First Post, Looking for Information.

Turbogeno wrote:John518: I bought my Vt. Castings from him and had a look at some land he had for sale about 10 yrs. ago. He actually planted the Anthracite seed in my head. I'll see what models he has to offer.

Flyer5: First Flame is even closer. I was there the other day.

My needs are different than most. I live alone. I can't even have a dog anymore because of unpredictable work hours. Replacing the oil furnace would work for most people but I only need hot water once or twice a day. As long as I have another source of heat I only turn the furnace on long enough to get the water jacket hot. I then have enough hot water for a shower, laundry or dishes. It's off 99% of the time. I have no need to have hot water all the time. Having 2-3 days heat in the stokers hopper would be great in winter when I go away for the weekend or for work. It would be easy to box off the area in the basement where I want the stoker. Then I wouldn't be heating the whole basement. I don't want to replace the wood stove upstairs although that would certainly be the most efficient thing to do.

Thanks, Geno

You'll love a stoker and it's steady heat. Going away for 3 days is easily done. You can do more then that if you lower the temp from 70 deg down to say 60 deg. These newer stoves are dependable and so simple now to run and maintain. I was worried about my 1st stoker being I hand fired for 20 odd years but I was mislead. We get 40 deg below here. My Harman sends every bit of forced hot air up stairs via a insulated duct because of the block off kit. Only radiant heat keeps the basement warm. You won't need to box off the area to get heat upstairs. The side of this stove has the radiant shields that work well to create a flow of hot air around the stove. Enough to keep the basement warm but upstairs toasty.
The feed motor and other parts are similar to Harmans pellet stoves so these are readily available.

Turbogeno wrote:John518: I bought my Vt. Castings from him and had a look at some land he had for sale about 10 yrs. ago. He actually planted the Anthracite seed in my head. I'll see what models he has to offer.

Flyer5: First Flame is even closer. I was there the other day.

My needs are different than most. I live alone. I can't even have a dog anymore because of unpredictable work hours. Replacing the oil furnace would work for most people but I only need hot water once or twice a day. As long as I have another source of heat I only turn the furnace on long enough to get the water jacket hot. I then have enough hot water for a shower, laundry or dishes. It's off 99% of the time. I have no need to have hot water all the time. Having 2-3 days heat in the stokers hopper would be great in winter when I go away for the weekend or for work. It would be easy to box off the area in the basement where I want the stoker. Then I wouldn't be heating the whole basement. I don't want to replace the wood stove upstairs although that would certainly be the most efficient thing to do.

Thanks, Geno

First Flame are good people as well. I just went by Adirondacks for location.

There's still some more work but the stove makes heat.

I started the install of my LL Pocono the other day. It was pretty easy as I put it in the same place I had a wood stove for years. I cleaned the double wall SS pipe and it’s in good condition. I had power on the other side of the wall so it was easy to put an outlet on the stoker side. I put the stoker together last night, hooked up the Coal-Trol, plugged it in and it seems to be working fine. This morning I hooked up the rest of the stovepipe, installed the manometer and barometric damper. I don’t think you’re supposed to use a pipe damper and a BD but I had one and it might come in handy for something. I need to do some carpentry before I put the hood on it so that will have to wait. It was about 70°f outside today so I fired it up with a low max burn rate and burnt it in. Everything worked as it should and there was plenty of smoke in the basement. I had 2 box fans ventilating the house and it cleared up pretty quickly. I’ll still burn wood in the shoulder months but there’s no doubt this stove will do the job in the real cold. All comments are welcome.

I’ve been pondering about a way to use a hot water coil. My oil fired hot water furnace doesn’t hold too much water in the jacket. (I wish it held more) I can pipe the hot water from the stove to it pretty easily. To keep it from boiling I can put a snap switch on the upstairs hot water baseboard heating pump. This way I’ll have hot water all the time and won’t have to turn on the oil burner all winter. My needs for DHW are minimal and if I need to I’ll be able to put things back to original very quickly. Plus, I already have everything I need with the exception of a couple valves and the stoker hot water coil. Do you guys think that’s OK ? All comments are welcome.

Thanks, Geno

Please remove the manual damper. It will serve no purpose except to maybe try to kill you one day. Or worse. They can close on their own and they will collect a lot of fly ash. But the rest of the install looks nice.

Hmmm, I guess my recollection about not using them was correct. I know I’ve read about people using them here. Maybe it was in reference to stoves with no combustion blower or something. It will come out, that’s easy, I want to make sure it’s all done right for safety, inspectors and insurance.

