To Re-light Or Not to Re-light AHS 130 for the Summer

Rob R. wrote:That makes no sense at all, a chimney like that should draft exceptionally well. Is there plenty of fresh air available to the boiler room? Is there anything else tied into that chimney?

Agreed, that's got my chimney beat by a long shot.

Rob R. wrote:That makes no sense at all, a chimney like that should draft exceptionally well. Is there plenty of fresh air available to the boiler room? Is there anything else tied into that chimney?

The boiler has a dedicated flue. I have 3 basement windows, all are open at present.

Birds nest or dead animal in the chimney?

lsayre wrote:Birds nest or dead animal in the chimney?

Nope clear I checked for that. Tough one huh?!?

Are you keeping the hopper at least half full of coal?

lsayre wrote:Are you keeping the hopper at least half full of coal?

yes but what impact does that have?

NWBuilder wrote:

lsayre wrote:Are you keeping the hopper at least half full of coal?

yes but what impact does that have?

I've ran mine down twice to where I needed to add about 200 lbs. to the nominal 250 lb. hopper, but I was guessing that more coal in the hopper might assure a slightly better draft by preventing losses through the hopper lid area. Just grasping for straws here.

By my measurement, the entire load it carries is about 310 lbs. 60 lbs. in the firebox (and fire tube) area, and an additional 250 lbs. sitting above that in the hopper.

While we are on the hopper issue, I have noticed that the paint is coming off in a sheet form on one side (on the inside) and there is surface rust underneath. The unit hasn't even been in use for a full year is this usual? Should I just take a wire brush to my grinder and hit it with some rustoleum?? This seems very premature to me. I just noticed this today so I haven't searched out any threads on the subject.

NWBuilder wrote:While we are on the hopper issue, I have noticed that the paint is coming off in a sheet form on one side (on the inside) and there is surface rust underneath. The unit hasn't even been in use for a full year is this usual? Should I just take a wire brush to my grinder and hit it with some rustoleum?? This seems very premature to me. I just noticed this today so I haven't searched out any threads on the subject.

In my opinion this should be discussed with AHS.

lsayre wrote:

NWBuilder wrote:While we are on the hopper issue, I have noticed that the paint is coming off in a sheet form on one side (on the inside) and there is surface rust underneath. The unit hasn't even been in use for a full year is this usual? Should I just take a wire brush to my grinder and hit it with some rustoleum?? This seems very premature to me. I just noticed this today so I haven't searched out any threads on the subject.

In my opinion this should be discussed with AHS.

Good point, I will do that I wonder if my being the second owner will have any impact on their reaction.

Rob R. wrote:That makes no sense at all, a chimney like that should draft exceptionally well. Is there plenty of fresh air available to the boiler room? Is there anything else tied into that chimney?

There is definitely something drastically wrong here.

I say it is the coal...or maybe stated another way...the ash content of the coal.

I have mentioned this earlier to NWB, ash may be such that it is smothering the idle fire in the fire-pot.
Even with better drafts, if the ash is choking out sufficient air/oxygen up through the fire-pot an out-fire will certainly occur.
My questioning his hopper lid integrity and other alternate undesirable air paths/sources was due to my reasoning that draft will always draw from the least resistive air source.
Perhaps most all the draft is simply coming in the port cover plate...thereby bypassing the hot coals in the fire-pot to the point of causing another out-fire.

I know NWB tried some other coal, but perhaps it needed a little longer time to get the ash laden coal purged completely off the grate to really see any real difference.

Can you post some pictures of your house/chimney and the boiler? What size is the chimney flue serving the boiler?

Perhaps the flue is large and cools between boiler cycles? If that is the case, the only thing you can do (besides lining the chimney ) is install a timer to fire the boiler more often.

Next question: When you re-light a fire in the boiler, are you putting a load on it to make the blower run at least 30 minutes? It is important that you build a fire the full width of the combustion tube, otherwise you will have unburned coal around the edge of the tube.

Rob R. wrote:Can you post some pictures of your house/chimney and the boiler? What size is the chimney flue serving the boiler?

Perhaps the flue is large and cools between boiler cycles? If that is the case, the only thing you can do (besides lining the chimney ) is install a timer to fire the boiler more often.

Next question: When you re-light a fire in the boiler, are you putting a load on it to make the blower run at least 30 minutes? It is important that you build a fire the full width of the combustion tube, otherwise you will have unburned coal around the edge of the tube.

I will try to post the pictures but my computer skills are not that great. The flue is 8x8 I believe.I wait until the boiler is completely cool and there is a call for hot water so it runs for well over an hour to get everything satisfied. I think you may be right and that my flue is cooling off too much between firings. I have been talking to Vermontday about Siemens LOGO timer. It seems complicated but he says it is a lot easier then it looks. Just need to pull the trigger on it.

. Here ya go, I will post chimney pictures tomorrow. Thanks everyone.

That Logo timer looks pretty complicated to me, and I consider myself computer savy. Hopefully it isn't as bad as it looks.