Suddenly Experiencing Puff-Backs in AHS S130 Coal Gun

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sat. Dec. 15, 2018 12:23 pm

The only potential positive I can think of in this situation is that my flue pipes and chimney (if they survive) may benefit from intermittent blast cleaning.

I believe that a fair number of years ago Jeff Gingrich (the past and once again the present owner of AHS, after having sold it once and then re-purchasing it) once asked Yanchee if he knew that his boiler came with a self cleaning feature. As I recall the story, this came right after they heard a blast and saw an O-ring of smoke exiting the chimney of Yanchee's Coal Gun.

crazy4coal · Post by **crazy4coal** » Sat. Dec. 15, 2018 3:39 pm

Hello all, I have not seen a AHS running but will tell you what a customer told me that had the same trouble. He had cleaned the unit ( brushing, scraping and vacuuming) He had bent the bracket that holds the ashing sensor, Witch caused to much coal to load at a time. It caused some huge booms ( took the chimney cap right off !) He fixed the bracket and all was well. Hope this helps.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Dec. 16, 2018 7:31 pm

Latest update: No puffs for the past ~30 hours.

Post by **StokerDon** » Sun. Dec. 16, 2018 7:35 pm

Does that mean a bit of over fire air helped?

-Don

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Dec. 16, 2018 7:45 pm

StokerDon wrote: ↑
Sun. Dec. 16, 2018 7:35 pm
Does that mean a bit of over fire air helped?

-Don

I'm not yet confident of that. Not enough time has gone by to make a determination.

My wife has super human hearing and claims that she can hear a tiny woosh at the end of each fan cut-off cycle, and she says she can also hear the flapper hitting the tombstone cover in conjunction with each tiny woosh, neither of which I can hear due to combined terrible hearing and a bad case of tinnitus. So my wife just corrected me and said no booms, but the woosh is still there....

My wife also possesses a tremendous super-power which our 3 kids (this being roughly 30 years ago) quantified as "Dirt-Ray Vision".

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Wed. Dec. 19, 2018 7:24 pm

Still no puffs since I opened the over the fire air hole by ~80%. No other changes have been made.

Post by **StokerDon** » Wed. Dec. 19, 2018 7:42 pm

That's good, less puffs the better.

Had your wife hit you with the "Dirt Ray Vision" yet?

-Don

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Wed. Dec. 19, 2018 8:29 pm

StokerDon wrote: ↑
Wed. Dec. 19, 2018 7:42 pm
Had your wife hit you with the "Dirt Ray Vision" yet?

Constantly! I can clean a room or a floor, etc..., only to have her enter and apply her power and instantly discover that I really missed a lot of dirt. This amazing power to expose the futility of mere mortals attempting to clean things really bugged my children while they were growing up, and continues to baffle me to this day. I suspect that other women may also posses this amazing power to see dirt where no one else can see it, but likely none exhibit this power to the degree that my wife does.

Dirt-Ray Vision can even conceive of potential dirt from the as yet unrealized future. It is the main reason why to date the ComfortMax has only ever been fed wood.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Dec. 24, 2018 6:07 am

Still no puff-backs. I'm now fully willing to state that opening the over the fire air inlet solved the brief period of puffs experienced when I transitioned from Blaschak to Lehigh. Lehigh is running fine.

hotblast1357 · Post by **hotblast1357** » Mon. Dec. 24, 2018 7:05 am

great glad to hear!

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Tue. Dec. 25, 2018 10:37 pm

lsayre wrote: ↑
Mon. Dec. 24, 2018 6:07 am
Still no puff-backs. I'm now fully willing to state that opening the over the fire air inlet solved the brief period of puffs experienced when I transitioned from Blaschak to Lehigh. Lehigh is running fine.

Doesn't the manual state this already as just that to be the cure?

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Wed. Dec. 26, 2018 5:59 am

McGiever wrote: ↑
Tue. Dec. 25, 2018 10:37 pm
Doesn't the manual state this already as just that to be the cure?

No, it states for the highly specific case of coal gas ignition at the end of a fan cycle:

Cause: Excess chimney draft resulting in delayed release of the sight tube cover
Cure: Install barometric damper or adjust existing damper to 0.04" water column

It states that if you are getting ignitions during specifically an active fan cycle that the over the fire air port should be opened.

My damper just begins to barely crack open at 0.045" of water column. My flapper doesn't spring open until the fan has wound down for a few seconds after motor cut-off though. This may be what they are calling delayed release.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Thu. Jan. 03, 2019 8:28 am

Bummer, I just had a puff-back this morning, almost immediately following fan cut-off. The first puff that I'm aware of since ~80% opening the over the fire air port. I'm now contemplating opening it 100%. Perhaps I need to adjust (increase) the spring tension on the flapper so it springs open a bit more forcefully and also a bit wider than it is opening at present. I don't think AA's use spring tension, but rather I presume they only use gravity. I could be wrong here. The AHS has a very weak spring on the flapper hinge, and at fan start-up the spring tension as well as gravity must be overcome in order for it to snap shut. But my spring is presently adjusted (tension loosened) such that mainly gravity is opening the flapper.

Freddy, what does your electro-mechanical device on your AA-130 do? Does it force open the flapper a few seconds before fan cut off?

Post by **coaledsweat** » Thu. Jan. 03, 2019 9:30 am

How about a picture of this fire at shutdown?

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Thu. Jan. 03, 2019 9:52 am

coaledsweat wrote: ↑
Thu. Jan. 03, 2019 9:30 am
How about a picture of this fire at shutdown?

Hard to see the fire when there is a full column of fresh hopper coal sitting directly on top of it, but the fire is 1 to 2 layers of coal below the inspection port opening. But then it's been this way for years on end without encountering this problem.