New to Coal With Koker Lite

Hello All,

My wife and I purchased our first home in April 2014, it had oil heat and we did not want to pay for oil this coming winter. I did a lot of research in regards to wood, pellet and coal stoves. I ended up purchasing a Koker Lite coal stove due to the heat output of coal. My house is 2100 sq. ft and hope to keep t-stat at 68-70 though winter. Well, I fired it up for the first time yesterday and it warmed the house to 68 degrees no problem. Since I am new to burning coal, do the pictures below look correct for when t-stat is calling for heat and idle? Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Fire bed when t-stat is calling for heat:


Fire bed while idle:

ElCamMan515 wrote:hope to keep t-stat at 68-70 though winter.

With the thriftiness of burning coal,
74 degrees really feels nice on a cold winter's day..
Don't be shy...

Your fires look perfect.

Not sure about koker lite but regular koker you want only 1-2 in of ash at end of grate at full burn. Looks like you may have a little more.

Your fire looks pretty good, I am using a full size koker. Your max (thermostat calling for heat) looks good for now, but if the stove has trouble keeping up when it starts getting full time cold, you could adjust your max a little further to produce a bigger burning bed. Depending on how you house deals with heat, your existing fire may be enough, you will just have to see. Your idle fire looks pretty good also, but if you have a good draft you may be able to reduce it a little further. Just be careful with the lowering until you learn what your stove and draft can do. Do you have a manometer set up, if not, do it. That way you not guessing what your draft is doing. My idle fire, controlled by a coal trol, is small enough that I get unburnt coal along the very edges of the coal bed during extended idle times. But, knock on wood, I have never had trouble with my draft, warm-cold weather, low or high fire, my chimney always drafts. On idle during warm days, my draft will drop to about half what Keystoker recommends, but the chimney is still pulling the exhaust gases out of the stove nonetheless.

One tip, draft is also influenced by your combustion blower. There is an adjustable plate on it, and during warm weather when your draft may be iffy, you want the plate covering the majority of the opening. Blowing TOO MUCH air into the stove so that the draft can't evacuate all the gases spells trouble with CO spilling out of the stove and into your house. This isn't a "possibility", it is a "certainty", due to simple laws of physics. You have CO detectors, correct??

Any issues you may encounter that you need help with, this is the place to come. Now that we are quickly approaching heating season, all our seasoned veterans are checking in, so answers will come fast.

This is very helpful for me as well. I should be taking ownership of my Koker lite by next week. I cant wait to say good by pellets and hello to my old friend coal. How I missed you!! Would these pictures be applicable to a direct vent application?

Thanks for the input everyone! This is my first experience at burning coal. I have CO detectors in basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor and in bedrooms. I have ordered a manometer and will install as soon as it arrives so I can be ready to run full force once the white stuff flys!

I look forward to learning and saving money this winter season.

I have K-Lite hooked into a masonry chimney.

Your on yer way to saving a ton of money and being warmer than you've ever been, fellow coal burnin brother!

Hi everyone,

I will be installing a manometer tonight after work. Here is a picture of the Keystoker K-Lite all installed.

I installed the manometer tonight and set the baro so it reads between .03 and .04. Forecast says it will be 36 degrees tonight so I am going to leave it running and most likely keep it running as long as draft stays good during warm days. I look forward to learning about burning and heating with coal this winter season.

Tim

Welcome Tim. 33 years ago I too started burning coal. No home computers, so I used a graph to calculate my oil usage. Well, after the first season the graph was a waste of time! Oil usage tanked, and life has been better since, never looked back. Well, I wish I got my stoker sooner The kids used to cringe like nails on a chalk board when I would shake the old Buderus hand fed.

Hi Everyone,

Little update on the Koker Lite. I think I found its breaking point - I am heating 2200 sqft house (not counting uninsulated basement) and this cold spell in Central New York has kept the K-lite running non-stop and is only keeping the house at 67* (+/- 1*). I thought my house was better insulated as it has new windows. But I am happy that it is 67* when it is 10* without a windchill. It seems that no matter what I do, I cant get my thermostat to come up to 70* where it is set at.

Sides and front of stove have been reading between 500-600* with manometer reading -.02 to -.03. Stack temps are between 120*-140*

I may invest in a coal-troll next year as it has been a little frustrating trying to pinpoint where the feed rate needs to be to get the efficiency out of the stove.

Do you all think the Coal-troll is worth the $ to invest?

Tim

I don't think you need a coaltrol if your sides of your koker is that hot and your feeder is running with an inch to 1/2 inch of ash at end then your at max output . I didn't like the analog Honeywell t-stat that came with unit so I bought a 24 volt digital thermostat at home depot. When I first installed my koker 105 I had two much wasted heat off sides so I built a jacket and raised efficiency to my up stairs instead of so much wasted flash heat off the sides. If you do a search koker hot air jacket there is more info.

Hi Everyone,

I think I have an issue with my Koker Lite. Last night it was -22* with the windchill and the house was at 60*. The front and sides of the K-lite was 500-600* and the draft was perfect. I acknowledge that this "little" stove was doing a lot of work; heating 2200 sq. ft., but today it is significantly warmer and the stove front and sides were still reading 480-580* but it was only 59-60 in house. When I looked at the fire it does not seem as hot looking when I first started the Koker up in Sept. The bed of coals looks as if it is simmering, not glowing red as it was in the above picture when I first posted. I can take a picture of it when I get home after work.

I believe I have fines under the grates and need to pull the combustion and vacuum under the grates. I cannot do a total shutdown as the K-lite is my only heat source.

My question is if I take the combustion fan off, do I need to use furnace cement when I put it back on after I vacuum.

Any and all advise will be appreciated.

Tim

I only vacuum under my grate at end of heating season . I heat a total square footage of 2680 with my koker lite . The combustion blower is held on with one screw. and slides out. Last year I burned 2 3/4 ton of coal and the year before 2 ton. The grates r cemented down the blower is not. How much coal have u burned so far in the koker . Note when I slide my motor out I stick a small shop vac hose in side and angle it around to get every thing that would be under there. I also blow the wheel and motor off with compressed air and then oil the 2 lube holes in the fasco motor. 6 drops of oil per hole.