My Econo is up and running!!

Why does the website state econo1 has 70,000 btu output but Jerry says 55,000? I have one and I do not know if 55000 is enough.

http://www.valleystoveandfireplace.com/Products.html

Thanks, Stan

Why does the website state econo1 has 70,000 btu output but Jerry says 55,000? I have one and I do not know if 55000 is enough.

http://www.valleystoveandfireplace.com/Products.html

Thanks, Stan

Stan Jerry's post is from 2006 and your reading about his 2008 models from his web site. I'm sure they have updated their stoves since then.

The 70,000 btu is input (the amount of coal being put into the stove) and with around an 80% efficiency rating you will get 56,000 btu's of heat out of the stove and into the house.

Rick,
Thanks for the back up, your right.The Econo is about 78% at high burn. The fan (blower) system on the Econo is the weak point, only 110cfm. You can get more heat from the stove by adding a floor fan behind the unit.
Jer

Could you also replace the fan with a higher CFM fan?

I purchased a Econo sidewinder, that was a mistake. I had the installers back here three times, before we finally decided to trade for the Econo model. Of which I think was also mistake, when I raise the thermostat a couple of degrees, and when the fire actually gets going(aprox. 1/2 to 1 hour) my fan and inside the hopper gets so hot you can not hold your hand to it. Also, it eats coal, I should be able to burn 1 bag of coal every two and a half to three days on a low setting. Instead I go thru 1 bag every 1 and half to 2 days.I get unburned coal in my ash pan. The dealer tells me that can be expected because there is aprox. 18percent shale in coal. Why have I never found any of this in ranch style stove with nut coal? My sidewinder would get the wall(tongue and groove) so hot the polyurethane would get sticky to the touch. Personally I think these stoves a poor excuse of a coal stove. As stated the fan is not enough, that in itself is a joke. For the price of these things you should not have to ad another fan to circulate the air. If the fan goes you have to replace the whole hopper and fan. Because it is all sold as a one piece unit. Any one owning one of these of stoves I recommend you check your fan from time to time because they do get extremely hot.

Whoa there cowboy !!!!!

First off we need some more info from you. We need to know the style of your house, the S.F., where is the stove located, what brand of coal are you burning, how large are the bags of coal you have, etc.

You stated that your previous stove, a hand fired I assume, would get so hot that it would soften the polyurethane on the walls, tells me that you were not getting the heat off the stove and into the room. Rather the heat was staying real close to the stove.

I also assume that you are using a coal trol. You can adjust them.

If you can provide some answers to the above questions, we can offer some suggestions.



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Rick

Cowboy, I'm not sure where you got your expectations.. but the number of days you can get at idle per bag of coal depends on the coal quality. If you have poor quality coal, you won't get as many days per 40# bag as with good quality coal..The very fact that you have lots of unburnt coal in your ashpan points the blame at the coal quality, flat bed stoker stoves burn coal completely, if it is coal and it will burn.

Every home and instalation is different.. it sounds like you have or had your stove too close to combustibles.. Every chimney is different too, this has a big affect on the heat output from any stove..

Coal stoves, even very good ones with electronic controls are not 'instant heat' appliances.. it takes time to feed coal onto the grate, and time for it to ignite and create heat..

I recommend reading some of the forum, expecially about the LL products, you will find that there is a bit of learning needed by the operator, but once learned, the LL stoves are universally very well liked and recommended.

Greg L

The very fact that you have lots of unburnt coal in your ashpan points the blame at the coal quality, flat bed stoker stoves burn coal completely, if it is coal and it will burn.

Exactly. Anything that makes it's way down that grate and doesn't burn is not coal. Run some good deep-mined coal that's been properly processed and you'll see the difference.

I also have found that different brands of coal burn at different rates and produce different amounts of heat. I have even had this happen with the same load of loose coal.

The number one factor in the appliance's performance is the quality of the coal, number two is the quality of the chimney and if the unit is drafting at the proper rate.

You can buy the best stove in the world (like a LL) and it will burn terribly with bad coal and an improper chimney.

The dealer tells me that can be expected because there is aprox. 18percent shale in coal.

Not always.

Sorry about going off, but with the problems I have had with two liesure line stoves and getting no answers the forum became my vent of frustrations. I have burned nut coal for a few years now. I have a old ranch style coal stove. With that I am familiar, and it's awesome. With these rice burners I am a total noob, but I am learning fast. Let me start over here, and hopefully someone can help set me straight.
I first purchased a econo sidewinder. The very first day it was installed(by a installer from the store) I had problems with it. I had to call them and have the tech come back. He had to replace the whole hopper and fan assembly, because the fan was bad. I chalked that one up to a manufacture defect(it happens). But next thing to happen was my wall, and the fan cover would get so hot you could not hold your hand on either for more than a second. The tech guy returned again trying to rectify the problem. I'll give him credit, he spent hours trying to resolve the problem. Finally it was decided to replace the whole unit, the thermostat, and thermostat wire were also replaced.
The stove was replaced with the econo 1. I am still having problems with this stove, or what I feel is not right. I realize it takes time for the stove to build up a fire. The problem I am having is that the fan cover gets extremely hot. Let me explain this one. When I raise the thermostat a couple of degrees on a cold day the fire builds up, it is at this time when I have a good fire in the stove that the fan cover gets extremely hot and sometimes the inside of the hopper box(side facing the stove) gets just as hot. I have been on the phone with the owner of LL as well as the company of the thermostat. As I said I am used to burning the nut coal but I am virgin with a rice coal stove.
By the way the coal I am using is from Kimmel and they are 50# bags. When i was at the store looking at the stoves, they told me I could get three days out of a bag of coal on low. The stove is on my main floor, of which is 725 sf, the upstairs is aprox. 500 sf.
Once again I appologize for going off, but after talking to everyone I thought could do anything I was left holding the bag.

I forgot to ad that I has direct vent.

My Hearth LL, at idle, would go at least 2 weeks on 40 pounds of Blaschak. My buddy went away last year and set his Channing II to 50 degrees and filled the hopper. 2 weeks later he returned to a hopper that was 25% full and a warm stove,

First,, LeisureLine and their dealers are world class at customer service.. so if it is a stove problem it will get sorted out..

You said it is a direct vent,, I assume you mean a Power Vent,, the motor is mounted in the wall and pulls air from the stove.. A direct vent is not available on a LL stove, as far as I know. A DV has the motor mounted right on the stove and it Pushes air out of the house..

OK, with a Powervent, there is a barometric damper between the stove and the wall mounted exhaust fan. This barometric damper and the PV are set up when the installation is done.. so the flapper on the damper should be open a little bit, maybe 1/2" to 1" open.

The heat in the hopper is not a problem,, it can get quite hot without causing any problems.. however I don't understand why the stove body is so hot.. usually the stove bodies on LL stoves are fairly cool,, the coal trol runs the distribution fan full time usually.. Is the fan inlet restricted in any way?

How hard is the fan running?? is it blowing a fair amount of air out the front of the stove? How large a house are you heating with this stove?? Are you running the stove at full fire all the time??


Greg L.

Is the baro damper on the power vent set to maintain the proper draft? Was it checked with a manometer?

On my Alaska the inside of the hopper facing the back of the stove gets too hot to hold your hand on even when the stove is running at about 1/2 burn. I don't think that is unusual.

LsFarm wrote: I don't understand why the stove body is so hot.. usually the stove bodies on LL stoves are fairly cool,, the coal trol runs the distribution fan full time usually

The econo only has a 110cfm convection fan.