Alaska stove channing 2 feed and setup

 
mamba316
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska stove Channing II

Post by mamba316 » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 4:31 am

Hello. I'm new to the forum but pretty average with coal and stoves. I grew up using a heatrola stove. Manual feed no blower and manual damper. Anyway I got a deal on a alaska stove channing 2 i believe. It has 2 small what I think are some sort of rheostat. One for the top blower and the other for the feed tray and bottom blower into the stove. I have the damper set to what I read online which is .04 and the bar for the feed on the back of the stove to 7/8inches from the lobe to the cap nut. How wide should that fire be? How often should ash be going into the pan? I know when mine does go into the pan it's ash and not live fuel. But I think the bed may be too high or not set up correctly . I do have a photo you can see what I'm talking about. If someone can let me know how wide the fire should be and how fast it should be on low speed and medium or high. I know that sounds like a dumb question but on those two boxes it says calibrate on low speed. So I have no idea if it is even calibrated correctly or aside from the potentiometer on the side of it how to adjust it the right way or find where to read about the process. Thank you for your time and I apologize for the long post. I am just trying to make sure everything is set up correctly for my family. I have a wife and 5 kids I just want to make sure they are warm and safe this year. Thanks again

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WNY
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Post by WNY » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 6:53 am

First, make sure you have working CO detectors. Next, you can only accurately set your draft with a draft gauge, lots of good threads on it here (Manometer, Dwyer model 25). most of us have those for setting and monitoring actual draft.

Make sure it was cleaned out good, gaskets checked/replaced, etc...

The burn looks good, it will burn back to where the holes are in the grate. any farther it may have a problem with you draft or gaskets. When adjusting for heat, it should increase the bed flame to almost 1" of ash at full burn. your's looks close to idle or small demand for heat. You should not push hot coals off, if so, reduce your feed rate.

THere's manuals online for more info.

 
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska stove Channing II

Post by mamba316 » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 12:22 pm

I did a pretty good cleaning on it when I first got it. All except the bed. I didn't realise it came off until today. So I'm going to shut it down empty everything make sure it's spotless. The controls I have. I have the feed controller set to half way and the blower on full and it's putting out heat pretty good but I need a temp gauge and I will pick the meter up as soon as possible I do have a couple co detectors in the house. Just because I don't need anything happening to my wife and kids. I do thank you for your time and advice on everything it does help a lot. I tried looking for a manual on the channing 2 but everything I found doesn't show how to make sure the feed is set or how to adjust those 2 boxes with the single knobs on them that say calibrate on low written on the sides. They are identical. Looks like back to reading for me. My old yellow flame was previously set and I didn't put that in my self. The new house I had to put one in my self and this is what I got. This is a lot of work to get set up properly

 
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Post by WNY » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 4:21 pm

Each stove is different and people have different needs for heat. all take a little while to dial in and setup correctly. just make small adjustments and let it catch up, an hour or more to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. sometimes take a few trial and errors to get it just right. Some grate plates do come off and should be sealed a certain way either under with rope gaskets and around the back/sides with a furnace high cement.

 
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska stove Channing II

Post by mamba316 » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 7:17 pm

The plate on this one does come off. It also has a seal on it. I want to remove it to see if there is build up and use the compressor to blow the tiny holes on it out so I know clean air and pressure is going through it. I do have another question. I bought a imperial magnetic temp monitor. It says on the package to have it on a single wall pipe 18 inches above the stove. The problem is it shows a stove with no blower and the pipe coming out of the top of the stove. My stove pipe exits out of the stove on the bottom right hand corner. And the pipe doesn't really get hot. So can this imperial temp device work on my stove and if so where should I mount this so I get a accurate temp reading off of the stove itself.

 
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Post by titleist1 » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 7:26 pm

I prefer a barbeque temp probe inserted in the flue pipe rather than the magnetic gauges. They are about $10 at the big box stores, maybe even cheaper on line. About a 2" probe, threads into pipe, nice easy to read gauge. The last one was about 5 years old before it crapped out.

