Build Up In The AA-130 Ash Cone

Measured with a probe thermometer, 18" above the boiler's breach, I see a minimum of 450*, usually 500-550* for each burn. My differential is set at max, it is around 22-25*. So the boiler works a little each time it fires. Otherwise, the Anthrastat won't cool enough from incoming air to make a circuit and allow ashing. Without ashing, the fire gets too shallow. So I leave my differential so that the boiler runs and works for awhile each time it fires.

If I see only 400*, I have either a shallow fire, a big clinker or it just spit out a clinker and the fire dropped dramaticly, leaving a very deep layer of fresh coal.

Greg L

HOW and WHAT can i reseal the ash cone with?

Im pretty sure that is my problem. I do have lots of unburnt coal this morning and the fire is not burning much at all on the left side of the boiler where the ash cone would be.

Last night i let the fire die out and completely removed all coal and ashes from the boiler and had no clinkers to speak of. All of this started when i cleaned the ash cone saturday night. If i did not mention when i cleaned the ash cone, i used a wire to get the fly ash out and also tapped it with a small wrench.

Freddy wrote:Are you still burning hundreds of pounds a day? maybe once a week will my exhaust temp get over 400 degrees, whereas you seem to be above that most of the time.

Yea i am, when its cold here like say a hi of 25 lo of 10 i burn about 170 lbs a day. When its more mild like high 50 and lo 35-40 i might burn around 100 lbs a day

I'm not sure the cone needs a seal as mine wasn't, anyone know the deal on that?

I called Matthaus and he told me to seal the ash cone with high temp trv. So i have to let the fire die out and take off the chimney pipe and seal it from the top of the boiler looking down to the bottom of the ash cone. Hopefully this fixes my problem or else i will be really confused.

brckwlt wrote:Could i of possibly messed up my ash cone last night when i was cleaning it out? or wouldnt that cause the problem i am experiencing right now?

My experience is with the AHS 130 but I think the cone is similar. The opening in the bottomof the cone in my boiler is about 1/2" diameter. There is no way the chips the size you have shown could come through the cone on my boiler. I am wondering if those chips are pieces of the cone and that you need to replace the cone.

Remove your ash pan, lie down on your back, stick your head in where the ashpan sits. use a small flashlight and a mirror if needed and look at the outer diameter of the ash cone.. where the cone's larger diameter touches the 'cyclone' tube or wall. This gap must be sealed with either furnace cement, or HiTemp silicone caulk/glue.. I tried silicone first, but either there was some coating on the steel, maybe a layer of fiyash that didn't brush off, or maybe it got too hot, but the silicone peeled off.

So the second time, I used a piece of door gasket, the rope type stuff, and wearing rubber gloves, put a fat bead of furnace cement from a caulking gun under the lip of the cone, and using the doorseal rope, pushed the rope and caulk up till it jammed in the narrowing gap. I then smeared more furnace cement over the rope with my fingers.. So the gap is filled with a piece of rope packed in with furnace cement as a glue/sealant.

If the cone has disintegrated, Axeman keeps them in stock, and can ship one out to you quickly.. But you need to seal the new one in the cyclone tube as well, it must be sealed.. if not you are getting way too much oxygen-depleted air sucked back into the coal fire, and this causes unburnt coal.

Greg L

Bob wrote:My experience is with the AHS 130 but I think the cone is similar.

I have a friend with the AHS 130. The cone is the same size as my AA, but you are right, the hole in the bottom of the AHS is smaller. Not say if one is better than the other. It's just the way they are.

My AA wwill hit 450 every now & then....if it's been just idlling along, then get's a big call for heat, it'll run a good long time & get that high. Most of the time it stays lower, but let's say it's been sunny all day...it's hardly run at all, then in the evening laundry is done, showers are taken, the house calls for heat, it'll run good & hard & get up to 425-450. I've never seen it over 450 though.

Yesterday i shut down the boiler around 10am to let the fire die out so i could re seal the ash cone. During that time, once the fire was out i completely took apart the flu pipe and re did it according to the aa manual. When i had my boiler installed last October i told the plumber to follow the diagram in the manual and when i came home from work he had all six inch from the boiler to the chimney. So i took all of that out and started with five inch coming off of the boiler and ran that into the T where have two baro's then ran six inch from the baro's to the chimney. That was something i wanted down since day one. Needless to say this little project took me longer then i thought it would, i have never done this before but i figure i can pretty much do anything if i just try it. It might not be the prettiest job in the world, but at least i did it myself.

So back to the ash cone. When i took apart the old flu pipe i looked down into the opening where the ash cone is and noticed there was nothing sealing the ash cone. there were so big gaps around it. So i sealed it from the top (as Matthaus told me to) and then i also sealed it from the bottom. the ash cone itself appeared to have no damage to it and seemed fine to me.

The boiler was down for about 24 hours and in that time the house went from 71 to 48. I lost 23 degrees in 24 hours. Is that a lot to loose over 24 hours. outside temps were as high as 30 and as low as 20. When i refired the boiler this morning at 10am the house was 48 like i mentioned and in the last 5 hours the temp is up to 66 degrees. So i was able to heat the house 18 degrees so far in 5 hours. This seems pretty good to me since i have 17 rads and miles of 2 1/2 inch pipe in the basement.

Since the re fire i am not having any problems with getting a fire the whole way across the burn pot. and i have also noticed that i am not getting quite as hot of flu temps as i use to. sometimes i would get close to 540 or 550 on long runs. Now after 5 hours it is about 480.

I'd say the difference in the flue temp is because your water temp is probably still less than target of ?? 170-180* ? So the heat is being transfered into the water, just like it is supposed to.. Once the house is up to temp and the water is up to temp the flue temps will rise.

Another possibility is that the velocity of the gasses in the flue are higher with the 5" pipe, so this may effect the temp of the pipe, especially if you are using at magnetic thermometer.

Greg L

aa260 above 500 once 250 adverage with natural draft 400 to 450 on a regular stoke
I use a pipe to break up klinkers
Oil boiler tripped out yesterday caused circulator to stop running and my fire climbed in the feed tube Temp switch (fuseable link) shut off boiler.

BDD

LsFarm wrote:I'd say the difference in the flue temp is because your water temp is probably still less than target of ?? 170-180* ? So the heat is being transfered into the water, just like it is supposed to.. Once the house is up to temp and the water is up to temp the flue temps will rise.

Another possibility is that the velocity of the gasses in the flue are higher with the 5" pipe, so this may effect the temp of the pipe, especially if you are using at magnetic thermometer.

Greg L

I have two probe typer thermometers. one close to the boiler in the 5 inch section and one after the baro

water temps are between 190-200 for the last 4-5 hours while the boiler was running and steady

Here are some pictures of the new flu pipe i installed when i was fixing the ash cone. Please remember i am not a professional.

I have a 5 inch T coming off of the boiler and 5 inch pipe running up to the two baros that are six inch and the six inch continues to the chimney. Since i do not have a clean out for that flu i took a piece of six inch pipe and bent it to fit underneath of the six inch that runs into the chimney. This way i can stick a shop vac hose into that opening to clean out whatever builds up in there.

wow two baro damper in paraell
I like the gold color
BDD

The two baro's are out of necessity. When the boiler is running hard the one is open the whole way and the second is open partially. On very windy days the second one is open at least half way.

How should the inside of the burn pot look? I have recently noticed whats looks like flakey stuff on the sides of the burn pot. Is this just build up from fly ash? or is this something to be concerned about? i took these pics with my cell phone while the boiler was running. i can take more pics with a better camera if need be. Does anyone have pictures of the inside of their burn pot i could compare to?