magnum stoker

good evening everyone,

my stove (a mag stoker) was delivered last year on 9/8 and heated my house exceptionally well thru last winter and spring. But after taking it apart this summer for maintenance, i noticed significant rust on the body of the pusher assembly & also inside. i removed the rust and painted all the parts with high temp brush on paint. the manual says "do not use wet coal", but the coal company delivers it wet in bulk, and the 40 pound bags i bought last spring are also wet, and require quite some time to dry out in 55 gal. plastic containers.

i'd like to buy my coal now in september to let it dry out for the heating season, and my question is "how many 55 gal. drums does it take to hold 1 ton of coal, and what can i do when i turn it off next spring to stop all the rust from occuring during the off season next summer and fall.

thanks!
tom

I believe a 55 gallon drum holds around 300-350# of coal. Drill a hole in the bottom of the drum to let the water out. With bagged coal, cut a slit in the bag to let it breath.

There is a spray-on product called LPS-3 that leaves behind a waxy film that does a good job at preventing rust. You should wash down the hopper, pusher or stoker mechanism and interior of the stove with a solution of baking soda and water to neutralize the acids from the coal, then spray with a rust preventative product. BTW: WD40 is NOT a rust preventative product, it leaves behind only a very small amount of silicone and this won't do the job.

Hope this helps, Greg L

ginski-
300# or a bit more is about right for a drum, and a few small holes at or very near the bottom works good, just be ready that the drainage leaves a black stain on concrete garage floors , but it washes away.

To summerize my Mag stoker, I took the pusher assembly all the way out, wiped oil over all the parts and the inside of the hopper, and sealed the small stuff (with the oily rag) in a giant ziploc on the basemet shelf. The stove gets a light scraping/sweeping all around the inside, then gets "painted" down with a syrup-thick paste I made out of flour and water, which just dries and sticks.

The thing I try to remember is 1- get as much ash out as possible, and 2- seal the metal. I've also heard of oiling the stove, and I read here that some guys use a small light bulb to keep the inside warm and dry. I just like the flour paste because it's what the first owner used (he gave me the idea) and it works for me.

Hope this helps, good luck!

greg & dutchman, much thanks to you both for your response.

i never had this problem with rust with my old hand feeder for obvious reasons that water from the coal was not sitting or dripping anywhere but in the flames.

the lps-3 i could not find in any hardware store greg, so i'll look on grainger or mcmaster-carr for that product to spray it on before next off season when it's off for good, once i clean it out and wire brush it. the wet coal really rusted the feeder assembly where it meets the stove in the back where not much heat is present, and moisture has a tendancy to lay. i have to buy a new gasket to put the feeder (stoker) assembly back in, since it's all clean & painted now.

the light bulb dutchman is a great idea for afterwards during the summer, but i suspect my problem arrived much sooner by using wet coal. i could see dripping on the floor below my lower distribution blower a couple of weeks after using it last year.

thank you both for taking the time to reply with your insights & experience!

here we go again for a warm winter, but i still enjoy it 'cheating the grid' just a bit.

tom