Converting Tri-Burner

So I know that the conversion has been talked about a few times on here. I can't seem to find much about it now after searching for it so I have a few questions. I have an older Reading tri-burner. Last year was my first year running it and it was great, I went through about 3 tons and kept the house around 65 which is pretty good for an old house like mine. So this summer I decided I would go ahead and get a coal-trol and convert the stove over to have a separate combustion blower and put a larger convection blower in. I bought this http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1TDN4 to do my combustion air but after getting the blower I read the instructions that said not to be used with a speed control device. I would assume that would include the coal trol which would vary the speed. Do you guys think I need to get a different one? As far was the convection fan goes I bought this http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1TDR3 because my current fan only does 135 cfm, while the newer reading stoves have a fan rated at 265 like the fan that I bought but this one as well has a note that says not to be used with speed controllers. Do I need to take them back and get something else? If so what is everyone's opinion on what I should get. Thanks.

Hi, you are on the right track. Using the 1TDN3 for your heated air distribution should be fine. As for the fan for the coal combustion I would use the 1TDN7. That way you can vary the air speed to the coal by the side flap on the motor. I use this motor with the coal-trol system and it works great. The combustion fan is always on. It's not like the reading control and shuts off when there isn't any call for heat, in the non tri-burner mode. When changing over to the coal-trol, I would not use it in the Tri-burner mode. I tried it that way and found that the non tri-burner mode with the always on combustion fan is much more efficient. The coal-trol doesn't vary the speed of the combustion fan, just the times that the stoker feed motor and circulation blower operates. CLAYTON FURNACE WITH DUAL READING STOKERS DOUG

Just some clarification... In non-triburner mode, the Coal-trol motor outputs are:

Stoker motor: on-off, time proportioned
Combustion motor: always on, except during certain testing and ignition/burnout operations when it is off, no speed control
Convection motor: speed controlled

If you call our shop tomorrow (315-299-3589) I believe the guys there have some suggested motors for triburner conversions and may be able to recommend a convection blower too. Unfortunately I do not have the information handy here at home.

Thank you guys for the quick responses. I looked up the 1TDN7 http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/pr ... submit.y=0 It says under the restrictions 'Not to be used with speed controller' The same as the 1TDn4 that I bought. Really the only difference is 1 cfm, and the fact that with the 1tdn7 you can move the flapper more open and more shut. Since you said that the coal-trol does not change the speed of the combustion blower I guess it comes down to weather or not I would need to meter the cfm being moved by the fan. Do you think that this is a reason to return mine and get the other. The other blower I saw that is on closeout is this http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/4C440 It is 60 cfm max and has the flapper on it. Now Doug you said that the 1tdr3 should work for my convection fan even though it says that it should not be used with a speed control device and pvolcko said that the convection fan is speed controlled by the coal trol. Do you think it would be alright to use even though it says not to? Alright thank you everyone for your help.

The 4C440 motor is actually the motor I believe that USSC sold me. I like being able to control the cfm air speed for the combustion. It gives me more control for the needed demand for heat and the size of coal, such as either rice or buckwheat. That is a good price also. The 4C440 motor was not available at the time I was needing one. They told me it wasn't available. Get one if you can. You'll be happy with it.

As for the circulation blower, feel free to look around. I use one similar with the coal-trol, but I have it wired to the AUX fan output. That output allowed me to set the time for the fan to come on with a specific stoker feed rate.

There is also another way to wire the circulation blower to the coal-trol when you want to use a larger blower fan, such as your conventional gas, oil, or electric furnace. You can get the coal-trol option where you can use the 24 volt thermostat switch.

or

You can use some 110 coil relays to activate the circulation blowers. But these options will not control the speed of the circulation fan using the coal-trol. The speed will be set to whatever tap you use that is available for the single or multi-speeds fan motor. DOUG

Thanks Doug, Ill take the combustion fan back and get the 4c440 if they are still available, looks like a great deal. As far as the Convection fan I have been looking around on grainger and some other sites that sell dayton and fasco blowers and I can't seem to find a blower in the 265 range that is 115 volts. I'm hoping someone else will chime in about what they have upgraded to. I will also see if I can give Reading a call tomorrow and ask about maybe buying a fan straight from them. Thanks again everyone.

Let us know what you find. I'm sure there is a fan motor available. I think that coal-trol will give you great direction. They are really first class in customer service! DOUG

There is so many choices for you and wiring options for you. You may even want to look into a multi-speed fan too. You'll probably find cfm rating above and below the 265 cfm you are looking for. USSC sells a three speed fan switch http://www.usstove.com/proddetail.php?prod=80361. I use one of these with my coal-trol and a larger cfm blower fan. It is a nice option to consider also. DOUG

Coal trol is on my list of people to call tomorrow. I just also noticed that Reading offers a 455cfm blower as an option over the 265cfm when you buy a stove new from them. This would have to be an absolutely huge blower to have on the back of a stove. Any thoughts on just going straight to the 455 blower? I would think that a blower of that size would hurt the stove in terms of getting to and maintaining a temperature because of how much heat it would be moving away from the stove. Like I said before though I have an old house and it leaks heat like a sieve. I had a hard time last year getting the air to move through out the house. If I had a blower moving 455cfm through the stove and taking up that much from the cool air at the floor I think it would help a lot if air movement.

