Puff backs in coal gun

Yes, it is always possible to wind up with one of the defectively made boilers that has not undergone the modification that fixes its puff issues I guess. Darren Bricker will be able to identify your boiler and see if this very unlikely possibility is the case. He should also be able to offer you advice that will alleviate the puffs.

I will try lowering grate temp. And hysteresis temp. As was suggested. As far as AHS. I had the 130 for 7 years . Talked to Darrin after install he sent a gentleman named Shawn my way never really gave me a good answer and no resolve. If i listed everything that was wrong with this unit when i bought it new i would be here all day. The one that really gets me is bearing kept going out in blower motor darrin tells me it's getting to hot. change the bearing twice in the first heating season then tells me they sale a belt drive kit for 1800 dollars. that would be nice to know when you buy the furnace. The finally gave me a new fan for free when i took the whole piece with me to get another years supply of bearings and they looked and replied the fan was never balanced .

Ok guys thanks for the help. Another question how high should the orange burning coal be in my firebox? it is now about 3/4 of the way up the opening about 2" below the inlet pipe from my hopper. Is that ok ? Thats after the blower ran . The thin flat washer still on the bottom of the flap and sight hole is open. No puff backs since adding washer ,sight hole was already open. Furnace needs to run along time to catch up from domestic hot water use. Not going to take washer out and adjust grate until i'am here all weekend to watch it. Unless you think the fire box is burning to high ?

I almost never see the fire in mine, but then again, I almost never look. But when I do, I don't see much if any fire. I go months to entire seasons without ever even taking the tombstone cover off, let alone touching the flapper.

It’s good to see glow around the pot when near the end of boiler running. The biggest issue with a high fire is it getting up into the feed tube and hopper, if it’s not near it, no worries.

Its getting closer. Will lowering the ash temp lower the fire in the box or raise it ? Or will raising the ash temp lower the fire in the box ?

Raising ash temp lowers fire height.

But u should prob just let it run for a day or two and see how it does..

Youmean leave as is for a few days? Will it climb into my hopper?

Yes leave it run for a few days, check in on it every 6-12 hours.

Does yours have the hopper temperature sensor?

This is what it looks like after blower shut down for 45 minutes

Looks good.

Yes there is a temp. Sensor on the hopper. Guess i'am just worried about adjusting and leaving for work for 12 hrs. I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks you guys are wealth of knowledge on these boilers. And the wife is at eas and nobody can complain about that!

Limit the height of the fire to the first inch or two to the base of the cone of fresh coal and you'll be fine.

I would never run my Coal Gun for one to several days (or even overnight) without turning on the ash switch. I do not recommend ever attempting this extremely dangerous stunt. I'm Leary of leaving mine alone without the ashing switch in the on position for more than 4-6 hours max, and I only do this when starting a new fire based on fresh coal with zero ashes added before adding the fresh coal. Otherwise my ashing switch is always in the "on" position. I won't even turn it off to change out and/or empty ash pans. I did so once and forgot to turn it back on. Fortunately I noticed my mistake before more than a couple hours had gone by.

If I make changes to settings, I let them do their own thing and I wait for a few days to assess the result of the change.

It makes no sense to change settings and then totally corrupt the effect of the change by shutting off the ashing switch. For that case how can you assess anything? Did the setting change or the non-ashing induce the resulting difference?

When starting a new fire the boiler including the ash sled is cold. After a start-up from a cold boiler I turn my ashing switch on as soon as the temperature of the ash sled region (as seen on the PID) rises at least a few degrees above the ashing initiation set-point temperature. This event generally occurs within a few hours of achieving a nice fire. Turning on the ash switch and having the boiler ash are two separate things. It will only ash when it is ready to ash. That may be several additional hours (or more) beyond when the switch is turned on.

I seem to be having some of the least problems with my boiler (of the AA/AHS configuration) of all of us, so in my (obviously biased) opinion my methods must not be horribly far off from ideal. And I certainly pay far less attention to my fire than any of us, since I almost never look at it or touch the flapper, and I hardly ever remove the tombstone cover. And my methods are based on safety first.

Larry Larry Larry... who is saying to leave the ash sled off???? Lmao

My point to him was don’t touch the dang boiler for a day or two!

Gotta let these things run for 24-48 hours to see any difference.