Common Stoker Terminology

Here is some common terminology used on many stoker stoves, some may different in locations of these items, but you can pretty much tell what you are looking at. Not all units have all of these features (this is a Keystoker unit, Thanks Chris!). Hope this helps anyone not familiar with these items or discussing the items.

COMMON STOKER TERMS

Stoker - The mechanism for pushing the coal onto the Burn Plate or Grate.

Combustion Blower - Keeps the coal burning, blows air under the coal bed up from the grate.

Convection Blower - Blower to move the heated air around the unit and into the room.

Flue Switch (Direct Vent) - Works in conjunction with the Direct Vent, in case of blockage or direct vent failure, the switch will shutdown the stove at a certain temperature. (Manual Reset on them)

Direct Vent - Powered exhaust vent, required if you do not have a high enough chimney, these are only required to be piped outside for a minimal distance.

Idle/Timer Box - This keeps the coals moving (stoker) when the thermostat is not calling for heat.
XX mins On / XX mins OFF. (ie. 2 Mins ON/10 Mins Off).

Thermostat Box - where you would hook your wall thermostat into the system.

Hopper - Where you put your coal.

Hi/Low Convection Fan Limit Switch - Used to turn the Convection Fan On/Off at certain temperatures.
(ie. 160 Deg. on / 120 Deg. Off - Adjustable). May have a Hi Limit (200 Deg.) to shut stove down in case of convection blower failure or over fire.

Some older stoves may just have Rehostats to control Burn/Feed Rates.

Good Job Dave
Jer

nice! can you get me a better pic of that timer? I need something like that for my efm

lincolnmania wrote:nice! can you get me a better pic of that timer? I need something like that for my efm

Go look at this: http://www.grainger.com/product/2E130 It's an Intermatic timer and you can adjust the interval and length with pins you insert into the wheel. For the EFM, you might want to use a 1 hour timer vs. the 30 minute timer I use.

Great post for stoker-challenged manly-men.

In my investigations of constructing my own stoker, I was thinking a great off-the shelf timer would be the ATC 422 at the following site (or search for ATC 422 recycle timer if the link ever goes bad).

http://www.anderson-bolds.com/Merchant2/merchant. ... ry_Code=AT

The timer looks to be fairly adjustable for separate on and off times, from 1 second to 10 hours. You may have trouble selecting precisely at the longer times (2 hours vs. 2 hours & 10 minutes), but I'm thinking that those longer timeframes would never be used on the stoker anyway. Mostly the "less than 1-hour" ranges.

Steinke

Keystokers use the "Intermatic" Repeat Cycle Timers.

I belive the settings are 1 pin for 15 seconds. Mine has 6 pins (approx. 1.5 minutes) every 10 Minutes in a 30 minute cycle for the idle/pilot mode. Keeps the fire going when not calling for heat.

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

Here's my Yellow Flame stoker furnace. Hopper and firebox on left, plenum and flue on right. Dayton 30-min repeat cycle timer at upper right.
Here's the business end.
Lower axis (R to L): motor, fan, gearbox, cam.
Upper axis (L to R): drive shaft, feed arm, clutch.

Stockingfull, you really need to clean that furnace !! I noticed at least two finger prints and six flakes of dust on it in the photos !!

Obviously just kidding... Looks really nice [and clean] ...

Greg L

Thanks, Greg. I think I took that shot the day we moved in!

But it's a sweet system, for sure.

stockingfull wrote:Here's my Yellow Flame stoker furnace.
Here's the business end.

Lower axis (R to L): motor, fan, gearbox, cam.
Upper axis (L to R): drive shaft, feed arm, clutch.

The rod attached to what I think you say is the clutch. What is attached to the other end of it. Did Yellow Flame use a pusher block to move the coal down the grate or a flat steel plate like a Tri-Burner. Motor, fan and gearbox are almost identical to Keystoker's design. Keystoker, Yellow Flame and Tri-Burner were all very close to each other geographically and I wander if one copied from the other(s) or maybe they were even designed by the same person. It would be interesting to know the history.

Stockingfull will correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this style stoker has the grates hanging on short 2-3 link chains and the whole grate and motor/gearbox rocks fore and aft with the upper end receiving the fresh coal, and the ash dumping off the opposite end..
Jay gave me a stoker unit like this, it ended up becoming part of Matthaus' " History of Stoker Development Museum" It is an interesting design, uses the force of gravity with a slight sliding or rocking motion of the grate to keep the coal moving down the grate to the ashpan.

Maybe Stokingfull can get us a photo of the side of the stoker showing the chains..??

Greg L

Totally different than what I expected. That looks like the Yellow Flame but if Yellow Flame has yet a different approach inside Stockingfull can let us know.

I have two units like the one Greg has in the pic, it seems the difference is the welded tab (hence the entire grate moves up and down) Vs the through rod that obviously pushes something back and forth on the Yellow Flame unit.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm very interesting I always assumed they were the same.

AH ! Yes, I see that now.. Maybe they figured out that moving the whole motor/gearbox/fan assembly was requiring too much power to overcome friction? So they made a moveable grate, or maybe some kind of pusher-block or paddle?

Greg L

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Sorry I'm slow getting back to this one, boys.

Took me a few minutes to digest the pics but, the more I look, the more familiar they appear.

Bear in mind that I sort of fell into this contraption by buying the house summer before last. (I was enthusiastic about burning coal but a noob on the stoker technology; the most I'd had before was a Federal wood/coal stove with an air jacket and a blower. And I'd never burned coal in it.)

From what I can perceive about the mechanics of my Yellow Flame stoker, the "drive arm" (on which the hinged "clutch" is located) is attached directly to a reciprocating 3-pc iron grate (maybe by some bracket at the drive end?). Anyhow, as the arm pushes the grate assembly in, a bit of coal gravitates down on to the upper end around the ends of a rectangular baffle. On the return stroke, all the coal and ash on the grate is compressed up against the baffle, which has the dual effect of pushing the fire down the sloped grate and, in turn, pushing whatever ash is at the end off into the ash bin below.

I'm not aware of the presence of any chains in this drive mechanism.

Hope this description makes sense. I really appreciate your interest. (Of course, my personal terror has to do with finding spares when necessary and making the replacements on a unit no longer in production.)