If you have any knowledge/experiences with a Keystoker coal boiler Please share them here.
Thanks!
Keystoker Coal Boilers - K-6, Etc - Questions, Advice Thread
This is my first year using a K-6, have learned alot already but will learn more I'm sure. I've struggled with the draft and the direct vent / flue, still tweaking, adding a "T" now.
If you have any knowledge/experiences with a Keystoker coal boiler Please share them here.
Thanks!
If you have any knowledge/experiences with a Keystoker coal boiler Please share them here.
Thanks!
-
Complete Heat
- Member
- Posts: 221
- Joined: Thu. Mar. 09, 2006 9:46 pm
- Location: Nashua, NH
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We haveinstalled two so far, and they work great. One a natural vent, the other a direct vent. Just follow the owners manual and you will have no problem. I t sounds like you may not have installed a barometric damper the first time.
Mike
We haveinstalled two so far, and they work great. One a natural vent, the other a direct vent. Just follow the owners manual and you will have no problem. I t sounds like you may not have installed a barometric damper the first time.
Mike
Hi Mike, thanks for the reply! I've been tryimg to find someone else with experience with these for a year! So I apologize for the length of this...
The barometric damper on the direct vent unit is set pretty much wide open, and the "Main" air vent for the boiler is fully closed (the flap you turn under the stoker is in a horizontal position, closed). The air vent on the blower motor is half open. The folks at Keystoker were helpful and I bought the draft gage from them.
These settings are giving me a -.01 to -.02 draft over fire, and a -.05 when idling.
How do these settings and this draft compare to the units you installed? Is the -.01 too close to zero?
I have a CO meter right by the boiler and have placed another across the basement and 1 upstairs. These show the peak level of carbon monoxide and there are no indications from any of them. But I still can smell a faint "sulfur-like" smell in the basement and at the top of the stairway sometimes, not sure what else I can do.
The installer normally installs gas and wood furnaces and he didn't apply furnace cement to the stoker unit or to the direct vent flange. Did you? Should I remove the stoker unit and cement that?
He did finally caulk around the stoker unit, and I fully caulked all joints in the 4" pipe leading from the direct vent to the wall including the 90. I have a "T" from the direct vent, then 5' up the foundation wall, then a 90 out the wall, to the stainless pipe through the wall (with the 6" insulator pipe and the short vertical with the cap.
I found out the installer installed the 6" insulator pipe backwards, with the cap outdoors and the open end inside. He also used the longer stainless pipe that came with the unit as a vertical rise rather than the through the wall pipe. I was told by the dealer the capped end should be inside and the open end outside to allow cold air to cool the pipe. This is what the manual shows, but unfortunately the installer pretty much ignored the manual. Good pipe fitter...
So I took it all apart and reversed the 6" pipe and the otdoor pipe. Do you use 26 gauge galvanized pipe for the flue? Did you install the direct vent boiler in a basement like me or does it go straight out a wall?
Anyway sorry about the rambling - The K-6 runs great - just having this slight smell still, and trying to find a way to quiet the noise from the pipe/flue that goes through the wall and the screen - we sleep right above it.
Any ideas there?
Lots of questions, Thanks for your help!
Ron
The barometric damper on the direct vent unit is set pretty much wide open, and the "Main" air vent for the boiler is fully closed (the flap you turn under the stoker is in a horizontal position, closed). The air vent on the blower motor is half open. The folks at Keystoker were helpful and I bought the draft gage from them.
These settings are giving me a -.01 to -.02 draft over fire, and a -.05 when idling.
How do these settings and this draft compare to the units you installed? Is the -.01 too close to zero?
I have a CO meter right by the boiler and have placed another across the basement and 1 upstairs. These show the peak level of carbon monoxide and there are no indications from any of them. But I still can smell a faint "sulfur-like" smell in the basement and at the top of the stairway sometimes, not sure what else I can do.
The installer normally installs gas and wood furnaces and he didn't apply furnace cement to the stoker unit or to the direct vent flange. Did you? Should I remove the stoker unit and cement that?
He did finally caulk around the stoker unit, and I fully caulked all joints in the 4" pipe leading from the direct vent to the wall including the 90. I have a "T" from the direct vent, then 5' up the foundation wall, then a 90 out the wall, to the stainless pipe through the wall (with the 6" insulator pipe and the short vertical with the cap.
I found out the installer installed the 6" insulator pipe backwards, with the cap outdoors and the open end inside. He also used the longer stainless pipe that came with the unit as a vertical rise rather than the through the wall pipe. I was told by the dealer the capped end should be inside and the open end outside to allow cold air to cool the pipe. This is what the manual shows, but unfortunately the installer pretty much ignored the manual. Good pipe fitter...
So I took it all apart and reversed the 6" pipe and the otdoor pipe. Do you use 26 gauge galvanized pipe for the flue? Did you install the direct vent boiler in a basement like me or does it go straight out a wall?
Anyway sorry about the rambling - The K-6 runs great - just having this slight smell still, and trying to find a way to quiet the noise from the pipe/flue that goes through the wall and the screen - we sleep right above it.
Any ideas there?
Lots of questions, Thanks for your help!
Ron