Alaska Channing III Need Help Very Nervous

I noticed that the bottom of my hopper and the sides of the bottom are hot and that when the stove is idling the fire looks to be where the grate meets the inside of the stove. Is this normal or is my grate not seated properly? I also dug my hand in the coal to the bottom of the hopper and it was hot and I had to pull it out real quick.

I'm a little concerned.

Thanks

What is your chimney system? is there enough draft, or is the fire getting air from the hopper through the coal?? What does your manometer say the draft is?



Do you remember where the holes in the grate stop?? is the fire well above these holes working towards the hopper?? If so, you may have a bad seal at the top of the grate..

Greg L

Do you have moisture condensing on the inside of the hopper lid ?

No moisture at all. I just shut it all down. Does the bottom of your hopper get hot when it runs? I scooped all the coal out of the hopper and the feed paddle was real hot. I didn't see any coal burning in the hopper which is good. I have a baro and manometer and all was set properly. It looks like the fire was too far back on the grate. The grate was not seated in the front grove that is on the underbelly of the grate. If you ever have taken the grate out you'll see a groove that runs around the outside of the grate. I tried to seat it but for some reason it dosen't seem to want to go any further forward. I'm going to get some light in there and see if there is something that is keeping the grate from falling into that groove.

Once you get the grate to seat,, use some furnace cement and seal the grove at the top of the grate where the fresh coal is fed over the grate.. you don't want any air getting in above the drilled holes in the grate.. is the bottom of the hopper sealed to the top of the stoker mechanism?? Should be some rope gasket material...

Greg L.

The hopper is sealed to the top of the stoker mech. Is it normal for the paddle that pushes the coal on the grate to be so hot? The problem I'm having is that the grate just slides forward if I grad it and pull on it. For some weird reason I can't get it to go into the stove forward enough so it will seat in the bottom grove. It looks like there is some extra rope gasket that might be in the way. I did paint my stove but I can't imagine that one coat of paint would make a difference. I'm very frustrated. I knew there was a problem because I never saw the fire that far back on the grate. I will try the furnace cement. Any ideas on getting this sucker to seat?

Once you get the grate to seat,, use some furnace cement and seal the grove at the top of the grate where the fresh coal is fed over the grate.. you don't want any air getting in above the drilled holes in the grate.. is the bottom of the hopper sealed to the top of the stoker mechanism?? Should be some rope gasket material...

traderfjp wrote:For some weird reason I can't get it to go into the stove forward enough so it will seat in the bottom grove.

trader, are you sure you don't need to push the grate back instead of forward. I don't have an Alaska stove but my LL you must push the grate back pretty hard to compress the gasket at the back end in order for the front of the grate to drop down so that the sheet metal plenum under the grate will be able to fit in the groove of the grate.

On some instalations there is a THIN rope gasket between the top of the grate and the steel of the 'coal chute' where the paddlle feeds fresh coal.. Maybe this gasket is too thick..
Is the grove in the bottom of the grate clean, is there a piece of coal or rust in the groove??
It won't hurt to push on the bottom of the grate toward the hopper quite hard, even a piece of 2x4 and a hammer to tap it rearward till it drops in the groove..
It is made to fit there,, it will go in there.. is the top of the grate where it mates to the 'coal chute' clean and flat,, not an big rust flakes, pieces of old gasket etc???

Greg L

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I tried hammering it a little and it wouldn't budge. I ended up removing the gasket where the grate meets the back of the stove. I had gasket sealer so I made a gasket from that and also cemented the groove in the bottom of the grate and the top where it meets the metal as u suggested. The cement says that it can be lit immediately so I'm going to fire it up. The grate is seated properly. I'm not sure why I couldn't get it back into place but there seemed to be metal in the casket so I think that it rusted and swelled. The fire looks good on the grate now. If I didn't know what it was suppose to look like I probably woudn't have been able to diagnose the problem.

Thanks for all the help

There may be another possibility. Check the mounting bolts/studs on the stoker body.The upper bolts/studs may be loose and pulling away from the stove body. The weight of the hopper and coal could possibly cause it. At any rate it wouldn't hurt to check them.

Thanks. It's all fixed and the fire is where it should be.

I had a similar issue the other night with my Console II , although my bin was not getting hot. I believe I had the feed too slow and the combustion fan up too high and the fire began creeping up towards the bin, actually lighting some of the coal at the base of the opening. I pulled some down with the shovel and increased the feed and turned the fan on low, problem solved for now. My theory was if I fed the coal slower and increased the air flow, I would get a longer burn out of my coal and use as much. I'm a novice at this so if anyone could give and advice about proper feeds and fan speeds would be much appreciated.

BTW-------It was in the 30's here the last 2 nights--I had the stove on low and it kept the house a steady 72.

My Alaska has a separate combustion fan that runs 24/7 on full speed, I can slow the burn w-a-y down without any problems. The fire should never move back past the air holes in the grate. If there is burning going on farther up the grate then there has to be air getting in through other unsealed areas.

I would shut the stoker down and check it out. One weekend before the end of the month I'm shutting down the Alaska for maintenance, I'm going to check the sealant around the grate as well. Since January it has been burning non-stop except for a few power outages when I wasn't here to power up the generator, out for a day once when I ran low on coal, and out when I did the stoker fan conversion.

I had a similar issue the other night with my Console II

Is this a paddle feed or a carpet like mine?

It's a carpet feed.

What is you guy mean when you say paddle feed or carpet feed. I've seen that posted here before and didn't think much of it I guess. What is the difference and is this an option when you order your stove? I don't recall hearing that term mentioned when I ordered mine.