Can't Seem to Get a Good "Shake" on My New Yorker WC 130...

Hi guys... I'm on my third season running my New Yorker WC 130, and I'm pretty much at the end of my rope. I read a similiar thread here, but none of the ideas in that thread worked for me. I just can't get my boiler to consistently shake down properly, and I was hoping someone here had that had the same boiler, or similar had some suggestions. Here's my situation... I'm running stove coal, and after about a week of burning from a "fresh start" my grates start to get jammed up with ash/coal to the point they won't shake at all, then ash builds up in my firebox. Eventually it chokes out my fire, and my only option seems to be let the boiler burn out, clean it out, and start from scratch... I've tried many of the techniques suggested here, shaking just a little, using a poker, shaking a lot, but it all seems to stem from a really poor design in my shaker handle/ grates. As the coal burns down/falls down into the grates, they jam up, and no amount of jiggling/force will get them to shake. Anyone have any ideas/ suggestions? I'm really ready to throw my hands up... Thanks guys...

I'm running a hand fired stove (not boiler) and I found that running the stove hot = less 'clinkers' that can get stuck int he grates. I am yet to need to poke through the grates (knock on wood), maybe try burning a little hotter than you are today??

Then when I do shake I shake a lot and get it so that the ash pan has a glow to it then reload. The front has caused a few problems with it not burning, but I just move the ash around (it builds up in the front and wants to choke it out) and reload and all is good a short time later with fire in the front again.

Again, try burning hotter is my only suggestion after burning 2 tons of coal in my life AKA - newbie.

Good luck.

I don't think you will have a satisfactory coal burner without making modifications to that boiler.

Looking at the PDF manual on their site it appears to be an indifferent wood burner design and a terrible coal design. Perhaps photographs of the inside and grates would be clearer.

Looking at the design it appears that the blower will cause the coal bed to burn unevenly with some parts burned to ash and other parts hardly burned. When you shake, the unburned coal will jam the grate before the ash is cleared from the rest of the grate.

If the boiler were mine this is what I would do:

A proper combustion chamber. Just because it has a place to throw some wood or coal now does not make it a combustion chamber, the purpose of which is to keep as much heat as possible in the burning mass to facilitate complete combustion over the entire mass. I would line the area with fire brick and probably shorten the fire box, maybe remove one grate at the back,seal and replace with brick. I would want at least 12 inch depth. The last thing you need is the wet boiler legs robbing heat from the coal which they do with the coal lying right up against them.

I would probably lose the blower and replace the aquastat with the type that is mechanical and tied to an air shutter to control firing rate. The present blower is only an effort to overcome design shortcomings and adds its own danger of over firing which they warn of by specifying .04 draft and no higher.

I wish I could suggest a simpler fix, but I don't think you will get satisfaction with less and this still leaves the undersized ash pan.

I have a friend with the same issues that you describe. It sure says it is a wood/coal boiler, but it has a short burn time on wood, and won't crank out the heat for 10 hrs on a load of nut. A stoker takes all the aggravation out of the equation. 4 years now, and still not satisfied....he is ready for a stoker of some sort.

shawntitan wrote:Here's my situation... I'm running stove coal

Pea or chestnut anthracite might help.
http://www.newyorkerboiler.com/pdf/WC%20FuelSaver.pdf

Thanks for all the responses, guys....
HanSoSlow- I tried opening up my air intake on my blower last year, to get a hotter fire, but that resulted in overfiring, and some MASSIVE coal globs/clinkers....
franco b- I'm satisfied with the blower, and when the boiler is running, I get a nice even burn, but I may experiment with the addition of firebrick.
whistlenut- That's exactly my problem... I bought this boiler because my father has run one with a similar design for 20 years and is very satisfied with it. Two problems tho, his firebox is much larger, so he can get the burn time that I can't with wood, and his shaker grates are designed better, and don't jam up with coal like mine do.
coaledsweat- May have to try smaller coal, I'm running stove coal because that's what's readily available, I'm in Southern New Jersey, and almost noone burns coal down here.
I guess I'll keep experimenting, I appreciate you guys allowing me to vent... I'm totally frustrated as I've got about 8k and a lot of time in my set up and I'm dissatisfied... boiler won't burn long enough on wood, coal really won't burn right, and my only options on a redesign are take out the boiler and buy something else (OWB, gasification boiler, or stoker). Thanks again guys!

Fix the boiler you have.

There is a difference between a clinker and unburnt coal.. but both will clog up the shaker grates.

A clinker is the result of a very hot fire, hotter than 2500*, so hot that the ashes melt together into bizzare molten globs of glass and ash. The clinkers can be as big as the entire grate.. increasing the fire temperature will only make more clinkers. burning the fire cooler will result in fewer clinkers

Unburnt coal, or partially burnt coal will also clog and jam the grates, but usually the pieces of coal are NOT fused together, the coal is just not burning all the way to ash. In this case, a longer or hotter fire may burn up the coal better, resulting in fewer hard pieces jamming or clogging the grates..

MOST hand fed stoves/instalations that use chimney draft can't get enough combustion through the fire to make the high temperatures needed to clinker anthracite coal.. But just about any unit with a combustion fan forcing air through the fire, similar to a blacksmiths bellows and fire,, those fires will be hot enough to clinker the ash.

On my old hand fed boiler, I had a huge firebox for wood, I reduced the firebox to about 1/3 of it's original size, and made the coal fire about twice as deep, this resulted in a much better coal fire, .

Do a site search for 'firebox reducer' 'reduced firebox' etc.. you will find lots of ideas.. But the most important thing is to block the unused portion of the firebox to prevent any combustion air getting around the coal fire, and to make the fire deeper..

Hope this helps.. Greg L

Just a quick update, added a little extension to the bar that my shaker grates sit on, allows me a much wider rotation on the individual grates, been running this way a few weeks and it's seems to have solved my issue... thanks to everyone for the advice, what a great forum.