Newbie help- Leisure Line stoker, trouble lighting

HELP...

I've been reading around the forum and as far as I can see, I'm doing everything right, but I've been through seven starters so far and my patience is running pretty darn thin....

Long story short- The beast of a stove that sits in my living room is a Leisure Line. I'm not sure which model it is- It may be a Pocono. It's not very big but when it's running (grumble), it does crank out the heat, to the point that we normally use it as the main heat for the house, but only once the temps drop low enough so that the oil-powered furnace is running pretty much constantly, usually 30 or so. (The house is 200 years old. The insulation is non-existent in the first floor.)
Well, my ex, who was the main coal guy in the house, walked out about six months ago... leaving me with a stove that I have only a basic idea how to start, run and maintain. What I knew about coal stoves before this season was that you put a bag in the hopper every second or third day and emptied the ash pan. That was about it. I've learned a lot in the past week or so, both from reading around this forum and finding a manual online.

Last night my neighbor came down and we spent 3 hours disassembling, cleaning and reassembling pretty much the entire fan mechanism in the back. We freed the feeder plate which was rusted nearly solid from some very wet coal my ex bought last year (rice coal in plastic bags... UGH.). We cleaned the rust scale from the inside of the hopper, emptied the hopper entirely, cleaned out all the dust and crap built up in there and refilled it with a fresh bag. Vacuumed the space under the burn plate, sucking out all the ash that was clogging the holes. Started 'er up... And had a good burn going. I was impressed at how much better the coal burns when the holes are cleaned out!! I went to bed... And woke up to a cold stove.

Everything SEEMS to be working the way it should. The feeder is feeding, fans are blowing, we had a solid burn, but it keeps going out. I can't understand what's wrong? We've always had a fairly good draft in the chimney- We used to burn wood in a small wood stove (the chimney's been thoroughly cleaned since them- my ex is a fireman so he didn't take chances with creosote build up), and have been burning the coal for about six years with no problems. Today I even took the stove pipe off the top of the stove and the elbow that goes into the chimney and cleared out about an inch of ash that had built up in the horizontal pipe. Basically, I can't find a reason for it not working.

Does anyone have advice that might save me a $90 service call from the local dealer? As a single mom working full time and in college, that puts a pretty hard dent in my budget, especially with the holidays around the corner.

Thanks for any advice you can give, and thanks for this awesome forum. I've already learned that I have a lot of catching-up maintenance work to do come Spring to make this stove work better for a long time.

-Mary

Give me a call at the shop , Dave 570-752-1811

Just superb service Flyer5.

Kevin

Mary, give Dave a call and don't panic. I had this happen a couple times last year, the best I could figure is I kinda had a dead spot in my coal feed and the stove was at a idle. I had cleaned every thing out and got a fire going but with the stove at idle, I think there was a space on the carpet that didn't have enough coal on it and it was not pushing enough coal at the time and the fire died. Now when I get the fire burning I go in and kick the feed on for a couple of minutes and have not had the problem since. Hope this kinda makes sense to you.

It's the only thing I came up with in my case. But Dave will let us know if my thoughts are not possible. You got a good stove there with a good company to back it up and a whole lot of great people here to help you.

Welcome to the forums!!

About an hour after posting I gave it the old college try one more time... and it's running now. I turned the feed down to the minimum, and that seems to have done the trick. I'll be calling Dave anyway though, because I do need advice on maintaining the darn thing. This whole running-a-house by myself thing is brand-new. 17 years of marriage did not prepare mfe for this. But I'm figuring it out as I go.

Thanks!!
-Mary

Thanks all. It was going great... until I adjusted the feed. Now it's out and I can't get it started again. I put a call into Dave... hope he can tell me about the settings on the darn thing. I'm ready to pitch it to the curb and put in a wood stove. I KNOW how to burn wood. :-p

Hell, if you're going to do that, throw it down Cortland way--LOL Mary, we all go through a learning curve which when done isn't as complex as we thought. I'm sure Dave will get you straightened out. Many of us on the FORUM have come from a wood burning past. Once this gets straightened out--I hate to say this, but you might thank the woodpecker that walked. Just for the record, my ex walked out after 26 yrs--a country boy/girl can survive

Of course Dave is your best bet but I have two Pocos and trust me wood is not a smart retrograde. Love my Pokes. If you have the time a few photos will help us all get you going. There are very few bad coal stoves especially from PA, but there are many that the owners have had to struggle with to learn - me included. Things that we are looking for.... chimney or Powervent, is it a Pocono at all, coaltrol driven (more on that if you are but I doubt it). Can you cope with a happy snaps moment?

PS fred and title are sleazes but harmless ones.

Damn, from the horses (pun intended) mouth. Don't mind us MS , playing seems to take some of the pressure out of a SEEMINGLY real bad situation.

Damn, from the horses (pun intended) mouth.

Mary, more board banter we are both horse farmers. I stand by the sleaze comment but fred is a very knowledgeable and experienced one. Be of good cheer, newbies are pouring onto the board daily and as far as I remember we got everyone up and running and a friendlier crowd would be tough to find.

LOL

Well I'm in a slightly better mood... I *think* I've got it going again. Got to check in a bit- I forgot the dam last time I tried starting it. Hopefully it works this time.

Since it's the only source of heat at the moment, I get a little twitchy when it goes out. Being a single mom makes me a little bit nuts. lol

And ye-eah... I can't honestly say he didn't do me a favor. I've got a lot of anger built up, but if I do switch to wood at least I'll have the outlet of chopping wood...

switch to wood at least I'll have the outlet of chopping wood...

Chop away and sell the wood for good money..... and buy coal with the proceeds.

makes me a little bit nuts. lol

You'll fit in here just fine I can tell.

MarySthewriter wrote:LOL

Well I'm in a slightly better mood... I *think* I've got it going again. Got to check in a bit- I forgot the dam last time I tried starting it. Hopefully it works this time.

Since it's the only source of heat at the moment, I get a little twitchy when it goes out. Being a single mom makes me a little bit nuts. lol

And ye-eah... I can't honestly say he didn't do me a favor. I've got a lot of anger built up, but if I do switch to wood at least I'll have the outlet of chopping wood...

Hi Mary,
Another thing to do is about 20 mins before lighting it set the temp for about 5 or 10 degrees below the actual room temp. The lower feed rate will also help not push the fire into the ash pan. Get the starter bag or what ever you are using buried under the coal and back about 1/2 -3/4 of the way on the grate.
You will get it.