Coal dust in basement
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Hey guys, been running the AA-130 in the basement for about 6 or 7 years now . Fine black dust all over. I have been spraying down each shovel of coal for about 3 years of it , but I think most comes from under the clean out doors while running? My wife has said I need to wall it all off , but just wondering what others have done . It’s a big basement and it’s got most of it with the dust on surfaces.
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I have eliminated almost all of the dust. Its possibly coming from the stove pipe joints or the seal around the fan plate. This has eliminated the problem. I used the aluminum adhesive tape on each joint. The pipe going into the chimney has to be sealed with furnace cement. Not much dust on surfaces and the dust from shaking down is almost eliminated from the suction from the fan.
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I was encouraged to wall mine off this year. So I did and no regrets. I’m actually very happy I did.
I added the wall and a dust filter designed for wood working shops. Here is my new new process.
- go in boiler room, close door behind me.
- turn on dust filter, 2 hour setting
- wet fresh coal with hose.
- change ash pan carefully.
- refill hopper with damp coal.
-Rinse floor with hose back to coal bin
- finally leave boiler room door open with wet floor and dragging ash tub on my 2 wheel dolly.
Wet is key, and the filter helps a lot. The rest of the basement is clean and the boiler room is clean. It has improved burning coal for me by a lot.
I was worried the heat would be stuck in the new boiler room and it’s a non issue. Like a bathroom, close the door while you’re doing your business.
I added the wall and a dust filter designed for wood working shops. Here is my new new process.
- go in boiler room, close door behind me.
- turn on dust filter, 2 hour setting
- wet fresh coal with hose.
- change ash pan carefully.
- refill hopper with damp coal.
-Rinse floor with hose back to coal bin
- finally leave boiler room door open with wet floor and dragging ash tub on my 2 wheel dolly.
Wet is key, and the filter helps a lot. The rest of the basement is clean and the boiler room is clean. It has improved burning coal for me by a lot.
I was worried the heat would be stuck in the new boiler room and it’s a non issue. Like a bathroom, close the door while you’re doing your business.
- StokerDon
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Black dust??? That would be coal dust, not fly ash. Do you have the auger feeding out of the bin? If your using some kind of hopper or barrel, that's the problem. Any time you move coal, you get coal dust.
-Don
- McGiever
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6-7 years...might need to look at the "Cone"...working proper that fine coal dust drops out of the cone right into the ash tub.
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Thanks guys. Yes it is black dust. Like one says, tape all the pipe joints . I have most but not all sealed with tape . I have a bin above auger that I fill with a grain shovel. Wet it before I dump into the hopper at auger . I may have to do the walls and filter system.
- coaledsweat
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If it's black it's coming from moving raw coal, not the stovepipe. That would be gray.
- McGiever
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The “cone” working still removes both gray ash as well as black coal dust.
- Lightning
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Coal dust gets inhaled by the fan before settling into the burn pot. This is how raw coal dust gets into the exhaust stream and some of the finest will get into the pipe after getting past the cyclonic separator. I seem to remember finding quite a pile of raw coal dust at the base of my chimney last spring. It was like black talcum powder.
- swyman
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Makes perfect sense, never thought about it. I get a lot of that raw dust in my cyclone separator but it doesn't deposit all of it on the ash sled, somehow it spills over and onto the floor and I get a little pile that builds up outside the ash pan door on that side.
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i just deal with the coal dust. it's better to me than the wet dirty moldy basement that i found 4 years ago when i moved home. my furnace filter keeps it from the upstairs, i change that every month. soon time to vacuum the basement and sweep the cobwebs.
now how to prevent cobwebs?
now how to prevent cobwebs?