I use an IR temp monitor for stove body temps (and to drive the cats nuts) :yes:

 
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Post by WNY » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 7:31 pm

As for the grate, you may have to use a small drill bit of proper size to clean all the holes out, it gets packed in pretty good. compressed air may or may not work.

Like mentioned above, use a probe thermometer inside the pipe, i found some digital ones that has a small probe and read up to 500 deg. I think.

as for the temp gauge, those magnetic ones typically are for wood stoves on the exhaust pipe. Coal stove exhaust pipes usually don't run very hot, I put the gauge right on the front of my stove that typically single wall on the stove. It can range 200-500 depending on how hot you are running it.


 
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska stove Channing II

Post by mamba316 » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 8:52 pm

I will have to pick up those types of temp monitors and try those tricks on the grate then. On my type of stove. I guess the big question is. How hot should the stove get during a normal burn on say the highest setting. I just don't want to crack anything. Or melt anything

 
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Post by WNY » Sun. Dec. 02, 2018 7:33 am

all stoves are slightly different, but a good full burn should run the stove up 400-500+ degrees without any problems.
They are made to burn only so much on the grates at full burn, highly unlikely you'll overfire a stoker.

 
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska stove Channing II

Post by mamba316 » Sun. Dec. 02, 2018 11:07 pm

Well I checked the grate. The bed that the fire sits on and underneath it was clogged like I thought. Only a small amount of the holes were leaving the bottom blower do it's job. After inspection of the grate also I found cracks all the way across but it's not cracked all the way through or in half. So I think i will need to purchase that part. Anyone know a good place to purchase stove parts for a alaska channing 2 at least I think it's a channing 2. From the looks and everything I would say it is. I cannot find the Id plate on it on the backside

 
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Post by csstoker » Mon. Dec. 03, 2018 9:19 pm

not sure when grates have to be replaced? If so, you could call the Alaska location in Bloomsburg, they can tell you who your closest dealer Alaska dealer is, or maybe get direct, but the grate is heavy. Is the grate gasket and the strongback in good shape?

 
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska stove Channing II

Post by mamba316 » Tue. Dec. 04, 2018 12:14 am

The gasket is brand new still pure white. Not flakey brittle. Not brown it's in awesome shape. Everything else looks great all the gaskets on the front doors. The hopper. All over the system. The only bad part at this point is the grate. It's not cracked bad the top row of holes from side to side has a crack in it. But the grate is intact not in pieces thankfully. I just want to let you all know to everyone that has commented. To say thank you for all your help . It has been tremendous. Since I have it adjusted and cleaned out it's running the best so far. Before with the settings I have it ran ok but didn't put out hardly any heat now with the same settings and cleaned out it's burning nice and the ash couldnt be better quality. No spent fuel in the ash bucket at all. Thanks again. I will let you all know if I find a vendor for the grate or if I find out definitely if I have to change it at this point

 
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Post by titleist1 » Tue. Dec. 04, 2018 6:58 am

Thanks for reporting back how things are going.....Glad it is running good for you! :clap:

I'd suggest getting a replacement grate and any gaskets you will need. You may not need them this burn season (especially if you already have them on the shelf!) but you'll have them if something happens to your grate some weekend and the local dealer isn't open. They won't go bad and you can treat the stoker to a new grate next burn season! :yes:

 
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska stove Channing II

Post by mamba316 » Tue. Dec. 04, 2018 9:06 pm

I will definitely pick up some gaskets as well. From what I am seeing the grate I found just online is roughly 122 bucks which isn't too bad and it comes with gaskets. Though the gaskets it comes with look different only in color than the ones I have but should work the same. Again I do thank everyone for the tips and suggestions the house is perfectly warm and working great minus this little snag. I liked my heatrola but this thing is way better

 
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Post by McGiever » Wed. Dec. 05, 2018 9:48 am

In some cases one can clean-out with a small homemade vacuum adapter hose under the grates without disturbing the gasket seal all around.
This can be accomplished by temporary removal of combustion fan to have rear access into area under grate.
This can save compromising a good gasket, especially with coals with heavy concentrations of fines.


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