How to Get More Heat Out of a Harmen Stoker

 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Mon. Jan. 18, 2016 11:02 pm

Mark S5061 wrote: Seem like the adjustment I made helped a lot. When I got home at 6 am it was 69* in the house and it was cold outside in the lower teens.
Great to hear you are getting some more heat out of it. Could you share what the adjustment was that gave you the extra kick? Also if you don't mind posting your temp data when you get your new toyls in. Its nice to see for comparison purposes


 
Mark S5061
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Post by Mark S5061 » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 3:12 pm

titleist1 wrote:
Mark S5061 wrote: Seem like the adjustment I made helped a lot. When I got home at 6 am it was 69* in the house and it was cold outside in the lower teens.
Great to hear you are getting some more heat out of it. Could you share what the adjustment was that gave you the extra kick? Also if you don't mind posting your temp data when you get your new toyls in. Its nice to see for comparison purposes
I made the feeder push more coal and I open the baffle plate up a bit.

Now it's been cold and windy the last few days. When I got home today in the morning it was only 65* in the house.

I got the new toys today. The infrared thermometer I point at the hotest part of the stove was at 558* I have yet to put the other thermometer in the stove pipe. will be doing that shortly.

I also got the manometer today how and where do I install that? (I guess I'll have to a search on here :D )

 
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Post by Mark S5061 » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 3:15 pm

titleist1 wrote:
What are the temps on the stove sides, about three inches back from the and about even with the top of the door? I have found that seems to be the hottest temp reading I get on the stove. And what are your flue pipe temps before the barometric damper? If I am running mine hard I will see 650* on the stove and about 280* on a probe temp gauge in the flue pipe.
I guess I need to try and get another 100* out of the stove

 
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Post by titleist1 » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 3:45 pm

Mark S5061 wrote:Now it's been cold and windy the last few days. When I got home today in the morning it was only 65* in the house.
Got down to 12 here last night and the wind was blowing. The Harman 'stat couldn't get above 66, it is set at 68. The propane furnace 'stat must have hit 66 also I heard it kick on twice through the night and it is set at 67. Not a big deal to me that it kicked on, the Harman can handle 95% of temps we see in what we call winter down here, the other 5% it gets a brief assist from the furnace.
Mark S5061 wrote:I guess I need to try and get another 100* out of the stove
Be careful with that until you get your manometer connected. You want to be sure you aren't pushing too much air in the firebox compared to what you are exhausting.

You will need copper tubing or brake line at the stove pipe and then connect that to the flex tubing you got with the manometer. The flex tubing would melt at the pipe. I used a piece of copper tubing from a kit used to feed water to a refrigerator.

 
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CoalisCoolxWarm
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Post by CoalisCoolxWarm » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 4:11 pm

I have a different stoker, but I recently added my manometer install (and pics) to the manometer install thread here: Manometer Install

I should be at the end. As of now it is the most recent (last) post.

 
Mark S5061
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Post by Mark S5061 » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 4:20 pm

titleist1 wrote:
Mark S5061 wrote:Now it's been cold and windy the last few days. When I got home today in the morning it was only 65* in the house.
Got down to 12 here last night and the wind was blowing. The Harman 'stat couldn't get above 66, it is set at 68. The propane furnace 'stat must have hit 66 also I heard it kick on twice through the night and it is set at 67. Not a big deal to me that it kicked on, the Harman can handle 95% of temps we see in what we call winter down here, the other 5% it gets a brief assist from the furnace.
Mark S5061 wrote:I guess I need to try and get another 100* out of the stove
Be careful with that until you get your manometer connected. You want to be sure you aren't pushing too much air in the firebox compared to what you are exhausting.

You will need copper tubing or brake line at the stove pipe and then connect that to the flex tubing you got with the manometer. The flex tubing would melt at the pipe. I used a piece of copper tubing from a kit used to feed water to a refrigerator.
I wish I could use my oil furnace at the same time but I have to unhook the pipe for the furnace and shut it down so I can use the coal stove. I do have a kerosene heater I use when the temps get real cold out it help bring the temps back up in the house.

