Mag Stoker Feed Questions

First, I would like to say thanks for all the help. Second, I am just setting up my (new to me) used 01 Harman Magnum Stoker and I have a few questions from some "coal timers" (as I read her somewhere). I am just eating this stuff up. Reading some posts then, down to my stove to investigate.

When "pushing dots" does 3 dots (about my max setting with the lobe tightened down on the spacer sleeve that is on on the threaded rod) mean starting at one dot, moving past a second then stopping on the "third" dot?

When looking down in the hopper( with it empty) at the pusher block, the block is taking up almost 1/2 of the opening and it has maybe 7/16" stroke on max setting. Does this sound correct?

It appears that the pointer was running at the first three dots(closest to the firebox) by the previous owner. I can tell this because the paint is worn out just below the dots where the pointer rubbed. Now the pointer is running from the 3rd to 5th dot. This would lead me to believe that the pusher block is now out of adjustment.Which dots are everyone elses running on?
It is possible that I am being a little anal about all this(I've already heard this from my wife once today )

I am running a Big E pellet stove upstairs heating my 1300sqft raised ranch to about 73-78 deg throughout the winter. My downstairs is also 1300sqft, but unisulated and I like to have heat down there. This is where the Magnum will go and after reading the series of posts on the heat these pour out , I am wondering if I should have bought 1 ton less pellets and 1 ton more of coal

Any advise would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

Not sure about the Magnum, but I burned pellets year before last and can tell you that after putting in my Alaska Stoker, 2 tons of coal did better than 3 tons of pellets with 2 tons of corn mixed in.

Also tell your Wife that your Girlfriend would not say such an ugly thing like that!!!

BK

hi mark,

yes, pushing 3 dots is starting at the 1st & moving on to the 3rd. the pointer on the magnum may not 'exactly' start on the first dot due to machining, but you know what i mean.

i just took apart my magnum this summer & had considerable surface rust on the inside parts due to using wet (damp) coal. lots of wire brushing & brushing (not spraying) on high heat paint to the inside. how to heat without damp coal, since they deliver it wet & bagged coal is wet is a challenge. my coal bin leaked black soup for a week after a delivery last year & bagged coal is just as wet. i'm having it dumped into 55 gal. plastic drums this year with drain holes to help alleviate last year's problems...we'll see?

my stove is off & at the 3rd dot right now & there's a good inch of space for the coal to fall into, but i'll run it thru a cycle this weekend to let you know the stroke push length.

i have an 1800sq.ft raised ranch & it gives me more than enough heat lower & upper levels...keep thermo at 73-75 degrees upstairs and with the variable blowers in the floor and blocking a portion of the heat blowing out of the front of the stove with bar magnets, the 2 floors stay the same temp!. the magnum is a well made machine. you might consider using the magnum's vent option & with variable blowers & 16X14 vents installed in the floor above it, retire the pellet stove for the spring or fall instead of running 2 appliances.

i've attached some pictures of the vent option providing heat to the upper level.

like my dad always said, "if you have to wear a sweater inside the house buster, then there's something wrong."

i'll get back to you,

tom

Thanks for the help. I originally was looking for a coal stoves years ago before I bought the pellet. The main reason I did not write the check for the coal stove (I had the pen in my hand) when I asked the Alaska dealer about availability of hard coal in Montana.We were livingin Mass and we still are but at the time we were planning on heading west. Hence the reason I now have pellet heat and I love it but have always like the coal heat. Great pictures Tom. Looking at the picture sparks another few questions that I forgot to ask last night.

I have my 6" baro damper sticking into the collar at the top of the stove and there is definitely some gappage( to use a techincal term). How do you have your pipe sealed to the stove at this point?
Also I see you have no insulation in the basement ceiling. My house heat is electric baseboard so my basement ceiling is completely insulated so I dont think I can get the heat upstairs as easy. My stairs are in the middle of the house and I can open up the basement door to get heat up there but then mice like to climb stairs.

I am thinking on installing a split basement door .

Thanks

Mark

Hello Mark, if you are concerned with mice, don't be, you can't confine them to one part of the house with doors or blocking apparent access. Mice can materialize through solid walls!! Actually they can squeeze through a gap you can't put a pencil through.

