keystoker koker vs hitzer 710 maintnance

hello everyone iam new to the forum but have been looking on here for a little while.iam currently running a channing 3 and that does a very good job of heating the first floor even on a very low setting,but i would like to heat the partial basement and crawl space.so i would like to install a coal furnace and duct it into the existing oil furnace duct work and keep the oil furnace as back up only.i have been looking at a used keystoker koker,but i started looking into the maintnance for the koker and it talks about removing and recementing grates.just wondering how much work this is and if the hitzer would be less upkeep.also have been reading of hopper fires on here and using more coal w power venters which is probably the way i would have to go w what ever furnace i go w.any info or ideas u guys could give would be great before i pull the trigger on the koker.thanks in advance

I have a koker, have it 5 years, I have never removed the grates.....you simply remove the blower motor in the back (very easy) and vacumme under the grates....no need to ever remove them.....maintenance is very easy on the koker.

This is what I do several times a season whenever I get a warm day after about 6 -8 weeks of burning....

1. Off Stove and let Cool 3 hours.
1B. Dump ashes off grate into pan and remove/empty
2. Vacume off grate and all of inside, top, behind door
3. Run brush through tubes and vacume up good
4. Remove Flue pipe, vacume clean.
5. Vacume up chimney well all the way up
6. wipe down All
7. Remove rocks from pusher bar/check/clean fan/wipe good.
9. Poke grate holes
10. Remove Grate blower and vacume under grate good.
8. Clean Glass
9. remove and Replace filter with merv 8 and tape up good.
10. Clean up floor and around stove.
11. start up!

thank u for the info,do u have any experiance w a power venter as to weather they tend to use more coal or not?or should i start another thread about pros and cons of a power vent?thanks again

Welcome to the FORUM. Go to top right lil search box & type in --power vent--you should find all the info 3 people would need

Wow, JRN goes above and beyond the call of duty!!! His stove must still shine at the end of the season

My maintenance includes, changing ash pans, vacuuming the bottom at each change, cleaning out the exhaust tubes and the stove pipe once a month, and mid way through the winter, vacuuming under the burn plates as JRN described. But, I have never shut the stove down for any of this cleaning. I do have the aforementioned combustion fan hooked to a switch so I shut it off while I have the stove doors open. This just keeps the stove from belching out exhaust into the house and stinking it up.

As JRN mentioned, I have never removed my burn plates either. After last season (my first ), when I cleaned off my plates they looked as good as new, didn't even have to scrape them. Just did as JRN prescribed. I must not have burned the coal hard enough to have material burn on to the plates.

So, maintenance is pretty easy with the kokers, not sure about the hitzers.

thanks for the info guys.i found a used koker about 4 yrs old and iam pretty sure iam going to pick it up,it has a honeywell t stat would there be any benefit to changing to the coal trol set up?

I have a coal-trol running my koker and it is a good pairing in my case. If you do go with a koker, use the supplied thermostat (or get a digital thermostat) for a while to see how your house temps are maintained. Some people have no problem keeping their house temps fairly even with a regular thermostat. If you experience wide temp swings, then you may want to think about a coal trol. It is also a good idea to learn how to run the koker manually and see what it can do before making it totally automatic with a coal trol.

Take a look at the coal trol forum under the manufacturers corner. There is more than enough information there to answer any questions you have about the coal trol.

I use a digital tstat and my koker keeps the temp within one degree of what I set it for.

WNY, how do you clean out the back tubes while the koker is still running?

You use a dry vac for all of this while the stoker is running?

Maybe I don't need to shut er down!

Thanks

I have my damper tee sitting right on top of my stove's exhaust nipple, so the tubes are visible when I take the damper off the tee. I shut the combustion fan off (so I am not blowing exhaust into the house while the doors are open) and place the vacuum (wet/dry w/ hepa filter) hose at the bottom of one of the exhaust tubes. Then I run my brush down that tube through the tee a few times, then switch over to the other tube. With cleaning the tubes and changing out the tub and vacuuming the stove, it is shut down for maybe 5 minutes at the most. The coal does start to dim a little, but after a minute of turning the comb. fan on, it is nice and bright again.

In your case JRN, you would have to shut the entire stove down (if you want to kill the comb. fan), which again isn't a problem (unless you forget to turn it back on!!). It is definitely easier this way than shutting down for an extended period and then relighting.

I have never cleaned the burn plates during the season and other than vacuuming the stove pipe, I have never cleaned my chimney except at the end of the season. Based on how caked on the fly ash was to the chimney walls, last spring, I doubt just vacuuming would do much in my case. I really had to aggressively brush the chimney to get it clean.

How my damper is positioned.

well thanks for all the help and input guys,but unfortunatly it looks like the guy is selling it on me before i can get there to look at it.i just inquired about a reading susquahana that i saw for sale,would that be in the same catagory as the koker as far as output,quality and ease of use and maintnance.thanks again

Might want to really research Reading Stoves before buying. I did and found, in my opinion only, that there was no comparison between then and a keystoker. Keystoker is QUALITY.

thank u for the input,is there something in particular about reading that seems lesser quality or just all around?also any other recomendations or warnings about other brands would be great as iam not set on any perticular brand.iam happy w my channing3 other than the small ash pan and that is what is keeping me from looking for a furnace from them.thanks again guys appreciate the info

I believe Reading is now using China in some of their metal frame work. Keystoker 100% American.

Ash Pan: I ditched the small ash pan that comes with the koker (1 bushel) and use these instead.


Red Hill General Store 11.5 Gallon Galvanized R $21.99

Last me 4 days now before having to rmpty instead of 2.5 days!