Correct the combustion blower is the big issue against manual dampers. The hand fired guys use them some.

The major jobs are done, mainly just little stuff left and some fine-tuning this winter.
Rather than letting the stove warm up the basement on its own I boxed in the stove with a 10’x9’ room and have a 6” duct coming out so I can better regulate how warm the basement stays. The hood is on and ducted to a register in a closet upstairs. The closet door has louvers. Return air will be an open basement door at the other end of the house. I may put some kind of grate and filter in the door in the future. There’s a fire damper on the main duct and an over temp safety in front of it that shuts off all power to the stove at 180°f. There is a 40”x100” concrete bump out off this end of the house that I used to store firewood in. There’s a hole in it on the outside that needs to be enlarged for coal bags. I can pull my trailer right up to it and drop bags of coal in. The door to the bump out in the basement is only a few feet from the stove. No more hauling them down the stairs. (I’ve only brought 2 tons in that way)

Questions:

1) I’m thinking of putting in a low temp shutdown in case the fire goes out while I’m away. I haven’t found any posts on how this can be done. I’m thinking a snap switch in or on the flue somewhere that opens on low temp and possibly wire it in series with the high temp switch in the duct. Got to think about that one. I may need the ability to bypass it till the stove warms up enough to close the switch. Any ideas?

2) The max coal-trol setting for this stove is 40. I assume since this stove is rated for 110,000 BTU’s I’ll get that at 40. I doubt I’ll need to run this stove at any more than ½ (20 on coal-trol) output to keep my house warm even in the coldest weather. If so should I put a damper on the combustion fan? The stove didn’t come with one but I’ve read numerous posts about others using them. If yes how do I adjust it for a proper burn?

All comments are welcome.

Turbogeno wrote: There’s a fire damper on the main duct and an over temp safety in front of it that shuts off all power to the stove at 180°f.

Questions:

1) I’m thinking of putting in a low temp shutdown in case the fire goes out while I’m away. I haven’t found any posts on how this can be done. I’m thinking a snap switch in or on the flue somewhere that opens on low temp and possibly wire it in series with the high temp switch in the duct. Got to think about that one. I may need the ability to bypass it till the stove warms up enough to close the switch. Any ideas?

2) The max coal-trol setting for this stove is 40. I assume since this stove is rated for 110,000 BTU’s I’ll get that at 40. I doubt I’ll need to run this stove at any more than ½ (20 on coal-trol) output to keep my house warm even in the coldest weather. If so should I put a damper on the combustion fan? The stove didn’t come with one but I’ve read numerous posts about others using them. If yes how do I adjust it for a proper burn?

All comments are welcome.

For your #1. That will work as you've described. Wires close to hot flue pipe are tricky though.

I'll let others comment on Coal-trol.

1) I’m thinking of putting in a low temp shutdown in case the fire goes out while I’m away. I haven’t found any posts on how this can be done. I’m thinking a snap switch in or on the flue somewhere that opens on low temp and possibly wire it in series with the high temp switch in the duct. Got to think about that one. I may need the ability to bypass it till the stove warms up enough to close the switch. Any ideas?

Don't mess around with this one for my money it's not worth it.

2) The max coal-trol setting for this stove is 40. I assume since this stove is rated for 110,000 BTU’s I’ll get that at 40. I doubt I’ll need to run this stove at any more than ½ (20 on coal-trol) output to keep my house warm even in the coldest weather. If so should I put a damper on the combustion fan? The stove didn’t come with one but I’ve read numerous posts about others using them. If yes how do I adjust it for a proper burn?

Coal-trols are wonderful and will take the stove down to barely on so again don't mess with this MIN=3 is good (5-8,000btu and that is one or two electric fires worth).

I never made MAX=40 and not to worry that becomes variable according to your coal supplier. I have over 6 years with a Pocono. Don't mess around with LLs design, it's every efficient and powerful. Just enjoy it. use good coal, service it well every spring and as far as I am concerned, new motors every 4-5 years or so, not that expensive. That is about the life of a shaded pole motor. Don't blame LL that is the motor world for you.

So the Poco was my first coal fire and I then bought another and ran the 2 in separate locations. I went on to buy three other LL stoves operating on similar principles so you could say I was a happy camper. Any day now the big 180K Anthraking gets fired up - can't wait. LOL