keystoker

It depends on the rating of the circuit board, it may not be able to handle extra current.? Hard to say. It might work fine....

You could always put an external Heat/Cool Thermo Switch to control the fans.

See this post at the end...I have one and it works great!
Convection Fan Issues

Thanks WNY. i asked this question in another post. i guess nobody wanted to touch it. i want to put a reohstat on my DV blower. i want to reduce the heat loss out the flue. bad idea. also i bought 2 Vornado fans. i tried them everywhere. one at a time , 2 at a time. different places bunch times. they just not working like i thought they would. i'm getting better heat through the house with the pedastal fan behind the stove , pushing a straight shot. oh well.

I have a rheostat on my DV blower - but I have an older stove that has no draft control adjustment on the direct vent, so it's the only way to control the draft. I normally run it about 75% speed, I'd guess, with the combustion blower 1/2 open. That gives me .02 to .03 draft and works great.

Ok fellers, First off the hilbily is gettin one of em'air stoves fer burning antracite coal. I likes heat and alot of it when the outside temp starts dropin.lol i inquired about the harman tlc2000 and today went and took a lqqkies at one along with the alaska kodiak,the hitzer 30-95 and ran into the 90-keystoker. well i liked the auto feed and the 110 lb. hopper, and it was a little more btu's than the tlc
Now what i was wondering was .....If'n you fine fellers here could give me some goods and bads on this here unit (the 90 keystoker) in comparison to any experiance you may have with theses stoves.
One thing i did like about it was that it seemed really cool to the touch on the stove pipe ,around the stove and the stove itself in comparision to the others i mentioned above. any problems with the atuo feed? does this stove normally burn this cool to the touch? or any thing else ya'll may want to shout or praise about?
seen the post on the glass cleaning tips and issues.....that's somethiing i noticed about the one i looked at but payed no nevermind until i was reading thru ya'lls threads about it. This model stove is a little more expensive than the others ( $2308.00 plus a small nominal fee of 6% fer that mootcher of an uncle everybody gots)
I am going to be heating about 2000 sq ft. single level. I plan to shoot the pipe straight out the roof rather than DV it.

I've got an older Keystoker as the second owner. It was pretty neglected before I got it - full of fly ash and rusty. It looks (and works) like new now. They are built like a brick sh!t house, and work great. Only thing to watch is that you burn only rice coal and set the draft properly. Maintain it every year like the manual says and it will last a very long time. But, all the stoves you list are excellent stoves, along with Leisure Line stokers. Alaska makes good stokers, also.

i'm liken mine

Do i understand correctly that the fire can be regulated by the thermostat? And how easy are they to regulate at low burning temps. I know they differ but at a low burning temp how long can ya'll burn at a low setting ... ie setting at about 70 degrees when it's say 35-40 degrees outside? (keystoker says 110 lb hoper has an 80 hour burn time) but t i dont know if that's low or med burning?

thanks

Actually the fire is never regulated by the Tstat, only the amount of time it burns at full blast. There are several adjustments on a stoker, the two main ones are:
1. the amount of coal that is fed into the fire, generally made by adjusting the stroke of the coal pusher
2. the amount of time the unit runs at idle (when the Tstat is not calling for heat), this setting is usually controlled by a timer which tells the stoker to push coal for a certain amount of minutes per cycle (which is usually a 1/2 hour or an hour)
When the Tstat calls for heat it tells the unit to run continuously at the stroke set in item 1 above.

When you set up the stove you adjust the stroke first to limit the amount of coal so as not to push burning coals off the grate, then you set the idle with the timers. Then when the Tstat calls for heat it runs the stove till the set point is met.

I know this may sound a little complicated but it isn't, it just involves a slight learning curve when you first get the stove.

As far as the burn rate, an 80 hour burn on a stoker is most certainly at idle (the lowest possible fire). Typical times for refill interval when it is cold out (colder than 20* F) is once per day (give or take based on about a million variables! ).

Hope this helps, welcome to the wonderful world of saving tons of money while keeping your house toasty warm!

when in dout , FILL THE DAM HOPPER lol. i was being lazy last night. it's kinda a pain for me to load the hopper. i can do it , but takes time scooping it out. so i push all the coal above the hole (not really alot) and turn the TT down some. figured i be ok till morning. i go bed about 3. wake up at 9 to the smell of coal burning. like the smell when you open the door to check the fire. get up and check the hopper , none above the hole. so i push it all over the hopper hole. she never went out. check the LED-CO detector , reading 14. now my question , shouldn't the stove be pulling air in through the hole if it's open , not letting fumes out. i think i need to open the draft vent some even if the hopper is full some small amount of CO could be leaking into the house , no.

With the small amount of draft these stoves run, I think the gasses found an easier exit right back up the grate and out the stoker opening. There just isn't enough airflow through the direct vent to fight the natural tendency of hot air to rise. I think if it was a non-DV stove, the greater volume of air a normal chimney can handle would indeed suck air down through the opening instead.

chris