Finishing Refurb of Keystoker

 
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europachris
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Post by europachris » Mon. Oct. 08, 2007 10:26 am

I believe I bought the Watt Miser through Ebay, cost was around $30 or $40. I really don't recall. It's a really neat tool to have around the house.

Chris


 
Matthaus
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Post by Matthaus » Mon. Oct. 08, 2007 10:47 am

Is it a Kill A Watt? P4400 model perhaps? I just bought one for $16.10 plus $6.00 shipping on ebay.

 
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Post by europachris » Mon. Oct. 08, 2007 12:39 pm

That's IT! Kill-a-Watt. Jeez, why was I thinking watt miser??? :oops:

 
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WNY
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90K, Leisure Line Hyfire I
Coal Size/Type: Rice
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Post by WNY » Mon. Oct. 08, 2007 3:51 pm

I think my keystoker90K ran about 200-220 Watts. My buddy loaned me his, but I found one ebay for Like $16-20

your stove Looks great!

 
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Post by europachris » Mon. Oct. 08, 2007 4:50 pm

Thanks, Dave. Couple of questions for you on your stove, since it's a newer model:

1) How do you adjust the draft (or do you)? I have no adjustment for the amount of air bleed into the direct vent, and I removed the rheostat that was there (of course I can put it back, tho). I have a Dwyer gage ready to go.....

2) Do you have a speed control on the convection blower?

3) How many turns out do you run the stoker adjustment?

4) How far open is your combustion air flap?

Any other tricks and hints?

Thanks!

Chris

 
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WNY
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90K, Leisure Line Hyfire I
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Post by WNY » Mon. Oct. 08, 2007 8:26 pm

On the power vent on ours is a sliding gate to adjust the intake from the power vent. I never adjusted it.

No speed control on convection blower, on/off.

I started with 2 turns out for stoker adjustment, you can go a bit more for less stroke to fine tune it. I have run it out to 3 or so for just barely burn mode.

I think my combustion air is set about 1/2 on the cover closed.


you can see the combustion blower cover in the picture.

I see you have an Idle Timer Box, our had 6 pins (1.5-2.0 mins) of stoke time for every 10 mins. 1.5 mins is about 1 complete stroke.

Just fire it up and keep an eye on it for an hour or so and see how much it idles (if it doesn't go out) and/or how much it burns, even on full throttle, it still had 1/2"-1" of ash at the end.

NOTE: Only happened once, sometimes when really, really cold it and it burned HOT for extended periods, I would get a big clinker jammed against the door and coal goes everywhere! I ran some buckwheat (50/50 mix) along with it and it solved the problem, gives it a bit more air and won't fuse together like the Rice.

 
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Post by europachris » Mon. Oct. 08, 2007 9:19 pm

Cool! Thanks for the info, Dave. My power vent has no gate at all, just the bleed air intake on the one side, and about a 1-1/2" hole into the blower chamber from the vent extension. I see the bleed side of yours is also removable for cleaning access. That's nice! But, I can get all the way straight into mine once the hanging baffle behind the ash pan is taken off.

Here are a few pics of the vent after I got it home and apart.

Chris

Attachments

Dsc03105s.jpg

blower

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Dsc03107s.jpg

Looking inside the vent

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Dsc03106s.jpg

vent w/blower removed

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WNY
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Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90K, Leisure Line Hyfire I
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Post by WNY » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 8:26 am

Looks pretty typical, if it's not cleaned out right away after use, it will corrode quickly, Mine didn't look quite that bad. I am using my chimney and disconnected the power vent....but, I may move it to the attached garage and route the heat to the above room and hook it back up after hooking up the HyFire I with the coaltrol, (Greg, I am Still slacking!! )

Maybe within a couple of weeks the hyfire will be hooked up and running, since it starting to get colder outside....the gas furnance hasn't come on yet, only for a test to make sure it works.

 
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Post by europachris » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 8:36 am

Just got off the phone with Don at Keystoker. What a nice bunch of people there! I ordered a new hopper lid and a couple of ashpans.

Also asked a bunch of questions regarding the setup/operation of the stove. He mentioned that the rheostat indeed might be necessary for the direct vent to control the draft. He also said to start with the combustion draft 1/2 open and go from there, and to convert the combustion blower into continuous run mode vs. the intermittent/tied to the stoker motor mode it's currently set up as.

Lastly, I asked whether to seal the hopper to the top of the stoker. He said NO! They tried this and it caused a lot of issues due to the moisture in the coal. Interesting!

Well, I'll pick up the stove board on Friday (54"x54" corner pad - $$$) and get the stove in place so I can measure out my venting setup and finalize the materials list.

Chris

 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 9:20 am

My hopper just sits onto of the stoker unit..I put a bit of black silicone, just to keep it from vibrating and added a bit of a ramp to the back of hopper here..

Coal Hopper Modification

 
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Post by europachris » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 9:26 am

Interesting, my hopper already has a sloped rear wall all the way across the back with a piece of galvanized sheet metal riveted in. Don't know if that was factory OEM or owner modified, but it looks original. All I know is that over the years of use, the area under the 'slope' filled up with coal fines and now every time I move the hopper around, it leaves a black trail.....

Chris

 
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Post by Matthaus » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 10:16 am

The one I have is flat like WNYs was before the mod, if you seal it now the fines will be forever encapsulated. :lol:

On the lid issue and wet coal, the one I have has two 3" circles cut out of the lid with expanded metal mesh over them. I know the Harmans I have get water collected under the lid if you put wet coal in it, have to leave the lid off for a half hour or so till the coal dries out.

 
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Post by ken » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 12:06 pm

looks real nice Chris. only thing I have left to do is install the ceiling fan above the stove. like yours mine is very quite. I couldn't believe how smooth she is with all the blowers running.i just did a dry run to make sure all was working. i'm firing her up wed. night. looks like fall will be here. lol I cut 2 holes in the floor to the basement at the far ends of the house. wal-mart had double windows fans for $7. I figure on low they will move air through the first floor , heat the basement some , end up rising through the step opening in the center of the house. hope that plan works out lol.

 
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Post by europachris » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 12:29 pm

Matthaus wrote:The one I have is flat like WNYs was before the mod, if you seal it now the fines will be forever encapsulated. :lol:

On the lid issue and wet coal, the one I have has two 3" circles cut out of the lid with expanded metal mesh over them. I know the Harmans I have get water collected under the lid if you put wet coal in it, have to leave the lid off for a half hour or so till the coal dries out.
When I talked to Keystoker this morning, they mentioned that the lid was vented that they are sending me.

Well, I just picked up 6 bags of Blaschak rice at lunch. I'm going to get a length of that 4" aluminum dryer vent and hang it out the basement window to give the stove a test fire this weekend before I actually park it in place and start sawing holes in my concrete foundation wall. Might not be the safest thing to do, but I won't leave it unattended, and I have a CO detector, so I'll be ok.

Chris

 
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Post by Matthaus » Tue. Oct. 09, 2007 3:03 pm

We are all just like little kids with new toys! :lol: Can't wait to try out the latest results of our efforts.!

Enjoy the first burn. :) :onfire:


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