Keystoker 90

He has a Coal-trol. So cycles are based on either 100 second cycles or the newer ones run on 120 second cycles. So max feed is a percentage of the given cycle time depending on the firmware of the Coal-trol. The Keystoker manual does not refer to Coal-trols at all.

2001Sierra wrote:He has a Coal-trol. So cycles are based on either 100 second cycles or the newer ones run on 120 second cycles. So max feed is a percentage of the given cycle time depending on the firmware of the Coal-trol. The Keystoker manual does not refer to Coal-trols at all.

Yeah, I was just prodding him to be looking in the correct manual...he didn't say which he was reading.

Yep you are correct, I was reading the keystoker manual not the coaltrol. I know it takes a while to make changes with coal, but it takes like 3 hrs or more to make it to 100% feed and vice versa.

Decided to put it to a test last night, set it at 75 degrees and went to bed. Woke up this morning to my living room being 75, dining room where thermostat is 74, kitchen 74, master bed 72(I have very little airflow gong there) and other bedroom 73.

It was down to 25 last night so I say it did a pretty decent job.

xandrew245x wrote:Reading through the manual it says about the stoker running continually when the thermostat calls for heat. When mine calls for heat, the stoker does not run constant, it cycles on, pushes some coal then shut off for a bit then repeats. My stove does ramp up and down, but it seems to take a very long time (hours) to reach max feed then drop back down. Is this how its supposed to be? The manual is confusing me a bit.

Yes, Coal takes time to react and the Coaltrol make small adjustments to keep more constant heat, it can take a while (1-2hours depending) for it to react. if you change temperatures, it will take a while to come up to temp. Most of us just leave it on a set temperature or may 1-2 degree difference. The CoalTrol is a mini computer and constantly monitors feed, temperature, blower speeds, etc.....the stoker only runs a certain % of the time based on the setpoints, feed rate, etc.....

KeyStoker with the CoalTrol, the stoker motor will NOT run constantly when calling for heat, if you had a Standard Thermostat (old Honeywell dial type) that used to come with the Keystokers, the stoker motor would run Constantly to catch up the temperature and usually overshoot since it gets going so much. The old thermostats were just ON/OFF until the setpoint was reached.

Mine very seldom runs 99% feed rate unless it's really cold outside (below 15-20 deg). I only keep it around 65 or so, otherwise will run constantly and max out.

Thanks for clearing that up. I leave mine set at 72. The only time I see mine at 99% feed is morning after a cold night. Right now it's backing down off 99%. Usually day and into evening and night it usually will only make it to 50-60% feed before temp is satisfied.

SOunds like its working like it should. And depends on how far away your thermostat is also, it may take longer to satisfy the temperature. mine is about 12 feet from the duct in the floor opposite wall, where the gas furnace thermostat is, it works for me. Sometimes I will change the HLF (Heat Loss Factor) to 1, factory is 0. That reacts a little quicker since the house cools down sometimes quickly, or the sun messes up the temperature during the day, it will heat up, the CoalTrol goes to FR=0, then it takes a while to get it back up to maintain temp when the sun goes down. no biggie. it's been working for about 8 years now without any problems.

Just takes a little bit to get used to it and dial it in for your heating. if you're warm and it's running good, thats all that you need!!

we've all been there at one point or another and tried many different things.

I have my thermostat in the dining room which is the room upstairs furthest away from the stove. So far it has worked pretty well at keep the rest of the house within the same temp, I did have to close off the vent in the dining room some because it was actually getting warmer then the others, so I wan'ted to balance it out a bit.

I'm just concerned that if it gets really cold light below 20 degrees it might run full out and I don't want that.

it won't hurt it running it full out, mines been like that when it -20F outside. It barely kept up, but made it thru! It might have dropped 1-2 degrees in the house. Sometimes you have to run them hard for a while when gets really cold. you'll just be tending it more with coal and emptying the ashes more.

Currently it's 30 degrees out with 23 degree wind chill, it's been at idle for about 2 hours now. Negative 20 that is cooooold. The lowest it got here last winter was maybe negative 5 with wind chill and that was only a few times.

You can change the HLF setting in the advance menu that will crank up how quick the Coal-trol responds, just realize you may have slight overshoots in temps. Mine is set at 2 and I don't mind the overshoots of 1 or 2 degress. I like the fact it can put the boots to it on a call for heat.

I also set my temp on a hold when we get a cold spell with temps going down into single digits or less.

Hlf setting, I've look through all the Coaltrol settings and haven't seen that. In my advanced settings I have feed, ignite, burnout and test.

I have model ts2 v3

It's in the advanced menu. you have to hold the SETUP for 15-20 seconds until the Temp settings come up, then arrow thru to find HLF, then you can change it, arrow thru to exit. Not sure if ALL of the thermostats have this feature.

Mine unfortunately does not have it.

xandrew245x wrote:Hlf setting, I've look through all the Coaltrol settings and haven't seen that.
I have model ts2 v3

I have the same version and its is in there.

Even in my manual it doesn't say anything about it, I checked both setup and advanced settings and its not there.