you give me a little more information?

Thanks

Mike

Thanks I will give it a try. I appreciate your help - I'll post and let you know how it turns out.\

Mike

M1KEMASS wrote:Thanks I will give it a try. I appreciate your help - I'll post and let you know how it turns out.\

Mike

Mike,
I know that you can resolve this issue. I think that the Mahantongo is a GREAT looking stove. I was thinking that its rated output of 45,000 BTU's would make it perfect for a second stove; one that would perhaps not "cook" you out of the room!

I'll look forward to some good news from you...
It would be nice to see a few pics, "when you get'er going good"

Good luck, you'll work it out.

Bob

I think I have seen this same Chinese-made stove body advertised as electric, gas fired, wood fired, pellet fired, coal fired, coal-hopper-fed, and coal-stoker fed. I don't know which if any of those things it does well ....

rberq wrote:I think I have seen this same Chinese-made stove body advertised as electric, gas fired, wood fired, pellet fired, coal fired, coal-hopper-fed, and coal-stoker fed. I don't know which if any of those things it does well ....

C H I N A ????

Now that is MOST CURIOUS..As "Reading Stove Company" States : Our full line of coal stoves are manufactured in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and are on display at our retail store located at 16 Summer Valley Road in Orwigsburg, PA.

A N D .... Pottsville, Pa is a long, long way from CHINA....

Bob

Yeah The castings are all made in China and they are assembled in the USA from what I have been told.

I assure you all that the packaging very clearly stated "Manufactured in China". I switched back to pea coal after blocking some of secondary air - I actually got some heat out of it - I'm only trying to take 500 square feet from 55 degrees to a comfortable 70 degress - it was working last night, I went to bed at 11 and got up at 6 and it was cold again - after a shakedown - there were some coals up in the hopper that were still light - 40 minutes later after a shakedown - the coals are burning again. I've never burned such a tempermental stove -it either burns very quickly with a moderate amount of heat - or goes out. I suspect there's TONS of heat going up the chimney so since it still gives very little heat (it puts out no heat at all if on anything buy high) and I still have the barometric damper attached - I guess at this point I should try a new barometric damper and get a manometer to set it - I'm hoping this is not a waste of money and time. I still don't think I should pay the money I did for this stove and then have to modify it to keep it burning - and by the way - between noon on Saturday and 6am on Sunday - it burned about 75 pounds of pea coal - which is more than I burned with my last stove on the coldest of days. Does anyone know what Reading will cover under their warranty? Is this considered defective? I just feel like if the draft is set correctly - as advertised in the owners manual - the stove will NOT stay lit. If I reduce the bypass air - it does stay lit but burns a ton of coal with minimal heat. And I've sent 2 e-mails to Reading and left 2 voicemails (they're not answering their phone) and no reply. Is there anyone out there - that can help me modify this stove more if necessary since I really couldn't even afford buying this stove - but the other one is warn out and needs too many replacement parts - some of which are no longer available.

Mike

Guys - take a look at this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/COAL-STOVE-BRAND-NE ... 1|294%3A50
It looks like the EXACT stove under and different manufactures name - everything looks exactly the same except this one is enameled in blue, and mine is flat black - and this one is substantially less expensive. Never heard of the Amity CS-45 but I'd say it must be the same stove manufactured in China and sold under a different name. I guess if you buy crap - you get crap. Looks like I'm probably stuck with a stove that will never burn correctly. I guess I'll ask more questions next time I have enough money to buy a new stove. I'm still open to any feedback anyone may have to get this stove working.

Mike

Sorry to say you may never get that stove to operate well on coal. Live and learn. My suggestion would be to sell it ASAP and get a different one, maybe a Harman or the like. You can probably find a good used unit, there is nothing wrong with buying used, it's hard to kill a Harman stove unless they have been seriously overfired for a long time. We never found out if the other guy ever got his stove to work properly. I spoke to him on the phone and was going to go to his place to look at it but it never happened.