Hopper Fire - Alaska Channing 3 with direct vent

Hi e.alleg, well to start, I thought I was only going to have that waste-oil burner for a month or two, the owner paid me to run it and fix it for him. It was not working correctly. [It was all clogged up from poor maintenance]

So I didn't want to cut a hole in the ceiling, and the roof and shingles, and have to buy a 8-10' long piece of insulated pipe, deal with the sealing of the shingles etc. The sides of the barn style roof are very steep, like a 12/2 pitch, the upper flatter section is about the opposite, about a 3/12 pitch. To get into the 3/12 pitch area and away from the corner or pitch break reqired the chimney to be about 3'-4' away from the inside wall and this was awkward too.

So I had the short section of insulated to go horizontally through the wall, it was free, the wall is a single thickness of plywood, the piping inside free and easy to temporarily rig up. for just a month or two. And if I needed more draft, I could add an elbow and 8' of vertical pipe in a few minutes. And once the heater was fixed, I could just cover the hole with the plywood plug I removed, and caulk it in place. I have it ready to insert in the hole, with a backer board, but...

The waste oil heater is still here, the owner doesn't seem motivated to come get it, even though he doesn't owe any more money, so I'm burning ATF from my sideline autotrans bussiness in it. The coal stoves came along, and I wanted to run them before I offered them for sale, not wanting to sell something with an issue., so I hooked up to the only available chimney flue. So the temporary waste-oil chimney became a coal stove chimney.

And so I still have the 'temporary' chimney in place, with no desire to cut holes in my insulated ceiling and shingles, or try to seal a chimney to the odd roof pitches. If I do anything I will add an elbow and some vertical to the pipe and make it look a bit more respectable.

I showed this chimney here to point out that with the worst possible chimney my LeisureLine stove would not get a hopper fire. It is embarassing to show such a hack-job chimney, but sometimes it illustrates what needs to be said. This is a shop, with lots of infiltration and not a lived-in space. I'd never burn anything attached to that chimney in a living space.

I think that explains the 'temporary' chimney. I may even buy some chimney block an put in a masonry chimney if I decide to keep the coal stove. The floor is heated to 50* from my big boiler, so I'm not in bad need of shop heat. The shop is actually pretty comfortable.

Greg L

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Hi GeorgiePorgie, welcome to the forum.. Sealing up the stoker is important,, any air leaks upstream of the holes in the grate will support combustion where you don't want it.
If your draft is too strong, it will pull air through the hopper and around the pusher. Set your barometric damper [if installed] with a manometer.. or set the over the fire [inside the firebox] draft with a manometer, using a reostat to regulate the direct vent motor speed..

On many if not most flat bed stokers there is a thin, flat gasket at the back of the carpet. This gasket has a wire reinforcement, the gasket is called a 'hardback' if I remember correctly. Often there is welding 'spatter' or flakey rust that takes up the space needed for the gasket. Using a thick application of furnace cement works well as a gasket substitute.

Greg L