efm 520 fire out of contol?

mof1964 · Post by **mof1964** » Mon. Feb. 25, 2019 9:04 pm

Good evening all. Went down to change the ash tub, pull the handle and fill the barrel tonight. Glad I did. I opened the door to look in at the pot and the fire was halfway up the door!!! I pulled the ash tub back out.
A hot bed of coals were just all over the place. I should have taken a pic but it scared me honestly so i grabbed my shovel and a crow bar and knocked the firey coal bed back down to the pot and shut everything down.
the ash tub door was hot as hell cause i just knocked red hot coals- alot of them - into the bottom area. I scrapped the pot even to the top of the grates and there was still a blazing fire in there.
It seemed like the coal and ash was just clumped together?

what might have caused this?

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Mon. Feb. 25, 2019 10:52 pm

Coal burning excessively hot and above the ash fusion temperature.

too much draft, or too much combustion air

barometric damper controls draft air, blower setting controls combustion air

Been pretty high winds as of lately...barometric damper needs to be setup with a good manometer gauge.

Post by **Rob R.** » Tue. Feb. 26, 2019 5:34 am

Either you got some coal that doesn't burn like anyone would expect, or you have something out of whack with the feed/air settings. It is also possible that you have a damage grate in the pot, and that is creating a hot spot.

mof1964 · Post by **mof1964** » Tue. Feb. 26, 2019 12:42 pm

I have a draft control on the unit. RC type I believe. I don't have the dwyer hooked up as i'm moving things around in the basement. It has been extremely windy here. Blowing steady at 35mph and gusts up as high as 50mph.
this all transpired in short time. The unit was fine Saturday when checking on it.

I will clean the pot out today and take a look at the grates. I put all new ones and rope gasket in when I got it. My feed is 4 teeth 4 air.
I will light it up again tonight when I get home from work. And see if I can tell what might be going on.

anthony7812 · Post by **anthony7812** » Tue. Feb. 26, 2019 2:35 pm

The massive wind nightmare we had yesterday really made the Van's fire bed mound up i noticed as well. Poked and cleaned last night, and mine was still back to normal this morning. Now that the 50 MPH sustained winds are gone, make only a small adjustment and give it a day. Then re-check and adjust if needed a bit more. If its still wonkers, could be bigger issue.

mof1964 · Post by **mof1964** » Sat. Mar. 02, 2019 9:39 pm

The efm seems to be running ok since the re-lighting. Hard to believe that the wind could play that big a role in the fire and ash buildup. After looking at the ash, it has a tendency to be clumped as it's coming over the outer fire ring. Could that be playing a role?
I have the feed now at 4 feed and 3.5 air. Have been burning kimmels bagged rice.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sun. Mar. 03, 2019 12:13 am

Kimmel's red ash as all red ash, has more tendency to fuse or clump...less of a issue with white ash coal source.

Pacowy · Post by **Pacowy** » Sun. Mar. 03, 2019 9:55 am

How wide is your ash ring after the unit has run continuously for 45 min or so?

Mike

cArNaGe · Post by **cArNaGe** » Sun. Mar. 03, 2019 11:12 am

Did you go to long before emptying the ashes? I've done it before.

Scottscoaled · Post by **Scottscoaled** » Sun. Mar. 03, 2019 3:40 pm

cArNaGe wrote: ↑
Sun. Mar. 03, 2019 11:12 am
Did you go to long before emptying the ashes? I've done it before.

X2