Was Ready to Buy a Stoker Stove

chet · Post by **chet** » Thu. Nov. 23, 2006 9:54 am

I was looking at stoker stoves for a few weeks, I looked at 5 brands here in the Wilkes Barre area of PA, I was down to a Keystoker, Reading Alleghenny or a Leisure Line Pioneer. so I take my wife to a local dealer to see them in operation. as soon as she was standing next to them, she brought it to my attention was the noise, the stove will be located in the same room as we watch TV, ( I wear a hearing aid) I had my mind set on the Leisure Line Pioneer, well I am sitting here typing this and thinking of any simple options I have overlooked to change my wife's mind, even thought of mounting the blowers in the basement but I have a masonary hearth and don't feel like busting it up.

Happy ThanksGiving

Chet

PS and I want to thanks Jerry from Leisure Line stoves to give me some of his time on the phone yesterday, I live near the Country Fireplace in Dupont

Jerry & Karen · Post by **Jerry & Karen** » Thu. Nov. 23, 2006 12:22 pm

Hi Chet,
Thanks for considering our stove. With any stoker stoves you have motors. Motors make noise. With our stove the convection fan will only run when it is needed and then low, medium, or high rate. Other brands on fan limit switchs will run full blast or not at all, much noisier. Our feed motor will run as much as 40 seconds out of 2 min., or as little as 6 seconds out of 1 1/2 min. Combustion fan, 24-7.
Thanks again,
Jerry LLS

short · Post by **short** » Thu. Nov. 23, 2006 3:20 pm

Chet,Part of the reason I chose a hand fired stove was because of the noise.

ericcjack · Post by **ericcjack** » Thu. Nov. 23, 2006 11:23 pm

harman mag distribution blower....yes...VERY loud.

reading the previous notes made me wonder if it is possible to put some kind of rheostat on the distribution blower to slow 'er down on days you don't really need 'er BLASTING!

anybody done this?

Post by **pvolcko** » Fri. Nov. 24, 2006 4:53 pm

Hi Chet, I just wanted to chime in with a feature available on our Coal-Trol Digital. Our TS2 thermostat, in addition to having energy star features such as 4 weekday and 4 weekend setpoints, has a manual fan control feature which we added for this year with your situation in mind. Manual fan control allows you to override our normal automatic control of the speed of the convection fan. If, for instance, the fan is too noisy while you're watching TV or are playing a family game you can set it to whatever speed you like.

As I said, this is a feature of the TS2 thermostat. The TS2 is a factory option available with all new Leisure Line stoves and is also available for retail through many stove dealers and directly from us at http://www.coaltroldigital.com on our Coal-Trol Digital Basic+ and Standard+ stove control systems.

P.S. Eric, yes, you can put a rheostat on most stove's convection fans. Biggest things to watch for is that the device you use is rated for control of motors/fans (some are only meant for lights, for instance) and that it is rated for (or above) the current the motor draws.

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Mon. Nov. 27, 2006 3:26 pm

Bought a Harman mag stoker in the winter of 05 after burning with hand fired stoves for 20 + years. Should have done it sooner. The fan noise drove my wife nuts. Complained all the time. This year I used a HIlti 3" dry cruciform bit with an elelctric hammer drill and put 2 holes side by side thru the slate and concrete hearth then drilled thru the wood flooring with a hole saw and mounted the fans in the cellar below. Made all the difference in the world. The wife is very happy. Used three 3" elbows and two 18" straight pieces to duct up to the stove and then ran the cords between them and sealed with a putty like duct seal. The hardest part was getting a sheet metal guy to fabricate the 4 flanges to mimmic the Fasco fan flanges to mate the stove pipe to the stove and the fans. If any one wants I'll take some pics and post them.

endinmaine · Post by **endinmaine** » Mon. Nov. 27, 2006 4:09 pm

Chet, EricJack,

I have the Mark III and I also found the blower noise to be way too much. Went to Home Depot and Lowes and found a 5 amp dimmer switch for ceiling fans and installed it in an box behind the stove and wired to an electrical cable. It quiets down the blower noise and output considerably and works great. During the times when we are watching a movie I just turn it off.