 
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Post by Mark S5061 » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 4:27 pm

titleist1 wrote:
Mark S5061 wrote:Now it's been cold and windy the last few days. When I got home today in the morning it was only 65* in the house.
Got down to 12 here last night and the wind was blowing. The Harman 'stat couldn't get above 66, it is set at 68. The propane furnace 'stat must have hit 66 also I heard it kick on twice through the night and it is set at 67. Not a big deal to me that it kicked on, the Harman can handle 95% of temps we see in what we call winter down here, the other 5% it gets a brief assist from the furnace.
Do you have your thermostat near your coal stove or do you have it in your living area?


 
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Post by titleist1 » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 4:39 pm

The Harman is in the basement and its 'stat is upstairs.

 
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Hambden Bob
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Post by Hambden Bob » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 9:11 pm

" The stoker thermostat is in the next room in the basement. "

I've been following this,and hadn't been able to put up anything any more helpfull than what these Good Guys have thrown at You. So,in re-reading it all,I caught this out of one of Your earlier posts.

In my eyes,what might also be happening is that with Your thermostat down in the basement,where Your stove is,the stat's getting satisfied on it's call for heat before Your upstairs living space has a chance to get what it needs. With that happening,Your Harman's controls start backing the stove down. I'd move that stat upstairs where it needs to be. Most likely not a thriller of a job,fishing a wall and all,but doing that,in conjunction with these other moves,may help You. Coalkirk's right,it's a Magnum,not a furnace. It is a Heatmaker if You can get the delivery right. You may want to even try disconnecting that 6" duct,remove Your material You used to block the plenum slots in the top front of the stove,and put Your cover plate back on. Let the stove crank it's butt off in the basement and send it right up to the open basement door and see which method heats better. I had to do that at a Ranch Home that was alot larger than Yours and due to the layout,it worked wonders..... It's tinker-time,Mate !! :dancing:

 
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RAYJAY
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Post by RAYJAY » Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 10:08 pm

Hambden Bob wrote:" The stoker thermostat is in the next room in the basement. "

I've been following this,and hadn't been able to put up anything any more helpfull than what these Good Guys have thrown at You. So,in re-reading it all,I caught this out of one of Your earlier posts.

In my eyes,what might also be happening is that with Your thermostat down in the basement,where Your stove is,the stat's getting satisfied on it's call for heat before Your upstairs living space has a chance to get what it needs. With that happening,Your Harman's controls start backing the stove down. I'd move that stat upstairs where it needs to be. Most likely not a thriller of a job,fishing a wall and all,but doing that,in conjunction with these other moves,may help You. Coalkirk's right,it's a Magnum,not a furnace. It is a Heatmaker if You can get the delivery right. You may want to even try disconnecting that 6" duct,remove Your material You used to block the plenum slots in the top front of the stove,and put Your cover plate back on. Let the stove crank it's butt off in the basement and send it right up to the open basement door and see which method heats better. I had to do that at a Ranch Home that was alot larger than Yours and due to the layout,it worked wonders..... It's tinker-time,Mate !! :dancing:
x2 on this
thermostat wire is cheap, just run a temp one up thru a closet if you can, you might be losing a ton of heat using the vent system, its not that big of a stove, j
never hooked one up to the whole house before we just cut a floor vent right above the stove ,

we used a sf250 before we got the mag stove in our old house, the sf250 kept the house really warm the mag was not as good as the sf250

 
Mark S5061
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Post by Mark S5061 » Wed. Jan. 20, 2016 3:26 am

RAYJAY wrote:
Hambden Bob wrote:" The stoker thermostat is in the next room in the basement. "

I've been following this,and hadn't been able to put up anything any more helpfull than what these Good Guys have thrown at You. So,in re-reading it all,I caught this out of one of Your earlier posts.

