Thrilled With My Stove

i just cant say enough good about my keystoker. with the thermostat set to 68 I burned around 50 lbs in a 24 hour period. it was cold last night, cold enough to know how efficient these units really are. when I got in my car this morning it was reading 12 degrees. the stove ran all night last night and all day while I was at work. I just refilled the hopper even though it really didnt need it. if I still had my pellet stove I would have gone through a full bag probably more just overnight. I used to have to refill the stove before I went to bed and before I went to work. I also know that the keystoker 90 that I have now has quite a bit of reserve capacity. the stoker is still turned back AND the thermostat is not constantly calling for heat. I have every confidence that when it gets really cold this stove is up to the challenge with no help from electric space heaters. I am throughly impressed and my only regret is that I put up with wood pellets as long as I did. I pissed away allot of money to have a cold house (at times)

the only complaint so far is that my wife is saying that it's dry heat and it makes her itch. how many of you guys run some form of a humidifiers in your coal heated homes?

ad356 wrote:the only complaint so far is that my wife is saying that it's dry heat and it makes her itch. how many of you guys run some form of a humidifiers in your coal heated homes?

Quite a few. A lot of people with hand fired units will put a pot of water on the stove to humidify the air. If your wife is itching from the dry air, you might want to hook up a humidifier very soon.

The wife and the wood in your house will both appreciate it. The humidity needs to be adjusted as the outside air temps go down.

ad356 wrote:the only complaint so far is that my wife is saying that it's dry heat and it makes her itch. how many of you guys run some form of a humidifiers in your coal heated homes?

Humidifier is required w/any heating device.

Humidifying is good but the itching is from the shower which washes away body oils. Use a good body lotion and no more itch.

i have a friend that has been negative about the whole coal thing, very negative. he said this that and the other thing about coal. now that I have been using it for a over a month now and I have discovered that it is THE hottest, most economical sources of heat on planet earth he is pulling on that last string, its dry heat. blah blah blah, I have really heard enough negativity about it. im really happy with it, and the dry heat part is easily fixed by getting a humidifier. oh, and I already do have the old pot on the stove and have had it since day one. he heats his house with this goofy monitor heater, its a kerosene furance that's only like 50k BTU and the only reason why it works in his house is because he had the money to build a new home about 15 years ago and it's insulated tight. my friend is an electrician and he has worked very hard for what he has, he is one of those people that has money that has actually earned it, vs allot of lazy people and bosses that I know that get handed everything for less work then I and my co-workers do. I respect my friend for his work ethic but sometimes I think he forgets what its like to be almost broke.

i make $19 per hour and my wife only makes $11. coal is the great savior in economical heating for our broke selves. we are hardly rich and need economical heating, not something that was costing us almost $2,000 per year

ad356 wrote:i have a friend that has been negative about the whole coal thing, very negative. he said this that and the other thing about coal. now that I have been using it for a over a month now and I have discovered that it is THE hottest, most economical sources of heat on planet earth he is pulling on that last string, its dry heat. blah blah blah, I have really heard enough negativity about it. im really happy with it, and the dry heat part is easily fixed by getting a humidifier. oh, and I already do have the old pot on the stove and have had it since day one. he heats his house with this goofy monitor heater, its a kerosene furance that's only like 50k BTU and the only reason why it works in his house is because he had the money to build a new home about 15 years ago and it's insulated tight. my friend is an electrician and he has worked very hard for what he has, he is one of those people that has money that has actually earned it, vs allot of lazy people and bosses that I know that get handed everything for less work then I and my co-workers do. I respect my friend for his work ethic but sometimes I think he forgets what its like to be almost broke.

i make $19 per hour and my wife only makes $11. coal is the great savior in economical heating for our broke selves. we are hardly rich and need economical heating, not something that was costing us almost $2,000 per year

If he is operating a forced air furnace, of any fuel type, it is a dry heat also. Unless he has a humidifier built in.

ThreeFiddySix,

Your friend is not alone, the non believers are everywhere. Ive only been on for a few years but Ive never seen anyone post "screw it" Im going back to wood/pellets or corn or ??????

waldo

PS. I see an opportunity here w/ mama. "just lay down over here and let me rub some lotion on yer body"

I've been running my keystoker for about 13+ years now with no problems. Well, a combustion blower failed that I forgot to oil, it stopped, but had a spare I bought years ago, took maybe 15 mins to get it running. let the old one soak real good with electric motor oil to the bearing and works great again.!

The springtime maintenance is very important to clean them out properly and oil all the motors.

Yes, theres a lot of topics on Humidifiers, most of us run them too. You can search the topics on here.

Standalone Humidifier or Whole House System?

I Need Humidity!

I have had the same experience with Keystoker90. I save even at today's oil prices, steady even heat. I think I have had mine about 7 years now, much easier than my old Buderus hopper feed. I too agree on spring maintenance, clean, clean, clean, and oiler up, fall comes quick, and do not make excuses get er' done!

ad356 wrote:i have a friend that has been negative about the whole coal thing, very negative. he said this that and the other thing about coal. now that I have been using it for a over a month now and I have discovered that it is THE hottest, most economical sources of heat on planet earth he is pulling on that last string, its dry heat. blah blah blah, I have really heard enough negativity about it. im really happy with it, and the dry heat part is easily fixed by getting a humidifier.

AS mentioned, any heat system will dry things out. There is a reason the weather man calls it "relative" humidity. It's relative to the temperature. Cold air holds much less water than warm air. Quoted from Wikipedia

A useful rule of thumb is that the maximum absolute humidity doubles for every 20 °F or 10 °C increase in temperature. Thus, the relative humidity will drop by a factor of 2 for each 20 °F or 10 °C increase in temperature, assuming conservation of absolute moisture. For example, in the range of normal temperatures, air at 68 °F or 20 °C and 50% relative humidity will become saturated if cooled to 50 °F or 10 °C, its dew point, and 41 °F or 5 °C air at 80% relative humidity warmed to 68 °F or 20 °C will have a relative humidity of only 29% and feel dry

SO as cold air infiltrates any home, it's heated and relative humidity falls..