It's going to be a long summer

I'm getting a whopper load of partially burned to virtually unburned coal in my ash tub. And as a consequence it's filling the ash tub much faster than anticipated. As I had previously suspected, Lehigh is not a summer friendly coal. No outfires (so far) though.

So what did I just order? 5 more tons of Lehigh pea.

My Lehigh buck is performing well so far this summer. Burning 12.46 lbs per day. Ash is heavier but no more than the usual summer ash. Might be the coal gun acting like a hand fed that can't handle the Lehigh coal.

nepacoal wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 27, 2019 7:04 am

My Lehigh buck is performing well so far this summer. Burning 12.46 lbs per day. Ash is heavier but no more than the usual summer ash. Might be the coal gun acting like a hand fed that can't handle the Lehigh coal.

Blaschak is far more summer friendly to a Coal Gun. But it costs a bit more.

Ahhh yes, ya get what ya pay for. Who the hell wants to worry about what burns better winter or summer for the difference of a few pennies???

If it bothers you, see if you can change your order to Blaschak.

My approach is to buy coal that works the best in the winter, and not burn coal in the summer.

Lot of collective wisdom on this forum.
I'd suspect others may of cleared this hurdle.
Not as 'easy' as Blaschak, but that's why each and every boiler operator get's his own 'adjustable' settings.
Surely you can adjust to combust more coal in between the hopper and the ash pan...

Time to fashion a 'dip-stick', I'd say.

Look at as a new challenge...
Your winter coal consumption is well, ahem, documented...
Now to master the summer burn as you have the winter burn...
I see a 'buckwheat challenge' has been offered...
Any takers...

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 27, 2019 9:06 am

If it bothers you, see if you can change your order to Blaschak.

My approach is to buy coal that works the best in the winter, and not burn coal in the summer.

The supplier I committed to only has Reading and Lehigh. I'm not going to back down on a verbal commitment. I might be able to switch to Reading, but I've never used that brand before.

The odd part is that I just filled the hopper to overflowing, and even at that my average for this month is 13.15 lbs. per day. So it is as if I'm getting the BTU's out of the coal despite partially to nigh on fully (appearing) unburned.

13.15 lbs per day is excellent. I don't think you have an issue at all. Might be tough to make the ash "look" better without going too far the other way.

If all was going well my ash tub should have had about 35 lbs. in it at this juncture, but it feels as if it has more like 55-60 lbs. in it.

Maybe it's just you getting OLDER Larry?????????????? LOL

Yup Fred, it happens.....

Kevin

What!!!!...
Feels like???...
No exact weight and tare of the ash pan...
Must be all that thinking of NG vs Coal...
We need exact measures!!!...
Get back on your game...
LOL...

lsayre wrote: ↑

Thu. Jun. 27, 2019 10:25 am

The supplier I committed to only has Reading and Lehigh. I'm not going to back down on a verbal commitment. I might be able to switch to Reading, but I've never used that brand before.

The odd part is that I just filled the hopper to overflowing, and even at that my average for this month is 13.15 lbs. per day. So it is as if I'm getting the BTU's out of the coal despite partially to nigh on fully (appearing) unburned.

Fair enough. I have burned a few tons of Reading rice, and it behaved similar to Lehigh. The only time I burned Blaschak was in the winter - it burned to a very fine ash, although I burned more of the coal.

Unless something big changes, I think my days of burning coal in the summer are over. The electric water heater I installed a few weeks ago more than meets our needs, and the 100w light bulb in the coal boiler is doing a good job of keeping it dry & corrosion free.

157000 btu's per day seems like a lot for only domestic hot water.

David