Switched from Wood Pellets to Harman Super Mag Coal Stoker

 
Mackman
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Harman Super Mag
Coal Size/Type: Rice
Other Heating: Heat Pump

Post by Mackman » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 5:00 pm

Hey guys. New user here and also new to coal. I used to be a pellet burner. I just got the stove yesterday. What a difference in heat output compared to the pellet. Thing is a beast. I uploaded a few photos. I got the brushed nickel trim kit. Dealer didn't have it do it is on order. Gotta say thanks to this page. I almost got another pellet stove. But I been reading everything on here for a week. You guys made my decision. No way I will ever go back to pellets.

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CoalHeat
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Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 5:14 pm

Congratulations and welcome to the forum!
I've had a few people mention they were thinking about a pellet stove, when I suggest a coal stove they look at me like I have 3 eyes!
You may need to add a barometric damper to the smoke pipe, coal stoves need to have a regulated amount of draft. Depends on how the chimney drafts. Too much draft to the stove and heat and $$$ are going up the chimney.
Look here:
Install a Barometric Damper on a Stoker Stove/Furnace?

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 5:27 pm

Welcome aboard the coal train partner. I, like you, considered another pellet stove before discovering coal. I almost resorted to burning wood too lol. Thank god that didn't happen!

You'll love coal, more heat for less money. Wood pellets only have 2/3s the BTU's as coal per weight.

 
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CoalHeat
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Posts: 8862
Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 5:35 pm

I store the coal for the hand-fed Harman outside the back door. The stove is a few feet from the door, short trip to get coal. Sometimes I forget to cover the supply and it gets wet. Try that with pellets.

 
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CoalisCoolxWarm
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KA-6
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Coal Size/Type: Anthracite Buckwheat
Other Heating: Oil Boiler

Post by CoalisCoolxWarm » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 7:50 pm

Wood'nCoal wrote: Sometimes I forget to cover the supply and it gets wet. Try that with pellets.
Requiring a warm and humidity controlled building to store your pellet fuel isn't exactly a "win" in my book ;)

Your installation looks great! Always glad to see someone enjoying the beauty of coal heat! Welcome to the board :cheers:

 
Mackman
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Posts: 29
Joined: Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 4:35 pm
Stoker Coal Boiler: Harman Super Mag
Coal Size/Type: Rice
Other Heating: Heat Pump

Post by Mackman » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 9:25 pm

Wood'nCoal wrote:Congratulations and welcome to the forum!
I've had a few people mention they were thinking about a pellet stove, when I suggest a coal stove they look at me like I have 3 eyes!
You may need to add a barometric damper to the smoke pipe, coal stoves need to have a regulated amount of draft. Depends on how the chimney drafts. Too much draft to the stove and heat and $$$ are going up the chimney.
Look here:
Install a Barometric Damper on a Stoker Stove/Furnace?
Ok I have no damper in place. Stove seems to work great. But then again im used to a little baby pellet. Going to look into this. Thanks alot

 
Mackman
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Posts: 29
Joined: Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 4:35 pm
Stoker Coal Boiler: Harman Super Mag
Coal Size/Type: Rice
Other Heating: Heat Pump

Post by Mackman » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 9:28 pm

I have a heat pump. Im thinking of tieing this stove into the cold air return. Question I have is. Will that hot air hurt my air handler? Still amazed at this stove and coal power in general. My neighbor stop over today. I told him I replaced my pellet with coal. He looked at me like I was crazy. He came in a checked the stove out. He liked it. Coal is awesome. How have I not realized coal stoves till 2 weeks ago.


 
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2001Sierra
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Location: Wynantskill NY, 10 miles from Albany
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90 Chimney vent
Coal Size/Type: Rice
Other Heating: Buderus Oil Boiler 3115-34

Post by 2001Sierra » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 9:58 pm

Mackman wrote:I have a heat pump. Im thinking of tieing this stove into the cold air return.

Coal is awesome. How have I not realized coal stoves till 2 weeks ago.
Congratulations, I tell everyone coal is like pellets on steroids! I would of had a Magnum if it wasn't for dealers that just didn't get I was buying :mad: I ended up with a Keystoker and am very happy.
A guy I work with was using Propane, and I was amazed at the monthly checks he was writing, he relized the madness, and after a holiday weekend, showed me his latest purchase a used Harman Mag. He said "it was the best thing he ever did". That system paid for itself in the first year!

I am venting the top of my stove to a blower that pumps to the upstairs and there are no issues with handling the air, it is not a central heat blower but behaves as one, controlled by the thermostat on that floor, works great.

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 10:17 pm

Sounds like a good system Kevin! :)

 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Thu. Jan. 12, 2017 7:50 am

Welcome to the forum Mackman. That is a real nice looking set up you have there. There is a little bit of a BTU difference between your old pellet burner and the super mag! ;) Quite a few here have made the switch and commented about why they didn't find coal sooner.

A few have tied into the returns of their air duct and some have tied into the supply run too. The specifics of your set up will determine what is necessary to optimize it. I tried connecting to my return and supply but didn't get any better performance than leaving it unconnected and directed at the stairway in the basement and having a cold air return in the far bedroom. But we have a rancher so it is only one floor above the stoker we are heating. A friend has a two story and needed to connect his mag stoker to the ducting to get the best heat distribution.

Except for the ash volume I could never understand how any pellet stoves get sold in NEPA given the cost savings of coal there and the vast heat output difference.

