Alaska Channing Questions

any idea were I can get a operational/owners manual for a channing II

i emailed alaska but never heard back from them.

what is the control knob mounted on the side of the stove suppose to control/plug into?

the blower or the feed motor/combustion fan?

tia

jim

Hi Jim,

On the older Alaska units (Triburner unit with stoker motor and combustion fan as one unit) the knob controls the convection blower outlet and the other outlet powers the stoker. This is because the fume switch is wired to the non rheostat controlled plug. You can tell if you have a fume switch by the small box with a tube connected to the side of the stove. Some folks add a rheostat to the stoker motor circuit to allow control of the stoker motor. I wouldn't recommend this, the best bet is to run the stoker motor full speed (that way the combustion fan gives plenty of air) and control the heat output with the stroke adjustment.

I included a couple of pics of an older Alaska stove retrofitted with a new mechanism, combustion fan and Coal-trol. I have a scanned copy of the Alaska Manual for the older style stoves. I'll try and post it here so you can check it out.

Matthaus wrote:Hi Jim,

On the older Alaska units (Triburner unit with stoker motor and combustion fan as one unit) the knob controls the convection blower outlet and the other outlet powers the stoker. This is because the fume switch is wired to the non rheostat controlled plug. You can tell if you have a fume switch by the small box with a tube connected to the side of the stove. Some folks add a rheostat to the stoker motor circuit to allow control of the stoker motor. I wouldn't recommend this, the best bet is to run the stoker motor full speed (that way the combustion fan gives plenty of air) and control the heat output with the stroke adjustment.

I included a couple of pics of an older Alaska stove retrofitted with a new mechanism, combustion fan and Coal-trol. I have a scanned copy of the Alaska Manual for the older style stoves. I'll try and post it here so you can check it out.

thanks!

it is a tri burn without a fume switch.
the way you recommended is how I first set it up. I got the fire adjusted down to about 1 1/2" with the second rheostat (the one that plugs in to the wall) turned all the way down and the one mounted to the stove (connected to the blower) turned all the way up.

so when I want more heat does turning the second rheostat change the feed rate too? to me it didn't seem too.

or doo I need to adjust the stroke?

if I need to be messing with the stroke when I want more heat would I be better off getting a coal troal?

last night I swapped them and was trying it with the tri burner motor slowed down.

my goal with this stove is to help make hot water by pre heating the water thats going into my oil fired hot water heater and for keeping the oil burner off in the mornings when it's colder out and the wood stove isn't keeping the house warm enough.

for me wood is still free, so I don't foresee giving up on wood anytime in the near future.

Matthaus wrote:Hi Jim,

fyi: we ride our sportbikes twice a year (spring and fall) about 60 miles sw or you.

what tracks do you run on? ever used these guys http://www.empiregp.com to fix a rashed bike?

I like Summit Point in WV, U235a4 on here lives right by that track and runs there all the time. I don't get to ride as much as I want to. Never used the guys at Empire, I am older and a little wiser, only one wreck on the track in the past couple years.

To accomplish what you want to do I would adjust the rheostat on the wall to full on and then adjust the stroke to achieve the fire that gives you the hot water output you need. Then if the weather gets warmer you can throttle back with the main rheostat. You can keep an eye out for unburnt coal and mess with the stroke if need be.

IMO the Coal-trol is the way to go for these tri-burners, that and adding the external combustion fan and removing the plastic squirrel cage in the stoker motor makes these stoves really put out the heat with no operator adjustments required. If you want the set up like in the pictures PM me, I have the parts you need.

Let me know when you are ready to take a ride, flyer5 and I will be out and about when riding weather returns , although he has a Beemer RT so he can do longer rides while not giving up much through the twisties. I have the Buell in the pic for sale so might have to get one of the track bikes registered so I can ride when spring fever hits.

Matthaus wrote:I like Summit Point in WV, U235a4 on here lives right by that track and runs there all the time. I don't get to ride as much as I want to. Never used the guys at Empire, I am older and a little wiser, only one wreck on the track in the past couple years.

To accomplish what you want to do I would adjust the rheostat on the wall to full on and then adjust the stroke to achieve the fire that gives you the hot water output you need. Then if the weather gets warmer you can throttle back with the main rheostat. You can keep an eye out for unburnt coal and mess with the stroke if need be.

IMO the Coal-trol is the way to go for these tri-burners, that and adding the external combustion fan and removing the plastic squirrel cage in the stoker motor makes these stoves really put out the heat with no operator adjustments required. If you want the set up like in the pictures PM me, I have the parts you need.

