Recommended Feeder Rates

Hi,
For a short period of time I was really disappointed with the leisure line stove I have.
The primary reason was that at the recommended max feeder rate of 40, the stove puts out less than 30,000 BTU and probably in the low 20,000 Btus.

However after the first cold spell where my house temp went down to 54 degrees and basement temp to 40 (and this not heating the whole house)
I turned the max feeder rate up to 50.
The next cold snap the house temp only went down to 57 and the basement to 44.
Since then I have experimented with higher feeder rates.
I turned it up to 80 one day for about 4 hours.
I got much hotter bigger fire.
The ashes at this settings were still about an inch from the edge of the grate vs maybe 2-3inches at 40.
The flue temp was still only 130 degrees or so above the barometric damper but that was maybe 20 degrees higher than normal.
The air coming out of the duct into my living room was closer to hot than lukewarm as previously.

You would think that running at 80 should double the heat output of running at 40.

I think right now my break even point when the feed rate is set at 40max is average daily temp of around 10 degrees.
This will heat my house to 62 which is where I have it set.
This means the stove at that setting can handle 52 degrees of temp difference in my house - obviously every one else's will vary.

I think the worst average daily temp I'm likely to get here is 20 below.
I think we've had days where the low temp is around -30 and the high is only around -10 - that's were the 20 below comes from.

That's another 30 degrees of temp difference which in theory the stove should easily handle if the heat output is doubled at 80.

What I am curious about though is, why is the recommended feed rate only 40.

Are there any drawbacks to running at higher than forty as long as your getting a complete burn.

No drawbacks that I can think of, the stoker is designed to burn the full length of the grate. If you don't have high flue temps, then you are fine.

You have your stove in the basement, are you pulling the air to be heated off the floor, or do you have some form of cold air return duct set up so the stove reheats the air from upstairs?? Pulling the cold 55* air off the basement floor greatly lowers the temp of the heated air, and lowers the available heat for the upstairs.

Greg L

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Hi,
There are no draw backs. As long as you don't have red coals coming off of the end, then run it where it works best. The reason that the min and max numbers are a variable is because of a situation as yours. If my memory is correct, you retroed that thermostat on an old Hyfire, or maybe I'm thinking of someone else. Either way, the feeder motor speed on the old Leisure Lines were 1 rpm. The new motors are 1.6 rpm, hence the variable set points. Also with the different sizing and hardness of coal you need to recalibrate the min and max. A good way to check how large your fire can get with the max setting, go into setup, press the menu botton until you get to max, and then leave it there for 1.25 hrs. When you place the thermostat on the max setting, it will over ride all thermostat settings and maintain the max fire. Only do this for the period of 1.25 hrs. If your fire is dumping red coals, turn the max back, if too much ash, turn you max up. I have seen the max set at 70 and work well. Try to keep about 1" to 1 1/2" of ash. Locking in the max setting is the best way to do it, this way your feed rate (fr on menu) will not change over the 1.25hrs and you will get the proper burn rate
Jerry