Making Progress, but Still Need Some Keystoker Boiler Advice

That timer might work ok if he rewires it so that it doesn't skip timer cycles.

I would probably be in favor of a new timer. Is that a intermatic brand and could anyone give me a model # ?

C8835 is their 30 minute timer.

Thank you all I will try a little rewiring first and report back.

Sinistrafatboy; start with default Keystoker settings. Tighten the red nut to full feed and back it off 10 turns. Set the timer to approximately 60 seconds, verify this with a stop watch but don’t get too picky, 50-70 would be close enough. The timer MUST make the stoker run every 15 minutes, NO high temperature override. Using a watch or stop watch make sure your timer is working properly. If it takes the wheel 14 to 16 minutes to make a revolution that is good enough. I would not buy a new timer unless the current one was bad or if you have some extra $$ and want to look at a shiny new one. The shutter on the small blower should be less than half open, you don’t need a lot of air and at this time of the year the fire would be maintained even without that little blower, it came about mostly to prevent summer time out fires. The shutter for the big fan can be set as open as your draft will allow. Good draft could be full open, poor draft may need to be fully closed. Using a draft gauge when the big motor is running make sure you still have a least bit of draw. If you have positive pressure inside close the air shutter until it falls just under 0, indicating draw from the chimney. Set the triple aqua stat to 180 high and 160 low assuming this is a hot water setup?

With your settings set and your draft OK sit back and observe. If you notice high water temps (over 200) after extended idle periods running on the timer alone you want to start cutting back SLOWLY. I would start by cutting my timer back to minimum which should be about 45 seconds, again check with a stop watch, you really don’t want to cut back below this amount of time. Next move would be to back off feed one turn at a time unless you are extremely hot. You should back off a turn and wait a day or two to see the effect, patience is a virtue. Keep in mind that after the stoker is running a while to satisfy a call for heat that the temperature will rise and in many instances rise above the 180 high setting, this is normal and not a problem unless you are routinely seeing temperature above 200. If idle temperatures are low and you can’t get enough heat then you adjust to increase feed one turn at a time giving ample opportunity to see the full effect before adjusting more. 1 or 2 turns make a bigger difference than you may expect but you must give it time to appreciate the full effect of the adjustment.

If your timer is wired incorrectly as the thread suggests your settings sound close enough that your problem should be resolved. If not work through the problem as I suggest above. If you still can’t maintain a fire regardless of amount of time or feed there is another possibility. For the time being I won’t muddy the waters. If after verifying that everything is correct and you still loses fire because of a lack of enough coal being fed I can tell you where to look. Good luck, hope it all works out.

IMO 10 turns you'll be pushing hot coal off grates on initial start up

per manual......Initial coal feed: Advance red nut all the way forward. Then turn it counter clockwise 11 or 12
turns if burning rice coal, if burning buckwheat coal turn coal feed, back 9 or 10 turns. When
boiler is running for about an hour under full load grates should have about 2” of dead ash on
them before falling into the ash pan.


Location and final placement for red nut will be determined by size of coal you purchase. For
rice coal, red nut might be turned down 12 turns for maximum setting, whereas for buckwheat
coal, red nut might only be turned down 10 turns from maximum setting.

So it's been nearly 48 hours since I rewired the timer so it runs every fifteen minutes overiding the setpoint temp of 180' and it has worked flawlessly. I'm so thankful I was able to get such good advice and it was practically in real time, so thank you all again. As I may not have mentioned in this latest post, the boiler is in an out building feeding underground to the house and then continues through the basement and out to our commercial dog boarding facility with in floor heat. So getting this to run properly is going to save us greatly on fuel oil and propane!
I must admit I still make trips to the shed at all hours of the day and night to ensure I have a fire going. But I begin to feel that a full nights rest will be possible again very soon.
Again, I thank you all for guiding me through.

Chris

Glad to see outfires are resloved. .

I'd still replace the timer. That old Honeywell has been a good soldier, however it is time for the 'home' . I replaced two just last week. If the 8835 is not available, try an 8845 or an 8860.