Eric

Cap · Post by **Cap** » Mon. Nov. 27, 2006 7:14 pm

Eric--

I think you might burn out your motor using a resistor to lower the voltage. The motor is designed to operate on 120 vac, not 50 or 60 vac. I could be wrong but with the price of a replacment through Harman, you may be better off with an on/off switch. When you drop voltage to a motor, amps will increase to compensate. Higher the voltage within it's range, lower the amps, cooler the motor operates. Lower voltage, higher amps, motors overheat & burnout. This is especially true with 3phase motors. Rheostats are okay for electric elements & light bulbs but electric motors use additional circuits to control speed. Good Luck

coalwarmth · Post by **coalwarmth** » Mon. Nov. 27, 2006 8:56 pm

You can get a speed varying switch for motors like that. Go to Graingers, All Phase or another electrical supply house and ask them. They will have it. It is not cheap but will save you the price of a new motor as yours will get burned out using a dimmer switch.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Tue. Nov. 28, 2006 3:28 pm

Been running both my power venter and circ. blower on rheostat control for over 7 years. No problems. My pwr. vent control finnanly died, went to Home Depot and bought a cheap {4$} light dimmer switch, works fine. The power venter only draws 136 watrts and 1.77 amps. I run it as slow as pratical and still keep draft. As for the the circlating air blower, it came installed with a rheostat. Check the post with the 18$ controller, if I had seen that before I saw the thermostate controller device {275$}, I would have bought it as thats all I really needed. I run an Alaskan stove. Although I think I will be happy with the thermo. controler!!

eelhc · Post by **eelhc** » Thu. Aug. 06, 2009 9:38 pm

mjb wrote:Bought a Harman mag stoker in the winter of 05 after burning with hand fired stoves for 20 + years. Should have done it sooner. The fan noise drove my wife nuts. Complained all the time. This year I used a HIlti 3" dry cruciform bit with an elelctric hammer drill and put 2 holes side by side thru the slate and concrete hearth then drilled thru the wood flooring with a hole saw and mounted the fans in the cellar below. Made all the difference in the world. The wife is very happy. Used three 3" elbows and two 18" straight pieces to duct up to the stove and then ran the cords between them and sealed with a putty like duct seal. The hardest part was getting a sheet metal guy to fabricate the 4 flanges to mimmic the Fasco fan flanges to mate the stove pipe to the stove and the fans. If any one wants I'll take some pics and post them.

MJB...

Yes pictures would be very nice as I'm thinking about doing this. Did you mount the combustion blower in the basement as well or just the convection blower? Is the fan directly below the heart and the noise is acceptable?

I'm planning to run ductwork to the other side of the house and put in a return register for the return air so I get some circulation and temperature distribution as well.

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Fri. Aug. 07, 2009 11:07 am

I was suprised to see an email that the thread was active. Yes, both the combustion and distribution fans are mounted below in the basement. I built a plywood plenum with 3 holes in it to surround the distribution fan with 3 small 6" x 6" x 1/2" filters to clean up the air coming into the house from the cellar.
If your a proponent of installing the stove in the living area as I am, you will like the noise reduction that this set up provides. When I get a chance I'll try to take some pics and post them.

eelhc · Post by **eelhc** » Fri. Aug. 07, 2009 1:12 pm

mjb wrote:I was suprised to see an email that the thread was active. Yes, both the combustion and distribution fans are mounted below in the basement. I built a plywood plenum with 3 holes in it to surround the distribution fan with 3 small 6" x 6" x 1/2" filters to clean up the air coming into the house from the cellar.
If your a proponent of installing the stove in the living area as I am, you will like the noise reduction that this set up provides. When I get a chance I'll try to take some pics and post them.

I intend to do the same but my return will be ducted to the living room at the opposite side of the house (my stove is in the family room). So the airflow path

register (living room) -> duct (basement) -> blower (basement) -> duct (basement to stove) -> stove (family room)

Idea is to set up a convection through the house and distribute the warm air.

I'm also thinking about ducting the combustion blower to outside air. I didn't think I'd have enought head but then realized that there's a restrictor plate on my blower so it may just work.