Channing3-Fire Going Out-Please Help

 
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Andre2
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Post by Andre2 » Mon. Nov. 02, 2015 10:05 pm

Hi Guys

Looks like my Channing stove is going fancy here.

For the first time in 6 years fire is going out after 20 or so minutes and I have no clue why.

Did the spring maintenance as usual except this time I've removed the air chamber with its fan for cleaning and put the thing back , looks to be working much better than prior as the chamber and fan were badly clugged with dust and debris , almost no air was comming thru the vent holes.

The other thing I did was messing a bit with the electrical connexions that I've disconnected and re-connected , I've tried to reconnect the various wires as they were before but I'm not sure it's the same , owner's manual doesn't say much about it.Wondering if this is critical?

My hopper being empty at this time I've watched the half-moon paddle working and it seems to be fine , combustion fan looks fine also.

I've set a small wood fire in the ash pan a good 20+ minutes before firing up the stove ,auto heat control box was set to 3 ( goes from 1 to 5+ ) and had about 1 inch of dry rice coal all over on grate.

Is it possible that too much air is comming from the vent holes?Coal is bright red above vent holes & seems to burn quite fast then there is a 1 inch wide band of glowing coal the width of grade above the vent holes and that band will go out after 15-20 minutes.

If you could help me pin point what's going on here that would be great.

Thanks


 
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Post by jremington » Mon. Nov. 02, 2015 10:14 pm

Clean off the burner tray completely and turn on the combustion blower and see if you have a good flow of air. Can you take a pic of how you have everything wired into the three way connector? And are you sure you are getting a good flow of coal to get the fire started? What are you using to start the fire?

 
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Post by jremington » Mon. Nov. 02, 2015 10:59 pm

If you haven't gotten it figured out by tomorrow you can call me at work and I'll look at the connections and make sure yours are correct. My number is 315-767-1091.

 
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Andre2
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Post by Andre2 » Tue. Nov. 03, 2015 1:16 am

jremington wrote:Clean off the burner tray completely and turn on the combustion blower and see if you have a good flow of air.

Done: cleaned the grate of all coal and used a scotch brite to clean it further.Air flow looks very good,all air holes are free of debris.

Can you take a pic of how you have everything wired into the three way connector?

Not likely but I'll draw a sketch and try to post it here tomorrow.

And are you sure you are getting a good flow of coal to get the fire started?

Seems to me that paddle is not pushing coal at the right pace but I'm not too sure of what the right pace is,perhaps I should set the heat control box higher than 3?

What are you using to start the fire?
I've used the chimney method shown by a fellow on youtube and that worked very well for me.

Link here :



Thanks J ,I really appreciate it.

Andre

 
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Post by McGiever » Tue. Nov. 03, 2015 5:43 am

yes, reduce air. the now clean fan is moving too much air.

 
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Post by jremington » Tue. Nov. 03, 2015 8:09 am

Make sure there is nothing blocking the feeder. Last week I had a guy that had this problem. There ended up being a rock that was in the bag and it was blocking the feed. Try another fire and put the coal chimney at the very top of the burner tray. Make sure there is a good amount of coal around it and coming down from the feeder. Start it and put it on 5 after the charcoal and coal get burning. If it seems like it wants to go out add some more crushed charcoal and coal to the fire until you get a wide burn on the tray. Once it gets going good then set the flow back.

 
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Post by Andre2 » Tue. Nov. 03, 2015 9:22 pm

McGiever wrote:yes, reduce air. the now clean fan is moving too much air.
If I'm not mistaken the combustion fan on the Channing 3 is a one speed fan?Unles my electrical connections are not ok?

Perhaps I should look for some type of dimmer and plug it on the line , problem is I'm not an electrical buff and would need advice on what to buy and how to wire it. :?

Thanks

Meanwhile I've received an email from Alaska Sales :

''Andre,
Good afternoon. If the stove is 6 years old, you need to put two new gaskets underneath the grates. There is an 8 inch long gasket that has a piece of metal that runs through it that seals off the back of the grate. Then there is a 2 foot piece of channel gasket that seals the remaining 3 sides underneath the grate. These gaskets are important because they seal off your combustion air so that it won’t leak air out around the fire. These gaskets should be changed every 3 to 4 years. They are inside the firebox with all that extreme heat and corrosive gases of the coal. They will deteriorate rather quickly. That is what I would recommend. Hope this helps. Have a great day!