 
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lowfog01
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Post by lowfog01 » Thu. Jan. 12, 2017 9:05 am

Mackman wrote:
Ok I have no damper in place. Stove seems to work great. But then again im used to a little baby pellet. Going to look into this. Thanks alot
Welcome to the Forum! Yes, the Harman will work well without a Barometric Damper but it will work even better with it.

I didn't find the Forum for a couple of years after I got my stove and didn't have a clue how to burn coal. I was keeping journals in the early years and the savings in coal and time before and after Baro is significant. A properly set Baro will even out the burn, reduce the amount of coal burned and lengthen the burn time between tending.

I actually have two Harmans, a MK II and a MK I. The Mark I does not have a Baro due to the fact there is no room on the black pipe for it. The stove partially sits in the firebox of my chimney. I have to do all kinds of manipulations with the fire to control the draft, i.e close the air valve almost shut, allow the ash to build up so it blocks the draft and use pea coal to block the air channels. But ... because the air valve is almost closed and the ash is thick I could lose the fire in a heart beat. Or... the draft could kick up and cause the stove to overfire rather quickly. I spend a lot time checking on this stove.

A baro would eliminate all that attention; I wish one would fit on my MK I. Take care, Lisa

 
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captcaper
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Post by captcaper » Thu. Jan. 12, 2017 12:34 pm

A baro is needed to set draft. You can over fire the stove and burn the grates out from what I've read... Also Harman has spec's to set the draft. A baro will do that.. without proper specs' the stove can push exhust gasses back into the house as well and or will let the heat go right out of the chimney.

As a fellow Super Mag guy myself welcome... I have been burning Coal since 1981... hand fired stove's until this Super Mag about 4 seasons ago. Wish I had it many years ago.. but I was young and didn't mind all the issues with hand fired...and bought them because they didn't have any moving part or electrical items to worry about. With that said I've had no issues in these years with the mag except my grates recently that I probably loosened while pokeing about during cleaning. They are only $40 a piece so no big deal. And it works hard being I have a large home and temps frequently get below zero F and reach as low as 40 below.

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Mackman
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Posts: 29
Joined: Wed. Jan. 11, 2017 4:35 pm
Stoker Coal Boiler: Harman Super Mag
Coal Size/Type: Rice
Other Heating: Heat Pump

Post by Mackman » Thu. Jan. 12, 2017 12:41 pm

How do you adjust it for draft?? Guess I can google or look up youtube videos.

 
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captcaper
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Post by captcaper » Thu. Jan. 12, 2017 2:10 pm

Mackman wrote:How do you adjust it for draft?? Guess I can google or look up youtube videos.
there are alot of posts here on it.. you need a manometer.. they can be had for $25. we install them permanently. Draft can be measured when the stove is running strong and cold outside. Super Mag specs are in the manual.. I believe it's .04 to .06 ..
Controlled with a barometer of quality and the flap on the combustion motor. Others will link to pic's of manometer installs.. I ran 1/4 in copper tube in a compression fitting mounted in the flue pipe to near the manometer on the wall. The last few feet was the rubber tubing supplied in the kit. Rubber near a flue pipe or hot stove isn't good. Thus the Copper tube from the stove.
Also the rubber tube is installed in the opposite port on the manometer that the instructions tell you to do because the neg readings don't go that low.. so it is the same spec's just read on the opposite side of the scale.

The manometer is supposed to be hooked up to the front of the stove as well and read .. I didn't do it as I had trouble getting a fitting to do it with so I focused on the flue pipe reading.. I would think your pellet stove was supposed to be done the same. Being a forced combustion flow as well.

On a side note I have my feed rate set for 2 1/2 and fan speed about 1/3 ... the stove will over ride this all when demand great. Be sure to lube the 3 oil ports on the shafts in the rear with light oil. The filter you must know about that's in the bottom tray.. 16x16 has to be kept clear.

One thing with Rice you may get a large piece that will get by you and plug the feed entry in the bottom of the hopper thus giving a low flame due to lack of coal being fed... any issue check that first.. I use the room temp probe that lead up stairs with a added length of 15 ft to reach my area.. You can add more wire to it and it won't change the temp at all.. the dial might lay on 70 on the stove and the living room might be 68... no big deal.. just adjust the dial to your desired room temp.

Again your pellet stove must be similar in operation... I found the Mag to take time to settle in and adjust to all given factors.. but once it does it will keep the area with in a degree ...we start ours Oct 1st every year and shut it off in April sometime.. same temp setting 24/7.. don't turn it down or up.. it will idle down so nice in warm weather then warm right up with a drop in temps...

 
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Homesteader
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Location: Goshen, CT.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Mark II
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Other Heating: H.B. Smith oil fired boiler

Post by Homesteader » Thu. Jan. 12, 2017 2:20 pm

Mackman wrote:How do you adjust it for draft?? Guess I can google or look up youtube videos.
Mackman,
There are a lot of discussions on different threads in the forum about using barometric dampers (baro dampers) and the manometers used to adjust the draft to the stoves specs. Just use the search function in the upper right corner of the page to type in the keywords. You should get a lot of your answers that way. I use a baro damper on my Harman Mark II and it greatly increases it's efficiency. Welcome to the forum, its been a great place for me to learn a lot from the many knowledgeable people on here.

J.L.


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