Inconsistent Boiler Temperatures in Tasso Boiler

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coaltrain
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Post by coaltrain » Thu. Mar. 12, 2009 9:47 pm

so now at a few weeks or a couple months of burning coal in my tasso boiler its interesting because its had very good days luckily during the cold snaps,but it has been not going well all the time it has a samson draft control and tripple flu pass boiler design for optimum efficiency keeping all the heat for the water right.but my fire gets weak and coal ash or dust gets on top of the coal bed at times and so shaking doesnt remove it and it stops o2 from undernieth through the grate system to light up thge new coal or lets say go into high fire after my hydro air has depleated water temp from 190/210 down to 145 .so in testing all this stuff since iv installed it in december 08 im feeling draft is a part of the problem mine goes from say -02 at a call for water temp of 140 to 170 to then -05 at 195/210 and the draft door is going to close at this point so draft is good when everything is hot hot but so weak in the average I think it makes it harder to recover to high temp? anyone have some ideas? my boiler has 4 grates and 4 vertical flu passages then final pass up over the top and out the pipe.7 inch flu.thankyou for any help. :?:

anyony have experience with coal cast iron boiler? hard to keep temp at 170 to 200

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Thu. Mar. 12, 2009 10:37 pm

Do you need it that high? Unless you have some strange issues with your system, water at 140*-160* will heat a house well at this time of year. If you need that much, check to make sure your boiler and stovepipe is clean. The small fan blades on the blower sometimes need cleaning too as they can cup dirt and hair. Do you have a barometric damper and is it set properly? Are your grates clean and free of chunks of coal and clinkers blocking off some air passages? Do you get glowing coals when you shake it down? Is it filled all the way up with coal?

Some details would help. Make, model etc.

 
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rockwood
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Post by rockwood » Sun. Mar. 15, 2009 5:41 pm

Could you describe your chimney, size, length etc. Seems you have to run the boiler hot to maintain adequate draft.
How often do load the boiler with coal?


 
coaltrain
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Post by coaltrain » Sun. Mar. 15, 2009 6:57 pm

on the lines of the same subject I was wondering if the only difference was that now its not as cold at all so its more barometric pressure =less drafting and was wondering when using coal some overfire draft help and or getting the chimney up 4 more ft. cause thats when things went less than perfect for me. but just would like to hear from a seasoned coal man.thanks.

 
coaltrain
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Post by coaltrain » Tue. Mar. 17, 2009 9:39 pm

well my chimney is metalbestos 8 inch ,when it was running well I would shake and load twice once at 7 am and again at 7 pm ish give or take but not full loads probably 1/3rd to maybe a 1/2 bag at the most but would brush so2 the white build up,and brush down the vertical flu ways then shake till gets dull glow in clean out pit,then load up to manufactures recommendations sloping toward the back and sides keeping the grates covered and not plugging the side flu's. but the biggist thing I did wrong is the chimney is outside I installed it and hole sawed through my basement to access it so whithout thinking i'v made tecnically 4 turns from the back of the boiler because of mechanical boiler piping needs.i can fix somewhat to get it down to 2/3 bends but if thats my problem would adding hight to the chimney compensate? im about 14 ft high now in a ranch home so im above the drip edge 2.5 ft. what do you think?

 
coaltrain
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Post by coaltrain » Tue. Mar. 17, 2009 9:58 pm

frist thanks for the help its a tasso u-5 danish coal/wood hand fired 139,000 BTU boiler., my other reply explains the chimney ,but the water temp needs to be that hot because I installed this to a hydro air handler to heat my 1400 sq.ft. ranch because the origanal heat was warm air oil furnace.so I put in centrial a/c and then piped in a manifold headder and got the coal boiler but there is quite a temp drop when the cold return water runs through the coil of the hydro air,called a delt t factor in the hvac world and I cant change it iv slowed the fan down and everything but it takes about I don't know for sure but 1 hr to recover the heat from 145 to 190ish but the insall book from tasso says to set the sampson to 1/2 inch open draft door when you get to 200 degrees,so I assume there trying to keep the boiler at that target rate of temp cause if you have time to watch for about 4 hours you can catch the sampson control open the door up as water temp drops and close when it hits 200 aera,very cool to see it operate, and I have a dump zone set for on at power loss safety or 215 degrees w/ a circulator and it works well but im very green to the coal but I like it, I went to the lump antracite coal sunday the 15th, it burned well but didnt make it from my monday am load to pm was unburnt again? really trying but will be waiting to light it up again friday night only if adding more pipe will help pull,but not ready to replum boiler manifold to get pipe down to 2/3 bends in chimney.i need to add some pic's to show my system. happy sy.patty's
Last edited by coaltrain on Tue. Mar. 17, 2009 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.


 
coaltrain
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Post by coaltrain » Tue. Mar. 17, 2009 10:09 pm

oh just trying to answer the questions you had ,no barometric damper I need all the draft possiable no need to slow down to control it yet at this point unless things turn for the better.and itsa boiler so no fan to get dirty ,i check my pipe 2 times a week no heavy nothing but some dust in a round pipe,will check the outside portion next,the grates are hard to say as they seem to shake out well then you get some embers as you shake it still dush falling and some unburned small and big pieces on the outside edges of the grates,and the back unburned so really I could use 160 degree water if I could just keep it there steady .so im sure its draft one way or another is it the 4 bends in my pipe to chimney or also the way I maintain it I try to leave it alone at least 8 hours in between.but I have been following the instructions on coal firing this system,it just has really fallen apart when we got into the 30 40 degree weather .

 
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Post by LsFarm » Wed. Mar. 18, 2009 11:55 am

Hand fired boilers need good draft. Unless your boiler has a combustion fan that forces comustion air through the fire, you are totally dependant on the draft from the chimney pulling air through the fire to increase the fire's heat output... So when the fire is low, and the heat in the chimney is low, resulting in low draft,, you will have a long recovery time to get the fire to increase and recover your water temp.

I'd add 6' or so to your chimney.. this can only help. The increased draft will shorten the recovery time by increasing the low-fire draft.. But you will want to install a barometric damper if you don't have one installed at this time,, because with the taller chimney, on windy days and with a hot fire, your draft will be too strong,, you want to limit your draft to around .07" or so.

Greg L

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