Set Back Thermostat on Stove - Any Good ??

I was wondering if anyone here is running a setback thermostat (other than a Coaltrol) on their stove? If so how accurate is the stove at firing to get the thermostat to it set points? For example: If you set the thermostat to automatically get lower at night (70) and to get warmer in the morning (75) how long does it take for the thermostat to reach the temps and does it over/under fire the stove by much? I have a Alaska Channing 3 stove and wa thinking of getting the thermostat setup they sell and then buying a digital setback thermostat.

Thanks in advance

Trader I have there thermostat setup and My advice is get the coal trol standard it is only about $50 more ( probably a dead heat when you factor in you have to go to lowes or the like and buy a digital thermostat to replace the cheesy one that comes with it). When you buy the stove it is $200 extra over the auto heat but to buy the unit now I think they said it was between $250 and $300. You really have to play withit to get the heat anticipater set correctly but once you do +/- 1-1.5* is very possible with Alaska's T stat . Withe coal trol standard you could always add the auto light feature when it is released. Also it will ramp the convection fan up and down auotmatically so it doesn't blow cold air around when it is in a maintanence fire mode.

jpen1: I tried the Coaltrol and for whatever reason it didn't work for me. I spent 3 days with tech trying to get it setup. If I kept the stove at a constant temp it worked as advertised. However, if I used the setback feature so the temp woul lower at night and increase in the morning I ran into trouble. The stove would take forever to get up to temp and then it would over fire by 7-8 degrees. I tried everything with no avail. I was hoping that the stock Alaska setup would work better with an aftermarket digital thermostat. Do you keep your stove at a constant heat or does it ramp up and down? How does the heat anticipater work?

I have used a basic LUX (Valu Home Center) Digital Setback on the Keystoker for 2 years, it depends on location of the thermostat and your stove. Mine was within 10 feet and kept it pretty close. I would drop it 2-3 degrees while not at home and the stove would pretty much idle along maintaining the temps.

I would give at least an hour before you want it that temp. I would have it start ramping up around 5 am, so at 6am it was warming up nicely when I get up. YOu just have to experiment with what works for you setup.

I don't use the setback feature on the thermostat. I keep it set at 74 all the time. The heat anticipator regulates the cycle time so to speak. I have mine set at -.5 *. So in other words if the desired temp is 74* it will go back to the maintanence or low fire setting once 73.5* is reached. I don't use the lux thermostat provided I use honeywell industrial thermo which tends to much more sensitive and accurate.

I'm running a Honeywell "The Round" thermostat on my Keystoker. I've been very pleased so far. It has an adjustable "Cycles per Hour" rate between 1CPH (for steam/vapor heat) up to 9CPH (for electric forced air). I'm using the 3CPH setting and it seems to hold a very stable temperature. It will overshoot badly if you crank up the room temp way over the current set point (5 deg. or more), but otherwise will only overshoot by a few degrees. It's in a fairly small basement room that is well insulated, so it's not much for a 90K BTU stove to really pour out the heat once it gets cranking good.

Chris

Does anyone have a supplier for the Alaska thermostat accessory? I could save a lot of coal if I can get a setback thermostat to work properly, Even if it took 1 hour to ramp up and down and if it didn't over shoot by more than 2 degrees I would be a happy camper.