Kitchen Queen Water Reservoir

[Rusnakes]

Hi everyone,

I was curious about the water reservoir option for the Kitchen Queen. We are considering adding it to our 380 and I remember hearing or reading somewhere that they produce excessive moisture in the house, but wasn't sure if that was true or not. I'd love to chat with someone who has one of the water reservoirs to get your impressions.

 

[webfish]

I think @coaly has experience with these.

 

[coaly]

They only create excessive moisture if you connect the firebox coil to heat the reservoir as well.
The coil is made for an Amish household using only the hot water created by this stove, so not using enough will over humidify the home.
I leave the top lids on all the time to allow enough moisture out of the vents in the corners of the lids. If it gets too dry in the house, I remove the lid away from the firebox side and if more water vapor is needed, I remove the lid on the firebox side. I've never had to remove both at the same time.

I also added 1/2 inch aluminum heat sink under the tank to increase contact area of stove top to water tank.
Partly because I already had the material and we use quite a bit of hot water from the faucet I added.



They are onions drying on the clothes rack behind it, and notice the shelf bracket I added to stabilize the tank on the stove back as well. Your tank will be smaller and probably wouldn't need it. The center of tank sets on stove top around exhaust vent, but has little support on the ends. It also was to make space fro hanging stove tools on the back. My stove is in the middle of kitchen.

I have the larger 480 and heat 1880 square feet with this as my only heat source. I also added a thermostat with intake air under the grate for quick starts. Best thing I've done for it. I also run it on a 6 inch chimney with no issues even opening top lid over firebox. Of course I can't open the thermostat air intake on the back and open lid at the same time, but closing any intake air forces all the incoming air in through the top. I could still connect the coil which is not installed in the firebox (A stainless steel 3/4 pipe in a U shape) to radiant heat or baseboard if needed. If you have an upper level to heat, it is perfect to allow gravity circulation from coil to baseboard in an upper level.

 

[Rusnakes]

Thanks for all of the info, Coaly. Have you considered putting the water coil in to meet your hot water needs or would that just be too much for you all? We already purchased one (we actually bought a whole domestic hot water system--boiler and such--but are worried about excessive cold in our crawl space damaging pipes under the floor; think a mudroom space on the other side of the main house foundation wall, with its own tied-in foundation, but only two small vent spaces to the other crawlspace attached to the basement). We definitely want to build a solar hot water system for the warmer months (will be building this winter in fact), but are looking for viable alternatives for domestic hot water in the cold months, when the sun is not out so much here in Michigan (December-February are only about 30% sun, so not a viable hot water solution for us).

I will keep the bracket in mind on the back. We have the rear heat shield for the stove (the one from KQ and not Obadiah's), so I imagine it might hang out over the space on the back side of the stove just in front of the shield. Just wanted to make sure that we don't overhumidify the house, since it is decently insulated now post-renovations and has little in the way of mechanical ventilation on the back side of the house (built in 1832 and no plans were made to ventilate the back side of the house when the first major reno was done).

Lots to consider. I appreciate you taking the time to describe your system and provide pics. That is very helpful!

They only create excessive moisture if you connect the firebox coil to heat the reservoir as well.
The coil is made for an Amish household using only the hot water created by this stove, so not using enough will over humidify the home.
I leave the top lids on all the time to allow enough moisture out of the vents in the corners of the lids. If it gets too dry in the house, I remove the lid away from the firebox side and if more water vapor is needed, I remove the lid on the firebox side. I've never had to remove both at the same time.

I also added 1/2 inch aluminum heat sink under the tank to increase contact area of stove top to water tank.
Partly because I already had the material and we use quite a bit of hot water from the faucet I added.

View attachment 215668 View attachment 215669

View attachment 215670 They are onions drying on the clothes rack behind it, and notice the shelf bracket I added to stabilize the tank on the stove back as well. Your tank will be smaller and probably wouldn't need it. The center of tank sets on stove top around exhaust vent, but has little support on the ends. It also was to make space fro hanging stove tools on the back. My stove is in the middle of kitchen.

I have the larger 480 and heat 1880 square feet with this as my only heat source. I also added a thermostat with intake air under the grate for quick starts. Best thing I've done for it. I also run it on a 6 inch chimney with no issues even opening top lid over firebox. Of course I can't open the thermostat air intake on the back and open lid at the same time, but closing any intake air forces all the incoming air in through the top. I could still connect the coil which is not installed in the firebox (A stainless steel 3/4 pipe in a U shape) to radiant heat or baseboard if needed. If you have an upper level to heat, it is perfect to allow gravity circulation from coil to baseboard in an upper level.

 

[coaly]

The boiler system under floor is not a problem running some propylene glycol in it. I worked for a local heating company that installed, serviced and supplied fuel oil and LP gas. I was in the gas division and we were kept busy with clothes dryers, gas logs, cook stoves...... as well as central heating systems. So the gas guys didn't see many gas boiler installs to fill them. So we called the oil guys in to mount baseboards and run hot water lines. We specialized in the LP tank and gas burner connection. I did get to help fill a few and they had a 55 gallon drum of clear glycol they mixed with water for the systems that would not always be running over the winter. It was good for rust and corrosion prevention inside as well. I went on to operate my own LP service business until retirement. So I always add the antifreeze in any system since you never know how a home may be used as a second home or vacation home in our area in the future.

I added the aluminum heat sink to extract a little more heat from the mass of the stove top instead of installing the coil so we can use it someday for a few ideas I have. You have to be careful you don't chill the firebox using coils. They do lower the firebox temp and can increase smoke particulate and lower the fires efficiency by decreasing the heat reflected by firebrick back into the fire as well as quenching flame tips cooling the burn zone. Like anything else, there's a cost to pay for efficiency.

