Power venting a Keystoker

My brother inlaw is going coal. He's tired of cutting wood to feed the outdoor boiler. He has gotten a used keystoker hearth model that he liked the look of. The stove is made to vent in a chimney and he wants to power vent it. He has a fields SWG stainless power venter that he's going to vent it with but we're not sure what other if any controls we need to use to make things work right. I know Alaska uses a fume switch or thermal cut off in the combustion chamber when they sell a unit for power vent. Is this a necessary thing to have? If so we will have to hole saw a hole to mount it in. Any help anybody could chime in with would be appreciated.

you need the fume switch with a powervent. without it if the fan stops stove keeps running and you don't wake up in the morning


Eric

plumb-r wrote:My brother inlaw is going coal. He's tired of cutting wood to feed the outdoor boiler. He has gotten a used keystoker hearth model that he liked the look of. The stove is made to vent in a chimney and he wants to power vent it. He has a fields SWG stainless power venter that he's going to vent it with but we're not sure what other if any controls we need to use to make things work right. I know Alaska uses a fume switch or thermal cut off in the combustion chamber when they sell a unit for power vent. Is this a necessary thing to have? If so we will have to hole saw a hole to mount it in. Any help anybody could chime in with would be appreciated.

Isn't the Keystoker Hearth a hand feed hopper stove? I was looking at the Keystoker Products page and the model is listed about 3/4 of the way down the list. The specs say it has cast iron grates and that the hopper will hold 50 Lbs. I have never seen this model but it appears to be a hand fed. You'll have to squash the ideal of using anything other than a chimney for this unit.

Do not power vent any hand fed stove. A chimney is a requirement for safety reasons. The reason is that in the event of a loss of power, a hand fed fire has too much mass and will not extinguish before generating very dangerous (read DEADLY) levels of carbon monoxide. Stoker stoves may be power vented because the fire has a small mass that will extinguish in a short time without providing mechanical draft from a power or direct vent system.

McGiever wrote:Good catch VigIIPeaBurner

No way he can do that.

I think the hearth/ZC is a stoker I don't see any shaker handel, and I believe the other give away is they list the rear flu height at 3.5" and 7" for the two differant models. I don't know any modern hand fed that has a flu outlet that low, would be sort of diffucult with the fire brick.
I could be wrong I guess we need more info




Eric

Coalfire wrote:I think the hearth/ZC is a stoker I don't see any shaker handel, and I believe the other give away is they list the rear flu height at 3.5" and 7" for the two differant models. I don't know any modern hand fed that has a flu outlet that low, would be sort of diffucult with the fire brick.
I could be wrong I guess we need more info Eric

I think you're correct and this is a stoker and could use a PV or DV. Their Product Page isn't definitively clear but I've heard from a resident forum "resource" that this is indeed a stoker.

Of course, all this could be answered by waiting for Plumb-r to log back onto his thread

Yes it is a stoker stove, and did not come as a direct vent so he was going to power vent it. I noticed in one of the replys about the fields wmo switch. I did not think about pumping fumes in to the house if the vent fan failed, thanks for the help. We have the fields switch on order now!