Keystoker Koker

I finally got my Keystoker Koker running today. Everything turned out well and I got heat almost instantly. Shortly thereafter the blower turned on and has been running constantly and there is no heat coming out of it. Following the instructions I checked all of the wiring to the thermostat. Finally after roughly 9 hours of the blower running constantly I unplugged the whole system for about a minute and a half and when I plugged it back in the blower has not come back on and heat is starting to "come again". What gives? What am I doing wrong or how do I fix it?

Second, I am burning buckwheat coal because that is what my dealer suggested using because it burns hotter, but it doesnt seen to be getting the "fine ashes like other rice stokers" instead it just looks like mildly burnt coal.

On another note I noticed that when I slowed the feed down 2 turns (from the 8 I had it set at originally) smoke would start to billow out of the hopper as well as the vent in the back where the cam is turning. How do I solve that as well?

PLEASE HELP A NEWBIE!!!!!!!!!!

There have been "issues" with burning buckwheat in some of the Keystoker stoves. I'm not sure of the particulars. Smoke out of the hopper is a no no. Somethings wrong. May or may not be related to the coal size, sounds like too much draft maybe.

I'm sure better advice is on the way soon. Let the fire go out until the smoke from the hopper issue is resolved.

Hello BnT. I'm a bit confused. You said that you got heat almost instantly, do you mean that without the blower running, you had heat coming out of the heat outlet? Or did you mean you got the fire going almost instantly??

I think the fan has a temperature sensor that turns it on and off, the temp sensor may be bad, or miswired.

As for the smoke out of the hopper, this sounds to me like not enough draft to pull the smoke and gasses out of the stove and up the chimney. Do you have a draft gauge?? [A Manometer]. If you have a marginal, short chimney you should have one to keep an eye on the draft.

I'm thinking that with the stoker turned way down, the ash isn't being pushed off the end of the grate, and is building up, causing the fire to burn back into the bottom of the hopper. With the fire turned way down, there may not be enough heat to create a strong draft. The combination of the two means you cannot turn the stoker down that far. Keep it burning harder/hotter.

The larger the pieces of coal, the larger the pieces of ash. The buck coal ash will look like big thick cornflakes. rice coal ash looks like granola or grape-nuts breakfast cereal.

Is the dealer you mentioned the one who sold you the stove?? If so, get him involved in tweaking the stove to burn and opperate right.

Let us know what your find. We all learn from each other's experiences

Greg L

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Hello BnTKehoe:

I have a new Koker and it ROCKS! This is one coal burning, hot air producing machine!! Did you buy the unit new; or, used?? If new, your dealer should have hooked you up with a "burning coal 101" session; plus, inital positions for all your basic settings: barometric draft, stoker, convection fan temp, etc. Please PM me with your phone number if you're still having issues. Perhaps I can talk you through some of these problems. That Koker should be belching flames and cranking out the heat.

Well I certainly am lost on how to run this stove apparently. I got the stove the dealer dropped it off and gave me a quick run through on running it. Would have been good except for the fact that the stove wasn't running. They said they couldnt help us more because of liability. Is there anyone who has a Koker that lives near Wellsboro, PA? I would be willing to pay for someone's gas if they could come show my wife and I how to run it. Thanks!!!

BnTKehoe:

Sorry to hear about your difficulties getting your Koker up and running. I'm surprised your dealer can't supply more assistance... I'd be bitchin' up a storm if I were you...

Here's a few questions:

1) How's your chimney? Do you have a good draft??

2) Do you have the barometric damper installed and set?

3) The stoker coal feed adjust should be set to maximize output; while, ensuring no unburned coal gets pushed into the ash bin. You've gotta be pushing coal to keep that baby stoked!

4) Do you have the thermostat wired properly to the TACO box red and white connections? I had a bad thermostat and had to resort to using an old mercury Honeywell unit; until, I upgraded to a digital programmable thermostat recently.

4) The green TACO box contains the thermostat control circuit; and, is the "heart" of the furnace's control. You should have a green LED lit indicating power is applied to the circuit. You should also have a red LED lit when you have demand from the thermostat. When the red LED is lit the stoker mechanism will run; and, the stoker will turn off (and run off the maintenance fire timer) when the red led is off (no demand from the thermostat).

5) I'm burning rice coal without any problems. I'm not sure about anything else...

6) I'll be in NEPA over Thanksgiving; but, I sure hope your problems are behind you way before then!!

Please give me an update!

Does the fan blower have an override switch? I know some Keystokers have a little black box with a White Push Button, the button should be PULLED OUT for automatic control of the blower. "IN" is manual override.

Also, sounds like the thermostat isn't hooked up or functioning properly, when you raise the temp, it should kick on the stoker motor to give it more heat, then when it hits a certain temp, the blower should start kicking heat out. Do you have the wires run to a thermostat?

The stoker adjustment should be turned clockwise Completely In for max adjustment (I think)....

Buckwheat doesn't burn any hotter, all coal produces the same about of BTU's, it just give it a bit better air flow and won't fuse to make "clinkers" as much when it gets really cold.

Well I believe I finally figured this thing out. I had a friend come over who has a rice stoker and he and I spent close to 3 hours slowly experimenting and investigating the effects of the changes we made.

First I wanted to note that per the directions given to us by Keystoker the bottom vent stove which is what we have does not use a barometric damper, so that eliminated that issue, which I did search for thinking I just forgot to install it.

Second, what we ended up doing was limiting the amount of cold air that the combustion fan could draw in. This also eliminated the smell issue.

Previously, I was also afraid that I was burning it too fast and that the buckwheat coal was not burning "fully". After inspecting the coal at different intervals I noticed that the buckwheat coal was burning fully it doesnt "break down" into miniscule ash like rice coal does.

Also, the issue with the convection blower not working was because I didn't have the coal feeding fast enough to raise the heat in the stove therefore the internal temperature was not high enough to turn the blower on. So I adjusted the fan limit switch. This eliminated the problem with the blower not running.

All in all I am sending my wife to pick up a couple bags of rice coal tomorrow to mix in with the buckwheat I bought but I think I have this issue figured out. The coal stove this morning fluxuated between 70-72 and now 4 hours after the latest adjustments have been made the temperature is now approximately 77 degrees UPSTAIRS (stove is in my basement). I am trying to raise the heat so that I can get my house heat high enough that I won't have to worry about my forced air turning on.

Thank you everyone for your help!

Glad to hear that you have it up and running!! The coal size determines the ash size in the flat-bed stokers. There is no mechanical foreces to crush the ash into smaller pieces.

You will notice a difference with the way the rice coal burns. The exact differences will depend a lot on your stove and stoker mechanism. I saw a deeper coal bed with rice than with buck. But I thought the buck burned hotter. This was in a LL Pioneer and a LL Hyfire I

Take care, welcome to the warmth of coal !!1

Greg L

.

Glad to hear it!

That's what's great about these forums, everyone has ideas, suggestions, things to check, adjust, etc....many of us are tinkerers by trade and always willing to help each other out!!