In my eyes,what might also be happening is that with Your thermostat down in the basement,where Your stove is,the stat's getting satisfied on it's call for heat before Your upstairs living space has a chance to get what it needs. With that happening,Your Harman's controls start backing the stove down. I'd move that stat upstairs where it needs to be. Most likely not a thriller of a job,fishing a wall and all,but doing that,in conjunction with these other moves,may help You. Coalkirk's right,it's a Magnum,not a furnace. It is a Heatmaker if You can get the delivery right. You may want to even try disconnecting that 6" duct,remove Your material You used to block the plenum slots in the top front of the stove,and put Your cover plate back on. Let the stove crank it's butt off in the basement and send it right up to the open basement door and see which method heats better. I had to do that at a Ranch Home that was alot larger than Yours and due to the layout,it worked wonders..... It's tinker-time,Mate !! :dancing:
x2 on this
thermostat wire is cheap, just run a temp one up thru a closet if you can, you might be losing a ton of heat using the vent system, its not that big of a stove, j
never hooked one up to the whole house before we just cut a floor vent right above the stove ,

we used a sf250 before we got the mag stove in our old house, the sf250 kept the house really warm the mag was not as good as the sf250
I have a few problems with removing the duct. One I got the stove last year from my stepdad for free so I do not have the cap to cap it off I don't think he has it either. But I might be able to get one from Harmen I''ll have to get a hold of him see if he can find one for me. Two my stove is in the back of the house it was the only place I could hook it up without ripping out the bathroom in the basement. In time I do want to move it in the front room but I have to wait till I can remodel my bathroom upstairs. My stove is above my bathroom one thing that help bring heat up is I have a laundry chute. I would like to put a vent in in the living room and run a duct to that but by doing that I would have to run the duct line through the bathroom in the basement or above it.

Do you guys use the stock thermostat you got with the stove or do you have a aftermarket thermostat? I was going put it upstairs and was looking into the flex drill bits to do it the right way but putting it in the closet seem like a good idea too since I have a closet in the living room pretty close to the thermostat for the furnace.

 
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Post by titleist1 » Wed. Jan. 20, 2016 7:13 am

Mark S5061 wrote:Do you guys use the stock thermostat you got with the stove or do you have a aftermarket thermostat?
I use this model. I think it was $25. Very simple digital variety, no programming capability, just a display and setpoint.

**Broken Image Link(s) Removed**

As mentioned, now that you have the stove about maxed out you can work on how to best distribute the heat. You will need a way for return air to get back to the basement where the stove is or the heat wont distribute upstairs real well.

Ours house is also a ranch which can be a challenge since the heat has to move horizontally to get to all the rooms. I experimented and ended up running flex duct from a floor register in the back bedroom to the basement floor. The cooler air drops from the bedroom and pulls the warmer air down the hallway from the LR to help level out the temps. There is about a 4 degree difference from LR which is by the basement stairway where the heat comes up to that back bedroom. Before the floor vent / flex duct method there was about a 10 degree difference.

 
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Post by captcaper » Wed. Jan. 20, 2016 7:27 am

I have a Super Mag... here in Northern NH in the basement of a Cape style home of 2000 sq ft. Built in 2004. It gets down to 40 below here and most nights well below zero F. The stove keeps the house warm as toast. No issues supplying the heat.. I have the temp probe in the living room upstairs. Front of stove air vents are blocked off totally. Hot air is sent via insulated flex duct work across the basement to a register I put in the living room.. The cold air return and to let the radiant heat off the stove upstairs I leave the cellar door open. I can feel the cooler air coming down the stairs and warmer air going up the stairs when I'm on them. Even with the cellar door closed it supplies plenty of heat. No need for a cold air return it seems.
I do have to tend it once a day.. in these temps of near zero we have been getting lately. But even at 30 below it doesn't run out of coal as long as I tend it once a day.

 
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Post by titleist1 » Wed. Jan. 20, 2016 7:53 am

captcaper....are you able to measure the temp of the distribution air going through your flex duct to the register?

I am curious what temp you are seeing about a foot off the stoker versus what is coming out the register.

 
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RAYJAY
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Post by RAYJAY » Wed. Jan. 20, 2016 1:20 pm

as for a thermostat any 2 wire will work, I use a Hampton bay from wall mart, think it was around 20 bucks ,

as for mounting the tstat I would just temp drill next to the kick molding in the closet and run the wire temp under the door and on the out side of the wall till you see where the best place it to mount it,

if you oil burner is a 2 wire you could also do a a/b type switch so it will work either oil or coal


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