Keystoker survey

breaker boy my KA-6 was not pre-ordered by a dealer. i actually ordered from the factory but after a week they realized that i had a dealer near by they just ran the paper work through the dealer. i actually was at the factory yesterday and they looked quite busy. lots of stoves and boilers wrapped up and shipping out. the reason i was at the factory was the door on my boiler was not drilled for mounting screws so i had to take it back. apparently they use the same door for their boilers and furnace except the boiler doors mount with 2 screws on each side and the furnace doors mounts with a screw top and bottom. they ran out of boiler doors and by mistake someone stocked the shelf with the furnace doors so for 2 days they shipped out the doors drilled with the wrong holes. luckily i live close enough that it wasn't a big deal for me but i did think for a long while how to mount the wrong door. i am sure it is a stressful time there but at least its job security.

Geez, I hope quality of product is not suffering due to their being so overwhelmed!

well the doors weren't actually drilled with the wrong holes they just gave me the wrong door for the boiler. i wouldn't be too worried about the quality.

Now i know Keystoker is not going by order date. Looks like favorite dealers and locals are getting theirs first. I thought they would do it fair with all the people waiting on their orders. I just lost respect for the Co. Maybe i should call every day and bug them in to building mine ahead of someone else.

I think they are generally going by order date from my conversations with them but like anything there may be special circumstances. I know there was someone on this board that ordered their KA6 the same day as I or atleast within 2 days and they received theirs weeks ago. I called every 3 weeks since mid Aug when mine was suppose to be done just to see where they were at in production not necessarily bugging about my boiler. I don't know how they do it but my KA6 is a duel fuel which of course has the cut out for the oil gun. It would make sense to me when they are making up those boilers they would do a bunch of them even though some may be 3 weeks down on the order chart compared to the KA6 that are not duel fuel. Same as making right boilers and then left boilers. I know it sucks waiting especially if you are like me using temporary heat. Even knowing what I know now I would have still ordered a Keystoker rather than any other boiler.

Thanks "huntabsarokee" for your reply,

I ordered my KA-6 on June 13 so I'm probably not going to see it until January or February. I think I'm going to be burning oil for this heating season and maybe install the Keystoker in the spring. I would like to cancel my order but I am sure I would end up paying more to reorder because a steam boiler can get very pricey from other manufactures.

I am getting tired of waiting for a phone call and freezing my butt off!!! I am writing this year off but thank god oil prices are dropping...

huntabsarokee wrote:I think they are generally going by order date from my conversations with them but like anything there may be special circumstances. I know there was someone on this board that ordered their KA6 the same day as I or atleast within 2 days and they received theirs weeks ago. I called every 3 weeks since mid Aug when mine was suppose to be done just to see where they were at in production not necessarily bugging about my boiler. I don't know how they do it but my KA6 is a duel fuel which of course has the cut out for the oil gun. It would make sense to me when they are making up those boilers they would do a bunch of them even though some may be 3 weeks down on the order chart compared to the KA6 that are not duel fuel. Same as making right boilers and then left boilers. I know it sucks waiting especially if you are like me using temporary heat. Even knowing what I know now I would have still ordered a Keystoker rather than any other boiler.

I can understand it if they ordered from a dealer that had them pre ordered. You ordered yours direct and got your weeks if not months ahead of others who had the same order date. Dual fuel, left or right hand its not the fair way to do things.

I ordered a KA-6 on May 29th. I talked to my dealer last Friday, he had talked to the factory they told him they have a bunch built and ready to go as soon as they receive motors that are back ordered.

I think they are pretty overwhelmed by the demand right now.

I had one of the side pieces on my KA-6 that had been manufactured wrong. They sent me a new one 3 1/2 weeks later, to bad it was wrong again.

Hopefully the one they are sending will be correct (It should be I gave them exact measurements of the hole locations), These 30 degree mornings are getting old fast with no furnace. Mind you, I had to remove my old boiler to put the new Keystoker in it's spot.

Grin & bear it, what other option do we have folks.

A number of us took a tour of the facility on Saturday. Folks just realize a few things before getting too outraged.

#1...these units are TRULY hand made. There are no assembly lines ect..ect..Each unit is assigned to ONE guy and he pretty much does the start to finish as far as the metal work goes. They are heavy duty and done by hand by individual workers.
#2....and I think this is currently the biggest issue....they are having trouble getting things as well. Some of the motors they use for the blowers and fans are on backorder for THEM...just like your stove is on backorder. They had quite a few stove and boiler BODIES finished but they are waiting on electric motors from THIER suppliers. Unfortunately parts suppliers cause major headaches for manufactures at times.
#3...they are also waiting on PPL (the local electric company) for another upgrade in power service. You can only run so many welders off of the 600 amp service that they currently have....they have had an order in with PPL for quite awhile now...again...a supplier (this time the supplier of their electricity) is holding up any possible ramp up in production. When they did a check to confirm that the upgrade was needed they found that they were actually pulling 800-900 amps across the 600 amp panel when all the welders were going at the same time.

They are certainly doing their best to build as fast as they can but they have people THEY are waiting on as well. I know it sucks...but from what we saw the other day they have no shortage of finished bodies and boilers....but they are lacking the motors to finish the units and get them out.

I don't own a Keystoker..nor do I know anyone there...I'm just reporting what I saw...but I will tell you that if I'm in the market for a new stove or potential boiler in the furture I will certainly have Keystoker near the top of the list from what we saw on Saturday.

Well that's some good information. I ordered my duel fuel kb-8 through a dealer on July 11th. with an estimated delivery date of "sometime in February". It sounds like they're doing their best to handle the demand.

Well one wonders whether a dealer is allowed to order just a single unit for delivery or if they are required to order at least a certain number to justify shipping via truck? If the dealer has a minimum requirement then perhaps some of the lead time was caused by that? I'm shooting in the dark on this one but it would certainly explain why direct orders might be getting there faster. I'm not making excuses for them...just trying to put forth possible senarios.