Mice go after food, so if there is nothing for them to stay and eat, then they leave. Only in the winter will mice stay where there is no food, and then they are staying to make a winter nest. I find mice nests in my tool box drawers amongst the steel tools and sockets. All because my shop is kept above freezing temps.

As for putting in a half door to the basement that will be almost as bad as keeping the full door closed. The heated air from the basement will rise and try to go through the open upper doorway, but the cool air on the floor of the upper floor MUST be able to go down the stairs and return to the stove, completeing a heating loop. With the lower half blocked, No loop, no circulation, no heat movement through the house, and you will be unhappy.

If your basement is fully insulated but not drywalled or finished, then install a few ducts like the above photos show, but put a return duct in the floor of the upstairs as far from the heat ducts as possible. This will create the all-important heating loop needed to move the hot air. If your basement is fully finished, you may have to use the stairway with fans to move the heat.

Hope this helps.. Greg L.

Thanks Greg. As for the mice, we have kept the basement door closed and there only seems to be mice in the basement and the attic. We must have fat mice
My wife grew up on an Indiana farmhouse where she pretty much had to co-exist with them and now has a major issue with them.

My walls in the basement are not insulated but the ceiling is. I will plan on running some ductwork similar to the image in this post.

I am going to have to work through some air-sharing issues with my stove upstairs and the one downstairs.This is an electric baseboard house that is very tight.I have not totally figured this out yet but with my last coal stove in the basement, I had it set up with a cold-air inlet to the combustion fan. Without this I had a sulfur? smell in the basement. As soon as I setup the cold-air inlet, that went away. Maybe open a window a crack?

Any advice on this?

Thanks,
Mark

Opening a window will help, but a dedicated cold air supply to the combustion fan inlet is far better. The window will cool down the whole room or basement as the cold air is pulled in by the draft going up the chimney. With a dedicated cold air supply to the combustion fan inlet, you will only have a small amount of cold air leakage into the room, most will be pulled into the fan. A clothes dryer vent and vent hose works pretty good for this. Or 3" PVC pipe. If you have the typical basement 'vent window' at the top of the foundation wall, you can romove one glass pane, replace with a galvanized steel plate with a hole for the vent pipe. This way you don't have to cut a hole in the house.

I've been in a large high ceiling'd shop with a Harman Magnum stoker supplying heat. They really kick out the BTUs. So I think you will almost have to put some ductwork in to get the heat to circulate upstairs. The most critical item is the heat loop I described. You can't just put a pressure duct of hot air into the space you want to heat. The room is like a balloon, you can only fill it so much. You must supply good cold air returns to the stove.

There was a post last season by a forum member who had put lots of hot air ductwork in, with fans forcing the heat through the ducts, he had fans in open stairways, fans in doorways, and still had problems getting the heat distributed effectively. THEN, he installed a small floor vent in a distant hallway or room, down to the basement where the stove was. And he connected this vent to the stove with a long piece of 4" dryer vent hose from the floor vent to the inlet of the distribution fan. Problem solved. With a return to the fan, the heat loop was complete, and with a positive flow the heat was well distributed.

This is how hot air furnaces work too. Hot air ductwork out to the rooms, cold air ductwork back to the distribution fan inlet. If you can approximate this loop in your tight, well insulated house, you will be shutting down the pellet stove and using just the stoker.

As for the mice, they are getting into the attic somehow, probably through the walls where pipes and vents run. You are lucky that they haven't chewed an access into the main level. I have an old drafty farmhouse, and set traps regularily. Just a fact of life in the country. If your mice are 'fat' they are eating something... do you have cats or dogs that are fed in an attached garage or in the basement?? Mice LOVE dog food!!

Take care, Greg L.

.

hi again mark,

i removed the insulation from the cellar ceiling in 1986 when i installed my first coal stove...it was working against me , preventing the coal stove from heating the second floor living area floor.

any 6" pipe you put into the magnum will not have a tight fit (they should address this issue) and you can seal it with 'rutland high temp stove cement' applying it with your finger into the void...then smoothing it off with your finger wet with water and letting it dry overnight.

greg is correct in mentioning that you need 'return air' flowing back to the magnum in the basement for optimum heat appreciation. 2 (4" X 8") floor registers will more than handle the task located on the opposite side of the 2nd floor facing the basement.

tom