Coalpail.com Forum

blrman07 wrote:If you close it all the way and seal it with duct tape where is it going to get air to blow through the holes in the grates?

See the hole where the shaft comes out to the gearbox. It will scavenge air from where ever it can. I have seen it happen.

Trust me I'm a doctor!

Ok you will get some air and probably enough air to keep the fire going. Gotta give ya that one.

blrman07 wrote:Ok you will get some air and probably enough air to keep the fire going. Gotta give ya that one.

That is the extreme but I have seen one that was done that way. I would suggest when the large motor is running play with the flap and as stated before, as you close the air off you should see a decrease in flame height, then you know you are getting somewhere. That will confirm that air flow has been reduced. The barometric damper should compensate accordingly for the draft. What you must be mindful of is blowing too much air in when you have poor draft.

Thankfully poor draft isn't an issue. My flue starts in my basement and it's 4' above my widows walk on top of my 2 story Victorian. Here are a few pics to show and to give an idea of how big the place is. The main house has no wall insulation....just in the attic. Thats to be hopefully addressed soon.

I've been adjusting that tonight and found the less air I have it the worse the coking got songs the more fines I had. So now I'm going the other way. I think it's a losing battle till I get different coal. Not sure where to go though. ....I don't want Blaschak again because that's what I have now

Ok you got me. Your telling me you cut back on the combustion air which should have resulted in a lower flame, meaning a cooler fire, meaning a cooler ash bed, which drops the ash temp to a point below the ash fusion range, and after waiting at least an hour, it started getting worse, meaning the ash started fusing more, in a cooler flame, than when you had a hot flame, and the ash, which is now cooler, started making ash cakes more prevalent instead of not forming at all?
Do I have the situation correct?

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

I gotta ask. When you closed the silver flap which closed the opening for the main combustion blower, what happened to the height of the fire.

It dropped the flame. Not sure why it got worse but it did.

How long did you let it run at a lower flame height before changing it back and/or increasing the air flow?

Probably 3 hours

BennyLumpkin wrote:The grey flapper is for the main combustion air correct? The one in the first pic right?

Benny, You're driving us Nucking Futs!!!

We do NOT care what you do with the GD black blower fan hanging out the back.

The GD silver pivot flap underneath in your SECOND picture is the only one we care about.

Do you get it???

If you read my comments which are very clear I NEVER TOUCHED THE BLACK FAN. Apparently reading isn't a strong point? I've said several times about the silver flapper. A few people said closing the black fan more would help keeping it cooler when not running so I tried that but I know it doesn't affect my actual burn. Just keeping the unit burning when not calling for heat. The grey flapper is all I've worked with.....I've ran it from clear open to clear shut and its still coking leading me to the conclusion its the coal. Its worked without an issue for over a year and all of the sudden its been nothing but trouble and I'm to the coal in the bottom of my bin. I got the coal im into now last spring then dumped Harmony on top of it. See what I'm saying now? Im trying to be as clear as possible though I thought I was.

I don't mean to sound rude but that black fan keeps getting brought up and I'm not using it to try to adjust my burn air. I appreciate the advise I've been getting. ...I really do.

At this point if I were BennyLumpkin I would be trying to find new coal. I get mine from Superior and as I stated before have never had clinkers larger than about 2 to 3 inches in diameter. A few more with this last delivery than in the past but they are a non-issue as far as the operation of the stoker goes. Superior only sells bulk. Superior, R & R, Kimmel, Sherman’s, Lenig’s; these should all be different than Blaschak. Try a few hundred pounds and if it works fill the bin.

Where is Superior? Problem for me it's a two hour drive to get any to try