Let me know when you are ready to take a ride, flyer5 and I will be out and about when riding weather returns , although he has a Beemer RT so he can do longer rides while not giving up much through the twisties. I have the Buell in the pic for sale so might have to get one of the track bikes registered so I can ride when spring fever hits.

then a coal-trol it is and a external combustion fan. I've already added a adapulation to the air intake so I can run it on outside air. it would be easy to add a new combustion fan to this.

let me know what you have for parts and or your recommendations for dooing this conversion.

if you want post it here or email me.

it's a group ride that gets broken down into two or three groups so anyone will fit in.

i'm on a r1 and either lead or ride #2 in the fast group.

one of these years we need to bring the dual sports down, it looks like there a lot of area to explore.

although iv'e never been on or seen anything twisty enough in the area to bother with bringing the supermoto down with me.

right now we want colder weather and tons of snow, all this warm weather and rain has ruined all the snowmobile trails.

The ride sounds like fun, let me know when the date is set so I can join in. I'm sure flyer will be game as well. we have plenty of great twisty supermoto roads here some have 60 to 8o feet of air depending on speed. I want to stick a plate on my KTM so I can ride it in the spring, the frost heaves make great launch pads and the sand is super sliding fun. No more sledding for me, had to sell a few toys to afford the stoves and boilers.

I will start a pictorial step by step of the conversion as soon as I start my next stove in a coupla days. I'm working on a retrofit of the stoker mechanism with rod ends so will include that.

The Coal-Trol is $350 for a PB-1 with TS2 Tstat. The combustion fan is $45 plus the linkage I have not worked out yet, will post that with the pics.

Matthaus wrote:The ride sounds like fun, let me know when the date is set so I can join in. I'm sure flyer will be game as well. we have plenty of great twisty supermoto roads here some have 60 to 8o feet of air depending on speed. I want to stick a plate on my KTM so I can ride it in the spring, the frost heaves make great launch pads and the sand is super sliding fun. No more sledding for me, had to sell a few toys to afford the stoves and boilers.

I will start a pictorial step by step of the conversion as soon as I start my next stove in a coupla days. I'm working on a retrofit of the stoker mechanism with rod ends so will include that.

The Coal-Trol is $350 for a PB-1 with TS2 Tstat. The combustion fan is $45 plus the linkage I have not worked out yet, will post that with the pics.

should I get a basic or would I be better off with an advanced?

i look forward to seeing how your rigging the new fan.

we have a lot of sand around here in the spring thats when I doo most of my sm (ktm duke) riding. I don't take the r1 out untill all the sands been washed away. last year in pa we ended up on a new road with a big quick rise and ended up jumping the sportbike isle of man style. it was interesting, but I don't think I want to do it again.

btw: were riding in and around the wellsboro area.

now all I need to do is find a nice place on the way too or around wellsboro to get some quality rice coal, if I can i'll bring a trailer and get 4-5 tons to bring back with me.

once I get this one set up i'll have to find another one. I want to make one run on 12dc. I've got a camp off the grid and my only hope of leaving a stoker running 24-7 would be hacing everything run via 12v dc.

with the limited sun in the winter i'd have to double my solar array to have a stoker with a ac load running day and night.

once I get this one set up i'll have to find another one. I want to make one run on 12dc. I've got a camp off the grid and my only hope of leaving a stoker running 24-7 would be changing everything run via 12v dc.

A small inverter with a couple of deep cell batts will run the stove for many days. A PV array will keep the bats topped up.

av8r wrote:

once I get this one set up i'll have to find another one. I want to make one run on 12dc. I've got a camp off the grid and my only hope of leaving a stoker running 24-7 would be changing everything run via 12v dc.

A small inverter with a couple of deep cell batts will run the stove for many days. A PV array will keep the bats topped up.

my camp runs on a 2k inverter or 12v dc with a 1700ah battery bank and 1500w of pv.

what I really need to do is find a 80-130' free standing used tower and put up a windmill.

iv'e had a 120v ac refrigerator running 24-7 for the past three years.

24-7 of an inverter running is a lot of amp hrs. a 3a load @ 120v is 30a 12v dc 30 x 24 = 720 ah

a stoker running on dc motors will be no problem 3a @ 12v dc 3 x 24 72ah

when i'm not there i'm heating with a 40g propane hw heater via baseboard and cast iron radiators and using around 250g of propane a year. if I were to guess I could do the same thing with 1-2 tons of rice.

once i'm there the mark III keeps the place toasty with 10-12 hrs wood burns so far this year down to -6f

the coldest iv'e seen there was a couple of years ago, it didn't go above -6f for almost a month and a low of -21f

Nice setup! I've been studying solar and wind for years trying to justify it for my home.

av8r wrote:Nice setup! I've been studying solar and wind for years trying to justify it for my home.

thanks

it all comes down to how efficient you and your house is.

it's alot easier when you build from scratch.

if your using less than 500kwh it's dooable. if you over 1000 kwh a month it will cost a small fortune.

the hot set up would be if you have moving water on your property with a good amount of drop.