Yellow Flame Coal Boiler Going Out in Warm Weather

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gizmo875
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Post by gizmo875 » Sun. Oct. 22, 2017 3:30 pm

Hi. I recently purchased a house with a yellow flame coal boiler. It has a intermatic timer. The problem I am having is keeping it lite during the 70 degree days. I have the timer set to run with 7 pegs at the 0 min mark and 7 pegs at the 15 min. mark. the coal feed is set to the highest mark number 6. It runs fine when there is a heat call but when it sits in idle all day it goes out. The chimney is clean. The draft is set at 2. Coal looks to be pretty good too. Boiler is set at 150 low and 170 high. Any help would be appreciated. thanks

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Oct. 22, 2017 4:09 pm

Pix g--they help a lot.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Oct. 22, 2017 4:23 pm

Is the timer connected to the ZR terminal in the aquastat? If it is, you will need to raise the high limit setting.


 
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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Sun. Oct. 22, 2017 9:03 pm

Welcome to the forum Gizmo,
gizmo875 wrote:
Sun. Oct. 22, 2017 3:30 pm
the coal feed is set to the highest mark number 6.
Having the feed rate turned up all the way is probably not right. These things usually run best in the middle settings, 3 or 4, but lets keep it lit first.
I agree with Rob about your HI limit setting. If your aquastat is set up to high limit the timer, you are skipping timer cycles on warm days. This will cause the fire to go out. The very high feed rate setting is not helping either.

-Don

 
gizmo875
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Post by gizmo875 » Mon. Oct. 23, 2017 9:29 am

The timers kicks on regardless of what temperature it is set at. The other day the boiler was at 200 degrees and it still kicked on. If i didnt hook it up that way the fire wouldn't stay lit. We heard they have a small fan that you can put in to keep it lit on warm days that constantly blows. But we don't want to go that route. Thanks

 
Pacowy
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Post by Pacowy » Mon. Oct. 23, 2017 10:02 am

Good thinking to stay away from constant blowers. YF's and Keystokers managed to run without them for decades.

Mike


 
gizmo875
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Post by gizmo875 » Mon. Oct. 23, 2017 8:09 pm

Today we noticed that the coal still wasn't feeding that good. So we took the grates out and noticed that they were really warped and that is probably why it wasn't feeding fast enough. We put the new grates in and set the feed to 4. The timer is now set to 5 pegs every 15 minutes. We will see if it stays lit that way. It usually stays lit overnight when there is a call for heat and then dies during the day when the temperatures are nice outside.

 
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Hambden Bob
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Post by Hambden Bob » Mon. Oct. 23, 2017 8:23 pm

Post by StokerDon - Yellow Flame, A Christmas Stoker Boiler

Enjoy following along on Uncle Don's Yellow Flame Odyssey ! There's atleast 26 pages of Eye Bulging Details and Research to make the Yellow Flame behave and fly right ! Enjoy,Giz !

 
gizmo875
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Post by gizmo875 » Wed. Oct. 25, 2017 8:35 pm

I think we got it. We turned the feed up to 5. The timer has 5 pegs at 1 min and 15 minutes, also 2 pegs at 7 & 22 minutes. It seems to be staying lit during idle. Today was the first full day with those settings. so hopefully it is good now. Thanks

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