Another tip it took a couple winters to learn is to only open the oven door for more heat after the entire stove is up to temp. Coming home to a cool home and rushing it by opening the oven door for extra heat output causes excessive accumulation around oven. My clean out is very accessible on the back, so I couldn't imagine needing to clean it out every month or so back against a wall. I made adjustable eccentric washers on my ash pan and clean out door latches to snug them down as gaskets crush. It's a very well built stove as built, but a few simple modifications made mine as close to perfect as I can imagine a stove being. I replaced all the screws and guard rail bolts with stainless too.

 

[Rusnakes]

That's an interesting idea about the propylene glycol, Coaly. Lots to consider. We were considering a direct water heating system (with a range boiler tank in the pressurized water system, and the range boiler thermosiphoning heat off of a coil through the stove). So, an active heat vs. passive heat design. However, the passive heat design idea is an intriguing one. It could potentially tie into the system we are planning to add for solar.

Your thoughts on the coil are helpful. Do you think that we could get enough heat off the stovetop alone to heat the water in a reasonable amount of time, as we require a doublewall pipe due to clearances on the back wall? Or, I guess we could possible build a heat shield to go behind the reservoirs and pipe...hmmm.

Good tip on the oven door/temps! Our stove is up closer to the wall (8" away) so moving that beast frequently would get to be a real drag fast!

The boiler system under floor is not a problem running some propylene glycol in it. I worked for a local heating company that installed, serviced and supplied fuel oil and LP gas. I was in the gas division and we were kept busy with clothes dryers, gas logs, cook stoves...... as well as central heating systems. So the gas guys didn't see many gas boiler installs to fill them. So we called the oil guys in to mount baseboards and run hot water lines. We specialized in the LP tank and gas burner connection. I did get to help fill a few and they had a 55 gallon drum of clear glycol they mixed with water for the systems that would not always be running over the winter. It was good for rust and corrosion prevention inside as well. I went on to operate my own LP service business until retirement. So I always add the antifreeze in any system since you never know how a home may be used as a second home or vacation home in our area in the future.

I added the aluminum heat sink to extract a little more heat from the mass of the stove top instead of installing the coil so we can use it someday for a few ideas I have. You have to be careful you don't chill the firebox using coils. They do lower the firebox temp and can increase smoke particulate and lower the fires efficiency by decreasing the heat reflected by firebrick back into the fire as well as quenching flame tips cooling the burn zone. Like anything else, there's a cost to pay for efficiency.

Another tip it took a couple winters to learn is to only open the oven door for more heat after the entire stove is up to temp. Coming home to a cool home and rushing it by opening the oven door for extra heat output causes excessive accumulation around oven. My clean out is very accessible on the back, so I couldn't imagine needing to clean it out every month or so back against a wall. I made adjustable eccentric washers on my ash pan and clean out door latches to snug them down as gaskets crush. It's a very well built stove as built, but a few simple modifications made mine as close to perfect as I can imagine a stove being. I replaced all the screws and guard rail bolts with stainless too.

The boiler system under floor is not a problem running some propylene glycol in it. I worked for a local heating company that installed, serviced and supplied fuel oil and LP gas. I was in the gas division and we were kept busy with clothes dryers, gas logs, cook stoves...... as well as central heating systems. So the gas guys didn't see many gas boiler installs to fill them. So we called the oil guys in to mount baseboards and run hot water lines. We specialized in the LP tank and gas burner connection. I did get to help fill a few and they had a 55 gallon drum of clear glycol they mixed with water for the systems that would not always be running over the winter. It was good for rust and corrosion prevention inside as well. I went on to operate my own LP service business until retirement. So I always add the antifreeze in any system since you never know how a home may be used as a second home or vacation home in our area in the future.

I added the aluminum heat sink to extract a little more heat from the mass of the stove top instead of installing the coil so we can use it someday for a few ideas I have. You have to be careful you don't chill the firebox using coils. They do lower the firebox temp and can increase smoke particulate and lower the fires efficiency by decreasing the heat reflected by firebrick back into the fire as well as quenching flame tips cooling the burn zone. Like anything else, there's a cost to pay for efficiency.

Another tip it took a couple winters to learn is to only open the oven door for more heat after the entire stove is up to temp. Coming home to a cool home and rushing it by opening the oven door for extra heat output causes excessive accumulation around oven. My clean out is very accessible on the back, so I couldn't imagine needing to clean it out every month or so back against a wall. I made adjustable eccentric washers on my ash pan and clean out door latches to snug them down as gaskets crush. It's a very well built stove as built, but a few simple modifications made mine as close to perfect as I can imagine a stove being. I replaced all the screws and guard rail bolts with stainless too.

 

[coaly]

Too many variables to determine if you will have enough hot water. When it's cold enough to have ours cranked up, we have no problem using as much hot water as we want. A medium to low fire, no way. Our stove is rated to heat up to 3000 sf so heating only 1880 doesn't allow us to run it hard for long. The other reason I never connected the coil is doing marathon canning sessions. That is the hardest on a cook stove and actually warps the thinner "gauge" steel stoves. Definite plus for the Queen if you have your own garden. That kind of top temperature boils 24 gallons an hour when you're not using much from the reservoir.
Another huge plus is keeping our tank full when it's really cold. 24 gallons of hot water takes a long time to cool, so it radiates off the tank all day without a fire into the night. Stainless is not a good conductor, but it makes a big difference between fire cycles keeping a full tank.

 

[Rusnakes]

That is all very promising for us then for a water reservoir. We haven't done any canning sessions on our stove yet. Waiting for that for next year, so that is prime info for us, since we are big into gardening.

All great info! I really appreciate you taking the time to write.