A LOT of rust inside my Koker

This is my second winter with my Keystoker Koker as we had it installed last October. I went to check on it a month or so ago and I was shocked to find I could not open either doors. The top door or the door to remove the ash's. Had soak the handles with PB Blaster for a day then I was able to open it. The entire inside is pretty rusty. Big flakes falling down just about everywhere. The grates themselves looked fine but everything else inside looked pretty bad. Is this normal?

If you don't do anything to rust-proof the stove in the spring, it will rust in the summer months. The more humid the environment, the more corrosion you will encounter. At a minimum you need to thoroughly clean all coal/ash/flyash out of the stove, and keep it dry. A light bulb works well, and some members spray down the inside of the stove with a corrosion inhibitor.

From the Keystoker Koker manul:

Oil fire door and ash door hinges. Oil fire door and ash door handles to prevent freeze
up over summer.
To minimize corrosion of stove accessories, it is important to clean stove thoroughly at
the end of heating season. Completely remove all coal from hopper. Remove and clean
stove pipe. Check chimney and base of chimney for obstructions or blockage. Clean
under grate. Spray an anti-seizing agent on both sides and top of pusher bar to prevent
pusher bar freeze up during summer.

After cleaning mine I hit the inside with a wire brush. I then sprayed it with some stove paint and after it dried for a few days, sprayed the inside with some WD-40. Stays looking good until fall.

Thanks. I read the manual that the installers left and it did not say anything about oiling anything so I just cleaned it out well and was shocked to see all the rust. I'll hit it with a wire brush and spray it out soon. Luckily I have not had to light it yet this year though my family keeps bugging me to turn it on.

Might take a gander in the flue pipe for corrosion.

Some people even disconnect, remove and clean their flue pipe leaving is off for the summer months.

McGiever wrote:Might take a gander in the flue pipe for corrosion.

Some people even disconnect, remove and clean their flue pipe leaving is off for the summer months.

Yep...SOP for most Coal burning folks.

What's worked well for me is to remove the entire vent system in the Spring; 6" steel tube, motor/fan assembly and 4" vent pipe. I clean out the furnace, put a container of "DampRid" inside on the floor and seal everything up. In the Fall I've got gray ash in there but almost no rust.
I wash out the complete vent system and put it on the shelf in the shop all summer. It'll all go back together pretty soon.
-Len

I have a Keystoker 90, I vacuum, brush and vacuum again in the spring. I used a 40 watt light bulb all summer, ran a dehumidifier in the basement. The stove is in the basement finished family room, the only rust I had was light scale at best, I also remove the chimney, vacuum that, and wash with baking soda and leave disconnected until the next fall. Year 3 this fall and cannot complain too much about corrosion. I will say it is more than the old cast iron Buderus hand fed of 28 years before.

I have a Keystoker A-80 and use it November through about May. Once the heating season is over, I do absolutely nothing with it until late summer when I thorougly clean/vacuum out all the fly ash, and with a putty knife, I scrape the ash scale from the inside of the fire box and ash pit door, and the small amount of scale in the heat exchanger. Way up on top on the inside of the heat exchanger, I use a old broom with a shortened handle to brush down the fly ash from there. Underneath the ash/scale is next to no rust at all. I have had a little trouble with the door latch on the ash pit door, but after the first year I learned to oil that up once the fire's out, and then a few times throughout the summer. This will be my third winter with my Keystoker, and it sure beats all the work and dirt, bugs, etc of wood. A cold boiler, however would be another matter, as I'm sure it would attract a lot of condensation over the damp summer.