Coal Hopper Size.

A month ago I bought a Leisure Line Lil' Heater. This stove is located in the basement and I'm concerned that the hopper could run out of coal if left unattended for too long.

The hopper on this stove is rated for 85lbs but it would be nice to have a larger hopper like the Pioneer or the Pocono. Since this stove is in the basement, and looks are irrelevant, it would be nice if I could mount the 110lb hopper from the Pioneer on it.

Based on my measurements, another option would be mounting a second 85lb Lil' Heater hopper on top of the existing hopper and securing it with brackets and sheet metal screws. The top hopper would gravity feed the lower hopper and would need little modification other than support brackets.

Has anyone installed a larger hopper on their stove?

Just don't forget, more size equals more weight. I spoke to Jerry (previous LL owner) with the same question. He advised that is easily possible but supporting the hopper with legs will be required. The extra weight will take the stove off balance and could tip backwards.
Goodluck on your project.

The problem I'm having is that the coal is sticking to the sides of the hopper and feeding the stoker only from the front center, directly above the stoker, creating a sort of tunnel. My concern is that during a cold day, that the stove may experience an outfire, caused by the rice coal sticking to the hopper sides.

My first thought is to spray the sides of the hopper with PAM cooking spray. Would that lessen the surface tension and allow the coal to flow more freely?

EarthWindandFire wrote:The problem I'm having is that the coal is sticking to the sides of the hopper and feeding the stoker only from the front center, directly above the stoker, creating a sort of tunnel. My concern is that during a cold day, that the stove may experience an outfire, caused by the rice coal sticking to the hopper sides.

My first thought is to spray the sides of the hopper with PAM cooking spray. Would that lessen the surface tension and allow the coal to flow more freely?

It looks like I'm going to have the same problem with a 200lb hopper (110K).

If you decide to spray the sides, let me know how it works out.

Option two would be to hook some kind of vibratory gizmo on the hopper. Have it switched to the stoker so when the stoker is on, so is the vibrator (ok, that doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean).

Is your coal damp? If so, it will not flow as easily as dry coal. I understand some dampness helps avoid dust, but there might be a happy medium.

I have Poconos and a 200 pound hopper. As the sides are vertical it's difficult to see how tunneling can occur there, however, the bottom is totally flat and it never empties out. Perhaps a better design might be to make the bottom edges at say a 30 degree angle and then it would empty out completely if your coal is dry like mine is. My Anthraking (Pocono 110K) has the same 200 pound hopper and the same problem. They offer a 320pound hopper which is probably standard on the 220K stove. I opted against it as the ash pan has the capacity to handle a 300 pound burn load but I don't want to deal with the weight and bulk. So 200 pounds is fine until I work out how to automate the ash emptying. Automation is fine but I feel better about inspecting things every morning but I guess that is just me.

Hey Rob,

The coal's not damp or wet. When I stack the bags I jab the bottom corner with a screwdriver so they drain if wet.

I have a couple of idea's on how to fix this besides my previous mentioned thoughts. The simplest idea is to just paint the sides and back of the hopper with several coats of gloss black paint. If that fails to remedy this sticky situation, I work at an Industrial Park and could have the inside of the hopper Electrocoated with paint which would make the inside of the hopper as slippery as a wet p@$$y after four glasses of wine.

coalnewbie wrote:I have Poconos and a 200 pound hopper. As the sides are vertical it's difficult to see how tunneling can occur there, however, the bottom is totally flat and it never empties out. Perhaps a better design might be to make the bottom edges at say a 30 degree angle and then it would empty out completely if your coal is dry like mine is. My Anthraking (Pocono 110K) has the same 200 pound hopper and the same problem. They offer a 320pound hopper which is probably standard on the 220K stove. I opted against it as the ash pan has the capacity to handle a 300 pound burn load but I don't want to deal with the weight and bulk. So 200 pounds is fine until I work out how to automate the ash emptying. Automation is fine but I feel better about inspecting things every morning but I guess that is just me.

There you go.

I bet it wouldn't be very hard to fab up some inserts to channel the coal to the stoker. You'd lose a little capacity, but it's not like you're getting the benfit out of the entire hopper right now anyway.

I have been looking at hoppers, and women shapes too, they are either apples, or pears , I mean the women shapes, but back to hoppers here is a great one, made from washing machine parts

kstills,

I thought about an electric vibrator for the hopper but I can foresee several problems with that. First, the carpet could potentially become overwhelmed with an avalanche of coal if a sudden release of coal were to happen, but maybe not because that would be the same as loading the hopper? Second, the vibration could cause the coal to feed down the grate.

EarthWindandFire wrote:Hey Rob,

The coal's not damp or wet. When I stack the bags I jab the bottom corner with a screwdriver so they drain if wet.

I have a couple of idea's on how to fix this besides my previous mentioned thoughts. The simplest idea is to just paint the sides and back of the hopper with several coats of gloss black paint. If that fails to remedy this sticky situation, I work at an Industrial Park and could have the inside of the hopper Electrocoated with paint which would make the inside of the hopper as slippery as a wet p@$$y after four glasses of wine.

Lubriplate used to make some sort of slipper paint that we used on dump body trucks. It worked excellent, too bad I can't remember the product name.

EarthWindandFire wrote:kstills,

I thought about an electric vibrator for the hopper but I can foresee several problems with that. First, the carpet could potentially become overwhelmed with an avalanche of coal if a sudden release of coal were to happen, but maybe not because that would be the same as loading the hopper? Second, the vibration could cause the coal to feed down the grate.

I just got off the phone with Matt about another issue, and he said if there was enough interest he could put some inserts together to avoid this problem.

It's really six to one, half a dozen to the other, though. You'll either have to fill it with 30 or so pounds left in the hopper, or fill the hopper with 170lbs of coal.

I think I would rather have the inserts, myself.

Jerry Steward thought about every aspect of his stoves and I'm concerned that making the hopper flow more smoothly could be counter-productive to the safe operation of the stove. But, I'm willing to experiment with gloss paint.

It would be more dangerous to have a potential out-fire, which is always followed by a dangerous release of Carbon Monoxide due to pressurization from the still running combustion fan, than the stove over-firing because of too much coal.

I think the graphite paint we used on the farm was called "Slip Plate". A quick search brought up a comparable product at Tractor Supply...it might be worth a try: http://www.tractorsupply.com/ez-slide-g ... t--2120042

My cousin had this problem with his alaska, so we put sheet metal sides in on an angle. When we were done realized it accomplished absolutly nothing, cause now the coal that would of remained on the sides was never in the hopper cause it held that much less. But a slopped hopper like my harman had would be the ticket that got every last drop, I think it held 100lbs but don't remember.



Eric