My Glenwood Base Heater Vs Alaska Channing 3 Stoker

Finally some cooler weather it was 50° and windy today stove ran at 250° Middle of the house was 77° just put a heaping load in for the night. Gonna set the dampers for a 300° burn and c were the house is at in the am. There calling for mid 30's tonight for the low. Just think how mid 30's will feel like a heat wave in the middle of February.

On a side note I keep hearin about a strong El Niño this year, I believe that means a warm and wet winter for us up here in the north east? Can anybody clarify what we might be In for with a El Niño, this will be my first one while owning a house.

El Nino (hey, How'd you get that wavy symbol over your n?). El Ninio, isn't that an "illegal immigrant? I've heard of them in the past, but if there's anything I've learned about New England, there's a real good chance it'll be cold and snowy from Dec. to March. How much, no-body knows for sure. But it'll definitely be worth burning the black rock.

joeq wrote:El Nino (hey, How'd you get that wavy symbol over your n?). El Ninio, isn't that an "illegal immigrant? I've heard of them in the past, but if there's anything I've learned about New England, there's a real good chance it'll be cold and snowy from Dec. to March. How much, no-body knows for sure. But it'll definitely be worth burning the black rock.

For our area, they are calling for a warmer than normal first part of winter but then by late Jan. & Feb. they are saying very cold again. I guess we will just have to wait and see what is handed to us but burning coal we will all stay warm!

Randy

One of the reasons I wanted to try a hand fed was iv read that they burn the coal up 100%. I had a horrible time with the channing, no mater what I tried id always find un burnt coal in the driveway after I dump the pan and a good rain washes the ash away. It was enough to piss me off any way. The best burn I got in the channing was when I pushed the stove near 500* got the caking of ash, other than that it was never fully burnt. I could take a piece of ash break it apart with my hands and in the middle was coal.

Im very pleased to share this next statement. THE G6 LEAVES NO COAL BEHIND!!!!!!!!!! As long as I don't over shake, I can break any piece of ash that falls thru the grate and it turns to dust in my hand. So far this is the best advantage in a head to head comparison at this point.

pretty cool ain't it ? I get the same thing with FRANK, the converted box stove.

anything that's not dust is as soon as you touch it.

KingCoal wrote:pretty cool ain't it ? I get the same thing with FRANK, the converted box stove.

anything that's not dust is as soon as you touch it.

Was there un burnt coal with "frank" before the conversion?

yep, crunchy crusty fused chunks of ash and bits and pieces of just unburned coal that snuck down the sides of the square fire box too far from the strong fire zone to get burnt.

base heater / base burner designs take care of this by insulating and heating the exterior of the fire pot and preheating the primary and secondary intake.

KingCoal wrote:yep, crunchy crusty fused chunks of ash and bits and pieces of just unburned coal that snuck down the sides of the square fire box too far from the strong fire zone to get burnt.

base heater / base burner designs take care of this by insulating and heating the exterior of the fire pot and preheating the primary and secondary intake.

It seems that I have heard someone else say something like this on occasion. Hmm.

Canaan coal man wrote:One of the reasons I wanted to try a hand fed was iv read that they burn the coal up 100%. I had a horrible time with the channing, no mater what I tried id always find un burnt coal in the driveway after I dump the pan and a good rain washes the ash away. It was enough to piss me off any way. The best burn I got in the channing was when I pushed the stove near 500* got the caking of ash, other than that it was never fully burnt. I could take a piece of ash break it apart with my hands and in the middle was coal.

Im very pleased to share this next statement. THE G6 LEAVES NO COAL BEHIND!!!!!!!!!! As long as I don't over shake, I can break any piece of ash that falls thru the grate and it turns to dust in my hand. So far this is the best advantage in a head to head comparison at this point.

In the stoker world it has been pretty well established that a 100% burn means the fire has been given too much air, and that more BTU's than necessary have gone up the chimney. Like the exhaust from an optimally tuned car contains a small amount of unburned gasoline, the ash from optimal coal combustion contains a small percentage of unburned coal. While complete combustion is intuitively a good thing, what makes you think it is really optimal? FWIW, the studies I know of concluded stokers are able to produce an overall efficiency advantage on the order of 20 percent relative to hand firing, even with unburned coal in the ash.

