ontheroad wrote:yes do and I did the same with loading my stove last summer other wise got the same thing about 3 am house felt like sona seamed kinda funny if I threw in a hand full every so often worked great fire would burn from one side to the other and back with the way our coal burns it lights so easy one time started fire with just paper
Ontheroad,
I installed the Magic Heat unit yesterday. I have a few observations.
One, while the factory rep said that based on the characteristics of our sub-bit coal, we could install it right on the stove collar and probably not have to worry about over cycling the unit. However, I installed the unit about 10" above the stove collar, as this allows the top load door to fully open. Additionally, I think the unit looks better that close to the stove, and makes them appear as a single unit. As the Magic Heat is large, I was worried that it would look odd any distance up the chimney pipe, and be an unattractive visual distraction to the install.
Two, the unit is designed to be installed with it's pipe crimped-end toward the stove. I have read where some burning coal install pipe crimped-end toward the chimney cap as there is no creosote issue with coal. I'm not sure about your pipe install, so I just thought I'd mention it.
Three, the instruction manual says to leave the creosote scraper knob pulled about 4 inches out from the Magic Heat. This is to prevent overheating of the knob. Whether it is heat coming from being close to the stove, or heat coming off the unit, we found it better to have the knob pulled-out from the unit about 6", as the knob was slightly uncomfortable to the touch at 4" out.
Four, we have found that the unit is cycling at about 5 minutes on, 10 minutes off. That is fine for us, and though the blower is stronger than the blower on the TLC, it is actually quieter and 'humming' at a lower frequency that is not irritating, not that the TLC blower aggravates us either.
Five, while I haven't noticed radically lower pipe temperatures, the unit is obviously circulating more heat. Additionally, from the mounting of the unit and it's configuration, it obviously isn't pulling the heat from the stove and must be pulling it from the pipe. I attribute this to thermometer quality and placement possibly.
Six, we did notice a change in how the coal is burning, so we've needed to change our technique of tuning the primary damper, secondary dampers, and the MPD. We're still playing with combinations for what works best.
Finally, since this has only been our first full day using the unit, more experimentation and observation is needed; but overall, we feel like the unit has been a definite positive addition to our install as we are noticing formerly colder backrooms with a significantly higher temperatures while burning the same quantity of fuel.
...we'll keep you posted