constantly burning

I just installed a keystone stoker 90,000 btu in my basement. It has to run constantly to maintain a 70 degree temperature on my 1st floor. I have the basement thermostat set at 75. (probably will never reach it). So my question is it ok to constantly have it burning without it ever kicking off or should I just set it down to 70 so it shuts off now and then? Thank you

It won't hurt anything, and understand the unit blower runs constantly anyway to maintain flame....(controlled by the timer) or from a call for heat the stoker will initiate. Unless you mean the stoker itself is running 24/7, I think you cane watch of listen for the stoker cycling by the timer or from a heat call. ONLY the fan should be running continuously. The timer setting can be adjusted, but refer to the manual for the trial settings.

Remember, the learning curve is steep at the beginning, however as you burn you will quickly learn...to get it right quickly. The air circulation blower(if you have one) will cycle also, so, two blowers (one constant running on the stoker, the second for air circulation, one stoker motor). Watch each one, and you will soon master the stoker radiant heater.....

Thank you very much for the reply. It is constantly calling for heat due to the wall thermostat set at 75. It maintains about 70 in the basement which will only give me about 65 on my 1st floor.Thats why i set the thermostat at 75 to maintain a 1st floor temp of 70. Is it ok to let it call for heat all the time or should i play it safe and set the therm lower ? again thank you

As long as you can maintain about 2" of ash at the end of the grate, I would increase the feed rate to get some additional btu's out of the stove. There should be a white plastic nut on the stoker, turn in clockwise (by hand) a turn or two and monitor the stove for the next couple hours.

tsb wrote:If your basement walls are not insulated, they may be chewing up
most of your BTU output.

Yep, what he said. Plain block wall will just suck the heat right out of your basement. At the very least, some plastic sheeting spaced 1" away from the walls would make a huge difference. Of course properly insulated walls can lead to the creation of your own man cave just so you can monitor the stove...............



Rick

What is the temperature of your chimney flue pipe?? If you have a strong draft, you may be letting a great deal of heat just go up the chimney.

Measure your flue temperature and post it here, and let others with the same stoker stove compare.

If you have excess draft, you need to install a barometric damper to curb and control the draft, so that more heat stays in the stove.

A Manuald damper is dangerous in a stoker stove, do NOT use one.


And, next. how are you circulating the hot air from the basement to the upstairs..
There are dozens of threads on this forum about creating the circulation loop that gets the hot air from the basement upstairs,
and the cool air off the floor on the main level down into the basement to be reheated by the stove.

Just heating the ceiling of the basement to warm the floor above will create an overheated basement and a cool main floor..

Isulate the wals and the floor joist ends and sills, these are the greatest heat losing items.

Hope this helps..

Greg L

Those exposed block walls will absorb a fair amount of heat before giving it up for the rest of the house. Be patient and give the house time to get "Happy" with the new heat. You can always make adjustments later if things are not what they appear. Years ago with my hand fed in the insulated basement family room it took 1 day for the heat to find the upstairs. The new Keystoker 90 with fans, things are a fair amount quicker, but we are talking coal low and slow, but it never gives up