Alaska Channing Stove Help Needed

One tiny little observation, 100# of coal per 24 hours is around 58k btu per hour heat input or less depending on the coal quality. Giving a generous efficiency rating of 80% that is around 47k btu per hour net, that is if my calculations are correct.

That seems like a reasonable amount to heat a house during 15* days and 5* nights!

I'm burning between 80/100# a day, but heating my whole house. With that type of baro, it's hard to tell where your set without taking a reading.
Jerry

This is an interesting thread, I recently replaced an old Franco B. with a Harman Magnum there is a difference between the two and as you are finding out it's hard to describe, first remember the size of the fire in the F.B. was much larger than the little plate of fire we now use and the F.B. was a constant radiant heat the stoker is up and down and relies on warm air a good bit .
That being said, while the room that the stove is in is not as HOT as with the F.B. the entire house is warmer from the coal and the room the stove is in is more even temperatured the oil heat has run very little if at all as compared to the assistance it used to give the F.B. .
Coal usage again is different as you know the F.B. used a bucket a day sometimes a bucket and a half when I say bucket I reference the standard black coal bucket available in a good old American hardware store, the Harman uses most days two of these and every couple a days needs three and there are mild days when it only needs one, you refer to 100 lbs of coal and I'm just not sure of that figure that would be two and a half bags of Blaschak coal,, but maybe .

Heres a shot from what I have learned about the Magnum, even in your user photo from as close as I can tell it likes like your firehead is still pretty far back on the grate I found that if I try to heat the space with too small a fire the thermostat just keeps the unit running continuously and you never get the desired effect (warm room),, see what I'm say'in . Try to adjust the feed rate to get the firehead as I call it, out to about 2-3 inches from dropping makes sure you give it time to stabilize between adj. before leaving the stove alone (hour or two).

QUESTION = Is combustion air adj. on these new Alaskans

I think your close on draft adj. judging by your stack temp but without a gauge it just a PURE guess experience helps in dialing it in even after setting the baro with a manometer .

I'd try to get a fellow stoker user to take a peek at it, cause it doesn't sound like you have a major malfunction but rather some tuning issues .

The combustion air on the new alaska's are fixed except the 140 auger feed. How large an area are you trying to heat , and how much insulation do you have? That will help put the coal usage into perspective a little better. I am heating 1400 sq ft and use only 50 lbs on the coldest days with the thermostat set at 74*. I operate on a thermostat but when the thermo call for heat I get about 500* surface temp on the sides of the stove withe blower running on a low setting. I find I get more heat out of the unit with the convection fan at the low end of its range.

I agree with Jpen, except that when I really get it cranking I'll turn the blower all the way up. That being said, I've never run the stove full out yet for more than an 1-1/2 at a time (it gets to hot in the house) and that's based on single/low 20's the past few days.

Well last night I was running the stove on the number 3 on the dial. Pretty close to 1/2 way give or take. I'm trying to heat approx 2200 sq ft. My adjacent room was 63°. My house is an old farm house with only decent insulation. I'm still working on that aspect. My stack temp was 140°F last night and the body of the stove (Measure beside and above the door) was only 350°F. I expected it to be hotter than that. The blowing air felt fairly warm, but I guess I was expecting the heat closer to the heat output from my old Franco Belge. I wanted my cake and eat it to. I'm starting to think my coal quality is sub-par maybe. My buddy is getting another load this weekend from the same guy I got mine from. He says his little Kast cosole seems to work good now though. He runs his wide open (50 k btu) and only burns 1 5gal bucket a day. I burn twice that much at approx same btu output. We'll see if he has any problems like I do. I might also take a cruise out and buy some bags of Reading coal from a dealer in Bellefonte Pa and see what that behaves like. I hate to buy by the bag = > $$$. What do you guys think? Should I try that?

I'd definitely try other coal. I did and noticed a big difference mainly in ash produced. There could have been a difference in heat, but I wasn't watching for it and was even greener than I am now with coal. I'm going to go out today and buy a few bags of 3 different "brands" of coal from local suppliers. I'd like to see how they do in my stoker.

