harmon mag stocker went out!

Monday came in from work walked to basement to find the stove out, good thing temps outside were not low. After shutting it down decided to do a quick clean before wife got home, every thing looked in order no issues with grates plenty of air. conclusion the coal I picked up on Saturday was wet. Did not think that would be a issue after reading forums, however it was. So removed all coal from hopper pusher block running fine, re lit stove with mouse and turned up feed rate. Working fine now however noticed hot coals are really close to edge and a little does drop in ash bucket red hot. Should I crank the feed rate back or do risk another stove out.With stove feed rate up coal burns fine, sounds like the Harmon does not like wet coal. Coal is in outside covered bin hoping will dry enough in a couple of days to not have any issues.

Ihatewood....

Too "(wet) may certainly cause a problem...

... 2 things will happen

energy is lost up the stack to convert moisture (water) to steam..
but it is not so much the energy lost.... as it is that the steam created in the firebox occupies roughly 1650 times the amount of space it took as water ( moisture)....
which means there is less oxygen (room for it) and you can get poorer combustion.

.... My keystoker does much better with "dryer" coal.
I think the same principle applies to "oiled" coal.... maybe not to the same degree

Damp coal = OK
Wet Coal = Not OK!!

The manual makes a point of printing this in multiple places, (like the bottom of every page) which i discovered is there for a reason. I too tempted the wet coal gods and was smacked into submission. The only issue I ever had with my stoker was with wet coal right. I fired up the first one i got out in the workshop to learn how to use it, wasn't careful about how wet the coal was and i can't remember if it just quit feeding it or if the fire went out.

The coal I use is usually only damp, sometimes it's wetter in the bottom of the buckets, but I quit pouring it in the hopper at that point and let it sit next to the stove for a day or so. It dries out and then I empty the bucket into the hopper. Never had an issue with this procedure.

Wet and Damp coal can also "Bridge" in the hopper. That is, it sticks together in such a way, that the push-bar never gets coal dropped to it from the hopper, so it cannot push more coal onto the grates. The easy way to fix this is to open the hopper lid, and just jab a poking rod down thru the coal, at the back of the hopper, if there was a Bridge, the coal in the hopper will noticeably 'slump' or settle, while poking. Then you are good to go.

yup I've a little learning curve going on right now, but I'm rolling with the punches, first winter burning coal, stove is burning ok and the bucket trick seems to be working half in half drying for a day next to stove, hoping coal in bin will do the same or at least water settle to bottom of pile. love this forum, it's a wealth of knowledge. You would be literly in the dark accept for a chessy Harmon manual.

i get about 1k lbs at a time in my pickup and load it into about 25 buckets that i keep in the basement. usually the first dozen or so buckets i do the half in and half dry thing. by the time i get to the second dozen buckets it is usually dry on top and just damp on the bottom of the buckets so I can dump it all in.

you are correct about the manual, and forget about trying to call customer service there! this forum is really good with all the practical experience users offer without beating you up for asking a beginner question!