Mobile home stoker recommendations

Hello all,

I have been luring for about a year now and have learned a great deal. I currently have an Arrow, Strafford SC75 hand fed installed in my home.

My home is a 14x66 mobile with a 12x45 addition, lots of corners, no basement, and very drafty ( working on fixing that last part). The hearth is on the wall where the trailer and addition are so basically an interior wall. All of the ceilings are vaulted. I am looking to replace my hand fed to a stoker. If the stove that I end up with has the option to run duct work from it, no huge hood over it, I will be running it along the ceiling. I want the stove to run off of a thermostat to help smooth out the heat fluctuation. The stove that is leading my list is the Keystoker 105.

The questions that I have for you folks are:
Is there a better choice for my situation?
Are there any specific concerns switching to a stoker from a hand fed in a mobile home?
Should I go with the standard 350 cfm blower or upgrade to the 500 cfm blower?
What should I expect to pay for the stove? (very hard to find any pricing on line)
Is the basic coal-trol good or should I upgrade?

I believe I gave all of the information that you guys/gals might need but I left out any information, just ask and I will provide it.

Thank you in advance for your time.

God Bless,
Eric

I have a Keystoker 90. Heat my family room 500 sq ft, push air upstairs another 1100 sq ft, and everynite in the winter open the door from the basement and heat the garage to 68 and it is 13 x 26. No problem, the 90 puts out some serious heat, the 350 CFm or 500 CFM fans would create some serious noise. The Coal Trol is the only way to go. I am also welding in a 6 inch duct ring into the top to get rid of my redneck setup last year capturing the heat off the front vent on the stove. If you have a drafty house then go with the 105, you can always get crazy with the bigger blower later.

The reason for my choosing the 105 vs. the 90 is that they are basically the same stove just with an extra layer of steel so I figured that the the 90 must be dumping 15,000 btu's extra up the chimney.

No, my chimney temps are usually less than 200 degrees at most times. Sometime I wonder whether there is enough heat going to just maintain the draft on the chimey vent. Give them a call and ask why the 105 is putting out more than the 90. They are basically the same stove, and I suspect they just crank the 105 up a bit to push more heat, and the double wall just keeps the metal more happy.

ESCrafts wrote:The reason for my choosing the 105 vs. the 90 is that they are basically the same stove just with an extra layer of steel so I figured that the the 90 must be dumping 15,000 btu's extra up the chimney.

As explained from Jerry the former owner of leisure line the thinner steel transfers more heat to the room and that certainly sounds logical because there is less resistance. That was his specific reasoning for using a thinner steel.

With all due respect to everyones opinion. Harmon uses thicker steel than Keystoker, and they have effciency claims, as well as Keystoker with their steel thickness and Leisure Line, with their thinner steel. I am on the fence of what to think. Steel gets hot and radiates heat, the chimney is where the the heat is wasted. Just a thought.

Most of the efficiency gain would be noticed when the stove is ramping up from idle. Faster heat transfer, lighter for handling, with the door seals on our stoves there is a lot of rigidity around the door area so no warping. There are stiffeners in key areas of the stoves as well. Also there is no good reason to go any thicker with a stoker in that range, our Pocono and Hyfire II are thicker mostly because of the height there is a lot more flat area to keep from moving. I think the difference between the 12ga and the 10ga on the Pocono was about 3 dollars so it is not about cost. that would just make it harder to get up or down a set of steps. I have been to a house that has one of Leisure Lines First stoves so about 16yrs with literally a creek running in front of it and it was still in great condition for its age. But everyone has there preferences so the best advice is to go with the one that makes you comfortable. Dave

Me thinks the advantage of the thicker steel, is that it holds the heat much better then the thinner, and personally, I'm in it for the long haul once winter sets in. Yes, your chimney would be the biggest loss of heat--a good damper can fix that.

Richard S. wrote:

ESCrafts wrote:The reason for my choosing the 105 vs. the 90 is that they are basically the same stove just with an extra layer of steel so I figured that the the 90 must be dumping 15,000 btu's extra up the chimney.

As explained from Jerry the former owner of leisure line the thinner steel transfers more heat to the room and that certainly sounds logical because there is less resistance. That was his specific reasoning for using a thinner steel.

Fred heat wants to go where it's cold and it every material has a different rate that heat will move through it. The thicker it is the longer it takes to go through it. You're not going to gain anything with efficiency from the thicker steel as far as "holding heat", it's just storing it a little longer before releasing it into the room. It may be a more pleasant environment though without large swings. For example we have steel radiators in this house, the fins might be cast I'm not sure:



My brother put in these really small "high efficiency" baseboard tubing. There might be some gains on efficiency but only because you may not be heating areas like where the return line is since it has already extracted the heat. My Father wanted to put them in here because he saw how fast they worked and the first words out my mouth is "What are *censored* nuts?" You're not going to gain or lose anything with either sytem, the heat is in the water and it has to go into the house at some point. With the larger baseboards you can maintain a much more even heat over longer period but they take longer too heat up.

[quote="freetown fred"]Me thinks the advantage of the thicker steel, is that it holds the heat much better then the thinner, and personally, I'm in it for the long haul once winter sets in. Yes, your chimney would be the biggest loss of heat--a good damper can fix that.[quote="Richard S."][quote="ESCrafts"][quote][quote]





Oh a hand fired stove especially wood where the BTUs are not as well regulated that holds very true but in a stoker its questionable.