Can never start a fire in efm w/o acetylene

 
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mooseman100
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Post by mooseman100 » Sat. Jan. 13, 2018 10:22 pm

I give up. You guys who do this with some wood and paper and charcoal are my heros or possibliy reformed arsonists!! I have tried this several times over the years and just can not succeed. I tried to relight today after a cleaning out of some old very crappy coal from Sherman. But realized y tank was empty too late to get a new bottle today, not until monday. So propane furnance it is until then.
I tuen air down to 4 and take out coal 3-4" down from the top. And create a little bowl so to speak. Today i tried the little waxy fire starting sticks for starting campfires. I had nice little fire going, throwing about 6-8" of flame. I slowly added on handful of coal and then two, and it just snuffs fire out. Same experience i have had over a dozen times. Safe to say the fire investigation team will not be looking at me th enext time a building burns down suspiciously! :mrgreen: LOL


 
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Post by CapeCoaler » Sat. Jan. 13, 2018 11:26 pm

real lump charcoal...
nice hot starter fire...

 
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nepacoal
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Post by nepacoal » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 5:46 am

+1 on the hardwood lump charcoal. Burns way hotter than regular charcoal and easily lights the coal in just a few minutes.

 
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StanT
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Post by StanT » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 6:05 am

Try wood pellets, Works great for me, Buy the hardwood ones.
Good luck, Stant

 
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Post by cabinover » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 7:15 am

I've used wood pellets sauted in some ATF to start my AA before, works pretty well with just a propane torch.

 
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Post by CoalJockey » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 7:37 am

Moose, you may need to vary that air setting around a little bit as you start your fire, remember you have very little draft at this time. When I light up, I go for broke, typically laying as much charcoal and wood chips as the 520 pot will possibly hold... if it is not rolling off the pot, it is not enough. You need this burning mass to get enough warm air on the move to establish your draft.

Move the air setting around so it is “feeding” the fire and not trying to blow it out and add your coal a little bit at a time, as you stated.

If you really want to see something, sometime I would like to make a video on how I light off the 1300 for the season. :D

 
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 7:49 am

You might be starting with too much coal in the pot. I leave the pot empty down to the first set of airholes in the grates, and fill the pot with charcoal or wood chips. I hit the wood with a torch and get it going, then turn the stoker on. Once the wood is burning bright I add a few handfuls of coal. Once that is burning good, I fill the pot the rest of the way with coal and turn disengage the feed until the coal the pot is burning bright, which usually takes about 10 minutes.

I plan to use wood pellets the next time I need to start the fire, but have not had a chance to try it yet.


 
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Post by CoalJockey » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 8:42 am

Also, as an afterthought:

No matter what your method is, just please be careful. One of my coal customers here owns an EFM and was lighting up last fall... a chore he is a seasoned veteran at. The details of what exactly happened aren’t really well known, but somehow as he was establishing the fire, a terrible backdraft occurred. The fire flashed out the door at him and he laid for several days at the Pittsburgh burn center recovering from 3rd degree burns. He is doing well now and is back to work.

Not to scare anyone... my point of this is just a reminder to be safe.

 
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 9:28 am

Sounds like he was using lighter fluid or gasoline.

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 11:08 am

CoalJockey wrote:
Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 8:42 am
Also, as an afterthought:

No matter what your method is, just please be careful. One of my coal customers here owns an EFM and was lighting up last fall... a chore he is a seasoned veteran at. The details of what exactly happened aren’t really well known, but somehow as he was establishing the fire, a terrible backdraft occurred. The fire flashed out the door at him and he laid for several days at the Pittsburgh burn center recovering from 3rd degree burns. He is doing well now and is back to work.

Not to scare anyone... my point of this is just a reminder to be safe.

Oh my! That sounds worse than a eshland puff back!!!! Lol

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Post by StokerDon » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 11:29 am

Here is one way to get the job done on an EFM.


Important points to remember;

1) Remove all coal and ash down to the bottom of the air holes, just above the auger.

2) Put in charcoal or fast burning wood cut down small, about half way up the pot and lite it. leave the fire door open so it can get some air.

3) After the wood or charcoal is good and lit, usually about 5 minutes, turn the stoker on. Set the air to 1.

4) Fill the pot the rest of the way with coal. Don't be shy, make sure you totally cover all the air holes and the burning charcoal or wood. Set the air to 6. This will put the flames out but you should hear the coal crackling. If you hear the crackling, you are good to go, shut the fire door.

5) Five minutes later you should see fire poking through the top of the coal. At this point, set the feed and air to normal settings, you are finished.

Good luck!

-Don

 
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Post by mooseman100 » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 11:52 am

Well i keep getting an error on attaching photo, but suffice it to say, we have success. I did as you guys said, and 15 minutes later big teeth and big air rebuilding water temps. I believe I just never went big enough before and did not go down into pot far enough. Still more work than the acetylene which has flames going in about 3 minutes! But good to have a back up for times like now and mostly to not let this thing kick my butt!! Again this forum is great. Rob, Stoker don, you guys have bailed me out multiple times, one day i might even be able to be able to offer help.

This new stoker that scottscoaled installed this spring rocks. Way easier than set up i had before. Now i Know why you rave about the 520. My unburnt coal is a fraction of what it was before. I am using less coal, maybe 10-15%. I don't have to worry about outfires any more
This outfire was pseudo planned. A couple years back i got rice from sherman, the closest to me. Had done it a couple times prior. This 15 tons was so full of dust, it was horrible. My neighbor burns a Harman and he had to empty his fines pan twice a day. I let my bin go down to almost empty, which is where a lot of the dust had accumulated. So while I was filling yesterday i raked the last bit into the worm pick up area. I checked fire about 20 minutes later and it was a pile of coal dust with a little fire on the edges. So i just opened up the teeth all the way and let it pull all that crap thru. Now i am back into good coal and finally rid of that junk. Needless to say, i moved on from Sherman and now use Direnzo, much better coal.

 
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Post by StokerDon » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 12:27 pm

Just for future reference, If you end up with a patch of coal that has a lot of fines in it, the S-15 or S-20 stoker can burn it. It will be a ruff go, but turn the air up to 7 or 8 and it will burn through.

-Don

 
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 12:28 pm

Well, I am glad you did not give up after all of the problems you had to deal with the last few years. These machines run very well when setup correctly.

 
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Post by CoalJockey » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 4:43 am

hotblast1357 wrote:
Sun. Jan. 14, 2018 11:08 am
Oh my! That sounds worse than a eshland puff back!!!! Lol
I KNEW that was coming at some point in time... no one was about to let that pass. I was actually quite surprised retaliation did not come sooner... those Eshland/AA crowd must be a religion of peace. :lol:

Buuuuuuttttt just to be fair, that was the first and ONLY time I had ever heard such a thing with an EFM. :roll:


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