Mike

While I shared a high note earlyer with the fully burnt coal, I must share my lows as well. Came home tonight to all 3 co detectors going off . I lost draft. I'm taking notes how I left the stove this morning and moving forward and learn from this. Highs today were mid 50s so I set the stove up this morning as follows. Bb mode mpd half shut and I turned the primary's down a sliver for a low burn today. Left the stove at .03 draft. Here's were I went wrong I think. I didn't fully load the stove this morning I only put 10lbs on after I shook the fire, Or what ever was left in the hod. I had a good bridge and a dead spot built up toward the back of the bed that I didn't fully get out of the bed before I added coal. If you all recall last week I had the stove running at 250° oat were low 60s stove was fine, But I had a good built bed. When I returned home tonight the stove had half a bed of coal lit and draft was -.01 to 0.0. I quickly opened all doors windows put the stove in dd and cracked the ash pit door and regained draft in a few seconds. Stove is up and running again and chugging at 300°.

Pacowy wrote:

Canaan coal man wrote:One of the reasons I wanted to try a hand fed was iv read that they burn the coal up 100%. I had a horrible time with the channing, no mater what I tried id always find un burnt coal in the driveway after I dump the pan and a good rain washes the ash away. It was enough to piss me off any way. The best burn I got in the channing was when I pushed the stove near 500* got the caking of ash, other than that it was never fully burnt. I could take a piece of ash break it apart with my hands and in the middle was coal.

Im very pleased to share this next statement. THE G6 LEAVES NO COAL BEHIND!!!!!!!!!! As long as I don't over shake, I can break any piece of ash that falls thru the grate and it turns to dust in my hand. So far this is the best advantage in a head to head comparison at this point.

In the stoker world it has been pretty well established that a 100% burn means the fire has been given too much air, and that more BTU's than necessary have gone up the chimney. Like the exhaust from an optimally tuned car contains a small amount of unburned gasoline, the ash from optimal coal combustion contains a small percentage of unburned coal. While complete combustion is intuitively a good thing, what makes you thing it is really optimal? FWIW, the studies I know of concluded stokers are able to produce an overall efficiency advantage on the order of 20 percent relative to hand firing, even with unburned coal in the ash.

Mike

Hummm 20% that's pretty good do u have links to those study's I'd like to read them. I in no way mean that with sarcasm It would make a bed time read.
I know personally when I c un burnt coal it turns my stomach with wasted btus.

Sorry I don't have any links. I've seen that # in old engineering docs. To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the comparison you are performing is that it provides a way to test that estimate.

I don't like unburned coal, but I think the analogy to gasoline explains why a coal user should not be overly concerned about eliminating it.

Mike

Little up date, stove has been running up to pair, I'm burning 30-40 lbs a day 12 hr tends. With the current oat temps house is running 70-77 degrees (night and day temps). Not to bad still a little higher lbs than expected. I burned Santa clause Stove all weekend to play with something different. I went thru 2 bags from Friday night to Sunday night. for some reason I found the stove size took longer to rev up for a fresh load of coal. I did notice a weaker fire when I went to tend, I also noticed that I cant fit as much stove size in the pot as nut, hence the weaker fire, hence a longer rev time with a reload. I think ill need a week or so to play with straight stove size just to get the hang of it, but right now my unknown brand bulk nut is doing really good.

You mention a longer "rev" time with the stove coal. Are you referring to getting her up to temp after a reload?
I noticed with the 111 in my garage last winter, it took many hours to get it to catch. But in defense, it was the worse case scenario, as far as conditions went. Extreme cold, inferior stack, too small on the coal size, ect. ect.

joeq wrote:You mention a longer "rev" time with the stove coal. Are you referring to getting her up to temp after a reload?
I noticed with the 111 in my garage last winter, it took many hours to get it to catch. But in defense, it was the worse case scenario, as far as conditions went. Extreme cold, inferior stack, too small on the coal size, ect. ect.

By rev time I ment get the fire up to temp like 500-600* then add fresh coal. Im finding tending only in the 5-10 min max as long as I crack the primary door and let the stove get roaring. If I have time in the night tend and I have a decent bed of coal going I will just add coal, have a few beers and baby sit for the blues, Im finding I get almost no bridging this way, but the key is having the time.
When first playing with this thing back in October I would add fresh coal to a 250* fire, and I found my self waiting for the blues for 1 or 2 hours and was worried id have to get up at 3am for my morning tend but a little boost in stove temp makes all the difference for my tend times.