New Alaska Kodiak

So my brand new kodiak stove is finally in, just in time. I think the install looks pretty good but I'm still learning how to get the most out of it.

Fired it up on Saturday afternoon, and in my excitement failed to read the instructions first. Apparently I was supposed to keep a low fire going for two or three days to cure the bricks. Oops. Other than that, things are going pretty well. It does seem like I could be getting more heat from it than I am- 35 degrees out today and had to leave the bimetal wide open to maintain the 75 inside temp that the wife demands. Still have to order a manometer and mess with the baro damper, hopefully after that I'll have no issues keeping a subtropical temperature when it gets really cold out.

p.s. sorry about the sideways pictures. Too lazy to try to fix it so just turn your heads sideways, I guess.

Hey, quick question if I may. I noticed that even when I have the bimetal at maximum the flap is just barely open. Is this normal? And I'm operating under the assumption right now that the flap is meant to be used on its own, and not in conjunction with the front vents. Is that right, or do I open the vents to get in the ballpark and use the flap to fine tune?

According to the guy I spoke with at Alaska, the front draft controls should be fully closed. On my Kodiac enough air leaks through to maintain a low fire even when closed. I do not have a baro' damper, just an MPD.

I am on my second season with the stove, I did not have the bi-metallic thermostat last year. When I installed one a couple weeks ago I noticed the flap did not open very far. On the bottom end of the beaded chain is a pendant like in the pic I will include. It looks like the bottom part of a bell, with a slit on one side. I moved the pendant up about three beads. Just slide it off, move it to the new position, slide it back on.

With the stove cold, I adjusted it to the shortest link that would allow the door to completely close. There is just a tad of slack in the chain with the 'stat turned down. I figured when the stove is running, the chain will automatically grow a little, so I should have even more slack. When the 'stat is turned up the door opens about three inches. This was all done with a cold stove.

I lit the stove last week, but I have not used the bi-metallic 'stat. In my install I do not have easy access to the back of the stove. I was expecting the control knob to be closer to the top of the stove, but of course it isn't. I am considering epoxying a short piece of tig wire to the knob so it sticks out to the right of the stove like a pointer. Then I could easily move it and observe where it is set.

I also added the blower & speed controller this year. Very happy with that. Running about half speed it is quiet & really cools down the stove.

Just got home from the night shift to find stove still going strong, so I must be doing something right. Last night around 8:00 I shook it down and added another 20 lb. bucket to the hopper, adjusted the baro to open up a little more, and set the thermostat to about 3/4. It is now 76* inside... I think it got down into the twenties last night, so I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm on my third bag now since starting Saturday afternoon, so using about a 40 lb. bag a day thus far.

Rob, I'll take your advice and call Alaska today to ask about how the bimetal thingy is supposed to work. Mine also had about a 3" gap at max when the stove was cold, it's just that when it really gets cranking it closes down to what looks like about 1/8". Top, let me know if yours does the same when you get a chance to use it. Judging by how well it heated the place last night, I'm thinking the baro may have been the real problem and the thermostat is working like it should.

The Kodiak is a great stove, often overlooked, but I have read great things about it.

Supposedly, the Kodiak is one of the few hand-fired stoves than can burn Pea sized coal effectively.

Yea I'm burning pea coal right now and it is what I got my 86 hour burn with while out of town for four days.

Adjust your bimetal as outlined above while stove is cold and shorten chain until door/flap will just barely close when control is hard on lowest heat setting. Flap will auto open/close as controlled be bimetal in response to stove body temp.

Get a poker that will fit between the grate gapes and work the corners when you shake it down and you will get more heat out of it.

Running it that hard I would shake every 12 hours! I shake every 24 until we are well sub zero and then shake every 12 hours.

SD

Nice brick work. You must be a mason.

joeq wrote:Nice brick work. You must be a mason.

A super install! The only thing I might have done differently would be to rotate the barometric damper Tee outward 90 or 180 degrees, so you can keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the compliment on the brick work, my dad did it actually back when he used to own this place. He's one of those old school guys that can build or fix anything...he built this house actually. I'm just hoping I'm handy enough to hold everything he built together now that it's mine.

So Alaska said pretty much the same thing, to make sure it is just barely closed when backed all the way off with a cold stove. So it sounds like it's working like it should.

I have been shaking down every twelve, that seems to be working well. Planning on poking ash out of the corners every other day. Still hoping to be able to milk a bit more heat out of it for when it gets colder; time will tell.

Very nice looking install! Do you have a stove body temperature and flue pipe temperature you could share with us? Do you have a manometer to give you a draft reading?

Afraid I don't, yet. I'm going to hit up the hardware store tomorrow and see if I can pick up a couple of the little magnetic thermometers, and I'll be ordering a manometer soon.

An IR temp gun is portable, fun and you can drive the cat nuts with it too! :bag:

Each stove and coal combo is different, but mine runs better running the poker up through the grate and then shaking it a bit more every day once it's running hard.

Running the fan helps too at least in my application warm up the house better. A fan behind the stove would be good if you don't have the built in one. Also as always track and get the humidity right as that seems to help as well.

SD

Just ordered a laser thermometer... being able to torment the cat is what sold me on it.

What's a good Manometer? I see tons of them on Amazon.com but the Dwyer Mark II is the cheapest. Is it any good?