Coal Trol Settings for Alaska Channing 3

The Coaltrol has been spectacular so far this year but there is one caveat. In the room that the stove sits in I'd like to get it cooler. Right now the temp is about 77 but the Coaltrol was set for 73. The temp has been on 73 all night long. The issues is that the temps outside are warm and in the day and cool in the evening. Right now I have the Coaltrol set for 4 so the firing rate is still too high to get the room to the temp I want. I'm just set it to 3 to see what happens. The worst case scenario is that I would open a window and once the temps get cooler the min will work fine. But I'm curious if there are users who are running it at 2-3 for Min on their Alsaka stoves or will the fire go out?

Also, what is your max feed rate when temps get really cold?

I think a lot will depend on your coal. I usually have my stove set at a min3 and the temps on the front of my stove are 100* I have gone as low as min 2 but I have to watch my draft as it gets very low. Is there a way you can put a fan in that room to help wash some heat from that room.

I have a ceiling fan that works well to wash the heat off the stove. The stove seems to be idling well at 3. I have about a 1" band of coal on the grate and my stove temp is 100. I just bought a magnetic thermometer. The room is still warm but today it's going to hit 72. My draft guage reads .04 and the stove barely used any coal last night. Since I lit the stove with this new coal I'm using about 16 pounds a day. The real test is when the temps hit 15. I hope this new coal can keep up. The other night it hit 38 and the stove was at 200 degress with about a 2.5-3" band of fire on the grate. This new coal seems to be buring nicely.

Gambler I think you posted you're using a max setting of 40?

traderfjp wrote:Gambler I think you posted you're using a max setting of 40?

Trader, my max setting is 37 or 38 I don't remember and I am at work now.

You have a direct vent or power vent don't you? You may be able to go lower than min 3. If I go lower it works ok in the moderate outside temps but if it gets a little cooler outside it cools my chimney too much and I start losing draft.

I have a DV with a rheostat. I may try 2 just to see. I want to give 3 a few more hours to see if the fire stays lit. I remember using my stove on 1 which was the manual feed setting and the outside of the stove was warm. Mine is till hot. If u call 120 hot.

Trader with that DV you can get that fire probably down to 1/2" wide and still keep it lit . I can do this withmine in the winter but not with it 75* outside as I start to lose some draft on the chimney.

The stove went out at 2 so I increased it to 3. Oh well.