Starting the Stove Using the Coal-Trol

Starting my stove, a Pocono BV, I just set the coal trol to Feed 10, made sure there was coal on the grate, threw a mouse on top with some coal on top of that and lit her up. The convection fan almost blew the mouse bag out but she went. Anyone use different settings on their control when lighting their stove?

I dont change any settings on the Coal-trol, I just bury the mouse under a pile of coal half way up the grate, light it, close the door, and turn on the power switch. Presto... !

Just make sure your set temp is below the room temp, so it doesn't keep feeding and push your mouse or hot coals off before it gets burning good.

I actually turn the stoker off (with a separately wired switch) until it gets going, but a mouse or charcoal works for me.

I just set the TS2 to Min Feed and light the stove. Shovel in a few scoops of coal once the charcoal is going then put the stat back to normal.

WNY wrote:Just make sure your set temp is below the room temp, so it doesn't keep feeding and push your mouse or hot coals off before it gets burning good.

I actually turn the stoker off (with a separately wired switch) until it gets going, but a mouse or charcoal works for me.

And thats what happened.......pushed some of the coal off the grates into the ash pan.

The first 2 times I started mine, I used the Feed 10. The last time I just buried the mouse on the grate, put the dam in place, lit the fuse and turned on the control box without turning on the Feed 10 at the thermostat. After a few minutes I removed the dam. That was it. I think next time I have to restart I will try it without the dam.

Mark

i use lump coal. First i unplug the feeder motor. Then for lighting the stove i use a horseshoe band (a band of metal U shaped about 1 in tall) throw a hand full of lump coal on th grate. I light it with my handy dandy propane torch and let it burn for about 2 min. Once good and hot i throw a shovel of rice coal on top of the coals 2 min more then plug in the feeder. this works the best for me. i do not make the band so tight that the coal cant push it off. the next time i dump the ashes i retrieve the horseshoe.

av8r wrote:I just set the TS2 to Min Feed and light the stove. Shovel in a few scoops of coal once the charcoal is going then put the stat back to normal.

I should amend this...I no longer set the stat to anything other than "on"...put some cowboy charcoal about 1/2 way up the grate, turn the stove on, light the charcoal, let it get going and throw on a few handfuls of coal.