I think when you are firing hot, the extra cfm blower fan will be nice. Which model do you have? I don't know how your stove is situated, but you may also want to consider running some possible duct work too. If it is feasible to run duct work, you could quiet down the fan noise to the stove also and maybe even install a filter.

I have what is the current model Reading Allegheny but my stove was built by Tri burner I believe before they were bought by Reading. Well since it is an old house you can imagine the width of the stair well. I can hardly squeeze down them let alone a stove and some genius decided to get rid of the bulkhead years ago so I don't have any real good access to the basement. That being said the only place to put the stove was in my living room in the corner. The house has an oil boiler with forced hot air so all of the duct work is in place but I can't really utilize it without getting real ugly in the living room. The duct work is not insulated either which I would have to do to utilize it anyway I think. I did think about using an existing register in the kitchen which is the furthest from the stove and running an insulated duct pipe back to the register next to the stove with an inline duct fan to pull/ push the air back into the living room next to the stove. I think this would help with air movement a lot. Right now I just have a ceiling fan in the living room and 2 doorway corner fans that push the air towards the kitchen. You can feel the cold air at floor level moving back from the kitchen towards the living room. Lots to do in the off season!

Another question I had was about which coal trol to get? What are the advantages of the 'Advanced' over the 'Standard'. I can't seem to figure it out by the descriptions on the website. I can understand that the Estar ones have a couple more options in the thermostat for more set points. I don't feel like I will need them just a day and night set point. Thanks.

Okay, I now see what you have. Did you try changing the direction of the ceiling fan airflow? Most ceiling fans will allow you to direct the air to be either pushed down or pulled up. If you reverse the fan where the air pulls up to the ceiling, it may move the heat better by pushing the hot air off the ceiling to the walls and then down to the walls.

As for the choice of coal-trol, you only need the standard model. You will not be using any of the other options available with the other models. I use the TS2ES Thermostat and the CM2-4 control module and there are some options I don't even use on it. Coal-trol will direct you with the correct one for your application. It maybe time consuming and frustrating to dial in at first, but once you understand what it is designed to do and how to operate it, you will be very happy with it. Just set it and the coal-trol does the rest. In a way, it took all the fun out of trying to get your stove to perform. I compare it to the difference between having a hand fired stove and one on auto pilot. All you need to doe then is add coal and empty the ashes. The room temperature is always where I set it.

But due to your set up, you may have to play with it more to get your temperatures to overcome the heat loss from what you described. Be patient and you'll be glad you bought it. It sound like your biggest problem won't be getting your stove to work well with the coal-trol, but the ability to circulate the air throughout your home.

Keep us posted, thanks. DOUG

Thank you Doug for all of your help, you have been very helpful and friendly. I did try playing around with which direction the ceiling fan went either pushing the hot air down or pulling it up. I can't exactly remember the results of each initial trial but I did come to the conclusion that it seemed like after running for an amount of time(can't remember how long probably 30 mins) the air flow was working just as well as if the fan was spinning the other way. I think you are right that getting the air to move will be my biggest challenge once again but I have much more experience going into this year then I did last year. My house isn't huge, about 1600 sq feet total and I don't heat the upstairs which means I only have about 1000 square feet to heat. I think if I install some ducts with duct fans in the furthest rooms from the stove(bedroom and kitchen) and send the air back to the stove it will help. Maybe even put a duct from the floor register back to the intake on the convection fan. Anyways heating season seems like a long time off but I know it will be here before I know it. Thanks again for your help Doug, I'll keep you posted.

I called Reading today. The guy I talked to was very nice and told me that I could order the blowers from an online distributor like grainger. He told me that the convection fan that is 265 cfm is a Fasco b45227. After looking that fan up it appears that it is the equivelant to the dayton 1tdn3 that I bought. The fasco site says that it is a 1 speed which I assume means that it is not meant to work with a rheostat or speed controller. So since others are using this fasco on the Reading stove with a coal trol varying the speed I guess the dayton would work as well? Any thoughts on this? He told me as far as the 455 blower goes that I would only need it if I was hooking the stove up to an air jacket and hooking it up to ducts. I suppose he is right that it would be a little overkill and he said that I would have to do alot of modifications because of the size of the 455 blower outlet compared to the size of the current hole in the back.