Alaska Channing II

Hello,
I am a newbie to stoker stoves. I recently bought a home that has a Channing II in it. The previous owner wasn't a lot of help. I decided today to put it together and see if could get it going. Luck was on my side! I got it fired and it's still burning right now. I don't have the control box for the combustion fan/stoker. I'm assuming I need to purchase this for regulation of my fire. This stove also has a power vent with it.I would love any and all input on how to get this thing running at its peak efficiency.

Thank you,
Brent

Welcome
First things first...
Please tell us you have put fresh batteries in a couple Carbon Monoxide Detectors, which at least one of is near to any bedrooms.

Oh yes! There are 2 brand new co detectors in the house. I have a3 year old daughter. There's more smoke and co detectors in this than a little bit!

Without the control box you just have the feed/combustion blower plugged in direct for a test run?

Yes you need a control box made for alaska stoves.
It would be a good idea being you don't know the history of the stove to pull the grate clean underneath and replace the grate gaskets, pull the combustion fan clean and lube the motor shaft with light weight oil. Do the same with the feed motor but on the upper bearing on the shaft you will see a small hole, put oil in there and also oil the lower shaft. Pull the convection fan that distributes hot air off the stove and clean. Pull the paddle that pushes coal onto the grate and clean underneath then grease and reassemble. These stoves are simple and there is not a lot more other then a good cleaning of the stove body and making sure exhaust pipes and door gaskets are in good shape.

Manual for the stove

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

I have the stove you will love it, if you need any other info or better details on the above post back

Doby. My stove has the carpet style feeder. I'm assuming the control box will still work on this older stove. I am currently adjusting the fire by turning the threaded tab that pushes the carpet out. Is this the correct way to adjust? It's still in the mid fifties in Lancaster county. I don't need a whole lot of heat just yet. That being said, it's keeping my house at a comfortable 70. I'm really impressed with the heat output and fuel consumption so far. I do have a rheostat on the convection fan to slow it down. I believe the feeder motor is connected to the fume switch on the side of my stove. I appreciate your input. I've never used a stoker stove before.

Sorry I didn't think the channing ever came with the carpet feed, I don't have any hands on experience with the carpet feed except what I have read but yes that threaded tab is the way you ajust the coal feed.

Rick386 is a very experienced member with a carpet feed system hopefully he will chime in, if not you could search some of his posts or shoot him a pm pointing to this thread

Doby wrote:
Rick386 is a very experienced member with a carpet feed system hopefully he will chime in, if not you could search some of his posts or shoot him a pm pointing to this thread

Ask and ye shall receive................................ Not an expert but been using them for 30 + years.

Doby is correct in that you probably should remove the grate and clean under it. You should then replace the gaskets for the grate including a new "strong back" gasket on the rear of the grate. The grate then has to be set back in correctly or you could possibly have a hopper fire due to the combustion air not coming entirely up through the grate. While the grate is off the base, take a 1/8" drill bit and run it through all the grate holes.

Make sure the carpet and the area on the grate where the carpet rides is nice and smooth. The smoothness allows the coal and ashes to slide easily along the grate until falling off into the ash pan.

Adjusting the tab on the carpet feed is how you regulate the amount of feed (heat) the stove will put out. On my stoves, there was only 4 turns from low idle fire to full burn. Full burn is where you only have about 1" of ash before the end of the grate. If you are pushing red coals into the ash pan, you are wasting coal.

Any other questions, fire away....... (Yes pun intended !!!)

Rick

Rick 386 wrote:

Doby wrote:
Rick386 is a very experienced member with a carpet feed system hopefully he will chime in, if not you could search some of his posts or shoot him a pm pointing to this thread

Ask and ye shall receive................................ Not an expert but been using them for 30 + years.

Doby is correct in that you probably should remove the grate and clean under it. You should then replace the gaskets for the grate including a new "strong back" gasket on the rear of the grate. The grate then has to be set back in correctly or you could possibly have a hopper fire due to the combustion air not coming entirely up through the grate. While the grate is off the base, take a 1/8" drill bit and run it through all the grate holes.

Make sure the carpet and the area on the grate where the carpet rides is nice and smooth. The smoothness allows the coal and ashes to slide easily along the grate until falling off into the ash pan.

Adjusting the tab on the carpet feed is how you regulate the amount of feed (heat) the stove will put out. On my stoves, there was only 4 turns from low idle fire to full burn. Full burn is where you only have about 1" of ash before the end of the grate. If you are pushing red coals into the ash pan, you are wasting coal.

Any other questions, fire away....... (Yes pun intended !!!)

Rick

Aside from the professional talk here... let it be known that our source of snow up here will be new and improved this season RICK386!

So now that I know I'm adjusting the feed the proper way. What is the smallest fire I could run on days that it's in the 50's? Is there a better way to run the carpet, like a coal trol or something of that nature?

johnjoseph wrote: Aside from the professional talk here... let it be known that our source of snow up here will be new and improved this season RICK386!

I hope so JJ. We already reserved a condo by Moosehead for the end of February. Same 1 as last year that we had to cancel due to no snow. Plan on getting new sled to take this year.

Mr. I Bleed Green ....... Each carpet feeder is different along with the brand of coal you use. You can just try backing the cam off 1 turn at a time. Let the stove go for an hour or 2 and then check it. You need to find the position where the fire will not go out. That will be your lowest position or idle fire. Then turn the cam out to get the maximum burn without red coals falling off the grate. That will be the max burn. Then you will know how much to turn it in or out depending on the temps.

A coaltrol will not work on your channing unless you would separate the combustion air from the feed motor. On a triburner such as you have, you would need to remove the combustion fan blades. Then the feed would be on its own power source. Then you would need to get another fan such as a bathroom fan and plumb it in to the opening where the fan blades used to be. Now you would be able to regulate the 3 components of coal burning. They are combustion air, feed rate, and convection air (your rheostat control that you have). A coaltrol can only work if you can regulate all 3 items.

When Doby mentioned there being a separate control box that could be used. That was for the newer channings that have a separate feed motor for the paddle feeders. On the old style triburners, they used to have a separate rheostat to control the combustion fan and coal feed. Almost all of the modern stoves run their combustion air at max speed. Unless you use the coaltrol. I always ran my stove with max combustion air and just changed the carpet feed cam.

Rick

Here's what they look like... there is a fancier digital one for large dollars.

Not an expert but been using them for 30 + years

That pretty much qualifies as a expert and the guy I would ask for help with one of these, hands on experiance