Chronicles of the Clayton

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Lightning
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite

Post by Lightning » Tue. Oct. 21, 2014 6:13 pm

Hi fellas.. :) I thought I would start a general discussion thread about this seasons' trials and tribulations with my Clayton 1537G hand fed furnace. All feedback is welcome and it doesn't need to be restricted to anything specific.

For starters, I lit the fire a few days ago on Saturday Oct 18th and its been idling along quite nicely since. It's a toasty 74-75 degrees and we have two windows cracked an inch open here in the new living room. I had contemplated replacing my flue pipe this year but it was still nice and solid after spending the summer in the attic. This is the 4th season for it. Next year I'll replace it.

I'm trying a nut/stove size mix this year and I'm here to tell ya, I love what I'm seeing! Recovery time has been easily cut in half after a shake-n-load. I'm seeing the blues flare up in 15-20 minutes, where before with just the nut size it would take up to 40 minutes. It's burning steadier too. For the last 18 hours, my over the load door temperature hasn't hardly fluctuated at all. It's been 212-216 degrees (digital thermometer) the entire time. I'm really impressed! I don't know why I waited so long to try the bigger coal.
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Another thing new this year is this handy dandy hanging scale. I found it on eBay. It's actually designed to weigh luggage but works great for weighing coal to track usage. It's rated for up to 110 pounds. I plan to use it to compare coal/ash ratio thru the winter. It's cheap and simple to use. Below is a picture of it weighing my empty coal bucket.
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KingCoal
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Location: Elkhart county, IN.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: 1 comforter stove works all iron coal box stove, seventies.
Baseburners & Antiques: 2014 DTS C17 Base Burner, GW #6, GW 113 formerly Sir Williams, maybe others at Pauliewog’s I’ve forgotten about
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
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Post by KingCoal » Tue. Oct. 21, 2014 6:17 pm

great find on the scale. it's crazy how much stuff I never had to burn coal :roll:

i lit back up again tonight. the wife is going to be home tomorrow from CA. and it's to be 30's tomorrow night.

not good, must make fire, get MASSIVE hubby points.

 
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hotblast1357
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Coal Size/Type: Lehigh anthracite pea
Other Heating: air source heat pump, oil furnace

Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Oct. 21, 2014 8:28 pm

I've been lit since 10/4, is going great right now, 24 hr tends using 17.8 pounds of pea average per day, the pea was some stuff I got in a good deal, is working great now in these milder months, keep a 150-180 degree stove temp which is awesome! My secondary burn pipes are working great as of right now.. They don't do much until I get it going over 180-200 degrees but I think that's normal, I got a snap disc as a safety for my thermostat mod. Which so far has been working awesome! I leave the spin knob set at 1.5 turns to idle the stove, and the thermostat set at 72 currently, been doing this since Saturday morning and the house has stayed a even 72!! I hope this all works once it gets cold!

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Oct. 21, 2014 10:22 pm

KingCoal wrote:not good, must make fire, get MASSIVE hubby points.
True enough! I know when my wife is cold, the world stops turning till the heat is remedied :lol:
hotblast1357 wrote:24 hr tends using 17.8 pounds of pea average per day,
That's quite remarkable! I'm burning twice that with the nut/stove mix. Seems a little more challenging to get the bigger coal to simmer that low. I keep cutting primary air to the point that I'm starting to wonder if I'll starve it.

Good job with the thermostat mod. Keep me updated on its progress, please. :)

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Wed. Oct. 22, 2014 5:16 am

I will, I think I'm goin to hunt for a different actuator, a more simple one, I took this zone valve apart and there are too many parts, I've already had it stick once on me which I don't like, I fixed that issue for now, the plastic gear inside was missing a tooth so I had to reposition it.. But it'll happen again

 
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michaelanthony
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Coal Size/Type: 'nut
Other Heating: Fujitsu mini split, FHA oil furnace

Post by michaelanthony » Wed. Oct. 22, 2014 5:36 am

Lightning wrote: That's quite remarkable! I'm burning twice that with the nut/stove mix. Seems a little more challenging to get the bigger coal to simmer that low. I keep cutting primary air to the point that I'm starting to wonder if I'll starve it.
Well Hotblast is burning pea which allows him to set his to "crawl" :lol: and with the stove, 'nut mix you probably will starve the fire going that low. His setting is replacing much less air than you need to keep the fire alive and I experienced that last yr when I ran pea in the Vigilant, just chalk it up to finding the sweet spot.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Wed. Oct. 22, 2014 8:35 am

hotblast1357 wrote:I will, I think I'm goin to hunt for a different actuator, a more simple one,

Yeah let me know what you find out. I might be interested in a thermostat controlled actuator too.. :)
michaelanthony wrote:Well Hotblast is burning pea which allows him to set his to "crawl" and with the stove, 'nut mix you probably will starve the fire going that low. His setting is replacing much less air than you need to keep the fire alive and I experienced that last yr when I ran pea in the Vigilant, just chalk it up to finding the sweet spot.

