keystoker

I have been burning right along and the bagged ashes keep getting
closer to the end and sides of the good tarp so I guess I better get a
bigger tarp now.

The last few days I have left the window stats open every day until
last night.

44 now and sleet today, Keysytoker 90 still going. Wish I had a boiler though. I would like a do over just once!

The boiler fire went out last night and the small amount of coal in the hopper filled the four gallon ash pail.

As it is hot out I am going to pass on starting it again until I know we have a long stretch of cold weather coming.

I have to find an architectural salvage house nearby that has a huge hot water radiator they can sell me to make a dump zone or hook up a hot water to air garage heater and a clamp on aquastat and a zone valve and check valve on the discharge side for a dump zone to dump the heat.

I have to wait on summer cleaning as I am recuperating now and what really pissed me off was when I found the boiler leaking fumes from the stoker flange even though I had a thick bed of high temperature gasket caulking.

SO now keystoker wants you to use furnace cement to seal the stokers mounting flange GRRRR.

I am still waiting for them to mail me my replacement updated manuals after 4 years.

I'm not familiar with the backstory on the chimney, but I agree it sounds like a draft issue. If you only get the fumes during warm weather, you might want to consider adding a little to the idle feed rate to increase the flue temp. I suppose that might just shift the problem towards overheating and dump zone issues, but at least it gives you choices that don't involve building a chimney.

I wouldn't worry too much about the furnace cement vs. high temp caulk - hard to imagine that difference would contribute materially to the fumes. Over the years I think manufacturers have changed their published guidance on many installation and operating issues. Maybe somewhere some judge ruled that manufacturers of "caulk" face lower liability than manufacturers of "cement" if/when long-term degradation occurs, so some sharp lawyer advised Keystoker to start specifying cement instead of caulk. Or maybe someone who once had a bad experience with caulk was put in charge of the manual. If you know your caulk was properly installed and remains intact, no worries.

Mike

Hello Mike,

The chimney is 19 feet tall with the stainless steel extension and rain cap.
I just keep forgetting to remove the baffle when I restart it so that may be the issue along with not starting a small fire in the ash pit to create a negative pressure gradient(draft).

I have a tee with a fly ash trap at the base of the flue breech and then a short straight piece to the second tee where the barometric damper is and then an elbow that connects to a second tee with a second fly ash trap.

I need to have a piece of 6 inch flue pipe riveted to the 7 to 6 inch reducer in the thimble to extend it in the thimble to the chimney as I am pretty sure that is where I am having issues too. I have to start saving money to buy a reclaimed hot water radiator to make dump zone in the back room.

Once I get everything going I keep a .02-.04 WG height on the Dwyer Mark II

The flue pipe is going to be five years old by next winter and its probably ready to be scrapped and replaced too.

I should probably put the barometric damper near the flue breech as they recommend now as long as I am planning to do some repairs.

I have a quote from Rockford chimney supply for a second 3 foot chimney extension for $388.00 to make it 22 feet tall and 6 feet above the peak when all said and done; but the issue may be my shelter belt as its 75 feet tall on average on the north and east sides of the house. I am not about to cut the trees down as they help protect the house in the winter months.

I am doing more checking on how much it would cost to have a cast in place high temperature concrete liner installed using a 6 inch inflatable packer/bladder to create the 6 inch bore I need and I will let everyone know what I find out.

This is what I have found out so far about lining the chimney with an inflatable packer.
Even though the chimney was relined with fresh volcanic/pozzolana cement/refractory
cement became unsafe because in some cases the bladder packer sometimes did not
stay straight and centered in the old chimney as the springs used to create the gap in
the new lined diameter would slip and as a result the bladder packer would expand
too much and then the lining would not be uniform and as a result of that the new
cast in place liner failed from drying out and breaking away from the old brick/cement
block of the chimney due to the thinner layer of volcanic/pozzolana cement.

I will be eliminating the 7 inch to six in adapter and doing some sheet metal work
to make the run to the chimney 6 inches from the thimble to the chimney rather than
seven inches.

I will be using a coal vacuum for my stoker as soon as I can manage it due to my medical
issues as I will be along time in healing up.