Alaska 140 single

 
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 8:09 pm

All, Ive done a ton of reading since last year and finally made the conversion to straight coal. Im writing this quick blurb to help the others out there in my similar situation. First go coal and never turn back. Now about my situation. When we first bought our house it had you guessed it an oil burner. That lasted one winter and it was gone. Oil bills are hurendous and the heat never amounted to much. I installed an electric water heater to supplement the oil furnace and installed el cheapo Hotblast 1557 wood stove. We have always burned wood growing up and it kind of became normal to have to cut wood and put in tons of labor to keep warm. That beast of a stove kept us warm, but not without its risks and heartaches plus back aches. Year after year i would cut 7 chords of wood by myself, split by maul by myself and carry it into the basement by myself. I never asked the wife to help much mainly because I didnt want her to get hurt. I did this for 7 years.

Finally after last year the old hotblast was on her last legs. The grates were cracked and broken, most of all bricks were broken again, fire box had some warpage, and i was just sick of dealing with it to keep our family warm. I knew there was something better out there.......


 
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 8:22 pm

Now the Hotblast 1557 kept us warm, but it was kind of a dangerous stove in my opinion. When the power goes out so does the blower fans. If the blower fans are not working you quickly get a runaway stove if you have it rockin and rollin to keep your house warm. We had one occasion in particular last year of my wife calling me at work terrified because the power went out and the stove started to cook off. I had to come home and dig the generator out to get it running to start cooling down. Not a fun experience even after shutting air flow down to the box.

So that led me to ponder a few points on what i wanted to do. First i wanted to stay forced air heat. Next i knew i didnt want wood anymore and the hassles and dangers of that. Then I also knew i wanted something that would not cook off. After much research online of alternatives I quickly came to coal. Its btu output is awesome from its carbon content and it is easy breezy to handle.

Since I knew I wanted coal I started looking for forced air coal stoves. Searches came up with Alaska 140. After reading many opinions on here and housing scenarios i decided on the 140 single. I figured the double would be too much for my house size and no sense in paying for something I wouldnt use to the full extent.

 
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 8:37 pm

Now one great thing about the alaska 140 is, if the power goes out the furnace shuts down. If the blower fan is not running then the coals lose their ability to burn and it safely burns itself out. Ive tested it just to be sure that the box does not over heat. The next few things that were key points were thermostat control, a 250 lb hopper, and control. The thermostat is awesome. Ive been running the stove since october and it has only fluctuated at most 2 degrees in our house. The thermostat runs into a coal setting box where you set your feed rates. You have a low setting and a high setting. I currently have the stove set on L for the low setting and at 35 on the high setting. Most of the time it stays on the L setting. When the thermostat calls for heat it goes to your high setting. I find 35 just right and to be honest when it got into the 20 degree mark the stove still didnt go to high setting much. Once the box reaches a certain temp the thermo disc turns the circulation fan on and blows the warm air through the vents. The low setting is good. I found it was sufficient on those fall days when it still gets into higher 60s. Most of the time the furnace never pushed hot air and it idled just enough to keep a coal bed.

 
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 8:47 pm

Now i know this is long, but i promise pictures. The blower fan has a setting switch to set how high or low of a speed you want the fan to blow. This is not the combustion fan. This is the circulating fan. I usually keep it midway between low and high. It works for my situation. Im kind of scared to put it on low in case the box would get too hot and the circulation fan would not be able to keep up with it to push the hot air out of the box. I guess fears from my past stove. There is also a switch to run the circulation fan continuous or off the thermodisc control.
The combustion fan runs all the time. The speed is never changed.

 
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 9:11 pm

The oil burner we had was hot water. Now hot water heat is a great system, but I also have my reserves about that. Pipe breaks and furnace cook offs causing release valve pops and such come to my memory from growing up. When we got rid of the oil boiler I found the hotblast and went the forced air route. To me its quick heat, i know there is waste associated, but the original system in our house made me skiddish especially since our home was built in the 1920s. It had piece together sections and obvious signs of pipe breakage frome previous owners. I knew i couldnt really afford to redo all the copper lines living on my income and 2 small children in the house. So out comes the sawzall, pipe cutter, and a drive to cash in some old copper pipe. I went with a flex ducting and ran it through my basement and crawl space. It was fairly easy to work with and surprisingly the flex ducting is insulated well. I cut holes in my floor and used hcac 4x12 vents into 8" round (think they are that size) and connected the flex tubing direct.

