Alaska Kodiak Stoker II Coal Stove

I got a used Alaska Kodiak Stoker II Coal Stove and have been using it the last week almost. The thing works great, actually too great, haha!

It gets my house too hot. I try turning the tab on the feeder back to lessen the amount of coal being fed but not sure it's helping or i;m not turning it enough.

One thing I noticed from other posts here and some stuff I found elsewhere, it seems like I may be missing a part?

I have a rheostat with hi, lo, and off settings which seems to control the blower fan, but not the combustion fan or whatever you call it?
I've seen photos of a 2nd control unit that goes from 1 to 5 which seems to control the combustion fan but I do not have this.

Am I doing something wrong or am I missing that 2nd control box? Do I need the 2nd control box?

I've seen that 2nd control box for sale in a local shop that sells parts for the Alaska stoves and its $145. I also have heard of other units like coal-trol but that is even more expensive, like $350. I don't have much money to put into this stove.

If your stoker looks like this one.
It has an old Tri-Burner stoker in it. This is what Alaska used until they changed it. The Tri-Burner is a good stoker, you can find tons of info about it on this forum by doing a search.

One thing the Tri-Burner does not allow for is a thermostat. The only control is the rheostat. If your rheostat is controlling the distribution blower, it is plugged into the wrong place. Find the stoker plug and the distribution blower plug and swap them.

-Don

That does look like mine, I'll have to double check though.
Mine has a sticker and there is a date on it of 1986, like inspected on or approved on that date or something.

StokerDon wrote:
One thing the Tri-Burner does not allow for is a thermostat. The only control is the rheostat. If your rheostat is controlling the distribution blower, it is plugged into the wrong place. Find the stoker plug and the distribution blower plug and swap them.

-Don

I used one of these on a TriBurner for a wall/room thermostat.
It works great w/ any triburner stoker.

Any Reading Stove Dealer should have these. Maybe Alaska Stove also, IDK

http://www.heetinc.com/Thermostat.html

Some photos from my stove
I switched the cables around like you said and it is now controlling the combustion fan instead of blower fan.

i lowered the setting and the temp did go down over night. doesn't seem to be burning as hot as it was before now.

There should be 2 rheostats. One controls the combustion blower/feed and the second controlling the convection or distribution blower. The combustion/feed is the most important control to have working. You could just plug the convection blower into an outlet or extension cord as you don't have much need for adjusting the speed. Controlling the combustion/feed will give you temperature control as well as the cam lobe for the carpet. On my stove one turn of the cam lobe is roughly equal to one full turn of the rheostat. When you make adjustments it takes quite a while to notice any difference.

Linc wrote:There should be 2 rheostats. One controls the combustion blower/feed and the second controlling the convection or distribution blower. The combustion/feed is the most important control to have working. You could just plug the convection blower into an outlet or extension cord as you don't have much need for adjusting the speed. Controlling the combustion/feed will give you temperature control as well as the cam lobe for the carpet. On my stove one turn of the cam lobe is roughly equal to one full turn of the rheostat. When you make adjustments it takes quite a while to notice any difference.

I got to disagree with you here Linc.

I believe he should leave it the way it is currently wired. Controlling the convection fan via the rheostat makes the most sense with his current setup.. His current rheostat with only low, high, and off wouldn't control the combustion air properly. Most here believed that allowing the combustion air to remain constant and only adjusting the feed via the cam lobe resulted in a more complete burn of the coal in a triburner set up.

I do agree with you on the need and use of the 2 rheostats that were originally on my Alaska and yours.

On my Alaska stoker I would go from low fire to max burn in 4 turns of the cam lobe. Different coal may require more or less cam lobe adjustments.

Years ago some members here would hot rod their stoves by removing the fan squirrel cage from the triburner and installing a separate bathroom fan blowing up through where the squirrel cage used to be. They would then control the bathroom fan speed with a separate rheostat. This end result would have the stove using 3 separate rheostats. 1 to control carpet feed speed, 1 to control combustion air, and the last to control the convection air. Which coincidentally is the way most modern stove models operate today.

I will note here that you cannot use a conventional light dimmer switch as a rheostat for controlling the fan speed. You need a motor controlling rheostat. They are not the same animal or type of rheostat.

Rick

Rick 386 wrote:

Linc wrote:There should be 2 rheostats. One controls the combustion blower/feed and the second controlling the convection or distribution blower. The combustion/feed is the most important control to have working. You could just plug the convection blower into an outlet or extension cord as you don't have much need for adjusting the speed. Controlling the combustion/feed will give you temperature control as well as the cam lobe for the carpet. On my stove one turn of the cam lobe is roughly equal to one full turn of the rheostat. When you make adjustments it takes quite a while to notice any difference.

I got to disagree with you here Linc.

