Coalpail.com Forum

Ok, bear with me a bit. My son called to say the boiler was leaking. He could not describe it so we went on Skype with his tablet and I saw that the air vent on the top of the boiler was leaking. I had him turn the cap down and it stopped. BUT, he said the water put the fire out! No no no I said and had him open it up and show me the water inside. I determined that the water was coming in around the gasket between the boiler and the base. Still why did it go out? It had pushed bunch of coal into the bin. I had him relight the stove and told him to call me so we could trouble shoot the stoker or controls. He just called an said he turned it off because the CO detector was going off???? I had assumed the air supply had been cut off so it would not maintain idle, it was 60 there yesterday. The control have not been touched since I was there in 2011. He ran it all last winter with no problems. It has been vacuumed out, he pulled the cleanout lever under the bed, and checked that the blower was running. It was burning but the flame would not advance down the bed, indicating that there was not enough coal being pushed. Why would this make the CO alarm go off? I am going to have him pull up the grates and check the holes, but not sure why this would push fumes back up the hopper. He has got a new batch of coal this year but has been running it for most of Oct.
I had to stop the call as he is dealing with a daughter that is a handful and a 1 year old as his wife is working. Just looking for suggestions.

Kevin

Any chance the water ran off the top of the boiler and into the hopper/stoker? I am sure you must be frustrated trying to troubleshoot it from so far away, but I think the best way to start is a total shutdown and clean out of the hopper & stoker. Make sure everything moves freely, air blows properly, etc.

No, the water was not serious enough to run into the hopper. Just a real steady drip. I think it occurred because the boiler cooled down when it went out. I have had tons of trouble with the auto vents since I put the boiler in. I thought the same thing about complete clean out.

If I don't respond for awhile, I am off to play basketball. Please still leave suggestions.

kevin

CO alarm going off...over presssureized firebox or restricted exhaust path...you did say he had been burning most of October.

Yes, vacuumed the stovepipe out and pulled the cleanout out on the back of the of the unit. no other places for it to back up. Stainless Selkirk chimney. Only unit in that chimney. Maybe the forward holes are plugged but then the coal would be going into the bucket unburned. Something changed as it has been working fine.

Kevin

My oil boiler's vent leaked like a sieve after the drain/cool down for the stoker install. And so did the Flo-chek valve .. to the point where I removed the top, and soldered the thumbscrew in place, and cut myself a new custom gasket for it. The vent stopped once it heated up thankfully. Thing is only 6 years old.

Now that I understand how these stokers work .... maybe a dirty combustion blower blades or intake blocked with fur (especially with pets) ??

I've got the pressurized firebox thing going on too .. but that's because of the goofy connector pipe I had to install ... with 3, 90° L's ... and a DOWNWARD section. Had no other choice.

I cannot say the CO is coming back through the hopper. I have to get back into the boiler rm via Skype this evening. I have to check the integrity of the pipe and how the baro is working.

Kevin

Just talked with him and he indicated the baro was stuck wide open. That explains the CO. We will relight Tue. night when he gets more briquets and trouble shoot the timer,stoker, controls. He is going to pull the grates and clean it and check the air holes. Thanks for suggestions and pop in with more if you think of them.

Kevin

Well, revisited the stoker in Maine Wen. night. He pulled the grates to vacuum inder them and check the air holes and confirmed the baro was stuck wide open from vacuuming the ashes out of the horizontal run. Checked to see that nothing was blocking the opening where coal is pushed onto the grates. Had him pull the cover off the stoker unit and took the time to explain how it works, really simple. Everything is working fine......He indicated that it had been running for 45 min and the fire did not seem to be advancing down the grates, so I had him adjust the feed 1 turn and told him to watch it for burning coal falling off the end. Talked with him last night and it is chugging along fine. I can only guess that some bad coal from one bag would not burn well enough to hold the fire at idle when the temps hit 60 last week. The idle timer has been set up since the winter of 2011/2012 when I removed the Johnson controls and motor feeds after a big meltdown. I think with the baro wide open, there was not enough draft to keep the fire idling for the whole day. We will see, always an adventure with coal.

Kevin

Baro stuck and high temps is a recipe for the CO detector to yelp. Glad it was that simple Kev.