How Hot Is Your Magnum Feed Motor?

Could someone with a Harman Magnum put your hand on your feed motor and let me know how hot it is. Mine seems very HOT, too hot to keep your hand on except for a few seconds. Was getting a loud squeal like a dry bearing, but has since stopped.
Stay warm, Jimmy

Have a one year old Magnum that I recently fired up in the garage (will put it in the house next year to replace the Alaska). Pushing 2 dots and running enough to keep garage (400 SQ FT with 13 FT ceiling, still not completely sealed up) at 60 F (outside temp is 26 right now). Motor is definitely too hot to keep my hand on longer than a couple seconds! No noises except that rythmic slight clunk that I have heard with all Harmons.

Hope that helps.

Thanks just wanted to know if it's normal. Don't need any problems and have to turn the oilburner on
Stay Warm, Jimmy

Jimmy, got to thinking about the high temps in the stoker area for pushing only 2 dots. That can't be good for the motor or the grease in the gear box for that matter. Put a 500 cfm muffin fan at the back of my stove on a stand, removed the stoker motor cover and the motor is now cool to the touch. Since the stove is in a corner that moves the heat off the stove nicely into the garage area, so there is a double bonus.

Of course when it goes in the house that will be too loud, so looked at one of the 4" muffin fans I have laying around and will fit on the cover perfectly. Will post a pic once I get it installed.

Seems like the more I get into burning coal the more fans and electricity I am using! :-k

howdy!

i've been burning my new Harman mag stoker for a little over a month. I seem to learn something new everyday!

i grabbed my digital laser mini temp gun and shot my feeder motor....100*. not hot to the touch at all. and she's been running ALOT! i'm pushin 2.5 dots. but I've customized things a bit...

on 1 minute
off 13
extended timer and the combustion blower run together for 9.

but, that primarly was when it was warm out. now that it is cold, she pretty much runs all the time. seldom does it shut off. it's been in the teens and 20's here....house is 2400 square foot.

i've been burning about 45 pounds of rice coal a day.

how much are you guys burning?

~E~

Well Im glad this came up! Been running my Magnum Stoker for only 3 days and I IMMEDIATELY picked up on how hot the feed motor runs! So I tested it at 190f.... that seems too hot, and ESPECIALLY since ericjack is seeing only 100 degrees...

I had tried to find a phone number for Harman on their web site to ask about that, and there is no way to reach them (that I could find).

RI, I did notice that the stoker motor temp seems to increase at the lower settings when the coal is burning further back toward the fire Brick. When there is a lot of coal being pushed, the fire seems to move toward the front and the stoker motor is cooler. Have been too lazy so far to get out the temp probe to take a reading!

Not sure what that means, just thought I would add that observation.... :-k

After reading this post I went and checked my feed motor..it is not all that hot..it is warm..but not hot so I can not hold my hand on it....I am pushing 2 1/2 dots as winter is here..cold out and snow...temps were 16 last night...I also have the cover off the motor /pusher assembly...the gear box is not hot at all....

When I am working in the shop and have the compressor going..I will shut the stove down for a sec and blow out the motors and squirrel cages on the blowers...they do seem collect dust and dog hair ...I also oil the bearings with a drop of machine oil...

Al

Well I just heard my hot feed motor making some noise, like a rattling type sound. I shut it off and went to get the camera to take a movie to post (will post that later) and it was quieter after not running for a few mins, just a faint rattle.

While the gearbox is hot too, it seems hottest toward the back.

I'll call a local dealer tomorrow, and also maybe that motor is available from Graingers if not the dealer?

Also, does anyone know how much that feed motor would cost? I'd get a spare if it were cheap enough, but somehow I think it aint cheap!

Thanks

mine is running 120-160 depending on the location.

i have a lpg central hot air furnace that was fed by two 100 gal tanks. the gas supplier informed me with a bill of a minimal usage fee. I called him and we hee hawed for sometime and then I told him to yank the tanks.

i tied my Harman mag hot air outlet into the duct work of the gas furnace. if anything went wrong with Harman all I had to do was to hook up the blower and pull the plate I had to install to keep the air from short circuiting and fire up the gas unit.

after getting off the phone with the guy I said to myself" the only thing I need to keep coal burning is the feed motor." so I bought a spare and I think I paid 130. for it but that was seven years ago. its still in the box

squirt some oil in the bearing caps and see if the temp drops at the same firing rate.

BurninCoalInRI wrote:Well I just heard my hot feed motor making some noise, like a rattling type sound. I shut it off and went to get the camera to take a movie to post (will post that later) and it was quieter after not running for a few mins, just a faint rattle.

While the gearbox is hot too, it seems hottest toward the back.

I'll call a local dealer tomorrow, and also maybe that motor is available from Graingers if not the dealer?

Also, does anyone know how much that feed motor would cost? I'd get a spare if it were cheap enough, but somehow I think it aint cheap!

Thanks

The feed motor is available from Graingers.....It is a Fasco motor....they have the motor with the gear box attached...I forgot the rpm output...but they have a few to select from...it was close to 200.00 I believe last time I looked....ask the dealer how much from harman..I got some parts from Harman and was surprised how cheap they were....

AL

just checked mine 97 degrees with a laser temp gun..Pushing 2 dots and been running pretty good the last 2 weeks.Stove outputing around 400 degrees.I also have the motor cover off as well..

well I guess nearly 200 degrees (and a rattle) means something that isnt good. price at local dealer is $260, could take several weeks to get it "depends on when the truck gets here"... ever heard of UPS?? lol

Al, its not a Fasco. The blowers are fasco, but not the feed motor. Searching by some of the numbers on the sticker, I found a reference to the feed motor online at a rebuilder site, but not the actual motor. Gear motors are very common and I think Graingers would have that motor, or one very similar. Need to know the output RPM. Its SLOW, like 2rpm or something.

BurninCoalInRI

Mine is a fasco..I looked..they may have switched motor suppliers....

Mine is simular to the top one here
**Broken Link(s) Removed**I am not sure what the RPM is..can not see all the details on the label on the motor...but it does say fasco....

But mine seems more than 2 RPM....

I think I timed it once and it did 8 pushes a minute....not sure...been a while since I done it..when it rides the bottom fork it is a push..top fork is the return....pretty sure it goes that way...

just time the rotation of the bearing riding the fork...

curious now as to what every one has for a RPM ..to see if Harman did any changes....

AL

2004 model, has Dayton, 4.5 RPM per the name plate and verified by observation and timing it.

Electric motor wharehouse carries the dayton line of parallel shaft gear motors and a 4 rpm complete assembly is $267.