New Coal Burner's Question

drewbear · Post by **drewbear** » Tue. Oct. 18, 2011 8:04 pm

First of all I would like to say hello to everyone. I have used this site for my research in buying a new coal stove and want to say thanks to all who have contributed. I am the only person I know(other than my dealer) who burns coal so I plan on using this fantastic resource to help me through my first New England winter. I have run a test hopper through the stove to make sure everything was working before it got too cold and as far as I can tell it is good to go. However, I have a question about the FR. When lighting the stove I unplugged the red cord until FR read 0. At which point the coal was burning nicely so I plugged the red cord back in. I periodicly checked the settings over the next day and a half and the FR never went above 0. Even when it was feeding it would only read 0+. Should I be concerned? If so what are the remedies to fix the problem? Thanks in advance,
Drew

jpen1 · Post by **jpen1** » Tue. Oct. 18, 2011 10:38 pm

The fedd rate will be zero if the temp in your room is at or above your set point. The unit will then feed at the minimum setting. The plus icon will illuminate when the unit is feeding coal. So if you have your min. set at 5 and your max set at 40. The feed rate is then proportional to those numbers so if the feed rate is 50 your stove will stoke coal for 20 seconds out of every 100 seconds and so on and so forth.

WNY · Post by **WNY** » Wed. Oct. 19, 2011 5:37 am

LIke he said, the temp on the thermostat has been satisfied if the FR=0. Raise your room temp setpoint up a few degrees and the FR should start to climb up slowly until the temp is satisfied then drop back down, it takes time, could take an hour or more, so the FR will fluctuate up and down to maintain a good temp. When its at IDLE and not calling for heat, the FR is typically 0 or very low.

Not sure what the red cord is? Where is it plugged in to the COaltrol? Stoker? Combustion? Convection?

Good luck and Enjoy!

drewbear · Post by **drewbear** » Wed. Oct. 19, 2011 4:15 pm

Ok thanks guys for the help on the FR question. FYI the red cord was for the stoker motor. It has two red zip ties around it.

WNY · Post by **WNY** » Wed. Oct. 19, 2011 6:02 pm

Once you get it up and running good, if your FR=99 and you are pushing hot coals off then you have to reduce your MAX down a few points, if you still have 1" or More of ash at the end, you can raise the MAX a couple points to get your stove Dialed In. Any adjustments make slow and wait at least an hour or more for it to settle down. Most of the time the factory settings work pretty good. Then, it should be pretty automatic after that.