looking for some koker lite help

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Jfreethy
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Posts: 47
Joined: Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 5:41 am
Location: Tunkhannock, pa
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Keystone Koker Lite
Coal Size/Type: Oiled Rice
Other Heating: propane, and electric

Post by Jfreethy » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 7:53 am

Hello all,

I have a koker lite in a bi-level (70's 1500 sf) stove sits in the finished basement space and is DV. I am having trouble with the unit keeping up with demand. I think it is just under sized for my house but wanted to throw it out to everyone for other opinions.

Stove has supply duct work with no return
Direct vent with a draft set between .02 and .03 checked with momometer
I have the feed nut turned to max feed
Combustion blower is wide open
Ash is around 1-1.5 inches from the end of the grate
Flames are probably 10" tall (the just barely hit the top of the burn box
I have a magnetic stove thermometer above the door and that reads 425*-450*
Stove is 3 years old and I clean it extremely well 3 times a year

my room blower does not run constant. It cycles maybe for a hour then off for 15-20mins then back on for a hour.

Any ideas throw them out to me keystoker said i could try to mix in some buck with the rice. The other suggestion they had was to upgrade the feed motor to one that was slightly faster unit. I have not tried either to this point.

 
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windyhill4.2
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Location: Jonestown,Pa.17038
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1960 EFM520 installed in truck box
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Crane 404 with variable blower
Coal Size/Type: 404-nut, 520 rice ,anthracite for both

Post by windyhill4.2 » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 8:49 am

Usually having a return air duct hooked up helps.... But yours is in a finished area which likely means that the heat is needed & welcome there too. I know i have followed quite a few threads in the past few yrs about the smaller stokers/furnaces/boilers & the main complaint has been the inability of the unit to keep up to the heating needs when temps drop into the less than normal range. These smaller units attract buyers with their lower price along with unrealistic output numbers....BUT, they make for unhappy owners when the temps drop.

 
Jfreethy
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Posts: 47
Joined: Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 5:41 am
Location: Tunkhannock, pa
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Keystone Koker Lite
Coal Size/Type: Oiled Rice
Other Heating: propane, and electric

Post by Jfreethy » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 9:06 am

That's kinda what I'm thinking. I'm going to try to find some buck and give that ago.


 
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WNY
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Joined: Mon. Nov. 14, 2005 8:40 am
Location: Cuba, NY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90K, Leisure Line Hyfire I
Coal Size/Type: Rice
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Post by WNY » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 9:12 am

Buck may help a little, but like he said above, these are Stoves, not furnaces. They do have problems heating entire homes unless it's in the living area and you can distribute the heat. Sounds like you've tried everything and adjusted everything to maximize the burn.

Some modifications can be done to help, I've put a heat jack on my Hyfire and extra blower, it helped a lot but when the temps are at 10 or below it runs full max burn and just barely keeps up. I actually run 2 stoves to heat this old house (1890) and they do OK to maintain temps. but do run full out when it's really cold .

 
Jfreethy
Member
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 5:41 am
Location: Tunkhannock, pa
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Keystone Koker Lite
Coal Size/Type: Oiled Rice
Other Heating: propane, and electric

Post by Jfreethy » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 9:58 am

Thank you for the response. Safely I know they unite is a stove (a large one) but it has limitations. Unit is great till be hit the single digits...

 
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philthy
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Posts: 163
Joined: Sat. Nov. 09, 2013 9:15 pm
Location: Newville PA
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoke Koker Lite, Alaska Kast Konsole
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood #6, Glenwood #116 x 2, Crawford 40

Post by philthy » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 7:38 pm

Mine sits in an unfinished basement but tied into the trunk line of my 1800 sqft rancher. Carries the load 98 percent of the time. When its single digits and the wind is howling it struggles to keep up - to be honest, it doesn't. I have a damper to separate where it feeds into the trunk line that I close, then crank the oil furnace. I have a branch of off the koker plenum that feeds separate into living room and the koker is only feeding that room when the oil furnace is running.... Hope that makes sense. When this happens I only have to run it this way for a few hours until the oil furnace brings the temp of the house back up.

This year i found some cheap pea coal a guy was getting rid of and am mixing that in 50/50. Its been cold this week but not quite cold enough to see if the pea helps.


 
Jfreethy
Member
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 5:41 am
Location: Tunkhannock, pa
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Keystone Koker Lite
Coal Size/Type: Oiled Rice
Other Heating: propane, and electric

Post by Jfreethy » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 7:48 pm

Do you have any problems with the pea feeding right? Keystoker told me to use buckwheat but I can't find if local.

 
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philthy
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Posts: 163
Joined: Sat. Nov. 09, 2013 9:15 pm
Location: Newville PA
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoke Koker Lite, Alaska Kast Konsole
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood #6, Glenwood #116 x 2, Crawford 40

Post by philthy » Wed. Dec. 27, 2017 7:54 pm

So far no issues. If you can, get a bag and try before committing to a big purchase.

 
Neiljhall
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Joined: Fri. Feb. 02, 2018 5:06 pm
Stoker Coal Boiler: Koker lite

Post by Neiljhall » Fri. Feb. 02, 2018 5:19 pm

Hello, i just purchased a used koker lite with the bottom vent. This originally was used with direct vent kit. I see these units could be ordered either top chimney or bottom. I wanted to vent this into my stainless steel lined chimney, can i use dirent vent kit right into chimney? Or can i take direct vent off and just vent atmosphericly in chimney?. Im confused because if this unit was top vented it could go right in chimney and vent atmosphericly. Basically i think i bought the wrong koker.

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