Lighting a stoker

gambler · By: **gambler** On: Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:52 am

I bought some cowboy charcoal yesterday at Lowes. I was on red tag $6.00 a bag.

MM22364 · By: **MM22364** On: Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:07 pm

We just bought an Alaska Channing III and have tried every thing here to start the stove to no avail. Could something be defective? We have had friends come try to start that are experienced with burning coal but not with the automatic feed. Any suggestions or thoughts on what we are doing wrong.

ckf · By: **ckf** On: Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:19 pm

I just fired my new Channing III for the first time today. I bought some Match Lite charcoal and broke it up with a hammer(about 7 or 8 pieces). I covered the grate area (where the holes are) with the charcoal and lit it. I waited for 10 or 15 minutes until the charcoal was a bright red, added a little rice coal to the top. Waited another 5 or 1o minutes and plugged the stove in. Stove has been running ever since.

Patience is key. I tried to rush it the first time I tried and it went out :mad:

coalkirk · By: **coalkirk** On: Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:20 am

Patience, coal is not wood.

ckf · By: **ckf** On: Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:40 am

I have been burning a hand fired stove for the past twenty years and never had a problem getting it going. It's a whole new learning curve with the stoker

Rick 386 · By: **Rick 386** On: Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:47 am

ckf,

Sent you a PM.

---------------------------------------------

Rick

gorpot · By: **gorpot** On: Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:02 pm

mm22364,
I also just just tried to light my channing III, which I bought tghis summer. I should say I have been trying to light it for 5 days now. I have gone through 6 mice, with no luck. tried charcoal 4 times, even soaked charcoal and a mouse in gas first. DFire would get going, but coal would not light. I am stumpped now. Never had any trouble lighting my parents hand feed coal stove 35 years ago, but can't get these modern ones going. If you get yours going, let me know what the trick is.

coalkirk · By: **coalkirk** On: Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:07 pm

It requires air, fuel and heat. Get a small fire going first with your material of preference. I still say lump charcoal is best. NO GAS please! Turn on your combustion air blower and let that charcoal get nice and hot. Then sprinkle alittle coal on top. Let that catch, turn on your feed motor. Relax. It's really that easy.

MoreThanMetal · By: **MoreThanMetal** On: Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:13 pm

Does anyone know of a retailer in the Lehigh Valley (or surrounding area)that carries the mice? I've recently moved to the area and don't know where to get them. Thanks!

samhill · By: **samhill** On: Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:30 am

Don`t know if I just got lucky or not but I used some wood pellets left over from that route, mixed them with a little rice a generous amount of gell lighter & got it going the first time. Was a little worried when the temp above the door shot up to 550 degrees but it settled back to just below 250 after getting the house up to temp. Next time I`ll try a lower setting on the thermostat & go up slower. First year with the koker 160 & don`t know what to expect.

Ed.A · By: **Ed.A** On: Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:32 am

gorpot wrote:mm22364,
I also just just tried to light my channing III, which I bought tghis summer. I should say I have been trying to light it for 5 days now. I have gone through 6 mice, with no luck. tried charcoal 4 times, even soaked charcoal and a mouse in gas first. DFire would get going, but coal would not light. I am stumpped now. Never had any trouble lighting my parents hand feed coal stove 35 years ago, but can't get these modern ones going. If you get yours going, let me know what the trick is.

CoalKirk has the answer,
It takes a bit of time but relax. I clean off the shute, pile about 4 pieces of charcoal ( I have in the past soaked them in Diesel and let them set and dry, but not recently) I take a propane torch to light up the charcoal, to get them glowing around the edges.
Use a old section of stovepipe cut into a half-moon as a dam at the end of the grate, this will prevent the stove from pushing the fire off the edge before it gets going.
I then plug in the stove and set it to #1. Air blowing up through the grate should fire off the charcoal pretty good in few minutes. Now, take a small handful of RICE and put it on top of the charcoal.....walk away for 5-10 mins. Add a bit more....walk away....pretty soon you'll see a glowing little coal fire. turn the feed to #2 and pull the dam out of the way and increase your heat as desired. Approx 15-20 mins from start to finish.

TRUST US, it'll come and next year it'll be YOU giving advice a to a Coal Stoker NEWBIE. Now go start that Stove.

morrisfamily3098 · By: **morrisfamily3098** On: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:20 pm

Follow that and you will have an easy time lighting that sucker up

MM22364 · By: **MM22364** On: Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:15 am

We think we figured the problem out. The safety is activating when we plug the stove in – even after resetting. The retailer is supposed to be coming out today. Thanks for all the replies – we've tried them all.

ken kubu · By: **ken kubu** On: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:11 am

MoreThanMetal wrote:Does anyone know of a retailer in the Lehigh Valley (or surrounding area)that carries the mice? I've recently moved to the area and don't know where to get them. Thanks!

You can try KC coal Alburtis or Kellers in Northampton / good luck

gambler · By: **gambler** On: Fri Oct 24, 2008 7:50 pm

Well, I lit my stove tonight using cowboy charcoal and it worked very well. It works better than the matchlight charcoal briquettes. The only problem with the cowboy charcoal is there are many huge pieces in the bag (and I am talking 3/4"thick x 7"long x 3"wide) and you have to break them up. So far I have used road flares,matchlight briquettes,wood pellets and cowboy charcoal to light my stove and I think the cowboy coal works the fastest and easiest.

thats my story and I'm stickin to it.

Edit: If you use the coal mice (or anything else for that matter) you must use a block to keep the coal and the mouse (or what ever) on the grate and you must place the mouse (or what ever) on a bare grate and suround it with coal and cover it lightly with coal.

Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:09 pm

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