Reading Lehigh w/ Coaltrol Problems

OK, I finally figured out how to set the triburner to Y. In the manual it shows min at 18 and max at 30 I believe, but on the web site it shows 45 min and 99 max. Which is correct for my stove? Also, when the room gets up to temp, will the fan/feeder motor run at min at all times or will it cycle on and off at times?

I would start at 18 and 30. Set the min fire per the directions and then go on and set the max. These two adjustments are the most important you will set for proper operation over the full range of Tstat settings.

To set the min go into setup and toggle to min with stove burning, run at min until it stabilizes, then adjust gradually till you get a fire around a 1/2" wide and full across the grate. When you complete that setting then go to max and run it until it stabilizes, adjust to get fire full length of grate with only 1' or so ash at the end and no burning coal committing suicide off the grate into the ash pan. You can run the fan manually during the max set up to preclude the stove from overheating or simply adjust the Tstat to 10* over actual room temp to make the fan run on high.

Once the min and max are properly setup you should only have to do that again if your coal supply changes.

My thermostat is all set up but the fan keeps running at full speed. The max and Min are set as discussed, the temp is 80 degrees and the thermostat setting is set for 70 degrees, both night and day just to be sure. The TRBRN setting is set to Y as it should be. I started the procedure when the temp was 72 degrees and it just kept climbing to 80. Will my stove go into an idle mode at any point where the fan either stops altogether or spins at the minimum? If it turns off, how long will it stay off? If it stays off more than 20 +/- minutes the stove goes out. Any suggestions? One note, I ran it with the thermostat for about 40 minutes but went back to the rheostat for the evening because I am going to bed and don't want the stove to go out while I am sleeping.

How big is your fire on min? When you first start the stove there will be some overshoot, is it still running full blast this morning?

Matt,

I switched back to the rheostat for the evening because yesterday I came home and the fire was out and the ash pan was full of unburned coal with the fan and feeder ( one unit) were running full blast. That was when I reset everything and watched it for about an hour last night but I have not had time to sit with it for very long periods of time.

Check your PMs, too much going on here for an extended typoing session.

SOunds like the min needs to be increased if the fire went out.

Is there a feed adjust screw on the stoker? make sure that is screwed in all the way for max feed, the CoalTrol will regulate it.

Check and make sure you dont have the combustion and convection fan cords reversed.

Bk

With the "TBRN" set to "Y" (yes) you need set MAX = 99 and MIN=45. Adjust the square (usually painted red) screw to 1/2 - 5/8" toward the front of the stove, when measured from the acorn nut. Remember this is for a Tri-burner feeder where the motor controls both the feeder crank-arm and combustion fan underneath.

I spoke with him on the phone today Neal, I think he has it on the run now, gave him the correct updated numbers (forgot about the update online ) and the dimension for the carpet stroke. The main thing is verifying that the min will keep the fire lit, which he had not had time to verify yet.

The Min setting was set incorrectly at 40. Been gone all day with min set at 45 and we have an exact temp reading as set. Thanks for the information.

I still would like to know if the fan will sometimes stop altogether at times though. Also, I noticed when the min setting was at 40 the fan anted to turn but it was almost as though there wasn't enough juice to turn it. Is this how the thermostat actually works, by a voltage increase or decrease per demand?

Yes, the convection fan will stop when the feed is very low or 0.

The convection fall will vary depending on the feed rate (FR). It will come on very slow or speed up as needed depending on feed rate. It may come on full, then drop down the the lower settings also, to overcome friction starting slow.

However, If it's not moving at the lower feed rate, you have have to change your CFT? Convection fan Threshold, so it doesn't go below a certain speed.

Dave, after talking to kootch this morning I finally realized he has no convection fan, only the fan attached to the stoker motor.

Kootch I think it will stop, observe it when the unit is on min and that will confirm whether it stops or not. As we discussed this morning the stoker runs a certain number of seconds per 100, the only thing I'm not sure about is whether in triburner mode it runs all the time (and that is what you are asking about ). When you say it tries to start that sounds like you have the stoker hooked up to the convection fan outlet. So you should is that you have the stoker motor plugged into the right plug. Put the unit in test mode and verify that the stoker runs when it says stoker on the Tstat. or you can just check the labels on the Coal-Trol.

Triburn mode control of the stoker is a mix of methods. If we assume for a moment a full range set of speeds, MIN=1 and MAX=99: FR from 0 to 40 will be time proportioning, FR from 41 to 99 will be speed controlled. This split is needed since we can't run the stoker motor slower than the 40 setting reliabily.

Now, with MIN=45 and MAX=99, the FR's are shifted to the range where speed control is always used, so in this case there will be no off-time for the stoker motor, just speed variation. Kootch bumped his MIN up to 45 because at 40 he was getting unreliable stoker motor turning, which was the right call. While our minimum speed control speed of 40 is usually good enough, there are some motors that have problems there so using a higher MIN is necessary. You can compensate for this by moving the skew/lobe to reduce the stoker stroke if you like.

Triburners are more difficult to get dialed in than a traditional two motor stoker setup. Requires more fiddling with the screw/lobe and the MIN/MAX to get the right balance for your stove.

Thanks for the explanation Paul, I was unsure on how they worked on triburner mode since I never burned a stove that way.

Best advice for anyone burning a triburner is to add the external/separate combustion fan and run it like a real stoker!