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How Hot Is Too Hot Using a CoalTrol on a LL Pioneer BV?

Posted: Sat. Nov. 22, 2008 8:24 pm
by Paulie
I have TS2 running a LL Pioneer BV. How can I set TS2 to have the stove at MAX to heat up an area quick? Does the
the TS2 slow down the feed rate as the set temp is approached? I have set for 80, and the warmest the areas has been
is 73. When set to max feed and left there, I can get big heat. I want big heat. How much is too much? Should I just
set the room temp that much higher, like 90 to get a full tilt burn? How hot is too hot? I would like to run hot with less
fan, so stove behaves more like the wood monster it replaced. Can I run the stove for more convection heat vs, air ? Will it
"over fire'? or will the TS2 prevent an overheat? Thanks

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Sun. Nov. 23, 2008 8:06 am
by WNY
What are you CoalTrol Min/Max settings? It should slow the feed down as it approaches the setpoints so it doesn't overshoot the temps.

Coal takes time to heat up, so you won't get it there quick. It takes time to feed it, ignite, burn and continue and the coaltrol makes adjustments as it continues. It takes mine almost an 45mins - HOUR to heat up and stabilize and then it maintains nicely. I keep mine at 70 and it maintains 70 most of the time. It's nothing like wood.

I would not use the setback or go more than 3-5 degrees at a time for temp. changes and let it catch up.

You can't just change the thermostat setting and expect it to catch up quickly.

The stove itself is made to burn on most of the grate, so an overfire on a stoker is highly unlikely. There is only so much coal to burn.

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Sun. Nov. 23, 2008 7:57 pm
by pvolcko
There's a whole lot of questions in there. :)

If you want to I suppose you could run the unit on the MAX setting in the SETUP menu, however I would highly recommend against it. If you want to push a whole bunch of coal onto the grate you can use the "FEED" option, press and hold the menu button for 5 seconds until the word "FEED" appears. Tap the up or down button to engage it. It will count down from 10 while it feeds at maximum rate. You can use a couple of these in a row to get the thing blazing very quickly.

If you have a setpoint of 80 and a room temp of 73 reading on the thermostat then it will get to a maximum feedrate pretty quickly (within 1 hour for sure). This level of heat will be the same as if you had it running on the MAX setting screen in SETUP or were using the FEED option, except it will dial back once it has reached temp and settle out to maintain the setpoint.

If you want it to get to maximum feedrate more quickly you can't really "trick" the controller into doing it by using a higher setpoint. It will work, of course, until you reach your actual desired setpoint of 80 at which point you'll have to reduce the setpoint back and the control will interpret that as wanting to reduce your temp in the room and will dial up a lower feedrate, perhaps lower than you need to maintain temp, so there will end up being an overshoot while it burns off the remaining coal on the grate and then an undershoot as it puts out too little heat to maintain the 80 degree setpoint. Eventually it reach 80 once again, but it may take a number of hours for this whole seeking process to occur. Better to set at the SP you want, let it reach temp (try to get the air circulating around the house as best you can) and let the control do its job. As I said, you can use the FEED option to force feed burst of coal onto the grate to get things up to temp more quickly.

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Tue. Nov. 25, 2008 11:42 am
by Paulie
I think my problem is my stove is too small for the space. 1500sf basement is toasty, 1500sf 1st floor is so so. Stove is
at max setting, in set up or at set temp that it will never reach(85), so stove is cooking right along. I have never really seen
a "full grate fire" unless using "feed". I am bumping up the feed rate(at 62 now) and although a bigger fire, I still do not have
1.5-2 ash at end of grate. More like 3" +. I will keep messing with it, though I think by problem is stove size more than set up.
Stove is in the basement at the end of a wing on the house. The room above is the coldest in the house, I have a small
vent in the floor, but I need to put some power on it. With the giant wood stove I had before, floor would heat up nicely,
but this stoker stove is a different animal. Radiant heat is not its strength. If I can get more of the hot air up, I should be
good. Thanks for the replys :D

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Tue. Nov. 25, 2008 12:15 pm
by MrMikie
Paulie,

Try lowering the CFT to 8 and set min to 6 and set max to 70. You may be running at the defaults.

If this does not get a full grate them keep bumping up the MAX number to a higher number.

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Tue. Nov. 25, 2008 1:33 pm
by WNY
WOW, 85 Degrees.....!!
Definately bump the max up like MrMike stated. Every stove is a little different. Also, only raise the temp like 4-5 degrees above the Room temp and let it settle out to see how much heat it puts out and if it can catch up to the setpoint.

Sometimes, you have to make small adjustments to see what it does. You can just raise it 10-15 degrees and expect it to heat up that fast.

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Wed. Nov. 26, 2008 2:03 am
by Paulie
Kicked feed rate up to 70 and the grate is filling up. So good call, I left the Temp set point for 85, temp read out is
currently 72, there is no way this stove will get this area any where close to 85, so it will keep going full tilt, allowing me
with your help, to dial it in to through the most heat.

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Wed. Nov. 26, 2008 4:18 am
by Paulie
Settled in on 73 as the max feed rate, and the stove is FINALLY cranking out some heat! Not just heat, BIG heat.
Kitchen floor is warming up nicely. I am going to put a small duct fan in the vent hole in the floor, that should bring
some more of the big heat up to warm the wifes feet in the morning. Thanks to all for your help, I never would have
put the feed rate up so high with out it and never would have got the big heat I was looking for. :)

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Wed. Nov. 26, 2008 1:40 pm
by pvolcko
A MAX setting of 70 is pretty unusual for a new Pioneer. Not unheard of, but unusual. If you leave it running on the MAX screen with that 70 setting do you end up pushing coals off the end of the grate?

Re: How Hot Is Too Hot?

Posted: Thu. Nov. 27, 2008 11:34 am
by Paulie
No, not hot coals. Finally settled into 80 as max feed rate. Stove is pumping some heat....finally. No hot coals coming
off the grate. Ashes seem completely burned too. With max feed rate 50-70, I was getting some unburned pieces, not alot,
but a few. Now there is none. I believe my chimney draft plays a large role too. I have about 45-50' of chimney. Old colonial
and has a 6" liner. I get a draft like no other. I set the baro between 3 and 4. At 2-3 fire is not real big at any setting, at
4 huge fire, o.k. heat at 3ish, big fire, tons of heat. So there she stays. Thanks to all for the help. The stove is a little
small for the job, but it will due for this season, and only because of your help. Thanks and happy Thanks Giving, because
we do have so much to be thankful for. :)