Extreme Cold House Is Only 59 Degrees??

i am running this keystoker full blast and its bitter cold outside -14 degrees. its barely keeping up. the temperature shown on the thermostat 59 degrees and its set for 68. what's up with that? I called the keystoker dealer and he told me that the stoker feed motor might be getting a little tired and perhaps its not turning its full RPM. the grate is probably 80% full of burning coal. he told me that with the stoker adjusted to full (screw turned all the way in) that the coal should be overfilling the grate and that typically you have to turn the feed rate down from full. what is the normal stove operating temp for full heating operation. I have a magnetic thermometer stuck to the side of the stove and its reading about 480-500 degrees. should it be more? I do understand that 60 degrees inside temp is 75 degrees higher then the outside temp lol. I do not care much for extreme cold.

Turn the adjusting screw on the stoker to where you have one inch of dead ash at the end of the grate. And if you want more turn it till the red coals are almost falling off the end.

CRANK THAT BABY!!! BURN SOME COAL!!!!

the knob is turned all the way in, its maxed out and has no more to offer. the dealer said that the stoker motor is probably wearing out and not turning at full speed. he said at that setting coal should be dumping off the end of the grate.

Does it seem to be running cooler now than previously in the season? How old is the stoker motor?

I would think you could get higher than 500* at full burn, but that temp gauge could be off and you are really at 600 or 650. Do you have an IR gauge to compare the reading?

What is the temp of the exhaust, you want to make sure the heat isn't just going up the chimney. (or is this a power vent set up?)

A picture of the flame on the grates would help to diagnose any issues.

Also a picture of the feeder mechanism especially showing the plastic cam if yours has one.

Some common things to check...

Did you load wet coal in the hopper
Does the rice coal have a lot of fines
Have the fines been cleaned out under the grates so full airflow comes up through them
Has the exhaust pipe been cleared of any fly ash recently (horizontal sections of the pipe)
Combustion fan throwing air like it should (fins nice and clean)
Is it possible to give the fire more air without pressurizing the firebox and causing CO issues? You need a manometer to set this properly.

i had the same magnetic thermometer on the vent pipe and it was 160 degrees. I can touch the pipe and not get burned. I will have to get around to taking some pics of the grates. right now I have to get ready for work. im not going to be getting any other form of heat going, it will warm up a little today with temps going up to 10+ degrees. I would like to make this stove perform a little better though (not that its running badly I just know its capable of more). part of the problem is that I think I need to add storm doors. we have newer windows and newer doors but we never got storm doors. I think that would help.

how much should the air shutter be open, its open about 1/2 way. im talking about the air shutter on the combustion blower.

we will get through the day at 60 degrees. it chilly but not UN-bearable. it's still warmer then it was with pellets. if the old wood pellet stove with temps right now it would be in the low 50's WITH electric heat supplementing the stove. we have made an improvement but I think it can be ever better.

That is rather odd. Unless you have bearings in the motor holding it up I can't see any reason that it wouldn't be running at full speed. Never seen an electric motor slow down from age unless it's lost some of it's windings.

I just had this same issue today, but it was due to sopping-wet coal that plugged my paddle into a solid round disk - not very efficient at moving coal. Now the house has cooled off too much for it to ever keep up. We're at 65° though, so I'm not complaining. Stoker hasn't stopped since sometime yesterday afternoon ...

Here's my thread on the wet coal fiasco: Why Wet Coal SUCKS! Cleaning Vac, Outside, -14°F ...

Technically I believe the weakness reference to motor is about the gearing and bushings in the gearbox.
The lubrication is less than ideal for this application.

But, certainly eliminate any other possibilities, such as crusted coal crud.

ad356 wrote:i am running this keystoker full blast and its bitter cold outside -14 degrees. its barely keeping up. the temperature shown on the thermostat 59 degrees and its set for 68. what's up with that? I called the keystoker dealer and he told me that the stoker feed motor might be getting a little tired and perhaps its not turning its full RPM. the grate is probably 80% full of burning coal. he told me that with the stoker adjusted to full (screw turned all the way in) that the coal should be overfilling the grate and that typically you have to turn the feed rate down from full. what is the normal stove operating temp for full heating operation. I have a magnetic thermometer stuck to the side of the stove and its reading about 480-500 degrees. should it be more? I do understand that 60 degrees inside temp is 75 degrees higher then the outside temp lol. I do not care much for extreme cold.

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As you are only a couple of counties west and north of me in Wyoming County:

I have the AA stoker grate (three grate fire bed) in my KAA-4-1 hot water boiler and I have my stoker turned out 7 turns and I am maintaining a 165-177 degree water temperature but the extreme cold is making it hard for everyone to heat their homes.

The extreme weather "we" are dealing with is affecting everyone. If you have wet coal that is going to affect how well your stoker is burning coal-been there done that stockpiling coal inside and by the boiler works well to help dry it out.

1. you may just need a good cleaning and your gearbox may need a bit of oil and the coal fines/ashes may
need to be vacuumed put from under the fire grate.

2. the cam may need a little TLC with some of the expensive Teflon spray lubricant to let it rotate easier.

So much of this depends on your homes insulation barrier to the elements.

Your stove is heating or attempting to heat the entire wall, floor and ceiling area of your home and your homes heat loss through the walls ceiling and windows. any home that is heated with hot water or forced air is already under stress because of the cold and wind.

I have the same issues with a very very old house that was a one room shotgun school house.

You will find a lot of un burned coal in your ash basket and its worth saving because a lot of it
is still rice smaller than rice size coal.

I would suggest that you clean your stoker, invest in some Teflon lubricating spray for the cam and slow your stokers speed down to five threads and obtain the recommended burn rate with the one inch band of ash and then two inches of burning coals and then the un burned coal behind it as you are losing burning coals in the ash basket and not getting a complete burn

As Rob said you may need some supplemental heat for a back up source to take the chill off too.

Depending on your patience level you can screen the ashes and reclaim a lot of un burned coal
that fell off the fire grate.

I wish I had one of those rotating ash screener's that one of the members posted a link to on you tube.
I hope that someone still makes them- I would buy two of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to make a couple of new ash screener frames with mosquito screen and 1/4 hardware cloth to replace the pieces of screen cloth I am using to screen the fines from the the fly ash and cinders.

In seasons past did your system keep up when it was this cold outside?

The stove side temps are about right. If flames are wide and touching the top of the stove, and maybe 1 to 1.5 inches of ash on the grate, as Scotty would say on Star Trek " I am giving her all she's got!". The stove is maxed out.
I am also assuming the stove interior is pretty clear of ash, and fines under the grate have been vacuumed out within the last 2 tons of coal.

we got threw the extreme cold, its now back up to 67-68 degrees.... thermostat setpoint. it was just some miserable exterme cold weather. we really need some storm doors. I really cannot complain about this stove it has been wonderful, except that extreme cold weather. when I went out to start the car that morning it was -18 actual temps with windchill lower that that.

Open up the shutter all the way! Adjust the feed until red coals are not dropping off the end of the grate. Your limited by how much air you run. Open it up!

ad356 wrote:we got threw the extreme cold, its now back up to 67-68 degrees.... thermostat setpoint. it was just some miserable exterme cold weather. we really need some storm doors. I really cannot complain about this stove it has been wonderful, except that extreme cold weather. when I went out to start the car that morning it was -18 actual temps with windchill lower that that.

Your stove can only output so much heat. You should enjoy 59 F when its -18 F outside .

Or time to add some other heat source on ... electric , etc.