Page 11 of 38
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Mon. Jan. 05, 2009 9:19 pm
by johnstar
Well It looks like my impatience got the best of me. My fire is burning pretty well now that I cleaned out the furnace.
One of the toughest things in world to do is to wait for the fire to take hold and not poke at it during the first half hour.
My house is at 77 degrees now, a bit warm but my wife is enjoying it.
I just dampered it down so that should take the temp. down a bit.
John
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Tue. Jan. 06, 2009 5:30 am
by 1howardo
no, you {we} got a bad stove. this thing wouldn't burn coal right if you doused the coal in gas. I gave up on coal and went to wood. still not a lot of heat and boy does it go through wood. i'm still constantly babysitting this piece of crap.
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Tue. Jan. 06, 2009 10:11 am
by North Candlewood
Jerry
There is some reason your unit is not working properly. I am sure you are frustrated and fed up. I speak for myself and I am sure other members with or without these units, will agree to help you in anyway we possibly can. I don't know where you live but if close enough I'd make the trip. Posting pictures will help us from here know what is there. Mostly the flue set up, stove to the chimney, overall stove placement and chimney top at roof line. I just reread posts did you get the baro setup on the flue pipe? I didn't see any chimney,maybe you told me but I have a CRAFT brain lately.
Call me if you like and maybe a road trip is in order!
I'll stop and see mudman and a couple of my John's along the way!
That sounds like I'm a lady of the night!
Charles
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Tue. Jan. 06, 2009 10:33 am
by North Candlewood
This is a good procedure and great outline I thought should get to here from
More of a Mid-Winter Cleanout Than A Shake Down
Thank You DavidL for this great post it is sometimes hard to explain routine to the Girls let alone the Newbe's
DavidL wrote:I had the same problem with ash build up where my fire would only last 3 days. I finally got a daily technique down where I could keep the fire going; thanks to this forum.
This is the document I made up for myself and my wife. I do it once in the morning and once in the evening.
A High Heat Foil Back Insulation
B Heat Outlet
• 20"x 20" (480EK)
• 18"x 18" (365EK)
C Double Wall Back
D Heavy 7 Gauge Steel
E 6" Flu
F Filter Box with Side Mounted Air Filter (Optional)
G Large, Energy Efficient 3-Speed Blower
H Fire Brick Lining with Cast Iron End Plates
I Cast Iron Shaker Grates (Optional)
J Shaker Grate Handle
K Pre-wired Electrical Components Standard
L Baked Enamel Metal Cabinet
M Secondary Heat Exchanger
N Secondary Bypass Rod
O Airtight Cast Iron Feed Door
P All 1/4" Steel Door Frame
Q Heavy Cast Iron Ash Pit Door
R Large Removable Ash Pan
S Draft Control, Forced or Automatic (Manual on 365EK)
clip_image002.jpg
1. Turn OFF Forced Air Draft switch (S)
2. Open Ash Pit Door (Q)
3. Empty ash pan if full (R)
4. Pull open Secondary Bypass Rod (N)
5. Crack open coal feed door (O) for 10 seconds, then open fully.
6. Using fireplace poker, poke deep into coals till you hit bottom of shaker grate making new air passages and breakup bottom layer of ash; about 6 places.
7. Shake grate using Shaker Grate Handle (J) till you get a good red glow from under the grate and letting the fine ash fall down into the pan.
8. Push (Bank) coal towards rear of fire box, tapering down towards the front of box.
9. Fill tapered void with coal up to top of fire brick, leaving hot coals exposed in rear.
10. Close coal feed door (O)
11. Push closed Secondary Bypass Rod (N)
12. Close Ash Pit Door (Q) and fully open Ash Pit Draft knob or leave Ash Pit Door (Q) open for 15 minutes so newly added coal will catch.
(SET TIMER AS REMINDER)
13. Close Ash Pit Draft knob or close Ash Pit Door (Q).
14. Turn ON Forced Air Draft switch (S)
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Tue. Jan. 06, 2009 4:01 pm
by johnstar
Here's a new one, I hesitate to tell everyone what caused my problem over the past few days. If you have been reading my recent posts, you will know that I have been having a bit of trouble keeping the fire burning hot and getting good heat from the furnace. well I cleaned it out and started a new fire, things seemed to be going well. I started throwing coal on in heavy amounts all at once. As it turns out I was also throwing on a lot of silt, this is what I believe was killing my fire, but to top it all off, I put up my ladder today and went up onto the roof, I took the chimney cap off and found a crumpled up newspaper stuck in the cap. Yesterday I lit a piece of newspaper in the stove pipe to create draft in the chimney just before I started my fire in the furnace. Apparently the air pushed the newspaper all the way up to the top of the chimney where it got stuck and then proceeded to restrict any any smoke from escaping thus blocking any draft.
I went for a haircut and came back an hour and a half later to find my house at 79 degrees. -----Time to damper it all down again!!! "I gotta teach one of my kids how to damper down a furnace, I'm tired of running up and down those steps"
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Tue. Jan. 06, 2009 4:10 pm
by johnstar
By: 1howardo On: Tue Jan 06, 2009 6:30 am
no, you {we} got a bad stove. this thing wouldn't burn coal right if you doused the coal in gas. I gave up on coal and went to wood. still not a lot of heat and boy does it go through wood
1howardo, I know you have spoken to NORTHCANDLEWOOD in the past, but have you followed his directions explicitly? Charles has helped me and many others a great deal.There must be something small your over looking that is causing all the problems you are having. Where are you located? maybe I can or someone else who is more local to you can stop by and help you out.
