Keystoker 105 Spewing Smoke Out of the Bottom

My stove went out yesterday. It appears the coal got hung up and wouldn't feed down the chute. I cleared that and now it feeds.. after lighting it with a bag, smoke filled the chamber and started coming out the two holes on the bottom front I marked in this picture. The vertical lines are tubes inside the chamber that go to the top. No idea what they do. I have the stove hot and going now so draft is back.. What happened? I hold a lighter in front of those two holes now and it doesn't blow the lighter out.

I don't know what the holes are for but, when the stove is cold, there is no draft to pull smoke and gasses out of the stove. Once heat gets to the chimney, it creates draft pulling everything out. Smoke is normal when re-lighting a fire.

So, as long as there is nothing coming out into the living space now, everything should be OK.

-Don

We have a keystoker 90 purchased around 1987. It to has these vents and emits smoke on a cold relight. It serves some type of purpose. Rest assured that it presents no issues and we lived 30 years and never had a problem with carbon monoxide alerts.

"it serves some type of purpose" Damn S, you could be a farmer!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the replies! A few hours now and its burning fine, no smoke emitted, the ports appear to be sucking in cold air. I figured out what they do by studying the patent. Hopefully no problems when stove is on idle and draft is low.
"Regarding underside inlet ports, 57L/R, of FIG. 6 associated with front face conduits 56L/R of FIG. 3, these provide a washing and cleaning feature for combustion chamber glassed door 20. These conduits each have their lower longitudinal ends open to the ambient atmosphere, and draw in cooler ambient air to collect in bridging manifold 58. Manifold 58 is provided with a bottom side linear vent 62 (FIG. 9), which directs air flow laterally about glassed door 20, as is depicted in the flow lines of FIG. 9. Fire grate 78 is horizontally aligned, along with coal hopper 24, and vertical mounting plate is at right angles with 46V."
https://www.google.com/patents/US6588350

I relit the stoker this past Sunday after our week of 70* temps and there was laundry hanging in the basement - takes a lot longer to dry when the stoker isn't running! I didn't want any smoke smell inside due to a cold chimney or I'd be in deep doo-doo.

I took the heat gun and set it in the cleanout T aimed toward the thimble and let it run for a good 5 minutes while I got the cowboy charcoal loaded and found the mapp cylinder. The heat gun had the manometer go from 0 to .02 when I lit off and there was no smoke in the laundry issues at all!

Plug em on start up!!! Open up after the stove is running good. Done.

I had the same problem until I started crumpling up about 5 sheets of newspaper and putting it on top of the coal. When I lit the coal the burning newspaper got the draft started so there was no smoke coming out of the stove. It didnt' work 100% but I could live with 75%.

i knew mine had the tubes, but thought they were for structual support inside. didn't know they were open on the bottom and for the glass washing, always wondered why the glass stays so much cleaner then my Leisure LIne. mine's a direct vent, so it's always has a draft so the smoke on startup never comes out of them.

blrman07 wrote:I had the same problem until I started crumpling up about 5 sheets of newspaper and putting it on top of the coal.

Not the same kind of stove, but -- when starting cold I open the load door and put a sheet of newspaper flat over the opening. If the newspaper is sucked against the opening I feel pretty confident about touching off the load. But for extra help I do the same as Larry, crumple a couple sheets and put it on top, and light it before I light the kindling under the coal.

While plowing the fields on I-78 today I was giving this thread more thought re: smoke from the keystoker 90/105 lower tube outlets on cold light up. Makes sense it would be designed in, much like the eustachian tube, to provide barometric balance and additional air. The burner fan probably uses a high percentage of available oxygen in the carbon conversion thereby requiring additional oxygen.

Anyone buying this?

Secondary air inlet?

It seems the underlying/understated concern is the possibility of CO poisoning. Rather then risk violating copyright laws I provided two links that indirectly provide information about CO concerns and although not directly addressed in this thread is where to place CO detectors in the home, and that's something we coal burners should consider foremost.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21536403
(discusses distribution of CO gases in a test environment)

https://stab-iitb.org/newton-mirror/askasci/chem03/chem03364.htm
(a short discourse on the placement of CO detector question)