Keystokers and Dust

Hi, I'm still to decide between a Harman Magnum and a Keystoker 90 stoker stove. I can get either at very good prices but I'm wondering which is better. Someone I know had a Keystoker and had the 6" duct hooked up to a register in the floor and there was black dust in the room the vent went to. Is this common? There was no filter in the heat pipe. Is this particular to the Keystoker? I know someone else with a Harman in their finished basement and it's squeaky clean. I can get the Keystoker at a better price and I know the history of it but I don't want my carpet to turn black in my living room.

I don't own a Keystoker but there is nothing that they make that would be of any real difference than other MFG's of stoves.

I own two different stokers and neither expels "Coal Dust".

The 1st thing to remember if you're going open you ash door is to shut off the blower (ie: air wash) then remove your ash pan.
2nd, if you plan on bringing your coal into the house is it pre-wetted? (ie: Blashak etc) if not then plan on dumping it into buckets and doing this yourself.

Compared to Wood, Coal is the cleanest fuel I've experinced...well Propane was wicked clean but at $4.00 a gal!!! To HeII with that.

I guess I can always rig up a filter and replace the gaskets before install. Dust is the biggest worry for the wife.

My Keystoker is hooked into the warm air ducts on my propane furnace & has to go into that filter first, the cold air is connected into the cold air return & the basement & filtered on both sides. Believe me my wife is a retired nurse & I would hear about it if we were getting any kind of dust or smell coal or not, the filters don't even get too dirty but I change them fairly often.

I've run a Keystoker A-80 warm air furnace for three winters, and have never had any problem with coal dust--either in the cellar or upstairs. If I could find fault with the Keystoker furnace, it would be the filter arrangement--the filter slides into a slot at the base of the cold air return. With this arrangement, there's no way to keep (short of some after-market mods) the furnace from drawing any dust from the cellar into the ducts through the filter slot. In spite of this, I still have no dust upstairs--coal or ash--that I can trace to the furnace. I burned wood for many a winter, and the lack of dirt it generated is a big plus to burning coal--along with the dramatic decrease in work associated with burning wood. I would highly recommend a Keystoker stove, furnace, or boiler to anyone!

international86 wrote:I've run a Keystoker A-80 warm air furnace for three winters, and have never had any problem with coal dust--either in the cellar or upstairs. If I could find fault with the Keystoker furnace, it would be the filter arrangement--the filter slides into a slot at the base of the cold air return. With this arrangement, there's no way to keep (short of some after-market mods) the furnace from drawing any dust from the cellar into the ducts through the filter slot. In spite of this, I still have no dust upstairs--coal or ash--that I can trace to the furnace. I burned wood for many a winter, and the lack of dirt it generated is a big plus to burning coal--along with the dramatic decrease in work associated with burning wood. I would highly recommend a Keystoker stove, furnace, or boiler to anyone!

...i agree .I installed a brand new Keystoker A150 this year and absolutely love it.
The air handler moves over 2000 cfm...and we get nothing in the house but heat! (no dust)
I did improve the filter tray however...simply by sealing up one side of it (filter is accessible from either side) .
I was fanatical about sealing EVERY seam in both cold and warm air ducts...
We use only bagged coal(no means to store bulk)...and its washed (our supplier says he uses "coal-spray" )...no dust....and more impotantly NO OIL ODOR!!

Coal dust can come from a stock pile that is to dry. It's all how you treat it. Dump it in real fast and kick up all kinds of dust, or pour it in slow and not make a dust cloud. I vac around the stove every two to three days. Mine sits in my living room because that was the closest to the center of the house. I use bagged coal that was wetted down when bagged, to keep dust down. If there was black dust around the house the wife would have nixed the stove long ago. Instead she comments that it is the best idea I ever had. Alot of people on this site, oil or wet down their bulk coal that they get. Like most things coal related slow and steady wins the race. Go throwing around coal and ash pans and you'll have a mess.

I have an outdoor coal hopper that I spray the coal with peanut oil as I load into the hopper with a Wagner Power Painter Plus which spray at all angles due to it's weighted pickup. Everything stays clean here thanks to the oiled coal, and outside it smells like someone is cooking.

I have an ideal set-up but you need the right location for furnace mine is is fed from outside, a poly 55 gal drum with 3 inch PVC to hopper. Drum gets filled once a week