110 Boiler Feed Screw Settings

Plumber that ash looks normal. Though a couple of your pictures are horrible, it seems normal to have some half burned pieces like your showing on extended idle with no calls for heat, dial back the feed rate a little or up the fan if your idle is stable. I also noticed large variation in my ash with the brand of coal. All brands are quite different as per what I've seen. I've burned Kimmel, Blaschak and Reading all rice all very different, requiring sometimes wide variations in settings.

Now that is COLD, the boiler is RUNNING. I've had to turn back the screw another turn, I did a quarter turn a day to keep burning coal from dropping into the ash pan.

plumber wrote:Now that is COLD, the boiler is RUNNING. I've had to turn back the screw another turn, I did a quarter turn a day to keep burning coal from dropping into the ash pan.

Don't forget if you change your max feed setting you may need to modify the idle timer. Just keep an eye on it .

Will do, boiler won't be doing much idling this week!

I'm thinking the boiler and my current coal don't agree. I had set it and forget it last year. Now I either have over 2" of ash at the end of the grate or hot coals falling over the edge, I can't win. I'm waiting at least a day inbetween adjustments, and only turning the screw 1/8 of a turn at once. I'm also getting what looks like half burned and unburned coal.

plumber wrote:I'm thinking the boiler and my current coal don't agree. I had set it and forget it last year. Now I either have over 2" of ash at the end of the grate or hot coals falling over the edge, I can't win. I'm waiting at least a day inbetween adjustments, and only turning the screw 1/8 of a turn at once. I'm also getting what looks like half burned and unburned coal.

When is the last time you cleaned under the grate? You may have fines plugging the front holes.

Flyer5 wrote: When is the last time you cleaned under the grate? You may have fines plugging the front holes.

New Year's Day. I shut down, completely disassembled, and thoroughly cleaned the boiler top to bottom.
I'm at a loss, I just can't get a consistent fire. The boiler acts like a completely different animal from last winter, I can't find anything wrong with the boiler. The only thing that changed is the coal.

Rob R. wrote:Any chance the screw is turning from vibration without your knowledge?

Not anymore. Put a locknut on last year.