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Hi! I have an Alaskan Channing III stoker stove in my basement. The stove is connected to a verticle black metal pipe with barometric damper. This is connected to an elbow and a horizontal black pipe which feeds outside. This pipe connects to a Tee with a clean out plug at bottom. There is a vertical double wall metal pipe stack topped by a cap. The stove itself has a control box on the side with two dials that are supposed to control burn. There is also a thermostat wired to control box. The thermostat is mounted in the basement stairwell. I have had this stove for about three years. I had a Keystoker previously but the feed motor stopped working.

Anyway, there are some things about this stove that I need advice with. My previous stove would cycle on and off as needed. This Alaskan stove runs continously and does not seem to be influenced by the thermostat setting. Before this season the auger motor and grate needed to be replaced by the dealer. Prior to replacement the stove also ran continously. It does not seem like this stove should constantly run like this. The stove produce heat but I am concerned that parts will wear out. The stove seems to produce a lot of ash which collects in the stove pipe. Right now the only way to clean out pipes is to shut down stove and disassemble pipes. Is there any easier way to clean out pipes? I have also noticed that ash collects under grate. Is there a special tool that can be used to clean out dust? I have improvised tools but cannot get it all the way cleaned out.

Any advice would be helpful. I seem to go through a lot of rice coal during winter heating months with ash that is pretty chunky in the collector pan. There is a powdery ash that collects along sides of collection pan. I regularly clean this out with vacuum and small shovel. Please help.

Mike,
Most stokers are similar in operation. I will see if I an answer some of your concerns.

Piping, You can probalby put a another TEE with a cap in were it goes horizontal into your chimney, for easier clean out. Burning most types of coal will produce the fly ash as you mention. There is nothing around that. A good Shop vac with a good filter (drywall filter) works well for cleaning in/around the stove itself. Depending on the ash content, most of the time, once or twice a season should be enough, I normally just clean mine out at the end of the season when I shut the stove(s) down. It has 1/4-1/2" of ash in the pipe, but not enough to block the draft or anything. You will get the ash chunks and fines both in your ash pan, sometimes some unburnt coal too. Nothing you can do about it, some brands burn better than others, some produce more ash then others too.

Cleaning the ash grate is the same, you will have to shut it down and vacuum it out, maybe use a piece of wire/coat hanger to poke the holes clean if needed. Sometimes the grates are removable and should be cleaned out under them too. Some stoves you can remove the combustion blower from teh back to access under the grate area.

AS for the control, the combustion blower may run 24/7 and if yours only has a rehostat for feed rate, then it will run constantly. Not sure how the thermostat is hooked up, but normally it would control the on/off cycle of the stoker when it call for heat or not. My keystoker does this, you can hear the relay click on the back of the stove when the thermostat calls for heat.

I run my stoves mostly 24/7 from Nov thru April. A quick vaccum maybe once a week or so the best I can and they seem to run fine. But a good tear apart, clean, lube,etc in the spring is always recommended.

You may look at the CoalTrol Control System, that will regulate the coal stoker and combustion blowers for optimum heat transfer.

I have the coaltrol on my Hyfire and it works great and maintains almost a perfect set temp.

Yes...what Dave Said
I cleaned out my pipes once mid season and had about 1/4-3/8 Fly-ash build up on a 3ft section that is almost horizontal, so not to bad IMO. I was thinking of making a clean-out section pipe as well. I too use a shop Vac to do a quick dust clean up once, twice a month or so.
I do share the concern about constant running of the fans but I've not heard of wide spread failures, so I guess it's not a big concern. Thankfully they're not proprietary motors, McMaster Carr has the replacements.
Looking forward to spring cleaning and seeing what transpired within the stove during it's 1st winter.

Ed & Dave,

Thanks for replying. I've been thinking about some type of cleanout in the horizantal pipe to aid in clean out but had not though of a tee. There is something else that I'm wondering about though. Through most of the season the stove burns coal as previously mentioned. Around this time of year I get a really nasty smell and there is smoke in hopper when I pull the lid to add coal. I usually add coal and remove ashes several times during day. Also the damper does not seem to be working right at this time of year. Normally it will move during typical stove operation for draft. This time of year it stays shut. Any idea? Or is this normal operation. The damper is installed directly above stove then the vertical pipe leads to elbow and the horizontal to the double wall tee outside. I'll check into the Coaltrol control and see if that may help as well as add a clean out tee.

The control box currently on the stove has two dials on it for high and low settings. I can try to get a picture of this and post it.

Yes, post a few pics, and of the baro. Yes, when the temps start warming up, and the stove is not running hot, the draft is not very good and you may get some smell back thru the hopper or your pipe is getting built up. You may also have wet coal, that will produce the smell. Do you have a CO detector near the stove? If not, get one or a digital, normally the smell or condensation on the hopper lid is indicative of a bad draft and you could put you and your family at risk. The NON Digital ones don't go off until like 30ppm, ANY amount of CO can be harmful.

how tall and what type of chimney?

Check your draft with the Manometer first. Check your setting on the baro if you have the field controls RC type (Weight on the right for vertical mounting). The weight should be pretty close to the middle on the .02 setting. Approx. But without the manometer to check the draft, it is hard to say. There could be stuff built up on back of the flapper and cause it to go out of calibration....

Again, Dave has the answer.....nuff said.