Another ahs 130- finally piping

This was a short heat call, but after about 5 mins or so of fan being on.
It did ash about 2 full revolutions.
This is a few mins after fan off, it did add some new coal.

Looks like a good fire.

Nice! Glad to see you got it fired up!

If you started your fire with no ash bed you might not want it to ash for the first 2 to 6-ish hours of fan run time. This will allow time to burn the coal on the bottom.

Your baro probably blew off in a puff back. Puff backs happen when the fire is burning very hot, fresh coal is dumped on top due to ashing, and the fan shuts off at the end of the heat call.

-Don

I think it’s due to the fire being to low, and the fan coming on and a puff back happening cuz there’s no open orange glow or flame. Which is why the fix is it to lower ashing temp brining the fire up higher.

I was sorta thinking maybe its low but were also only 1 day into this so not fully settled, as i dont have a huge heat demand being as its only in 30s.
But at 130 for ash temp seems thats about as low as your supposed to go.

For last couple months waking up and worrying about loading fireplace and it only being 60s, 50 at the far end of house, or setting alarm in middle of night when its 10 degrees out to put wood in.

Waking up this morning whole house 72, nice even heat and nobody freezing is really something!!
Its taken along time to get here but i definitely could not have done it without you guys and this forum.
Thanks a million
And happy new year.

Happy New Year to you too!!!

You did very well. Most people don't make the full conversion from wood stove to coal stoker boiler all at once. They don't believe how easy it is. You jumped right in the deep end and now you are reaping all it's benefits.

Good Job!!!

-Don

I run my ashing at 115.

Im trying to rig up my auger to fill the hopper.
I have a 1 hp motor that spins 1725 with the pulleys to auger i think it goes down to like 2-400rpm, i dont recall exactly. Well that spins to fast and couldnt move the coal. I was gonna rig up a jack shaft and bearings but thats gonna take up a lot of space. So then ive veen looking for a gear reduction speed reducer but havent found a cheap enough one yet.
Its a 4" x 10 ft auger just filling the hopper so not real steep angle.
Would say a 1/3 or 1/4 hp gear motor at like 30-60 rpm be strong enough to move the coal?
Seams i can find some those motors cheap enough.
Just out of curiousity i asked ahs for a price..there setup with 6"×12ft auger is $2400!!

Back when I was feeding a hopper, and got sick of it, I solved the problem this way.

Westfield Grain Auger

I used a 1/6th HP motor with a 1725:1 speed reducing gearbox. I had these laying around so that is what I used. I connected them to a Westfield Grain auger.

It worked but the auger and pipe were not stainless so they don't last very long when used for coal.

-Don

Got a bit of a ghetto auger setup, just tried it and it works ok. Seems breaks coal a bit.
Its 4"x10ft. My motor spins at 13rpm so a bit slow but once auger was full it wasnt too bad.
Def seems like a 6"auger that actually had bearings spinning at maybe 30rpm would be the ideal setup.
I wouldnt mind loading the hopper via 5gallon pail but its kinda odd height with my lower ceilings.

Nice Gehtto job!

Your is a bit neater than mine. Mine runs about 15 RPM and it's smaller than you're auger, only 2.5". I just leave it run for an hour.


-Don