LOTS of Un-Fired Coal

I recently purchased a new Legacy Super Magnum II stoker stove. We fired it up for the first time about a week ago. The weather at the time was very mild and I had no issues with it. Since this time, the weather has gotten much colder and I've turned the room temp up to 75 degrees. My issue is that I have a LOT of unburnt or partially burnt coal falling into my catch pan. I've adjusted the feeder up and back and have yet to get this problem corrected. I've also tried adjusting the air intake the blows up threw the coal with no success. Any ideas of what I'm doing incorrectly? Do I want to allow more or less air under the coals to help it burn faster? Its like I can't throttle the feeder back far enough. Thanks inadvance!

D, post some pix of ash--it'd help to see what ya got.

Here are some pictures...hope these help some....The top one shows the coal before I turned the feed back to 1 and the stove temp way down. Picture 2 shows after I've turned the feed back to 1 and stove temp down

You definitely have a problem. Perhaps the controls are not setup correctly.

What does your dealer think?

I haven't contacted the dealer at this point, they were NOT helpful at all at even setting up the stove let alone troubleshooting problems. I came here first. Could the air being blown from under the coal cause this issue if it is too much or not enough?

If coal is being pushed faster than it can burn, it would seem more air is needed.

Call AHS, they will help you out. Something isn't right.
How about a pic of the fire?

Here is a picture of my fire. I'm thinking my air to feed rate ratio just isn't adjusted right. I'll give AHS a call.

Thanks.

So after all this, I was able to talk to Phil at AHS, he was SUPER helpful and helped me diagnose that my feeder clean-out was left open during installation, which was not allowing enough air to pass through the coal to keep it from burning fully. Great customer service from these guys! Hoping this fixes my issues! Thanks all.

dietz18d wrote:So after all this, I was able to talk to Phil at AHS, he was SUPER helpful and helped me diagnose that my feeder clean-out was left open during installation, which was not allowing enough air to pass through the coal to keep it from burning fully. Great customer service from these guys! Hoping this fixes my issues! Thanks all.

I question if something is sticking on the grate. Why is the fire not even across. Also, fire looks to be near Max rated feed . You want minimum feed needed, yet heat the house. If your idle fire is minimum, you may want a little bigger idle fire for quicker response when coming off idle. It looks like your feed is up, and idle fire low, not igniting fresh coal quick enough when there's a call for heat. This would push coal off the grate before it has a chance to ignite, and burn.

So, Slow down feed, and increase idle fire. As the temps get colder, turn the feed up JUST ENOUGH to satisfy. I'm not familiar with your stove. Just going by pictures.

Glad to hear they helped you out. Their customer service is much improved over what the Harman dealers are know for.

Yes if the cleanout lever is left open it will rob the combustion air from going through the coal bed. keep an eye on the ash pan and tweak the feed rate / air as needed.

There should be about 1" of burned up coal ash on the end of the grate as it drops to the pan. If there is more than that you need to speed up feed / lessen air. If burning coal / unburned coal is dropping into the ash pan then slow down feed / increase air. It's a balancing act until you get it set up, then there is really not much messing with it unless you change coal suppliers or get into an area of the coal pile with lots of fines....or something similar.

Happy Heating!!

I love a happy ending!

dietz18d wrote:So after all this, I was able to talk to Phil at AHS, he was SUPER helpful and helped me diagnose that my feeder clean-out was left open during installation, which was not allowing enough air to pass through the coal to keep it from burning fully. Great customer service from these guys! Hoping this fixes my issues! Thanks all.

Ah HA!

I thought that fire looked a bit lazy. That was a case of not enough combustion air to burn the coal before it fell of the grate. Glad it work out.

-Don

StokerDon wrote:

dietz18d wrote:So after all this, I was able to talk to Phil at AHS, he was SUPER helpful and helped me diagnose that my feeder clean-out was left open during installation, which was not allowing enough air to pass through the coal to keep it from burning fully. Great customer service from these guys! Hoping this fixes my issues! Thanks all.

Ah HA!

I thought that fire looked a bit lazy. That was a case of not enough combustion air to burn the coal before it fell of the grate. Glad it work out.

-Don

Yes, looks lazy to me as well.