Coalpail.com Forum

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 17, 2018 12:26 pm

The best and only way to know, is to measure what you put in the hopper.

Absolutely!

I will be up creek next year with my auger installed.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 17, 2018 1:20 pm

I will be up creek next year with my auger installed.

You should have a pretty decent grasp of your systems needs by now.

lsayre wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 17, 2018 2:47 pm

You should have a pretty decent grasp of your systems needs by now.

Oh I do, but I just like to know all the time lol

I will do a feed run anyways to see what it moves per minute/hour.

Well, so much for being amazed. I was up late last night and as I was turning the lights out to go to bed, I heard the Axeman running. It seemed odd so I went out to have a look.

The fire was out and it had been running for two and a half hours! I shut it off and went to bed.

This morning I stuck 4 pieces of charcoal in and torched'em up. Put the ashing block in. 30 minutes later.... The charcoal was just about burnt up and no coal fire. WHAT!?!?!

Maybe I didn't use enough charcoal. So I put about 10 pieces in. 30 minutes later... Still no coal fire.

I decided to have a look at the swirl tube, stove pipe and chimney. Got a good bit of ash out of the 5" stove pipe section. Pope's Hat. Noth'in down in there. Pulled the clean out off the chimney. Noth'in up there. .
I decided to pull the belt off of the auger, hand crank all the coal off of the grate and install a new ash bed. An hour later... All is well now!

My guess is the out-fire was caused by the stove pipe being partly blocked. The trouble getting it lit was probably a combination of the blockage and no ash on the grate.

-Don

I've had loads of trouble lighting my AHS Coal Gun with charcoal briquettes, and particularly more so with Royal Oak brand. No such trouble when I use natural wood charcoal.

What brand of anthracite gave you the outfire?

Wow that’s strange indeed!

It was 92 here yesterday, I had 0 draft, and no problem, it only went to 65 last night, and is suppose to be north of 90 again today.

I just noticed that you only used 4 pieces of charcoal to light the AA. AHS instructed me to jam 10-12 chunks in when starting the Coal Gun.

Edit: Oops, I just noticed where you followed up with 10. Best advice is to try 10 - 12 roughly briquette sized chunks of natural lump charcoal.

lsayre wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 17, 2018 8:30 pm

What brand of anthracite gave you the outfire?

The same Blaschak Pea that I have had all along. This is the bottom of the bin variety though.

This morning it was still looking fine. When I got home from work 12 hours later, it was out again. It is struggling to re-lite now. I have not had any trouble re-liting until now.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Mon. Jun. 18, 2018 6:43 pm

The same Blaschak Pea that I have had all along. This is the bottom of the bin variety though.

This morning it was still looking fine. When I got home from work 12 hours later, it was out again. It is struggling to re-lite now. I have not had any trouble re-liting until now.

-Don

You are burning my favorite summer coal. Do you have any measurable draft?

I don’t think you are establishing a full enough fire now.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Mon. Jun. 18, 2018 6:56 pm

I don’t think you are establishing a full enough fire now.

Before he can run DHW and establish a full fire, he first needs to establish a fire. He says he's having difficulty doing this. I suggest lump coal for this. Summer fires require extraneous measures.

Don, when you had it apart, did you pull the Popes Hat and brush out the channel that runs from behind the hat down into the swirl chamber?

lsayre wrote: ↑

Mon. Jun. 18, 2018 6:55 pm

Do you have any measurable draft?

No, The draft stays at zero at idle, when it's lit. On a DHW call it gets to -.01 to -.02.

lsayre wrote: ↑

Mon. Jun. 18, 2018 6:59 pm

Don, when you had it apart, did you pull the Popes Hat and brush out the channel that runs from behind the hat down into the swirl chamber?

No , I didn't pull the Pope's Hat. I didn't see anything down in the chamber so I moved on. I guess if something gets between the Pope's Hat and the chamber inlet, that would cause problems.

The fire is recovering well now. One thing I noticed is opening the ash door sped things up a bit.

-Don

It's back up and running now. .
I also wired the timer in just to see if that helps. It's set for 1 minute, 15 seconds every hour. I dropped the ashing temperature from 120 to 115.

-Don

I also wired the timer in just to see if that helps. It's set for 1 minute, 15 seconds every hour.

That seems like a good start. Axeman sends them out with a timer for a reason.