can't get any heat

Newbie here in desperate need of help.
Got an Alaskan Stoker stove and can't seem to get any heat out of the thing. Coal appears to be burning good. It's on 2.5(half way) for feeder. Power vent is on a rheostat and is half way open. Dampener is almost fully closed. Stove gets warm but does not throw any heat. Anyone have any advice?

Hi, I have an older Alaska Kast II with a power vent and it sounds like you have a few things going on.

1. How big is the fire at 2.5 (haw many inches of grate are red coals)? If you don't have at least 2 - 3 inches there won't be that much heat.
2. If by damper you mean barometric then you should at least have a half inch of opening (use the rheostat to adjust this), if you have a regular damper I would say you need to immediately shut everything down and install a barometric.

One more thing, here is an example of a 65% fire in my stove. You should have some nice blue flames and bright coals. If not then there are some things to check, let me know.

I have the barometric damper and the power vent system. I was told by the dealer to put the power vent on a rheostat to 1/2 and close the damper to about 1/2 inch open. He also told me to move some brick above the grate to close a hole that was exposed. Seemed to get hotter for a while but just gets cooler over time. I have about 2 -2.5 inches of hot coals on setting 3 on the feeder.

First let me say I am no expert, only know what has worked for me.

With two and a half inches of fire you should definately have some heat! The fire doesn't sound like it is getting hot enough which could mean not enough combustion air or wet coal. I have never heard of putting a brick over a hole in the grate so you lost me on that one. Of course there are a lot of variables. What year and model stove do you have?

Things to try:
Make sure the coal is dry
crack a window near the stove to ensure enough oxygen
crank up the power vent a little more to pull more air
Make sure the combustion blower inlet is free from obstruction

It's best to try one thing at a time and observe for any change in heat output. My stove is an older model Alaska with the Tri-burner stoker which has the same motor driving the stoker as the combustion fan. I had to make a mod to that to add more combustion air by way of an additional blower, my heat output has increased and have little or no unburned coal.

Hope this at least provides a little moral support!

ok, I called Alaska and they told me to set the damper on .03 and then bring down the power vent to close the damper to a fingers width. That seemed to do the trick. Seems like when feeder is set at 2-2.5 I only have an inch of coal burning but on setting 3 I get 2-2.5 inches of burning coal. Thanks for the tips.