I believe he should leave it the way it is currently wired. Controlling the convection fan via the rheostat makes the most sense with his current setup.. His current rheostat with only low, high, and off wouldn't control the combustion air properly. Most here believed that allowing the combustion air to remain constant and only adjusting the feed via the cam lobe resulted in a more complete burn of the coal in a triburner set up.

I do agree with you on the need and use of the 2 rheostats that were originally on my Alaska and yours.

On my Alaska stoker I would go from low fire to max burn in 4 turns of the cam lobe. Different coal may require more or less cam lobe adjustments.

Years ago some members here would hot rod their stoves by removing the fan squirrel cage from the triburner and installing a separate bathroom fan blowing up through where the squirrel cage used to be. They would then control the bathroom fan speed with a separate rheostat. This end result would have the stove using 3 separate rheostats. 1 to control carpet feed speed, 1 to control combustion air, and the last to control the convection air. Which coincidentally is the way most modern stove models operate today.

I will note here that you cannot use a conventional light dimmer switch as a rheostat for controlling the fan speed. You need a motor controlling rheostat. They are not the same animal or type of rheostat.

Rick

A bit confused by your statement Rick.

I believe he should leave it the way it is currently wired. Controlling the convection fan via the rheostat makes the most sense with his current setup.

Right now I have the rheostat controlling the combustion fan and the blower (top) fan is constant on high, as per recommendation of McGiever's post.

His current rheostat with only low, high, and off wouldn't control the combustion air properly.

But here it sounds like my current rheostat isn't going to control it properly?

Most here believed that allowing the combustion air to remain constant and only adjusting the feed via the cam lobe resulted in a more complete burn of the coal in a triburner set up.

So should I move the rheostat back to controlling the blower (top) fan instead of combustion fan, and have the combustion fan on full high speed?

[quote="Mike1911
A bit confused by your statement Rick.

I believe he should leave it the way it is currently wired. Controlling the convection fan via the rheostat makes the most sense with his current setup.

Right now I have the rheostat controlling the combustion fan and the blower (top) fan is constant on high, as per recommendation of McGiever's post.

Yes Mike, I would leave it the way it is currently set up with the rheostat controlling the convection fan

His current rheostat with only low, high, and off wouldn't control the combustion air properly.

But here it sounds like my current rheostat isn't going to control it properly?

Correct. IF you want to put in a rheostat, get one that has more control like a dial type rather than lo, high, and off.

Most here believed that allowing the combustion air to remain constant and only adjusting the feed via the cam lobe resulted in a more complete burn of the coal in a triburner set up.

So should I move the rheostat back to controlling the blower (top) fan instead of combustion fan, and have the combustion fan on full high speed?[/quote]

If it was me, that is what I would do. If you have the top convection blowing too fast over a cooler stove, you will just be blowing cool air around. In my situation with my stove, I kept the combustion blower/feed motor running at top speed or directly wired and would only adjust the cam lobe to control the amount of coal being fed on the carpet plate. So if you have your stove running at max burn, turn your current rheostat to high. If you are burning it with less feed, you might want to turn the rheostat to lo.

Rick with my comments in red.

EDIT BY RICK:

My Bad Mike,

Taking another look at the pic of the rheostat, it does look like you have the dial type. So yes you could leave that connected to control the combustion blower/feed mechanism. But I would add another variable rate rheostat to the convection fan. As I stated, too much convection air will feel like you are just blowing cold air off the stove.

Rick

Thanks Rick.

Another question:
my stove is in my basement and there are 3 rooms down there. The stove is on 1 side of the basement and the other rooms don't get as warm.

Here is a diagram of my basement: My upstairs rooms are basically the same layout
Living room and kitchen are above the big open room where the stove is located
Bedroom is above the top right basement room
Bathroom and office are above the bottom right basement room
Bedroom and office and bathroom are cooler than the living room and kitchen

black lines = walls
red box = stove
green lines = doors
blue box/lines = stairs with door at top
yellow box = small square hole at top left of wall
gray box = floor grate in ceiling/floor above the stove to my living room - far left would be in the floor to get more upstairs, the one by the stairs would be a grate at the top of the wall to that bottom room.
brown boxes = areas where I am thinking about putting grates to increase airflow

Correction: The blue line at the far right should be green, thats a door at the end of the hallway to the outside.

I keep the living room grate open and leave the basement door open and that heats my living room and kitchen very well.

Any tips on getting more heat back in other rooms?

Mike,

Air flow is always the key to warming the whole house. It is usually easier and I personally think better to have the proper returns for the cooler air to migrate back to the stove to be reheated.

You could put a grate/return air in the far upstairs rooms to get the heat to return to the basement. And possibly put fans in then=m to force the cold air downstairs. The warm air will rush in to replace the cooler air.

Rick