I just finished the mid season stove pipe and chimney clean. There was a substantial amount of powder in the pipe and chimney base. In the pic below, the powder that only came out of the 6 ft horizontal section of pipe is about 3 inches deep in the ash tub. Then in the chimney flue it was accumulating at the base. I call it powder because to me it looks like jet black talcum powder. I believe it is unburned coal dust that gets inhaled by the combustion fan. It doesn't resemble the gray fly ash from my hand fired days.
The opening for exhaust got squeezed down to about 2 x 6 inches wide. I was starting to notice it on the draft gauge. Just another reason I advocate using a manometer. Not only can it help diagnose issues, it can give other very important information.
The whole process took about 15 minutes. The Axeman didn't get shut down for this but I did turn the main thermostat off so it wouldn't be trying to fire for a little while. A better solution would be to just cut power to it while the pipe is off. I simply got everything prepared in advance so I could pull the pipe off, do my cleaning, and get it back in place as quickly as possible. I set a piece of fiberglass insulation over the breech once the pipe was off to slow down exhaust into the room. I used a shop vac with a dust bag installed to vacuum the chimney base clean. Below are some before and after pictures.
I estimate that I've burned around 3 and a half tons so far this season. I also inspected the separator and the cone. Everything looks good
You guys with hand fired equipment should also do at least a mid season check. When I ran the Clayton hand fed furnace, I would also get fly ash accumulation that effected draft.
Mid Season Pipe and Chimney Clean 2023
- Lightning
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It's a temp probe, yes.. it is at the top of the Pope's hat. The pic is looking down thru the top. If you expand the last picture you can notice the hole in the cone leading to the grate. I know it's difficult to understand the orientation of the pictures sometimes when there isn't anything to reference to and shadows are confusing lol
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How can there be unburned coal dust in the chimney? Would it be blown off the incoming coal?
- nepacoal
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Sucked off the incoming coal... Blown is just an expression.waytomany?s wrote: ↑Tue. Feb. 07, 2023 3:56 pmHow can there be unburned coal dust in the chimney? Would it be blown off the incoming coal?
Those Willy Wonka looking contraptions are pretty violent inside when that fan kicks on...
- Lightning
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- Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite
Yeah man, violent is a good word for it. The combustion fan propeller is around 8-9 inches wide and spins at 2000+ RPM. It creates a pressure drop of more than a full inch of water column in the fire chamber. The fan is downstream of the fire. There is an opening at the top of the fire chamber where exhaust is pulled thru. It will pull dust, powder and granules up to the size of a grain of table salt off the incoming coal before it can reach the fire lol. The separator does a great job of dropping the bigger particles out of the exhaust stream but the finest of the powder does float up into the stove pipe and chimney.waytomany?s wrote: ↑Tue. Feb. 07, 2023 3:56 pmHow can there be unburned coal dust in the chimney? Would it be blown off the incoming coal?
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That's wild. I just thought all that dust fell in the grates, I never understood the suction factor.