Which Stoker Makes the Least Noise?

I am considering buying a stoker to put in my open floor plan kitchen/living area. I have heard that a lot of people complain about the noise coming from the stoker motor and fan and that it can be very annoying. Can you recommend which of the major brands like Reading, LL, Keystoker, Alaska or Harmin makes the most quite stove?

i have Keystoker. it's not noisey at all. you get use to it running. even the DV is quite.

I think you will find that is the case with most of them. I don't think any of them are all that noisy, it's just a new sound that your not used to hearing. You will get used to it. I think the hum actually relaxes me when I hear it and feel the heat coming from it knowing i'm not giving my heating money to NYSEG.(Our elec. & gas supplier) I think if you were actually hearing any real noise from it you would probobly be having some problem with it like a bad motor or fan. I'm willing to bet you will be happy with it regardless of which one you purchase. Good luck.

chas036 wrote: I have heard that a lot of people complain about the noise coming from the stoker motor and fan and that it can be very annoying. Can you recommend which of the major brands like Reading, LL, Keystoker, Alaska or Harmin makes the most quite stove?

I remember one time I was looking to buy a house and this house I found was beautiful.
nice woods behind the house, I happened to look over the backyard fence and 10 ft away was railroad tracks.
I ask the owner.... are those active railroad tracks in the back ?
He said Oh yeah ! but you know I hardly notice it anymore.

I went into a stove store and they had a alaska working heating the store and I thought the fan blowing full speed was annoying.
I wouldn't want to have the stove in a room where I was watching TV.

from reading alot of posts on heating with stoves alot of people hook a dimmer switch to the blower and reduce the speed to quiet it down. I think Leisure Line stoves with the control-a-tron automaticly reduces the fan speed when the stove reduces heat. (double check this because I just read this.)
Other stoves might also do this but I know the alaska dosen't cut back because I asked the store owner... "Does this stove fan always make that much noise?"
and he said "What Noise?"

here is a link to leisure line stuff:
**Broken Link(s) Removed**Here is a link that mentions the fan speed cutting back:
**Broken Link(s) Removed**I would have bought a leisure line stove But I decided to buy a VF3000 Harman boiler.
I ordered it in may.... I might get it in september.

good luck.

If you hook up an outside combustion air source to the stove it reduces the combustion fan noise considerably.

A hand fed is the quietest model. All stokers will make some noise, after a few weeks you won't hear it. It's the same with people who live on busy streets vs people who live out in the boonies, both have different noises which are obvious at first and then seemingly disappear. Put the stoker in your basement and it will be quieter than your oil or gas furnace.

You can also address some noise issues with furnishings and carpets and draperies and the like. Of course maintain proper safe distances from the stove, but a lot of the noise can actually be reverberations and reflections enhanced by square/rectangular rooms, hardwood or other non-fabric floors, lots of "stick" furniture instead of bulkier, "filled" furniture, lots of glass windows in the room, or bare walls, etc. Knocking down the echo and reverb of a room can go a long way to making a droning combustion or circulation fan a lot nicer to live with from day to day.

There's thread here where one memeber did some extensive modifications to make his unit quiet. Quieter Is Better...

ceccil wrote:it's just a new sound that your not used to hearing. You will get used to it.

How true, I used to sleep at my Grandmothers occasionally in her spare room. She had a damn old-fashioned clock in the room. tick-tick-tick-tick It was my Uncles room at one point. I guess the sound didn't bother him, he was used to it. I should of asked if it bothered him to not have that clock after he moved, might very well be the case.

I much prefer the sound of a stoker of the sound of my oil boiler kicking on in the middle of the night. The boiler wakes me up and I think to myself, "there goes another $5".