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 12:00 am
by eng11ine
on the fan/limit switch on the back of the furnace, It seems like my air temp has to get to around 180 for my fan to kick on. It is set to com on at 140 and off at 90. Also, If I watch it it seems like when it gets to 140, it seems to "jump" to get the fan to come on. Is it possible that this may be a bad switch? I tried the furnace with just the thermodisc and seemed to work better. thanks for everyones help, without it, I might have went back to using oil. The house hovers around 70, the outside temp has been between 30 and 15.
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 7:27 am
by DOUG
eng11ine:
It sounds like your fan limit switch is out of calibration. That usually occurs when you adjust the point settings and don't hold the silver dial from turning.
You'll notice there are two holes in the silver dial at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. This is for you to stick a small screwdriver into to keep the silver dial from turning when you adjust your set point temperatures. If the silver dial is allowed to turn when the adjustment is made, the fan limit switch can become out of calibration. The fan limit switch will still function, but not at the temperatures you think you have it set for. So, get a new fan limit switch and compare. You'll see what I mean.
DOUG
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Fri. Jan. 16, 2009 5:58 am
by 1howardo
good morning!!! its a balmy 42 degrees in my house this morning. the ever reliable clayton 1800 died probably very shortly after I went to bed. Charles I will be calling you tonight. I had to try a few things before I called you again.
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Fri. Jan. 16, 2009 6:10 pm
by North Candlewood
I'm always here on the other end of the airwaves thanks to ATT. And once again I don't mind.
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Sun. Jan. 18, 2009 2:27 pm
by johnstar
Well once again I had a heat output problem, No matter how long the blower was on my house wouldn't warm up. It has been in the low single digits and below zero. While I was able to keep the house comfortable with the use of my propane furnace, I didn't want to continually use it.
This morning I let the fire burn down so I could once again clean it out. Another piece of the "information puzzle " I learned was that I don't need to have a hundred pounds of coal loaded into the furnace in order to have great heat output. Another time that "less is more".
I started a fire and loaded coal almost half way up the brick, now my house is a bit warm, about 76 degrees. My thought process in the past was "the more coal the better", which in turn would give more heat. I couldn't have been more wrong.
I figure keeping it below the bricks will also make shaking it down easier plus I will use a lot less coal. So far I have used about 4 ton of coal.
The so called "learning curve" for coal Is taking longer than I thought it would.
By next winter I should have it all figured out, I think!!!!
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Sun. Jan. 18, 2009 3:55 pm
by DOUG
johnstar, I'm surprised that you can't get any heat output on a full load. A full load will not get it any hotter, but give you a longer duration of burn time, less clinkers the coal and should be happier burning.Here is three pictures of the different stages of burning I get when burning for high heat demand.
Although I'm using buckwheat anthracite coal, the larger size coal should look very close. It has to be the way the draft is set going through the fire from the ash door to the chimney. It was very difficult for me to figure it out at first too.
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Sun. Jan. 18, 2009 9:51 pm
by johnstar
Doug,
The barometric damper I have installed is set at .6 which seems to be partially open most of the time. Is this a good setting? I do realize I should have manometer to set it correctly, but for now this is where it's set.
When the Baro. Damper is closed does this cause more air to be pulled through the fire?
John
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Mon. Jan. 19, 2009 4:06 am
by DOUG
Yes, .06 inches is where I have mine set for my 7", 37' chimney and mine is open all the time but for those very warm humid days and it moves with the wind changes. In my opinion, from the books I've read and from my experience, the chimney is more important than the stove that it is connected to. You can make even the worst stove design perform with the proper draft flow. The only way to know what the chimney is capable of drafting is with a manometer or draft gauge. There is so many variables with the chimney. It's size, height, inside or outside the house location, the amount of high obstacles, such as trees other buildings, hills, wind patterns, roof line, how many elbows in the stovepipe, the horizontal length of the stovepipe, the pitch of the horizontal stovepipe, the weather, all affect the performance of a chimney.
I had an experience once in the beginning of my first set up with the same chimney, where I positioned the furnace, I had three elbows twisted into a weird configuration and couldn't get the stove to keep a fire. I changed the position of the stove, made the stovepipe run shorter and more simpler, now the chimney sucks like a vacuum cleaner. Sometimes just little things do the strangest things.
When the barometric draft regulator damper closes, the pressure in the chimney is at or lower than the setting of inches of water and it is allowing what ever draw the chimney can suck through the fire. A good strong draft from a chimney, throttled back with a barometric draft regulator will perform best. But the suction from the chimney has to natural be there to limit. Otherwise a draft inducer fan is needed to overcome the lack of suction. From what you described, your chimney should have adequate draft. But only measuring it will tell you it's actual performance capability with the stovepipe configuration you have.
Just something to think about.
DOUG
Re: Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace
Posted: Tue. Jan. 20, 2009 8:26 pm
by eng11ine
Doug,
Couple questions:
What do you have your fan switch set at? I can't really see from the pic.
How often does your fan run?
I called USSC and they are sending me a new fan switch. I have the current one set at 140 and 90. I also installed my Thermodisc in Parallel so the furnace kicks on. before I did that, the fan wouldn't come on until the air temp was almost 180. After I install the new switch, I'll let you know how It works. It may kick on with the disc for 30 sec. or so and when the switch does kick the fan on, it'll run for 5 to 10 minutes. I'm goning to ask the HVAC guy at work if there is some sort of solid state control to do the same thing.
Thanks for your help
Chris