Old Alaska Kodiak Stoker II rebuild

Well I received the Dwyer 25 and got it installed. I adjusted my baro and it is currently sitting at .04. I do not have the stove on high, it is actually pretty low, maybe 30%. I will adjust the baro when I have the stove running on high. Good thing I got this setup, I had the draft to high. A lot of my heat was going up the chimney.


I hooked the low side into the stove pipe. Hope that was correct.

Well I just completed a cold air intake!

The hole going in is 2.5". My 90 adapter is 4 inches. I got it in there, it presses tight since the exhaust is below it. I put duct tape around it to seal the connection. This is fine since the area is not hot.

Ran the tubing

I had an old junk ping pong table. I removed a window and cut a piece to size. It fit pretty tight but to seal it better I used duct tape. I cut in a 4" hole and put in the adapter I got at the store and hooked up the tube.



Too bad the baro still sucks in warm air from the basement.


Had it running an hour now. The tube is cold of course. The draft from my manometer went down .01-.02 with this mod. I adjusted my baro and raised it back up to the correct range.

What do ya'll think?

Not wanting to spoil your fun but is 4" large enough for the lenght of the run ?

^ I choose 4 " because I had 30 feet of existing tube here to use. It doesn't seem to be alot of flow, the hole going into it is 2.5 inches anyways.

I think the air flow for the combustion fan is 45 CFM, definitely not that much.

Matt, how did you supply the outside air to the fan?

It changed the draft, I'm interested in seeing if it affects heat output.

As far as the baro is concerned, you need it slurping warm inside air. Cold air going into the baro will cool off the chimney and cool chimneys draft less. Make-up air is not a problem when you live in a drafty old barn. New construction is a different story.

^ How did I supply the outside air to the fan? I am confused. The air now comes from outside, into the tube, and into my intake combustion fan

The temperature in my basement after 12 hrs seems to be identical.. but I have a crappy needle thermostat down there. I will recheck in the morning. My basement is not insulated, just block, so I expect this mod to only raise it a degree or two. But I guess every BTU counts!

arcticcatmatt wrote:^ How did I supply the outside air to the fan? I am confused. The air now comes from outside, into the tube, and into my intake combustion fan

The temperature in my basement after 12 hrs seems to be identical.. but I have a crappy needle thermostat down there. I will recheck in the morning. My basement is not insulated, just block, so I expect this mod to only raise it a degree or two. But I guess every BTU counts!

This is how I had to plumb the fresh air into my old Kodiak. 10' of 4" hose reduced to 2 1/2" at the stove. Not much room to play around there! The combustion fan has a removable plate at the inlet. I epoxied the 2 1/2" pipe to this plate, then screwed the plate/pipe back onto the fan. I purposely didn't make the setup air tight in case something blocks the inlet, which is a screened dryer vent.

You're losing tons of heat out that block wall. Before I insulated my poured concrete basement walls, the snow would melt back a couple of feet all around the basement. I made 2 x 4 stud walls and insulated w/ fiberglass - this made a big difference.

^ How did I supply the outside air to the fan? I am confused. The air now comes from outside, into the tube, and into my intake combustion fan

I understand. You didn't use the separate fan, you just supplied outside air to the fan on the stoker. Got it.

I have now ran this for a few days. It was 2 this morning. The air coming in was so cold I had a little frost on the outside of my intake tube 1 foot from coming in the window.

With this mod I have less ash. I don't know why but I have not changed the feed of the stove in weeks.. and now with this mod it seems to fill an ash pan in 12-18 hrs longer than it did before. Awesome.

stokerstove wrote:

arcticcatmatt wrote:^ How did I supply the outside air to the fan? I am confused. The air now comes from outside, into the tube, and into my intake combustion fan

The temperature in my basement after 12 hrs seems to be identical.. but I have a crappy needle thermostat down there. I will recheck in the morning. My basement is not insulated, just block, so I expect this mod to only raise it a degree or two. But I guess every BTU counts!

fresh air.JPG

This is how I had to plumb the fresh air into my old Kodiak. 10' of 4" hose reduced to 2 1/2" at the stove. Not much room to play around there! The combustion fan has a removable plate at the inlet. I epoxied the 2 1/2" pipe to this plate, then screwed the plate/pipe back onto the fan. I purposely didn't make the setup air tight in case something blocks the inlet, which is a screened dryer vent.

You're losing tons of heat out that block wall. Before I insulated my poured concrete basement walls, the snow would melt back a couple of feet all around the basement. I made 2 x 4 stud walls and insulated w/ fiberglass - this made a big difference.

wow I got less space than you haah