Anyone using coal trol like a rheostat

Have a 1830's farm house, almost as much wind inside as out. Anyway just bought a used leisure line pioneer run by coal trol, when weather was a little warmer coal trol worked great set at min 6 max 40 held house at 72 very nice. When temps went to the 30 stove couldnt satisfy the thermostat started dumping hot coals of of grate. If im reading the manual right i think i can leave stat set on max and it will feed what i tell it to 20,30% etc anybody else run into this?

The CoalTrol should work automatically in all situations.

If you are dumping hot coals, then you MAX is TOO HIGH, if your FR (Feed Rate) = 99, bump it down 2 points to 38 and check it after a while, you should have about 1" of ash without dumping hot coal. Sometimes you have to DIAL IN your CoalTrol depending on your heating situation.

Also, WHERE is your thermostat in relation to the stove? It shouldn't be too far away to satisfy the heat output, turn the Temp down a couple degrees and see if it will maintain better, you just might not have enough BTU in the stove to keep a certain temp.

I run my Hyfire around 68 and it maintains pretty good with out maxing out, except if it gets below 15-20 degrees out, then it runs pretty hot.

There are some other settings, the CoalTrol Guys can probalby help you out with..

I know i dont have enough btu's, just trying to get as much heat out of the stove as possible without wasting coal. Thought i read in the manual that if the temp cant be met by the coal trol it will run at 100%. just not sure if that means 100% or 100% of the max feed i select.

I have Poconos - I am sure Hyfire, LL or AD will answer your coaltrol query, my post is about stove outputs. As far as using it like a rheostat I find it is really simple. If I am away on business I set it a factory settings and the room temp at 71F. My wife fills up the coal and empties the ashes once a day - that's it. Most NEPA boys play around a little to much (as I do) but it is not really necessary.

I have a 1890 leakbox and it needs POWER too. I am almost sure you are just running out of steam (a pun). I find these stoves and I suspect most manufacturers stoves, run more efficiently at something below rated output claims. Above MAX 30 or so I lose a little coal and the stove does not give its most efficient burn. This is not the time to run out of power as worse is in store for us. These stoves fetch good money on the second hand market and get your LL dealer (or whomever) to recommend a power increase. However, look into your coal quality and air circulation before you spend a penny. With me it came down to designing my cold air return better. Also look into your make up air. 90000BTU is a lot of punch to be losing it so soon.

Read this thread, the guys at CoalTrol explain the Min/Max and FR settings.

Coal trol FR dips below MIN setting and soars above MAX.

I guess if you want to run it at max, just bump the temp up 5-10 degree above room temp and let it rip.! If it never satisfies the temp, it will run full bore, BUT remember, COAL and the COALTROL take time to respond, if you then turn it down, it may take an hour or more to come back down to a normal burn.

The MAX setting can be different on every stove, even if the same model, due to tolerances in the mechanisms, etc....what works for one, may not for another, so you may have to increase or decrease the MAX for Optimum burning, without wasting coal. approx. 1" of ash at FR99 and running full bore, is perfect, you may be above or below the factory setting of MAX=40 to get achieve this. Mine is at 46 I think and have about 1/2"-3/4" of ash, but no hot coals normally will fall off the grate running full output.

I just leave mine at around 68-70 degrees all the time and let the coaltrol maintain the temps.