Clinker-Ectemy!

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 4:10 pm

The last few days I noticed the center section of my firebox was not dropping any embers down on shaking down, so I knew there must be a large mass of fused clinker blocking things. I got a good lively fire going first...& then dug down to the shaker grates with my poker, twisted it & lifted out a large mass of fused together dead coal/clinker that was blocking the middle of my firebox. With the high stove temps last month, I suggest that you may want to check & see if you have the same problem. (If you aren't getting good embers uniformly across the whole grate, prod down & lift up with your poker. If a large part of the fire bed comes up, you have a large..dead mass to get rid of.....Just work it up & out & you'll be good as new!
Again....Make sure you only do this AFTER you have a lively fire going with the ash door open or you'll kill your fire.
Whatever space that dead mass was taking up is valuable firebox real estate that is robbing your stove of some heat output, so your stove will heat better after the surgical ..."Klinkerectemy!" :lol:

EditL: Postscript

I ended up doing a pretty thorough cleaning out of the whole stove, which took me about 45 minutes but now my entire fire is lively again with a bright orange glow to the whole ash pan. I consider it my early spring cleaning & I guess I could have just shut down, cleaned out & restarted in myabe another 45 minutes or so. I hate doing that though *& this accomplishes the same thing in less time, less mess, less wasted coal & still let's me retain my "One Match Per Season" rating! :up: :devil:


 
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lowfog01
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Post by lowfog01 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 5:42 pm

Devil505 wrote:so I knew there must be a large mass of fused clinker blocking things...then dug down to the shaker grates with my poker, twisted it & lifted out a large mass of fused together dead coal/clinker that was blocking the middle of my firebox. With the high stove temps last month, I suggest that you may want to check & see if you have the same problem.
Hi Devil,

I found the same kind of clinkers in my stove last weekend when I had it shut down to clean out the flyash. In my Harman Mark II I found the clinkers just below the front load door and along the side walls. I guess the Mark II doesn't shake out as cleanly as I thought. I always had plenty of red glow in the ash pan after a shake down. I'm watching those areas much more closely now and poking and lifting as you advise more often. My fire rarely burns higher then 400* so I was surprised. I guess it doesn't take long to fuse the coal together if the temperature is hot enough.

 
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Cap
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Post by Cap » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 5:50 pm

Burn white ash. No clinkers. Just ash, lots of ash.

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 8:12 pm

Wow!!...I didn't realize how much heat I was losing because of that clinker & dead crap around iti!! (Whole fire bed is dancing nicely......looks like a new fire!!)
Check out you fire beds for similar problems.

 
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Post by grizzly2 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 8:37 pm

I have never had a clinker in the one year I have been burning coal. I have run the stove up to 500* with an average of 450* durring the cold spell in Jan. This means good coal doesn't it :?:

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 8:39 pm

I think so...What coal are you burning?

 
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Post by grizzly2 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 9:08 pm

Devil,

The dealer, M&M Stove and Coal said he gets Readinig and Blaschack. I don't know which one I got from him. I had bought bagged nut last year and got a bulk load of pea this past summer. I had assumed that I had Blaschak because there was no red tracer paint spattered on the coal. Coal berner recently said that Reading hasn't put red paint on their coal for many years, therefore I have no way of telling until I talk to the dealer again. I do want to find out because it burns so thoroughly. I was getting red ash from the nut, and get very light tan ash from the pea. Very little unburned coal from either. :)


 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 9:13 pm

grizzly2 wrote:Devil,

The dealer, M&M Stove and Coal said he gets Readinig and Blaschack.
I have burned both & get many more clinkers from Reading than Blaschak but I do get some from both. I have no explanation as to why you don't get clinkers but maybe someone could enlighten us both???

 
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Cap
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Post by Cap » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 9:25 pm

Higher BTU coal creates clinkers. i.e. Superior
Maybe the iron content in the coal causes too but I'm not sure.
Devel, didn't you write about this topic one or twice before. Sounds familiar from you.

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Thu. Feb. 26, 2009 9:56 pm

Cap wrote:Devel, didn't you write about this topic one or twice before. Sounds familiar from you.
Write about why clinkers form & which coal types are more prone to them? (not me)

 
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Post by BDHodosn » Sat. Feb. 28, 2009 3:15 pm

Aren't clinkers the product of fire temps ≥ ash fusion temps, no? It's what I always assumed...that they were fused ash clumps.

 
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Post by whistlenut » Sat. Feb. 28, 2009 3:19 pm

Can't you have some rubber bands installed on them and they will 'go away'? Crush them up and give them to the granola folks, or in the winter, use them for traction when out in the Prius. ;) :roll: :idea:

I know, go outside and play in the snow................

 
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Post by Poconoeagle » Sat. Feb. 28, 2009 3:23 pm

weren't the Vega, Pinto, CHevette, Edsel, FIAT..clinkers??? oh thats clunkers.. past tense.. fiat = Found In A Toilet....

 
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whistlenut
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Post by whistlenut » Sat. Feb. 28, 2009 3:36 pm

Yugo....anything made by chrysler (K-cars, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr).

Back to clinkers.....They sure are a pain in the butt. I know almost every stove and many boilers will develop them no matter what type pf coal or from whom. It is what it is.

 
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Devil505
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Post by Devil505 » Sat. Feb. 28, 2009 4:46 pm

whistlenut wrote:I know almost every stove and many boilers will develop them no matter what type pf coal or from whom. It is what it is.
I guess all coal can develop them but some coal is worse than others. I found Reading nut coal was unusable in my TLC2000 due to clinkers jamming the shaker grates all the time. Rarely had that problem with Blaschak.
That's It- Stick With Blaschak!
Last edited by Devil505 on Sat. Feb. 28, 2009 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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