Members running a Keystoker DV

I was wondering if anyone else running a stove like mine has noticed what appears to be a very fine spray of something...oil, or coal/water that is noticeable in the back of the unit. As you can see my stove in the picture to the right, ive been wiping it off of the baseboards, and a little off of the walls. I cant figure out how its spraying! Also, a small drip of what seems to me like oil under the combustion blower. Lastly, out of the 3 motors on the back, the motor for the combustion gets VERY hot. The other two don't get nearly as hot as the combustion blower, so I was wondering if that was normal. If it is, I wonder how much of that heat the motor will take before it craps out. Thanks for reading....

well, you should keep the motors oiled at least once a year, but probably some oil/grease getting hot and seeping out of one of the blowers/motors. That is the only thing it can be. Might be the gearbox, running down the shaft, and the small fan spitting it out around the back of the stove. hang a white rag or something in the back and see if there is a certain line, then transfer the height to the back of the stove to figure out where it might be coming from. Could be the DV motor or the stoker motor.

They will run a bit hot, especially running 24/7. Usually if they start to dry out, they start making noise or squeaking.

John,

Real nice install, the guy who did that really knew what he was doing . I agree with dave, check out the little white fan blade underneath the feeder. I will check out the combustion blower on my unit, and see if it getting hot (for some reason that sounds perverse).

Mike

Yes, I think it was a very good install Mike, we couldn't be happier with the stove. The wife wont let me shut it down, even when its warm out. I'm glad she took a liking to the stove. Now if I could only get her to fill the hopper....

It looks to me that it is coming from the spinning impeller. Will it ever stop...or is it from the coal juice ? I didn't want to be painting the white walls, so I put some tinfoil on the wall in back of the stove and stuck it to the wall with special tape that wont rip off the paint when im done with it. I figured you can put tinfoil in an oven, and it wont burn, so it would be ok on the wall. I can take it down when the problem is solved....

Could be the coal, but probalby the gear box grease/oil, You can probably put some foil just behind the impeller or off the bottom of the hopper, you don't have to put it on the wall itself, if so, use the BLUE Painters tape, shouldn't stick.

Dave, what Im getting is a spray from the baseboards,to as far up as the hopper. If the grease is coming out like that, wont it have to be replaced ? And all I see is a small motor that the impeller is attached to. It still surprises me that it sprays that far. I wonder if I just put tinfoil around the cage ?

I have never seen it on mine, its right up against the wall in the garage and no oil spray on the wall.

Try covering a bit, just to make sure that is what is causing it, is it leaking down from the hopper? Is your coal wet or oiled? Maybe just running down?

It might need a new gear box or motor? some you can take apart and put some more grease in them if they are not worn. If it's not making any strange sounds, I wouldn't worry about it right now.

Its running great, other than the spray. I will keep my eye on it, maybe its the coal juice, i`m not sure. The coal hasn't been overly wet, but I thought maybe it was coming from the bottom of the hopper. Maybe it will stop ...

John, what color is your stove. It looks almost like a bronze color in the pic. Looks much better than the black.

Jeff

Also looks good due to the nice clean glass!

Jeff, the color is "Honey Glow Brown". The wife picked the color out. I figured if she was happy with the color, she would be more receptive to the stove.
Keeping the glass clean has been a daily chore. I suppose one day i will just throw in the towel when it hazes, but until then...
Thanks for the comment.

Do the black spots just wipe off with a damp towel or sponge or do they smear around until you hit it with some cleaner?

I've splattered some "coal juice" around and it just comes right off with a damp towel. If it would be oil or grease, it would just smear with the same treatment. That should help you decide what your "mess" is.

I've oiled my old stoker motor pretty liberally and haven't noticed anything spraying out. It could only go pretty much straight back through the expanded metal mesh at the back of the little cover.

I've also used some highly soaking wet bagged Blaschak and not noticed any coal juice running down the stove from anywhere. It *should* just drip into the stoker itself and evaporate from the heat.

I HAVE had a problem with heavy rain or very cold weather causing some condensation and moisture running back the vent pipe and coming out from the joint just after the 90 elbow going out the wall and dripping down on the hearth pad and splattering about. But that is a white crusty deposit that also comes off with a wet towel. Next time I need to make sure the horizontal run out of the house actually pitches DOWN just a wee bit rather than up like everyone tell you - it's a DV, so it doesn't care....

Chris

It will wipe off on the baseboards, but not off of the wall. I'm thinking it was grease. Now that the stove has been running a lot more, it hasn't been happening. If it is, its hitting the tinfoil, and im having a harder time seeing it. I will leave the foil up for another week or so, and see if the problem is still there.

John,

I would just cover around the whit eimpeller, and that should take care of it. I checked on the unit in the store, and no such problems there.

Mike

Here is another question .....

I have a Keystoker 90, and whenever I have to dump my ash pan I notice coal that had dropped out from around the coal feed. The amount dropped amounts to about the size of a small computer mouse. Each time before I vac out the stove, I try to salvage as much as I can before I turn my vac on, and I place it in a small bag so I can one day use it after I separate it from the ash. I wasn't sure if it should be dropping this or not. There are big gaps on either side of the ramps that the coal comes out of. Looking at the ramp, I can see 1- 1.5 inches of coal on either side. This is where it falls from. Thanks for any input.

Inside the stove? on the grate? Or around the hopper/stoker area?

I get a lot of fines pushed back behind the stoker under the hopper and sometimes falls on the floor.....