Right I agree.. I choked her down as low as I thought possible without loosin the fire overnight. Woke up this morning and the living room was at 71 degrees. Over the load door temp at 199 degrees and a nice even dull red across the fuel bed. I opened the primaries completely to see how quick she would respond. Inside of 15 minutes I had a firebox FULL of the pretty blues and bright orange in the coal bed at which point I knocked the primaries back down to idle. Over the load door temp cruising past 300 degrees and the living room was 74 shortly afterward. I'm really impressed with the response time with this bigger coal. Awesome!
:up:


 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Wed. Oct. 22, 2014 9:06 am

Got my VC 2310 limping along at 320 griddle temp and 125 on the stove pipe just above the MPD. With the fire this low I have to keep the MPD wide open or the fire starts to go REALLY low. It would probably be OK but this is my first year with this stove so I am learning what it wants. I had been burning 6 year old bagged nut that came with the stove (basement find for the stove and the ton of bagged nut) but it ran too hot so I switched to pea from Keystone Anthracite which is right across from the Reading coal yard less than 5 minutes from our house.

It really likes the pea and just sits there and simmers on it. I only touched the flapper adjustment one time when it dropped to 33 outside the other morning. The LR was 65 and momma wasn't happy. Now momma is happy which means I'm ecstatic.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Oct. 26, 2014 8:03 pm

I'm still impressed with the performance of the nut/stove size mix. Seems less coal lost in the ash pan too! I'm looking forward to doing some coal/ash ratios to see where it stands. She's been milling along thru the cool days quite nicely, averaging 35 pounds a day roughly. I've been doing 24 hour shake and load intervals. Even at 24 hours the coal bed is still half full of coal after shake down. Here's what the ash looks like, mostly talcum powder consistency and very lite.

Everyday I see a bigger spread between flue pipe temp and over the load door temp as ash seals around the grate frame and fills voids between firebricks so that the coal can make most use of available incoming oxygen. I've also had to decrease the primary air to reach lower burning temps as compared to when I first lit up. Soon she'll be at optimum burning efficiency.

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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Thu. Oct. 30, 2014 1:53 am

Had a warm day on Tuesday. High temp outside was 71 degrees. I actually had a 44 hour run without adding any coal. I only poked the underside of the grates at 24 hours instead of doing a full shake and load. Primary air intake hardly 10% open. I was able to keep draft by running all the secondary air inlets wide open. Manometer never fell below .02 and the convection blowers didn't reach temp to kick on for most of the day. Over the load door temp fell to 189 degrees. A look in the fire box showed no signs of life, yet she milled along in a state of suspended animation. Warm weather coal stunts are fun.. :lol:

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. Nov. 03, 2014 7:23 pm

I worked some numbers today..

709 pounds burned so far across 17 days.
Which makes for about 42 pounds per day.

I measured ash today too. Total of 68 pounds.
Makes for 9.6% ash using the nut/ stove size mix.

Last year I measured the straight nut size at 12-13% ash.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Nov. 04, 2014 3:23 pm

Caught some nice pics yesterday after revving her up just before a shake and load. This is at around the 24th hour of a burn cycle. Pretty blues :D

Feel free to reply, if not well then,
I don't care.. I love it!!





:lol: :lol: :lol:

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Hebner
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Post by Hebner » Wed. Nov. 05, 2014 10:47 am

That's impressive for a 24 burn. Looks like it could have gone another 24 hrs.

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Wed. Nov. 05, 2014 11:17 am

Have been lit for 34 days now, since 10/4/14. Have burned a total of 658 lbs, 19.35 pounds per 24 hr shake/tend. .8063 lbs per hour.im very happy with these numbers, the thermostatically controlled air and secondary burn is helping a lot compared to last years burning. People are crazy when they say these things are junk and can't burn coal.

 
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Post by franco b » Wed. Nov. 05, 2014 11:40 am

hotblast1357 wrote: People are crazy when they say these things are junk and can't burn coal.
Yes, but you took the time and trouble to make alterations and learn the stove. Good job.


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