Newbe needs help

Hi
I just purchased a leisure line hearth model with a coal-Trol thermostat
I have tried to run my stove twice and both times it has overheated. My daytime setting is 65 degrees and my night time setting is 65 degrees. The min feed rate is 4, my max feed rate is 60. the CFT is 6. this last time I lit the stove the temp. in the room was 62 the stove started to heat up then the feed rate went to 99 and the whole coal shoot was glowing and the temp. in the room climbed to 75. I was afraid that the hopper was going to catch fire as the glowing coals were even where it comes thru the wall of the stove.
What am I doing wrong? I bought this stove to help heat my house but it does me no good if I cannot trust the controls.

Brian

Sorry you've run into some trouble. Let's see if we can help.

First of all, if you think the coal is burning too close to the back of the grate, when it is not lit and is cool, make sure the grate is completely seated on the grate holder. Also make sure the rope gasket that was supplied with the stove's grate assembly is installed on the back edge of the grate (if it is missing install it, if you don't have it contact your stove dealer or Leisure Line to get it). Sometimes you need to tap (lightly should be all it takes) on the back of the grate to make sure it seats fully to the channel on the bottom side of the grate. Use a rubber mallet or lay a block of wood on the grate and use a regular hammer, don't hit it with a metal hammer directly.

That all said, it is normal for the back edge of the fire to be roughly in line with the back wall of the stove. If you were to look at the grate, the fire will extend maybe 1/2" to 1" back from the last line of air holes. You should still be able to see the unburned coal at the very back. If it is burning so far back that you can't see the coal entering the burn chamber, then you do have a problem and should shutdown and investigate, calling your stove dealer or Leisure Line for assistance.

Next, we recommend you set your thermostat to a temperature below room temperature in preparation for starting the stove. Ideally you can have it set 5 degrees or more below room temp for an hour or more before trying to light it. This will allow the control to ramp down the FR and hopefully avoid a massive overshoot which is likely to occur if the control has been left with a setpoint above room temp for an extended period of time before lighting. In a pinch you can set the thermostat to a temp below room temp, then go to the MIN screen in the SETUP menu. While on this screen the control will continue to run the temperature control logic, but the output to the stoker will be overridden to run it at MIN rate. You can leave it on MIN for 60 minutes or so, and then move it back to the round robin display so normal temperature control can take over. This way you don't have to wait for it to ramp down the feedrate before lighting the stove. Once back on the round robin display you can adjust setpoint to where you like it, hopefully from a FR or 0 (or something close to it).

Lastly, since the temperatures outside are still relatively mild, you may want to dial your MAX setting back to around 25 or 30. When it gets consistently cold out or if you find the stove can't reach setpoint or has trouble maintaining setpoint, adjust to a higher MAX setting (no higher than 40 or 45 with a LL, unless you go through the custom MIN/MAX setting routine detailed in the user manual with your thermostat).

And really lastly... If you have any further issues feel free to give us a call, 315-299-3589. Often times talking through things on the phone is much faster than dealing through email or the forum. But you can respond back here, too. And there is a wealth of information available in these forums on the use and setup of a Coal-trol equipped stove.

Coal takes time to respond. It's not like wood or gas heat. The grate when full of coal has to burn up first to get the ash on the front part, so the first firing each time will get it pretty hot and may over shoot. Yes, the whole grate will be burning until the ash is formed at the end. This takes a while to get it up to operating temps and settling in. It will only burn back as far as the holes are in the grate, which may be back pretty far, but it should go back into the hopper unless you have a draft problem.

I assume you have set your draft correctly with a draft gauge. Do you have a Baro Damper installed to adjust your draft?

It may smell hot too, since its a new stove, but that will eventually burn off. Its nothing to worry about, they all do that.

Once it settles in, maybe an hour or more, the FR should be coming down and then it should start to maintain control and get to the set temperature. Just let it run for a while, then you adjust later.

Yes, bring your MAX down to between 40-45 like stated above. Give it a try again and let us know.

Also, you do have a at least 1 working CO detector in the same room as the stove?

update, Brian

gbmetcalf wrote:Hi
I just purchased a leisure line hearth model with a coal-Trol thermostat
I have tried to run my stove twice and both times it has overheated. My daytime setting is 65 degrees and my night time setting is 65 degrees. The min feed rate is 4, my max feed rate is 60. the CFT is 6. this last time I lit the stove the temp. in the room was 62 the stove started to heat up then the feed rate went to 99 and the whole coal shoot was glowing and the temp. in the room climbed to 75. I was afraid that the hopper was going to catch fire as the glowing coals were even where it comes thru the wall of the stove.
What am I doing wrong? I bought this stove to help heat my house but it does me no good if I cannot trust the controls.

Brian

I had the same problem last year with my new Hearth Model. It's a learning curve. I have my max set to 30 and set temperature is well maintained now. As it gets colder, I may need to bump it up a little but for right now, it is working well. When making any adjustments, be sure to do it in small increments and allow 2 hours before deciding if any further adjusting is necessary.