Coal in fines ?

When I pull the cleanout lever on my EFM I get 5-10 pieces of whole rice coal along with about 1/4 cup of fines. This never happened before. Is something worn out ? Any thoughts ? Thanks.

You will have fines with any coal, depending on your coal load from your dealer. sometimes the stokers, augers, etc.. will grind it up and make the fines, always good to clean things out every so often.

I think he meant when he pulls the fines lever on the EFM pot he is getting some whole pieces of rice coal out of the bottom of the pot along with the fines. I'm sure one of the EFM experts will be along to answer this. I'm not that familiar with the innards of the burn pot.

Yes, Wood n Coal you are right. You pull the cleanout lever every day to remove the fines, but I never got whole pieces of coal coming out before.

I'm moving this to the EFM heading, you'll get a faster response there.

Sounds like you might have a broken burner plate, or at least a hole in one of them.
You would have to shut down, pull coal out of pot to take a look.

blau barrick wrote:Yes, Wood n Coal you are right. You pull the cleanout lever every day to remove the fines, but I never got whole pieces of coal coming out before.

check pot grates for holes check auger tube for holes you might be geting pieces falling in the ash tub from the auger
tube where it meets the pot but usually when pulling the fine lever and you are getting pieces of coal that means a hole in the grate or grates also the bottom grate pot gasket might need replacing it could be pushing coal out threw it .
what pot is in it newer or older smaller style with the goose neck bolted on it the inter lip burns out on them leaving coal to fall threw it .

Most likely a broken burner plate.

Is this something that has to be addressed right away, or could I wait untill spring? Everything seems to be working well. Just these few pieces of coal in the ash tub. How the heck does a burner plate break anyway?

Plates heat and cool, expand and contract. If a plate got hot enough where it couldn't expand sideways, it starts bulging in and out and they just get fatigued. If you don't mind losing coal, it might wait till spring unless you start to get a dark spot in the pot.

If it is a bad grate,when you replace it you should replace all them including the 3 gaskets.






ry

stoker-man wrote:Plates heat and cool, expand and contract. If a plate got hot enough where it couldn't expand sideways, it starts bulging in and out and they just get fatigued. If you don't mind losing coal, it might wait till spring unless you start to get a dark spot in the pot.

stoker-man, what do you mean by a dark spot and where in the pot ?


Glenn

the dark spot will probably be in the area of the broken plate, but then again, maybe not. you should at least empty the pot and look.

Thanks for all your help and info.!