Keystoker- Combustion Fan

I have an older Keystoker stove. I bought it used from a friend and noticed that there is a flexible tube that runs from the combustion fan along the side of the chamber to the front of the stove right below the door. My question is, what is the proper route for the tube? Is it supposed to blow air at the door or should it be curved so that it blows air on the front of the grate? Currently, only the back half of the grate burns when the stove is going. I have the pusher adjusted all the way out and according to the manual, the length of the stroke is supposed to be directly correlated to the length of coal bed on the grate.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

That tube is for the 'clean glass' system. It should route from under the stoker to a hole in the stove below the glass area. It feeds the row of holes at the bottom of the door. It sorta works. The tube is just metallic flexible conduit, and it's held in place by some furnace cement on each end.

For the adjustment of the stoker, when the screw on the pusher is fully IN, that is maximum stroke. From fully in, turn it out 2 turns or so, and that is a good starting point. You should have a full grate of burning coal except the front 1 or 2 inches if the stoker motor is running full duty cycle.

Conversely, if the stove is only idling, with no call for heat from the thermostat, the timer box keeps a small fire, about 2" wide, burning. Mine does this with 5 timer pins for each set of 3 around the dial.

Does your stove have the combustion blower tied to the stoker motor? Mine did (it's about 12 years old). I rewired to run the combustion blower all the time, and it really helps keep a consistent burn.

Chris

Thanks for the reply Chris!

The way I have the pusher adjusted is that the bar travels as deep as it can towards the burning coal. If I adjust it the other way, I lose length of burning bed. I think I have turned the screw as far as I can in the counter-clockwise position.

As far as the combustion fan goes, it's tied to the stoker motor. When the thermostat calls for heat, both the stoker motor and combustion fan kick on.

My stove has the pipe themostat, so when the living room is not calling for heat, I have the pipe t-stat set that it stokes the fire when the exhaust temp falls to 170 or so.

OK, the pusher screw should be clockwise (looking at the rear of the stove) to tighten and increase coal feed.

Not sure what you mean about the pipe thermostat??? There is a thermostat that is the fan limit switch that if you take it out of the stove, it's about 11" long. That is only to turn the convection blower on when the stove is warm enough (usually 140F or so) and off when the stove cools down (about 90F or so). If the stove overheats (over 200F) it shuts down the stoker motor. The fan limit switch shouldn't control anthing else on the stove.

Of course, I'm sure Keystoker changed things over the years and made some 'specials' along the way, so what you have and what I have might be different.

Chris

Chris

The coal should only burn in a certain section of the burn plate. You can kinda tell where the holes are, that will be the only place it should burn, and about 1" of ash from the end....the back part shouldn't burn much if at all....

Something like this

http://nepacrossroads.com/files/stove_fire_749.jpg

Clockwise in all the way should be MAX FEED.....about 2 turns out is normally a good starting point. You will have to check, if you are getting hot coals pushed off the burn plate, reduce it down 1/2-1 turn at a time, it takes a while to check (like an hour or so) to equalize....do it slowly. maybe 1/4-1/2 turn at a time.

Thanks for share the pic. I checked and I do have the screw turned all the way in. It doesn't even come close to pushing burning coal off the end of the grate. I will have to see what happens later this fall when it runs full bore.

I adjusted the barometric damper and have noticed a great improvement in the performance of the stove. Maybe with more heat staying in the chamber, I will get a better burn.

The other question I had was, where is a good place to get parts? I would like to replace the glass in the door. My friend got tired of the glass cracking, so he just put a piece of plate steel in the door. I just so happen to live about 20 miles or so from the Keystoker plant.

starsfan01 wrote:The other question I had was, where is a good place to get parts? I would like to replace the glass in the door. My friend got tired of the glass cracking, so he just put a piece of plate steel in the door. I just so happen to live about 20 miles or so from the Keystoker plant.

I'd go straight to Keystoker for the parts! They have been very helpful (and patient) with me on my rebuild project. They are making up a new hopper lid and a couple of ashpans for me right now.

I paid an arm and both legs for a piece of ceramic glass at a local glass supplier. I'm sure Keystoker would have got me a better deal, but by the time I got the price, it was too late. My fault.

Gasket material can be had at any good stove shop, blowers can be purchased on-line (Grainger, etc.) and most of the other electrical bits are standard, off the shelf items. But, if you are close to Keystoker, I'd support them directly with purchases, and take the opportunity to stop in and say "hi". I've talked extensively with a nice woman who answers the phone (Celia, I believe) and Don. Great people.

Chris

Question, does yours have a Honeywell Box/Thermostat on it or timer box?

My stove has the Honeywell Box/Thermostat. It also has the White-Rodgers t-stat in the exhaust pipe to maintain the coal bed when the main t-stat isn't calling for heat.

A bit different then ours, our has the Intermatic Timer box for the idle mode, it pushes the stoker every so often to maintain the fire, nothing is hooked to the exhaust pipe and our combustion fan runs all the time.

Indeed, that almost sounds like a custom setup of some sort.

I came real close to installing a CoalTrol to do away with all the electromechanical stuff, but I figured I'd see how it worked "stock". So far, so good. I did have to recalibrate the blower limit switch, as it had drifted FAR out of whack, and was reading about 50 degrees off (cold), so the blower would never turn on automatically. I had to bend the bimetal strip around the actuating shaft to get it to read close to right, and tested it with my heat gun. Seems to work OK now. Saved me $50, at least for this year....

Chris

starsfan01 wrote:The other question I had was, where is a good place to get parts? I would like to replace the glass in the door. My friend got tired of the glass cracking, so he just put a piece of plate steel in the door. I just so happen to live about 20 miles or so from the Keystoker plant.

If you are 20 miles from Keystoker just call them up first and see if they have what you need on hand and buy directly from them. If they don't have it they can get it or make it for you in a few days. I've been there several times for parts and made a few calls for info and they are really nice people to do business with.