Alaska Sales ''

What do you guys think about this gasket thing?

Andre


 
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Post by jremington » Tue. Nov. 03, 2015 9:41 pm

I sent you a message. What KEn is saying is is these gaskets are bad it will cause your combustion air to leak around the sides instead of out the holes in the burner tray.

 
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Post by Rick 386 » Tue. Nov. 03, 2015 9:50 pm

McGiever wrote:yes, reduce air. the now clean fan is moving too much air.
Yes as my esteemed colleague has stated is that you might now be pushing too much air. Since Alaska uses a single speed motor as do most other manufacturers, you need to restrict the intake grate of the fan. Some use business card type magnets. Others manufacture their own restrictor plate and screw them over the intake opening. While some others just use the old tried and true duct tape.

Rick

 
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Post by McGiever » Wed. Nov. 04, 2015 5:50 am

And we all believe that the gasket recommendation from Alaska is spot-on. :)

Gaskets are "wear items" ...they will wear with normal use and diminish and then fail to work as designed after a normal/given length of use.

 
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Post by jremington » Wed. Nov. 04, 2015 8:12 am

Check your feeder times like I told you in the email and I'll check your connections when I get to work. We will have that going.

 
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Post by Andre2 » Thu. Nov. 05, 2015 1:26 am

Thanks again guys for your help & support. ;)

Still at it checking out things and lots of reading here & there.

Have to leave for a couple days & I'll be timing the half moon paddle when back.

Also working on trying to get the Channing3 gasket kit.

Hopefully I'l be able to put the beast to work soon. :)

 
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Post by Doby » Sun. Nov. 08, 2015 1:07 am

Did you clean out all fines underneath the grate? Pull the grate clean out under neath and replace the gaskets. Make sure the paddle is actually pushing coal and there is no restriction in the bottom of the hopper. You should not need to restrict the air flow on these stoves, I clean mine every year and never had to do so on either of my Alaska's.

 
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Post by Andre2 » Sun. Nov. 08, 2015 9:56 pm

Hi Rick

Yep , the fan & combustion chamber have been cleaned all the way to the end of grate , vacuumed & cleaned with scotch brite.

Hopper and ways to burner plate have been cleaned as well.Did some paddle timings and so far it looks ok imho.

Next is probably changing the gaskets.Never did that before , how difficult is the task?

All gaskets should be glued in place?Even the under neath grate gasket?

 
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Post by Doby » Mon. Nov. 09, 2015 10:06 pm

Hi Andre,

Heres a pic of the electrical attachments to go over just in case. I am not clear on how you tested the paddle, if you did not push coal and did a dry run to observe the paddle thats good but not conclusive, with no coal in the hopper carefully grab the paddle and slow it down a bit then listen for noise or see if you stop it, don't use excessive force though. What your trying to determine is if the gear case/feed motor is bad. Then put some coal in and make sure its pushing coal to the end of the grate. If all is good that should eliminate that thought.

The grate gaskets are easy providing the are alaska gaskets. Pull the grate, the gaskets should be intact if they fall apart theres your problem. Still at 6 years they need replaced. The3 grate gaskets #17 fold over the feeder housing #2 in the diagram and the grate bottom has a channel that sits on top of them and pinches them in place. The strong back gasket #14 s is flat and sticks in place. Lightly set the grate in place and with a block of wood and hammer tap it up against the strong back gasket then tap down to seal the grate gaskets, don't worry sounds more complicated then it is.

After all this try another fire if it does the same try turning the auto control box up higher this could also be the problem, it could be out of calibration or getting weak, on mine if I set ti to 1 the fire will go out, a minimum fire for me is 1 1/2 and a max is above 5 so its out a bit but still useable. There is a set screw on the knob so it is possible to calibrate but I have not tried it.

Here is the manual with diagrams I spoke of.

http://jlproductsite.com/pdf/kast_console.pdf

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