Coalpail.com Forum

We read to squeeze together the feed forks on the our Harman Magnun Stoker as they can spread and not feed enough coal. My husband has had to do this a few times due to our fire doing out. We just aren't sure how close together these can be. Is there a measurement to go by? Thank you

you mean the fork around the stepper motor that makes it feed? They should be parallel or pretty close.

Something doesn't sound correct...you should not have to mess with it unless something is jammed or not working correctly or misaligned, broken, etc...

are you getting clinkers, chunks fused together of coal? Is your coal Wet? Is there anything on the grates that might catch the coal getting stuck, burrs, etc...?

this part - The Fork - Item #6? See attached?

1" 3/4 inside to inside got this from a dealer last week.

Thank you for the replies. We did have to use some slightly wet coal and then had the problem. Will check the distance between the forks and go from there. thanks again

golfball wrote:1" 3/4 inside to inside got this from a dealer last week.

was the dealer fisher stoves ???? lol

On the fork you can readjust it a couple of times but after a while the metal will get soft and then you do have to replace it

Jeff

If you have been using wet coal, that is most likely your problem. I just had the same problem this week with my Mag. If the coal is really wet, it will not feed well in the Mag Stoker. Damp coal will feed fine, but wet causes feeding problems. Wet coal will want to stick together and not fall down to the pusher block for the stoker. Try using drier coal and see if the problem goes away.

We have been drying our coal ever since it happened the first time it happened and cleaned out the pusher but the the fork still spread some. I have been using extra ash pans filled with wet/damp coal and placing them on top the stove to dry. Works great and is dry within an hour or so. thanks again

Thanks for advice about the spread forks. Mine were almost 3" apart because of previous binding and I had no idea. It is running great now.

This is my second Winter with a Harman Magnum Stoker. I also have an Alaska Stoker with 2 burners (model 1000(?), paddle feed, 2 burners) which has been down for repairs. This Winter, I have found out how sensitive the Magnum is to damp coal. It has jammed up 3 times in these coldest 2 weeks with clinkers, stopping the feeding of coal! I could not believe it, I have a Belgian stove that is pure gravity fed with nut coal, so I know clinkers well. In about 10 years with the paddle-fed Alaska stove, I used some very wet coal at times, with no problems. The coal does not appear to be damp, but when it jams up and I empty out the hopper, the coal at the bottom is quite wet. So, like some of the people posting here, I am doing a lot of things to dry the coal indoors now. Does this have anything to do with the rice coal absorbing some moisture, and then having it condense out in the warm hopper? Also, the feed mechanism on the Magnum is a complete mystery to me. Whenever I try to adjust it, I think the whole thing is going to fall apart. Can anyone refer me to a description of this assembly with diagrams like in WNY's post? Thanks.

Yes, here is a link to the manual, page 17 talks about feeding. I also linked an animation. These were helpful when I was teaching my former roommate how it worked.

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://downloads.hea ... EEuOCdqMh9

https://youtu.be/SQOkiS9Peq0

With my Super Magnum I haven't had issues with wet coal. I only had issues with chunks of coal getting by me while loading the hopper which jammed the feeder system screwing up the fork and other things. So I strain the rice now into a large tote with hardware screen of near 1 in hole. Been working great now for two seasons.