Alaska Kodiak

I have been looking at the Alaska web site and am intrigued by the Kodiak. Is the gravity feed reliable? It would seem this is the best of both worlds to have a long unattended burn like a stoker , yet operate without electricity like a hand fed. Is this too good to be true? Has anyone in the forum used one for this season with good results?

Larry

There aren''t that many Hopper feed Kodiak owners on the forum,,, but the same type of hopper feed is used in the Hitzer 30-95 and 50-95... If you look for topics on the Hitzer stoves you may get some info about the hopper feed stoves.

From what I've read, the hopper feed is very reliable.

Greg L

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Care to explain the operation of the "hopper feed" ? and how it controls the amount of coal being "fed".

Larry as long as you Remember to shake the ash down once or twice a day and keep the hopper full witch will hold 120lbs of nut coal you should be fine and adjust the air On the web page they clame 80hrs of burn time on a load well to get that much you would need the Optional Bi-Metal thermostat that is there secondary air system and you would need the Optional Hopper and blower I have a 1998 Model but will not be burning it until next season If you have a lot of power outage this would be for you if power outage then any good stoker stove would work for you this is the closest to a stoker stove and you can adjust it by the air going into it they clame 15k to 100k range that would be with the Bi-metal thermostat hope all of this helps you and not confused you


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Have you seen or do you own one of those automatic dog or deer feeders?? They have a hopper above a dish,, as the food is eaten out of the dish, the food in the hopper drops down out of the hopper to keep the bowl full.

In a gravity hopper feed stove, there is a hopper, which is a rectangular tube full of coal that is open on the bottom, sitting on the fire. As the coal burns it turns to ash, the coal bed settles lower, and the coal in the hopper keeps the firebox full..

The limitation is that as the coal burns to ash, the ash tends to clog up the air passageways through the grates.. so the fire slowly starves for air.. The hopper does provide a supply of coal to the fire, but the fire still needs to have the grates shook to shake down the ash, to keep the fire's air supply open..

My personal problem with the Alaska Kodiak hopper feed stove is the grate design.. the back and forth circular motion doesn't seem to provide enough grinding/cutting action to break up hard crusty ash or small clinkers. If the coal burns completely to a powder, it would work fine, but that is pretty optimistic.. I think the Kodiak may occasionally need to let the fire go out and clean out the junk off the top of the grate.. I don't KNOW this , but it seems to me that it could happen,

Greg L.

Ed.A wrote:Care to explain the operation of the "hopper feed" ? and how it controls the amount of coal being "fed".

well ed you fill it up and shake it down when the ash falls into the tray the coal will fall down on the fire Like Hitzer
surdiac and franco belge Gravity fed stoves

LsFarm wrote:Have you seen or do you own one of those automatic dog or deer feeders?? They have a hopper above a dish,, as the food is eaten out of the dish, the food in the hopper drops down out of the hopper to keep the bowl full.

In a gravity hopper feed stove, there is a hopper, which is a rectangular tube full of coal that is open on the bottom, sitting on the fire. As the coal burns it turns to ash, the coal bed settles lower, and the coal in the hopper keeps the firebox full..

The limitation is that as the coal burns to ash, the ash tends to clog up the air passageways through the grates.. so the fire slowly starves for air.. The hopper does provide a supply of coal to the fire, but the fire still needs to have the grates shook to shake down the ash, to keep the fire's air supply open..

My personal problem with the Alaska Kodiak hopper feed stove is the grate design.. the back and forth circular motion doesn't seem to provide enough grinding/cutting action to break up hard crusty ash or small clinkers. If the coal burns completely to a powder, it would work fine, but that is pretty optimistic.. I think the Kodiak may occasionally need to let the fire go out and clean out the junk off the top of the grate.. I don't KNOW this , but it seems to me that it could happen,

Greg L.

The Grate design is like the old Potbelly stoves there is a Sq Grate frame with fingers all the way around then there is a Round Grate with finger in it then in the center there is a 6 finger dump Grate looks like a fork you put on the shaker handel and shake back and forth side to side the round grate and the dump grate moves together to cut the ash
on the grate frame with the new model you will have 4 inches of movement on my old model there is a outside handel
like the Harman stoves witch will give you 6 to 9 inches of movement side to side also you can use the shaker handel but then you have to open the ash door to shake it down On the new stoves there is a slot cut in the ash door above the air slots
where you put the handel in on to the dump grate that is why you only have 4 or 5 inches to move but if you need more you can still open the ash door sorry Greg I just realized I put this in the wrong spot I hit the wrong quote button *censored* sorry

coal berner wrote:

Ed.A wrote:Care to explain the operation of the "hopper feed" ? and how it controls the amount of coal being "fed".

well ed you fill it up and shake it down when the ash falls into the tray the coal will fall down on the fire Like Hitzer
surdiac and franco belge Gravity fed stoves

Damn, sounds like a wicked cool stove. The 15K BTU would hurt in the 50* outside temp range though.