Axeman Anderson 1959 130M

So far, so good.

It ran for a little less than 12 hours. 3" to 8.5" on the Dip-Stick, just about perfect. I backed the ashing down a little, somewhere between 2.6 and 2.9 teeth.

I had to switch back to the original fire door. There isn't much "Pull" from the fan at these speeds so the fire door doesn't want to shut.

-Don

We made it through this cold stretch on the "Even Lower and Slower" settings. Response time was a bit sluggish and the fire door was barely closing so this evening we changed the fan motor pulley from 2.5" to 3". This gives us a fan speed of 1478.57 RPM. When the stack is at 320 degrees the over fire draft is now -.195. The Dip-Stick is showing 0" to 8.5" after a long run with the new fan settings. I dialed the feed rate back to about 2.3 teeth. 4425.8 on the clock, 45.4 hours over the past 4 days. 34.5 pounds of ash over the past 4 days. The auger motor ran for 45.4 hours X 5 pounds per hour, over 4 days, 227.0 pounds, 11.35 hours per day, 56.75 pounds per day.

34.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 191.66 pounds, 47.915 pounds per day.

227.0 vs. 191.66 is way off. Looks like we have backed the feed down to 4.2 pounds per hour. Our new setting should put us at about 4.5 pounds per hour. This combined with the higher fan speed should increase response time and lower run time per day.

Current settings, changed>.

Anthrastat = 135
>Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
>Ashing = 2.3 Teeth
Auger speed = 1.725 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
>4.761 grate cycles per hour, about 4.5 pounds per hour
Aquastat = 170

-Don

Well, we made it 7 days on 1 ash pan due to some very warm weather. We had a strange out-fire yesterday. I noticed it had been running for a while, I took a look at the stack temp, it was about 100 degrees. The boiler only went down to 140 so it wasn't out for long at all.

I re-lit it and all is well now. I'm thinking the fire thinned out due to the warm weather, it was 75 yesterday. We upped the ashing to 2.8 teeth to help lower the fire. We may need to run the timer with these skimpy settings in warm weather.

4475.7 on the meter, 49.9 hours over 7 days. Today I moved the bin divider on the right side over to the left about 2 feet. This will make feeding the auger a little easier as the coal supply goes down. 32 pounds of ash. The auger motor ran for 49.9 hours X 4.5 pounds per hour, over 7 days, 224.55 pounds, 7.13 hours per day, 32.085 pounds per day.

32 pounds of ash at 18% is 177.777 pounds, 25.397 pounds per day.

224.55 vs. 177.777 is still way off. Looks like we have run into the problem of inconsistent stoker ash in warm weather running.

1.725 auger RPM = 2.07 grate cycles per hour per tooth. Times 2.8 teeth = 5.796 grate cycles per hour.

Current settings, changed>.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
>Ashing = 2.8 Teeth
Auger speed = 1.725 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
>5.796 grate cycles per hour, about 4.5 pounds per hour
Aquastat = 170

-Don

We went 6 days on the ash pan this time. It's been a bit colder this week than last week. It is looking like we go 45 to 49 hours on an ash pan with these settings. 4520.7 hours on the meter, 45.0 hours over the past 6 days. 45.5 pounds of ash. Gofer action. The auger motor ran for 45.0 hours X 4.5 pounds per hour, over 6 days, 202.5 pounds, 7.5 hours per day, 33.75 pounds per day.

45.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 252.777 pounds, 42.1295 pounds per day.

202.5 vs. 252.777 is way off. If the feed rate was 5.6 pounds per hour it comes out to 252.0. Last week we were way off in the other direction. This is going to require some think'in!

Current settings, no changes, well,, we made a slight feed rate increase to 3 teeth.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
>Ashing = 3 Teeth
Auger speed = 1.725 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
>6.21 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour
Aquastat = 170

-Don

Another 6 days in the book. It's getting warmer so tending times will be going seven days and beyond soon! 42.0 hours of auger run time over the past 6 days. 36.5 pounds of ash. The auger motor ran for 42.0 hours X 5 pounds per hour, over 6 days, 210 pounds, 7.0 hours per day, 35.0 pounds per day.

36.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 202.777 pounds, 33.796 pounds per day.

210.0 vs. 202.777 is pretty close this time.

Current settings, no changes.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3 Teeth
Auger speed = 1.725 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
6.21 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour
Aquastat = 170

-Don

Impressive. I have to swap the ash tub on Wednesday to get through the week....then again there are still guys ice fishing right down the road.

Over the past 8 days I've averaged 42.25 lbs. burned per day.

