New to Coal, Just Bought New Keystoker Koker

sounds like its coming around great. !!
...that plenum should hold some heat. !!
...just go easy with that core drillig...they don't like rebar sometimes !

Rigar wrote:sounds like its coming around great. !!
...that plenum should hold some heat. !!
...just go easy with that core drillig...they don't like rebar sometimes !

I am not looking forward to the core drilling. I am considering just having a contractor who specializes in it come out and do it. The average rental cost for a drill and 5 in bit around me is 160.00 per day. How much more could it cost to just have somebody come out and do it ? I will make some calls tomorrow.

...it will probly take longer to set up than to drill it
..ive core drilled literally miles of holes...
that said- the key is securing the core drill to the wall
...slow and steady pressure on the drilling...(lots of water)
can get messy...but a good wet vac will control that..
8" thick may take 15 to 30. minutes of drilling......

Rigar wrote:tater..

couldnt help notice ur avatar
..A160. Keystoker with coil
..any chance of getting a pic of ur set up ?
and a quick desriptiom of ur water coils location in regards to the stoker bed?
...very much appreciated.....thanks!

Sorry for the delay, here are a couple pics of my set up and water coil. Dont know why the first pic got downloaded four times..... Sorry about that.

Just about ready to fire up the koker for the first time. I only have 120 lbs of bagged rice coal on hand, about half a hopper. Any harm in starting it with half a hopper and getting more coal tomorrow morning. The suspense is killing me.

Do it!

...light 'er up. !!!!
...thanks for the coil picks....helped alot. (now I can start a beauty of a thread...hehe)

...nice install...enjoy the heat!!

It is alive !!!!!!! I think I may need to bump up the feed a little.

Ok, I have my first operation question. The stove is making good heat and has a nice flame with about 2 inches of ash on end of grate. The convection blower has ran constantly all nite. The manual honeywell thermostat is set at 73, and it is 76 in my house. The convection blower turned on and off a few times over the coarse of the first hour with the house temp at 64. After the first hour the blower has not shut off and the fire has not idled. I do not see any leds lit in relay. I hooked the red and yelllow tstat wires to the tt terminals on the relay, and the white to the green ground screw on housing of relay. HELP

Tater,

I've been reading your post ( nice install BTW...) and thought I'd check in to see how it's going after the first couple weeks...Curious because I've got a K-Lite w/ DHW sitting in my basement and am looking forward to my inaugural firing! Still have some install issues that are being addressed, step by step and hope to be burning coal by the first week of Dec...

Hope your unit is doing well and delivering the goods. How's the operation going? Also curious to know about your DHW hookup and whether or not you are able to thermosiphon?

'Hog

Tater1977 wrote:Ok, I have my first operation question. The stove is making good heat and has a nice flame with about 2 inches of ash on end of grate. The convection blower has ran constantly all nite. The manual honeywell thermostat is set at 73, and it is 76 in my house. The convection blower turned on and off a few times over the coarse of the first hour with the house temp at 64. After the first hour the blower has not shut off and the fire has not idled. I do not see any leds lit in relay. I hooked the red and yelllow tstat wires to the tt terminals on the relay, and the white to the green ground screw on housing of relay. HELP

Tater, You still out there?
Did ya get this resolved?...it' been a while

I have been very happy with my Koker. The constant convection blower and no idle mode turned out to be my fault. I had wired the wall thermostat improperly since I felt I did not need to read the instructions that honeywell included with it. Once I read the instructions and corrected the wiring on the Tstat side, it has been running great. I only have 3 floor registers currently installed in my first floor, and am temporarily blocking the basement door open to allow a cold air return. Despite my less than adequate amount of registers, I have been keeping my thermostat set at 72, and the house will fluctuate between 70 and 72. the basement stays between 72 and 78 just by the radiant heat the koker and duct work give off. As far as fuel consumption, I have been averaging one 40 lb bag of coal per day, and a bag and a half on a couple of days when iyt went into the mid 20s at night and was windy and in the 30s during the day. I have settled on 6 3/4 turns out on the feed screw for now, I have tried as far in as 5, but the coal consumption went up to 2 bags a day and the home temp fluctuation only improved a half a degree. I have decided to leave the feed adjustment alone until I add 2 more registers on the first floor, as I feel this will take care of most of my fluctuation in temp. I have not hooked up the HW coil yet, and don't know if I will tie it in to the hot water tank. My koker spends 60% of its time idling, and during these times it does not seem to produce much heat from the coil. I will probably try to tie it in to a hot water radiator in my garage and whatever it does it does as far as heating things up out there.
My home is a an 8 year old colonial , in the woods with limited wind exposure. It has 6 inch exterior walls with r23 roll in insulation in them, and R38 blown in in the attic. Ceiling height is 8 ft with the exception of 16 ft in a 8x10 foyer. basement is 1400 sq ft with R19 rolled in insulation between all first floor joist. Just from stove radiant heat, basement stays 72 to 78. First floor is 1400 sq. ft. Semi open floor plan with one large room consisting of kitchen , dining room, and living room, and five medium to small rooms. With 3 registers in floor measuring 10x4, Temp stays between 70 and 72 with convection blower running twice an hour for five to ten minutes. Thermostat is located on first floor near basement door which is current cold air return, it is set on 72 F. Second floor is 1000 sq ft, has no registers yet but has stayed around 70 just from heat radiating through floors and walls. Coal consumption has been one to one and a half 40 lb bags on average. I am very Happy so far.

Tater I have a very similar home to yours. 2100 sqft colonial. With another 1000 sqft unfinished basement. I am starting my search for alternative heat and recently started looking at coal. Oil at 4 dollars a gallon costs me 2 grand a year and my house is in between 60°F and 65°F. I have become interested in the koker lite to heat my house. a Little smaller then you unit but should be plenty of heat. I already have hvac just would have to tie into it. My questions are how much coal did you end up using this winter. How much work is the coal. I know pellet stove require almost daily cleaning wondering how coal compares? Did you feel the coal made your house dirty(I think only the old coal furnaces were messy). How did your core boring go.(tool rental costs?) I too have a poured foundation and looking at the install process and putting a hole in my foundation scares me most. Do you have the direct vent? Sorry for all the questions but your setup seems to match my plans almost perfectly.

I have not totaled up my coal consumption as of yet. My guess is 4 1/2 to 5 tons when its all said and done. I am still running the joker as I type this. We had a very cold Jan and Feb here. Most nights were below zero and most days were teens to single digits. During these times I Would burn 80 or so lbs in 24 hrs. I would dump the ashes every evening and top off the hopper with coal. I briefly shut the stove down every 6 or so weeks to vacume out the exhaust pipes and stack. This gets kinda messy for the person doing the cleaning. As far as mess in the house, only the area immediately around the stove is gets messy from handling the ashes and loading coal. I burned bagged coal so coal dust is not an issue due to it being moistened. The basement wall coring went well. I ended up hiring a local concrete company to come and bore the hole in my 8 in poured wall. I think I played around 200 for this. It would have been 150 to rent the bit and drill for the day. I saved the slug should I ever want to plug the hole. I sealed the pipe with 3m fire wall fire proof caulk. The warm air the joker blows out of the rregisters appears to be just as clean as a gas or oil furnace. I have zero issues with soot in my living areas. Currently it is still getting into the 30's at night here and 45 to 60 during day. I have been fueling and emptying ashes every 4 to 5 days in current conditions.

That's koker not joker. Darn auto correct.