Help! My Coal Stove Safety Switch Wont Work

This is my first post on this site. In fact, I am very new to coal heating. I got a coal stove with the house I purchased earlier this year. It is an Allegheny model of Reading Stoves. I ran it from the beginning of November until last night, when it quit on my. The little box on the right, which has a safety reset button on it, and connects to the feeder, stopped working. I am thinking this is as I never cleaned the chimney? Or is it something worse, where I might need a new part?I am concerned as even after pressing the reset button (without cleaning it), it still wont do anything. The earliest cleaning I can get is Dec 7th, since I live in Western NY. We have no heat, and Im not sure what to do.

You say "chimney"...do you really mean chimney or do you have a power vent going through the wall? It seems the safety switch is only on the power vent module from what I see in the Allegheny manual. It also seems that the most likely cause for the safety switch to shut the stove off is that the power vent / flue pipe needs cleaning.

Welcome to the FORUM, I'm an old handfired guy, but fear not, help, is on the way. Most things are not as drastic as they might seem as far as fix's go. Be patient. A picture or two would be really handy. See that, titleist beat me.

Thank you for the responses. Yes, I mean "power vent" and not "chimey".In order to get it cleaned, should I even look for a chimney cleaner, or should I look for people who clean power vents? I have been searching out here, and havent had much luck. The one company which had an appointment, earliest being dec 7th, is $150ish. I would take a picture if I were home, but am at work right now. Luckily, it is warmer here than in the house!

I am not sure even how to go about dismantling the power vent. I don't seem to see any bolts of screws on its side.

In the right top corner on this page--there is a box titled SEARCH--type in cleaning power vent & see if anything that comes up would be helpful to you.

I'm not a power vent guy, I have a chimney. I am sure others that have a PV will add their comments. Any chimney sweep will know how to clean a power vent, there are thousands of them on pellet stoves that need to be cleaned quite frequently and they make a nice living off them! I know it can be done yourself, depends on how involved with your stove you want to get.

PS...just did a quick search...how is it that we don't have a video on here yet of somebody cleaning their power vent?!?!

Another concern is, when I press the "reset" button on the stove (even with the vent uncleaned), it doesnt do anything. It doesnt even attempt to start back up. Does that mean I may need a new safety switch?

I installed my bro-in-laws power vent for his LL Pioneer. I cant believe the vent is plugged, maybe there could be a buildup in the pipes behind and leading out o the stove. If the motor doesnt run I would suspect a fuse or bad motor. By the sounds of things, you should have someone qualified to talk about such things go over your unit with you and point out pit falls and things to watch etc. Get a learning experience and a CO detector.

kevin

The first thing I would do is bypass the flume switch and hook the power vent up direct to make sure it works. If it does, the power vent should be running full blast. That may blow some of the flyash out of the unit.

Detailed instructions can be found on the Leisure Line Stove website. http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/

Download the cleaning instructions here: http://leisurelinestoves.com/Manual_Warranty.html

Thanks to Matt and Dave for making this available online.

Rick

After a lot of calling, I found a local Reading Coal Stove seller, located 40 miles away. We ended up finding out that my feeder burned out, so I will be getting that replaced on the 27th. Be did this by bypassing the safety switch. My blower and power vent work fine, though the Reading Stove guy will clean it too and show me how to do it next time. Until then, I will be surviving on expensive electric heat. How could I possibly have burned out my feeder?!

KLook wrote:I installed my bro-in-laws power vent for his LL Pioneer. I cant believe the vent is plugged, maybe there could be a buildup in the pipes behind and leading out o the stove. If the motor doesnt run I would suspect a fuse or bad motor. By the sounds of things, you should have someone qualified to talk about such things go over your unit with you and point out pit falls and things to watch etc. Get a learning experience and a CO detector.

kevin

Our powervent we currently use is a lot different than what I believe Reading is still using. I believe they still use the SWG4HD if someone knows different please correct me. We are using the SWG-4AF it is less prone to getting blocked it no longer has the squirrel type blower. It instead uses a paddle type.

Hey guys! Just to follow up on my Coal stove....IT IS FIXED! Even though Reading Stoves stated that the only thing wrong with it was that it needed the power vent cleaned, this was not the case. My feeder had burned out after 5 years of use. I had a local dealer come out and he was extremely helpful, where he changed my feeder part and showed me how to clean my powervent as well. Cleaning the power vent is an easy task, and not what some people make it out to be! I then power uped the stove. Coal stoves just get easier and easier! I remember earlier in the year trying upto 12 times to light a coal stove, but now I get it on the first time and always within 15 minutes! This forum has been very helpful athelping me learn about coal stoves as well, as coal ue is very unpopular here and I don't know anyone who used coal. In fact, people look at me like I am committing a sin when I say I burn coal.

Greetings! You are now a MUCH smarter coal user, and don't worry about those who haven't experienced the beauty of coal's uniform heat, safety of burning, and savings. Glad to hear about your experience with the dealer, and the knowledge you have gained.....now YOU can educate others, too. 18 here this AM, my nose is cold!!!

In fact, people look at me like I am committing a sin when I say I burn coal.

LET me guess, NH, ME, VT, MA!!! I see you ended up using my advice and it worked for you. That is good and congrats. Even with all the super help in this forum, sometimes just having someone go over things in person takes a lot of time out of the learning curve. Enjoy the heat!

Kevin

Do you have that CO detector?