Leisure Line Seeking Feedback on Coal-Trol Thermostat

Jerry & Karen · Post by **Jerry & Karen** » Mon. Jan. 23, 2006 8:12 pm

Does anyone have any feed back on the coal-trol digital thermostat ?

AL-53 · Post by **AL-53** » Mon. Jan. 23, 2006 8:51 pm

no..I am interested in 1 as I called to comp...asked questions..seems like a unit worth having....but I have to find out one thing first on something else before I get one....

I just want to control the feed rate on a Harman mag stoker...as in controling speed on the feed motor.....as a regular speed control will not work on that motor....I want to be able to control pushes..from 1 a minute to 3 a minute....or even 1 every 90 seconds....

If you are from Liesure stoves...you must know something about them..as you have them on your site....

Al

Jerry & Karen · Post by **Jerry & Karen** » Mon. Jan. 23, 2006 9:30 pm

can't tell you much about it working on a Harmon. No really sure how their feeder motor is set up

AL-53 · Post by **AL-53** » Mon. Jan. 23, 2006 9:55 pm

the Harman motor is a capicator start motor...and only function is to feed coal...if you go the harmans site and go to support and look at manual..it has a exploded view of parts plus motor....see if that helps....

AL

Post by **Richard S.** » Tue. Jan. 24, 2006 5:27 am

There is a member here from the company, perhaps he'll see this post if he visits.

AL-53 · Post by **AL-53** » Tue. Jan. 24, 2006 6:22 pm

Welcome to the forum ..Jerry

as said before..i am interested in the Coal-Trol...but need to explore something first ...speed control of the Harman pusher motor....

can you tell us any feedback you have gotten on stoves that you know of that have it installed....I talked to Neil the other day and asked a hundred questions....he seemed very confident in his product....but the Harman magnum feed motor is unlike the other's...liesure ...keystoker...Alaska..

I think Neil told me the pushes for coal demand are timed and not speed controlled..I think speed control and timing would be the ticket to the mag stoker...

can you give us any info on how the feed actually works on the coal-trol

thanks

Al

Jerry & Karen · Post by **Jerry & Karen** » Tue. Jan. 24, 2006 7:36 pm

Al, don't want to step on anyone's toes here, but the coal trol is the best thing to come out for the stoker stove market since Alaska made their first stoker way back when. The CT tells the feeder motor when and how often to run. Unlike all other thermostats, this unit maintains the size fire needed to keep the thermostat satisfied. All other stoker thermostats work like your gas or oil furnace, full blast- then nothing. This is cause for a big difference in temp. between on and off (about 8*) The coal trol will hold the temp with-in 1 or 2 *. Also, the blower (convection fan) works on a ramp so it never blows cold air. The computer of the CT knows how long it takes for the stove to make heat, then is starts the fan after a short period of time and runs it as fast as needed. Starting in May of 06, the Coal trol will come in every Leisure Line Stove. We are working on an igniter and hope to have it this year.
Jerry

AL-53 · Post by **AL-53** » Tue. Jan. 24, 2006 8:45 pm

Thanks Jerry...

After talking to Neil...I am confident in the product....I have to talk to Neil one more time...probably tommorow when I get out of work...I have a few more questions regarding the Harman magnum stoker for him.....if he can clarify a few question..then it is a go....I am looking at a speed control for the type of feed motor Harman uses..I believe it is a brush less capacitor start motor..I will call the company who makes it and see if it will work with the application I intend to use it for...

thanks for getting back to me

Al

oh...the stove works great now..but as you know..there is always room for improvement....

wally61 · Post by **wally61** » Wed. Jan. 25, 2006 7:39 am

will the coal trol work with the alaska stoves? also is the alaska stove a good stove ? I have the channing and am loving it. my gas furnace has not been on since election day. gas bills have been running around $90. compared to $300.burning about a 5 gallon bucket a day.

Post by **Richard S.** » Wed. Jan. 25, 2006 8:00 am

OK, sorry for the confusion, I split and merged the topics correctly.

Had to install a forum mod as phpbb doens't have a merge option.... Does now though.

Post by **nwaelder** » Wed. Jan. 25, 2006 9:11 am

Just to clarify, for stokers with separate feeder and combustion air motors, the Coal-trol Digital(TM) proportions the on and off time of the stoker. It does NOT vary the speed of the stoker motor for this type of stoker. For this reason, the type of stoker motor (capacitor start or otherwise) is irrelevant to application of the Coal-trol Digital.

A particular benefit of the Harman stove is that it already has standard 120VAC power cords to the motors. This makes for easy attachment to the Coal-trol Digital AC receptacles.

The Coal-trol has been tested electrically and burned on Leisure Line, Keystoker, Alaska, and Reading (Tri-burner). It has been tested on Harman, but not burned.

Hope this helps. Neil

WNY · Post by **WNY** » Wed. Jan. 25, 2006 2:58 pm

Hey Neil,
Everything on our Keystoker is hardwired, I had been in contact with you a while back when I was getting our stove. I didn't really want to unwire everything and put plugs and everything, void any type of warranty or mess the thing up. Ours seems to work rather well as is for the first season.

madrmc · Post by **madrmc** » Wed. Jan. 25, 2006 8:16 pm

This guy Paul posted on the 21 page forum and said he was an engineer and part owner. I posted the following response on that forum, but I thought it fits better over here. I guess Paul will chime in over here. I'm trying to figure out how it would work on an Alaska stoker.

Paul thanks for the response. I have some follow ups. If I understand what you're saying (and the setup manual), an Alaska stove would have TBRN=Y (as it only has one motor), and the feeder would run all the time, but the speed would vary. Is this correct?

As I understand the way the stock Alaska stoker works is that it runs for a certain amount of time during 5 minutes. As "3" is the middle setting it should run for 2 1/2 minutes out of 5 minutes although it would cycle on and off during that five minutes. However, the coal-trol would make the Alaska stoker run all the time, correct?

If I'm correct, what is the advantage of the constant feed? I would be concerned about a negative impact on stoker life if its running all the time.

On constant feed what is the range of motion of the stoker in the bottom of the hopper? As I understand on 5, the stoker goes all the way to one direction and then the other, but on the lower settings it just goes a little in one direction and then a little in the other direction. I think the goal of the varying motion is to evenly feed the burn grate so a constant line of fire is maintained, and so when its on 5, all of the coal is going out at a given distance before the end of the burn grate, regardless of whether its in the center or on the edge.

madrmc · Post by **madrmc** » Wed. Jan. 25, 2006 8:26 pm

Leisure Line wrote:Does anyone have any feed back on the coal-trol digital thermostat ?

No, but I'd be willing to be a Guinea Pig if Neil & Paul would kindly send me one out for publicity sake.

Post by **nwaelder** » Wed. Jan. 25, 2006 9:22 pm

WNY wrote:Hey Neil,
Everything on our Keystoker is hardwired, I had been in contact with you a while back when I was getting our stove. I didn't really want to unwire everything and put plugs and everything, void any type of warranty or mess the thing up. Ours seems to work rather well as is for the first season.

Yes, there is a fair amount of work to retrofit a Keystoker. We have one here for testing and know of a number that have been redone.

The bulk of the work is spent isolating the motors and attaching plug cords. However, the results are well worth it. (shameless promotion)

I don't blame for waiting on your warranty.

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