Good luck

I know that a ceiling fan helps tremendously to throw the warmed air into other parts of my house. What is the temp. in the room say five feet from the stove. It's usually around 77 for me and my upstairs can very 5-12 degrees lower depending on the wind, how cold it is, etc. The colder it is out the more of a difference there is between the two floors.

traderfjp wrote:I know that a ceiling fan helps tremendously to throw the warmed air into other parts of my house. What is the temp. in the room say five feet from the stove. It's usually around 77 for me and my upstairs can very 5-12 degrees lower depending on the wind, how cold it is, etc. The colder it is out the more of a difference there is between the two floors.

Trader, he mentioned the temp on the side of the stove and by the stove door only being 350*, I'd say thats a problem.
He has since recalibrated the control so it could very well be that it was just way way off. Except the fact that he burned thru 100lbs. in one day with hardly any output. I'd say coal brand was / is something to look into. I must say this has me perplexed and I'm a newbie as well, but I burned 50lbs (+/- 2lbs or so) at 21* deg's for a high and 10* Overnight. The house was a constant 65/68* throughout both up and down stairs ( my wife insisted the bedroom window be opened a crack).

I certainly don't have the problem of it being too warm anywhere even in the room the coal stove is in. Except maybe when it's 40° outside. The 350° stove body temp was after I reset the dial and was running near "3" out of 5 on the dial. The blower fan is blowing straight towards the rest of my house, I don't thinkg circulation is the issue here. I do have a ceiling fan in the room from when I was running my Franco.

I don't own an Alaska stove but the other night it was 5* outside and I am heating 2000sqft, my stoker was running at about 77% and I do not know what the temp of my stove was but you could not stand right in front of it for more than a couple of minutes and you thought that your legs were going to melt off. I keep the house at 73* and I used 72 pounds of coal that day. If he is burning 100lbs of coal and not getting any heat from the stove I think either he has bad coal or is sending all of the heat up the chimney. Hell that stove running full blast should be like standing around a 55gal drum full of burning firewood.

gambler wrote: running full blast should be like standing around a 55gal drum full of burning firewood.

Agreed....now we just need to find out why it isn't.

Well I got new rice coal last night. It is from Natures Cover in Bellefonte Pa. It is supposed to be from "Reading" Co. It does seem to burn a bit better. I had it set on 3 on the dial last night and the room the stove is in was at 77° last night (25-28° outside temp). My living room (adjacent) was maintaining 66-67° degrees by the digital thermostat for the oil heat system. I forgot to measure the stove's body temp last night but this morning I have the dial set on 2 1/2 and the body temp is a hair above 375°. The baro damper is still pretty much wide open and my exhaust temp is 150°. That of course is using one of those cheap Condor Chimgard spring wound thermometers I got with my old Franco Belge. So it's probably not very accurate, but I used it for all of the readings. I'm going to borrow our Digital Laser Thermometer from work I just forgot to bring home yesterday. My desktop clock has a thermometer that I'm using for the room temp. It's 37° outside right now and the stove room is 75° and the living room is 64°. I'm including a pic of the stove running on the 2.5 setting with the ash included for you viewing pleasure. I have to correct my previous usage rate. With the new 40lbs bags as a guide I was only using 80lbs a day. I over estimated the coal bucket weight by a bit. It looks to hold just about 20lbs of rice coal. So it's not as bleak as previously thought. Sorry about this mis-information. Should I reconfigure the exhaust piping to put the damper futher away from the stove? What should a channings exhaust temp around at mid-burn? It still isn't too hot to stand in front of but it does seem to be operating more efficently than previously.

Looks like a fine low burn rate fire. I am not familiar with the alaska controls but can it be turned up higher? Looks like you are only burning about 1/3 the grate length. At the highest setting you should have only about 1-1.5 inches of ash at the end of the grate.

I have drawn a line in your photo try and adj the feed rate to bring the edge of the fire to approx this area and let the thermostat work.
I use a $24 round honeywell HEAT ONLY model I picked up at Home Depot it has cycle rate dip switches on the back we will get into that if you decide to use one . All in All your lookin good a laser Digital Thermometer will be fun to play with but in all reality is overkill for what yer doing .