AK-110, Is It for Me?

2biz,

Any updates on your replacement furnace?

Curious, is not the Firechief FC700E furnace you do/did have a dual fuel furnace (wood/coal)?
I realize that you were talking about wanting a coal stoker, as opposed to hand fired furnace.
You mentioned not wanting to lift and stack firewood any longer, but your post seemed that you are still okay with tending a hand fired furnace.

Mysterious post. I had 2 of those stoves and so may be able to help but I am at a loss as to what the question is for the board. Should this be a private message to 2 biz?

Hmmm...The post doesn't seem mysterious to me?!?! And it seems to be a fair question to post on the forum considering I went from a Firechief to The AK-110....

So far there seems to be a lot less work handling the coal compared to fire wood...Cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, hauling a full wheel barrow of wood in the garage daily took a lot of time that I don't have an abundance of these days! It took a lot to keep it tarped and dry....Constantly fighting the wind, the tarp, snow, wet wood, and the cold...After 35 years of cutting/burning wood, it finally got old!

I purchased about 6 ton of bagged rice and it only took me about 15 minutes a ton to unload and stack "Inside" my garage...And it doesn't take up a whole lot of room compared to 8-10 cords of wood I burned. I was able to haul it this summer when I had time instead of fighting weather and cold getting the wood in for the winter. Another time saver "Hopefully", I bought a pallet jack that I'm going to use to carry 20 or so bags at a time close to the stove...(10-15 days worth, Hopefully)? I'm storing the coal in an adjacent garage connected by a concrete driveway. The furnace is in the garage attached to the house.

So yea....I don't think I'll mind tending to the stove on a daily basis as long as it doesn't consume so much of my time. With a 320 lb hopper, it may even go 2-3 days compared to loading the Firechief 3-4 times daily? I never considered burning coal in it.....

I haven't fired up the Ak-110 yet. Its been a busy summer and just got back to the install this past weekend. Lots of duct work to install to correct some mistakes made 25 years ago with my wood furnace setup...I will definitely keep you posted once I get it completed.

thanks for stopping by.

Looking forward to getting the updates, now "Get Crack'in

The Long Awaited:

I finally got the install about 95% complete and enough to fire up yesterday. First off I think this furnace is going to be awesome even only after a short run time.

I loaded the 320# hopper with 160LB's and it fired up right away using the supplied paper bag starter....I spent several hours yesterday setting the Min feed rate and ended up at 4...Didn't have time to set Max, so I dropped it to 30 from the preset of 40 just so it wouldn't over fire....Plus I've watched it like a hawk to see how it behaves at different outside temps. Setting the Baro was easy to get -.04....Idle yields about -.02...

From the pics, the furnace is in an attached insulated 1008 sq ft garage with a single 20" round C.A.R. at ground level...The plenum is 20" x 20" (with 1" foil faced Styrofoam insulation) and attaches to a 24" x 24" x 28" insulated distribution box then to an 8" x 24" trunk down the center of the attic...The ranch style single level house is 2500 sq ft...

This morning it was 25° outside....A good night for testing day one...

Coal Trol Settings So far, remember Max is set at 30, I haven't set it to the actual Max yet...

Min 4
Max 30
FSA 0
CFT 0
D 67°
N 67°

At 25° this morning with the above settings, the FR was at 37%....Inside temp was 67° and set point was 67°....The garage temp was 62° just from the heat of the furnace, no forced air ducts.......Above the top door temp was 380° and flu exit collar on the stove was 110° with a 100° temp at the ceiling collar where the SS pipe attaches to the double wall SS chimney...The chimney is only about 9' long to get up and over the roof ridge....From the temp readings, you can see this furnace does an excellent job of keeping the heat inside the furnace and getting it in the plenum where its needed....

The pics below show low idle and 37% at Min 4, Max 30....Kept the house warm as we like it and very even heat through-out the house. All rooms within 1°....There was only a small divot in the hopper from the amount of coal it used over night...Although too early to tell how good consumption will be...Simply awesome....

I just know from the short run time this furnace is going to be SO much better than burning wood....I am STOKED!





Feed Rate at 4...



FR at 37% with Min set at 4 and Max set at 30...6:00 am temp of 25°, set point at 67° and inside temp right at 67°, Perfect!

A 67 degree house is perfect?

lsayre wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 26, 2017 8:40 am

A 67 degree house is perfect?

Great temp for protecting the pipes from freezing ,not a desirable temp for humans to actually live in comfortably... at least not without wearing insulated underwear.
That is a temp that many warm there house to with propain,oil or warm pumps.

Any warmer than that and the Wife has the windows open! Has something to do with "Hot Flashes" she says! Kinda defeats the purpose to get it any hotter in the house!!

2biz wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 26, 2017 8:48 am

Any warmer than that and the Wife has the windows open! Has something to do with "Hot Flashes" she says! Kinda defeats the purpose to get it any hotter in the house!!

No doubt !! But wow, i would have to bundle up while sitting in a house at that temp.

Guys, I think his point was that the thermostat was set at 67, and the house was 67 as well - which shows that the system is tuned very well.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 26, 2017 9:37 am

Guys, I think his point was that the thermostat was set at 67, and the house was 67 as well - which shows that the system is tuned very well.

Exactly! The Coal Trol is very precise!!! I'm still trying to figure out how it "Infinitely" adjusts convection fan speeds with such a small control board!?!?

After 24 hrs, this is how much coal ash...

I've gotta admit that its a beautiful looking furnace, and an equally nice looking install.

BTW, my wife prefers it on the colder side also.

Haha if it’s not 75 in here my wife looses it!

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 26, 2017 10:30 am

Haha if it’s not 75 in here my wife looses it!

It took me several years to slowly get our T-Stats up to 70 degrees.

You have to remember where I came from! 25 years of heating with wood in a Hot Blast and then the Fire Chief! Along with CAR issues that I didn't know existed....It was a daily issue to come home after working 10hrs and the house had cooled off to the lower 60's or even worse with extreme cold...So having the house a constant 67° is "Heaven" compared to the last 25 years! We are very used to a cooler house!

Fixing the CAR I'm sure has helped the most. To reiterate, the CAR registers for the wood furnace was in the ceiling. One at each end of the house with flex running the entire length of the attic to cool even more. This was how I was instructed from the Heating and Air distributer 25 years ago. I could check wall temp on an inside wall with an infrared gun and get 80° at the ceiling, 70°, half way down the wall, and 60° at the floor....Now with the CAR at floor level, the same wall is within 1° from top to bottom....Having the CAR installed correctly (or as best you can) can make all the difference in the world...