Now my house details. The original part is brick and built in 1920s. It is 2 story. Newer double paned windows but not top quality. The second part of our house was built in the 50s. It was a stick built and is 2 stories as well. Same windows. The bottom story of both sections is drywall. The top story is plaster of both sections. We have 2 stairwells. One in front old section and one at back of house. This house is a dream for circulating air naturally. We have window ac units upstairs in summer, and my heat vents are down stairs in the winter. My house is 1700 sq feet brick and vinyl siding. I guess that is enough of a write up. If you guys have any questions feel free to ask please. I want to help other if I can.

 
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 9:19 pm

Stove pics.

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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 9:24 pm

Coal bin construction. Can hold 3 ton with shuffling.

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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 9:27 pm

Had to rip old window out and create an arch to get an angle for my chute.

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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 9:31 pm

I had to off set my box from my window because i have a sump pump directly under my window. I had to get creative.

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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 9:39 pm

If you guys want any more pictures, let me know. If you have any questions, let me know. My next few missions are a vent filter box on the back of the blower fan. Putting some metal on my chutes to make the coal flow better. Also one thing to add expanding foam in the can is great for sealing your coal bin to stop any dust. I put plywood sheeing on the ceiling and framed under it and sealed all cracks with that stuff. Excellent product. No dust problems except a minute amount around my slat doorway. Slat doorway goes to the top by the way.

 
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freetown fred
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut

Post by freetown fred » Sat. Dec. 02, 2017 10:22 pm

It's all lookin & soundin real good C. :)

 
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Richard S.
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

Post by Richard S. » Sun. Dec. 03, 2017 9:15 am

Welcome to the forum. Bit of criticism from the point of view of the guy delivering the coal. When anyone ever asked me about the window opening what I always told them was just give me the largest opening you can with no obstructions. Difficult to tell from pictures but based on what I'm that doghouse on the outside is in the way if it's not removable and the stuff on inside is in the way. Without it in the way you can lay a chute flat on the ground just a little bit into the bin. Jack the truck up and place the chute from the truck onto the flat chute.... let er rip.

Flat chute just goes bare minimum into the window opening. Once it piles up to top of the chute slide it in a little on top of the pile you just made next to the window and abracadabra you can fill up the part of the bin away from the window but that may not be possible with your bin because of the offset which is fine because there is apparently little choice. In an ideal situation where you can back the truck up to the window centered on the bin, lay the flat chute and there is plenty of wiggle room to move it left and right you can stack coal to the rafters and never touch a shovel.

 
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Richard S.
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Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

Post by Richard S. » Sun. Dec. 03, 2017 9:37 am

Here is what I'm saying. the end of the flat chute could be at the height and position where this arrow is, that probably about 1 to 1.5 tons of extra coal before any shoveling needs to be done compared to what you have now. If there was enough wiggle room to to angle it to get it past that corner you can slide it onto the pile and fill up further back in the bin...even less shoveling. A coal truck is giant tool and can save you lot of work if you know how to use it and the bin is set up well.
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sun. Dec. 03, 2017 9:41 am

I had a few difficulties with the window. One a power line runs into our house so deliveries are difficult because of clearance. The other problem was how thick my foundation was. I needed to go up to get some gravity feed. I have a truck so personally I enjoy picking it up 😊 and shoveling in. It makes me appreciate how easy it is lol. The sump hole made me off set my box so that was another issue. All in all i gleaned most of my information from this site. The coal stove reviews, the coal bin designs (great forum topic btw), and general coal usage topics. You guys are a wealth. I only hope now I can return the favor with any small experience i have. By the way you should have seen how i got the old stove out and the new one in with just my wife and myself lol.

 
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crowsnest2002
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska 140 single
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by crowsnest2002 » Sun. Dec. 03, 2017 9:47 am

I did build from wood so i can alter later. The only delivery man closest to me charges $50 extra per ton and he just uses a dump truck i believe as well. Ill have to stare at it awhile and ponder some. My wife thinks im insane for how much i love my coal stove. Of course Ive heard that can be a problem lol.


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