Don's regional HDD's (historical) = ~ 5,200
My regional HDD's (historical) = ~ 6,400

5,200/6,400 = 0.8125

42.25 Lbs./Day x 0.8125 = 34.3 Lbs./Day

I've been amazed at how well this simple HDD ratio has worked out every time I've looked at it when comparing my consumption with Don's. Our overall home heat loads must be quite similar.

I’m dumping my ash pan every Sunday. Been averaging 38 pounds per day of coal.

lsayre wrote: ↑

Fri. Mar. 29, 2019 4:57 am

I've been amazed at how well this simple HDD ratio has worked out every time I've looked at it when comparing my consumption with Don's. Our overall home heat loads must be quite similar.

That is pretty amazing Larry! We must be doing something right. I come up with between 33.796 and 35.0 pounds per day and you come up with 34.3 pounds per day for my house. That's right in the middle!

I guess I will have to figure out this HDD thing a little more. It seems to be a great way to figure out if your settings are correct.

-Don

7 days later... The ash is nice and clinkery! 40 pounds worth. 4607.3 on the clock. I removed the "Winter Weight" from the back of my New, old truck. 14 bags of Blaschak black rocks. The auger motor ran for 44.6 hours X 5 pounds per hour, over 7 days, 223 pounds, 6.371 hours per day, 31.857 pounds per day.

40.0 pounds of ash at 18% is 222.222 pounds, 31.746 pounds per day.

223.0 vs. 222.222 is WAY close!

Current settings, changed aquastat to Summer setting.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3 Teeth
Auger speed = 1.725 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
6.21 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour
>Aquastat = 155

-Don

A little coal usage analysis;

January total = 1,183.5, 38.2 pounds per day.

February total = 1,015.5, 36.3 pounds per day.

March total = 991.0 pounds, 33.0 pounds per day.

That all sounds very low. I still don't know if I believe it of not!

Warm weather is here, it doesn't run very often. Yesterday I thought it was out. It cam on and the stack temp didn't rise for about 10 minutes. I left it go and eventually it did recover, but it took a long time. I decided to turn the timer back on. I set it for 2.4 minutes every 2 hours. We'll see how that goes.

-Don

That is amazingly stingy coal usage, Don!

It's been pretty warm this week and next week looks like all 60's and 70's. Air conditioning season is close The ash pan went 9 days this time! 4649.2 on the meter. 41.9 hours over 9 days. You can tell it is idling a lot by looking at the rocky ash. 37.5 pounds. I emptied the last of the bags into the Gofer hole. The timer is still in play, 2.4 minutes every 2 hours. .
The auger motor ran for 41.9 hours X 5 pounds per hour, over 9 days, 209.5 pounds, 4.655 hours per day, 23.278 pounds per day.

37.5 pounds of ash at 18% is 208.333 pounds, 23.148 pounds per day.

209.5 vs. 208.333 is STILL WAY close! Hopefully it is right. Right now there is still the occasional heat call. It will be interesting to see how low we can go to heat DHW only.

Current settings, no changes.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3 Teeth
Auger speed = 1.725 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
6.21 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour
Aquastat = 155

-Don

OUTFIRE!!!

Well, so much for problem free running. Not sure what happened. The ash was a few inches from the feed tube so the fire was too thin. I have not been checking the fire depth with the Dip-Stick lately, we are going to start doing that now. These things don't need draft to hold a fire so that wasn't the problem.

It was running and I saw the stack temp down at 110, that's way too low. I left it run for a while but it didn't recover. I put some charcoal in it and torched it up. Once the coal lit, I ashed it down to get the fire down low in the chamber so it would spread better. While I was doing all this I had the auger turned OFF. I ran the feed pipe out of coal with all this ashing. I manually filled the feed tube and the transfer head. It was taking a long time for the fire to get going so I sped the fan up by putting the 2" pulley on it. After about 30 minutes or so the fire was looking very lively. the stack went up to 370. Then we switched back to the 3.5" fan pulley. We will probably Dip-Stick it tomorrow to see where the fire is.

-Don

ANOTHER OUTFIRE!!! Unfortunately I never did get a chance to check the fire depth with the Dip-Stick this week. I put some Cowboy Charcoal in it and torched it up again. Good thing it's Spring time, I need to buy some more Charcoal. I replaced the 1.5" auger motor pulley with a 2" one to bump the ashing up a bit. To get the fire going I replace the 3" fan motor pulley with a 5" one. This got things moving along nicely. I also set the timer for 2 minutes every hour and bumped the aquastat up to 160* from 155*. After the fire got going good I switched the fan motor pulley back to 3".

Current settings, changed >.

Anthrastat = 135
Fan RPM = 1478.57 (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 3 Teeth
>Auger speed = 2.3 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
>8.01 grate cycles per hour, about 5 pounds per hour?
>Aquastat = 160

-Don