How much ya burnin?

I have combustion fan running 24\7 and the distribution 24\7 when my feed rate is at 4 dots. the 10r 2 min on cycle 15 off seems to be working the best for now.

BTW -- I used the galvanized duct pipe purchased at Lowes. When the stove is at 300 degrees and duct pipe reached 150 - there seems to be a foul odor coming from the duct pipe. anyone experience this?

at 150º F it shouldn't be a problem, but at much higher temps, the zinc will burn off and have a certain smell to it; but nowhere near 150º does this happen. are you sure that you have fully cured the paint on your stove? often times when you began firing your stove higher for the colder parts of the season, parts of the stove where the paint never got hot enough to cure initially will do so now, and this releases (IMHO) a horrible oder, i personally can't stand the smell of high temp paint curing which is why i usually make sure the stove is fired to a good 800º the first time with the windows and doors in my house open.

4 min on
12 min off
extended timer on 10, have the distrubtion fan and combustion fan plugged in here together. Pushing 2 dots.
Burning a little under a 5 gal bucket a day. House is 72-73 deg. Setback thermostat kicks it back at night to 66 deg. Been mild around here, tonight it's gonna get in the low 20's. Should have set it up like this last year, felt I was getting too much unburnt, seems much better set up like this. Feed motor is much cooler this way also. Had it running 24/7 pushing 3/4 dot. Kept the house nice and toasty. This way seem's better thou.
Stay warm, Jimmy

chris, which plug are your distribution and combustion fans plugged into?

i would guess they both in the distribution blower outlet and that way the coal bed gets combustion air after the feeder stops, more fully burning the coal. i would worry, though, about using up the coal with no more feed coming and therefore the stove might go out?

the top holes are for the feeder

the middle holes are for the combustion fan

the bottom holes are for the blower

the combustion blower only runs when the feeder is running, that is unless you stop the feeder by throwing the rocker switch to the off position which then both fans will continue to run.

the reason the blower stays on is to remove any excess heat.

Harman Magnum stoker

2.5 dots
2 minutes on
14 minutes off
1 minute extended blower

800 square foot area taking the heat, plus basement where the stove is

50 day/30 night

in exactly 48 hours the hopper went down to about 1/3 left, so figure about 35lb day. if we get back to the real cold weather, i would expect about 1500lbs/mo