Switched from Wood Pellets to Harman Super Mag Coal Stoker

Here are the two most used instruments for setting your draft:

https://www.amazon.com/Dwyer-25-Manometer-Inclined-Vertical- ... i+model+25

or this

https://www.amazon.com/Dwyer-Magnehelic-Differential-Pressur ... elic+gauge

Just ordered the damper. Plus my buddy who is also my HVAC guy. Is gonna come over a duct it in my cold air return. Gotta say. Im in love with this stove. I think my GF is jealous. Sometimes I just drink beer and stare at it. I think I am getting obsessed with coal lol

Mackman wrote:Just ordered the damper. Plus my buddy who is also my HVAC guy. Is gonna come over a duct it in my cold air return. Gotta say. Im in love with this stove. I think my GF is jealous. Sometimes I just drink beer and stare at it. I think I am getting obsessed with coal lol

"Just drink beer and stare at the stove." I don't know anybody that does that. I think you have a problem.

Is there like a Coal AA group I can join?? I may need help.

Mackman wrote:Is there like a Coal AA group I can join?? I may need help.

Don't worry, we're all here for you lol.

Worry when you start singing Kum By Ya around the stove...

Rookie mistake. I forgot to empty ash pan. After 48hrs. Its was filled up. Like to the point of when I opened up the ash door it all came out on the floor. So. I shut the stove down. Waited a few hours and cleaned everything up. Definitely gotta stay up on ash. Guess my bobo pellet stove habits got the best of me.

Not that I can recommend this but I vacuum my Keystoker with a hot fire in it and turned off. The shop vac is out side and a long hose to the stove does the trick. When done turn stove back on, rinse the hose out, and leave the vac in the yard for a day or 2 before returning it to the outdoor shed. If the vac busts into flames it is only a $60.00 black friday HomeDepot special anyway.

When I first got my Keystoker the family said I have a new GF I even named it Nicoal Wife could of cared less, she was harmless

Mackman wrote:Rookie mistake. I forgot to empty ash pan. After 48hrs. Its was filled up. Like to the point of when I opened up the ash door it all came out on the floor. So. I shut the stove down. Waited a few hours and cleaned everything up. Definitely gotta stay up on ash. Guess my bobo pellet stove habits got the best of me.

Been there done that.... I do like 2001sierra does... shut the stove off... for just a little while to keep the fumes from coming into the basement were the stove is and setting off my alarms... then move fast.. get the ash out and cleaned then turn the stove on before it goes out.. I have a small hoe I made to scrape out most spilling and then use the old shop vac with dust bag I have.. I use it to clean up all the small pieces of Rice that drops around while tending ...filling my tote near the stove to dry out the coal some before use..

I went thru grates finally with my Super Mag... If you have an extra $70 buy spare grates.. you may need them someday and no one stocks them..they are ordered.... I probably burnt them up over the 4 yrs.. it gets 30 to 40 below here alot and this home is big..stove runs full bore alot.. they had a hole burnt right thru the middle.. of the two..something went odd. I checked ..cleaned and installed new ones and it has been fine for a few weeks. ..so go figure..

2001Sierra wrote: When I first got my Keystoker the family said I has a new GF I even named it Nicoal Wife could of cared less, she was harmless

That is funny because my GF stove is named coaleen !!!

My girlfriend in the basement is Ashley. Buddy of mine has one also, Burnice.....

Coaleen, burnice, and ashley lmao

Mackman how did you make out this season? I'll be running mine until April or so being the way it is here in Northern NH. I had to break it down and do a complete cleaning because it wasn't getting to the temp we needed... Seem's every once in a while I have to do that.. Clean the flue pipe because the draft get's lower... clean the feed path from the feed pusher to grates..vacuum it out totally..
This process for me always fixes it... wet coal ..old partially burnt coal..ash build up ...will take it's toll. The manometer shows draft is getting lower due to ash build up in the horizontal pipe going thru the outside wall to the outside chimney.. when cleaning I can see some solid build up of coal pieces chunking up in the sides of the feed path.. Grate holes start to clogg from minerals etc.

I will say after 4 seasons o Northern NH temps down to 40 below zero and often temps of 0 or below the stove has been fine..no parts broke except for my grates... don't know what happened there for sure but new ones are cheap $70 and install in a few minutes... it has been fine sine I did that.... the stove works very hard 24/7 as my house is very large...and the wife likes it 72 deg f 24/7.... In a way I wish I bought the LL dual burner stove back when... as long as I could of blocked the forced hot air from entering the stove room and pumped it up stairs like this Super Mag does for me..

Ok guys. Little update. I built a coal bin. And i plumbed the stove into my cold air return on my air handler. So it will heat the whole house. I just got done plumbing it in about 30min ago. So i will make another update about that. Overall i love coal. Also in the next week im doing a boro damper.

Coal bin holds 7.5 tons. Picked the coal up at lehigh. Paid 160 a ton. Really nice people there. Easy in and out.