Clinkers!

Oo-v-oO · By: **Oo-v-oO** On: Sat Feb 24, 2007 11:39 pm

I've been working through a batch of coal I bought that someone had cleaned out of a basement with a dirt floor. I found that there was a fair amount of dirt mixed in so I screened it all by hand (ugh!) before transferring it to drums for storage. It was damp so some dirt stuck to the coal, but not a lot.

Today, I let the stove burn down a ways before shaking and loading it up. When I looked in at the fire after shaking it, I could see that the clinkers had formed an arch over the grates. I was able to carefully dig underneath with my poker and pull out a couple of chunks of clinker that were almost the size of my two fists put together. They were still glowing when I pulled them out, too. Stupid me forgot to take a picture until after I had emptied the ash pan out - maybe next time. There were several smaller chunks I was able to fish out, as well.

Some of the clinker was rough and crumbled without too much effort but a lot of it was glassy and black, and I wasn't able to break it up in my hand after it had cooled. When I was fishing them out you could tell by the sound that it wasn't coal - they had a... "tinkly" sound, for lack of a better term, as I moved them around. I suspect most of the clinker is dirt but probably some of it is just poor quality anthracite. I always see just a little clinker no matter what I have burned, but never to this degree!

Richard S. · By: **Richard S.** On: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:19 am

It is most likely the coal, dirt AFAIK won't cause clinkers. I have one customer who lives in Shickshinny right next to the river. If the river comes up his house would be one of the first to be flooded in about 30 mile stretch of river so he gets flooded quite often, he just runs the coal through as far as i know.

That is through a Van Wert stoker FYI, the stoker itself goes through every flood. I believe he just removes all the motors and electronics if given enough time. Washes it out afterwards and fires it up, its probably been through 5 or 6 floods in the last 10 years alone, a testament to the durability of a Van Wert....

Oo-v-oO · By: **Oo-v-oO** On: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:51 am

I just pulled some more out - smaller ones this time. I'll see if I can get some good pictures and post them.

I could hear them ticking and making funny noises as they cooled off. Weird. Must be the glassy nature of them.

Oo-v-oO · By: **Oo-v-oO** On: Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:52 am

Here are some shots of what I pulled out. The color is a little funky because we have a fluorescent light and I was playing with different combinations of flash and white balance.

Oo-v-oO · By: **Oo-v-oO** On: Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:55 am

A couple more, plus one of the stove. It doesn't show very well, but the flames coming up off the coal have quite a bit of yellow in them, which I don't see with the other batch of coal I've been burning.

LsFarm · By: **LsFarm** On: Sun Feb 25, 2007 2:48 am

Those sure look familiar!!

I'm begining to believe that most coal does clinker some, but the grate system grinds them up during the shaking process. My grate did not have any rocking motion, just fore and aft. So I tended to keep and collect the tougher clinkers on top of the grate.

The rice and buckwheat coal in my stoker sticks together into soft 'pillows' of ash, like a very soft crumbly clinker. These breakup with just a touch of a poker or from the fall off the edge of the burnpot into the ashpan.

Greg L

Oo-v-oO · By: **Oo-v-oO** On: Sun Feb 25, 2007 3:00 am

The ones with the soda can were about the size of what I dug out this morning.

Oo-v-oO · By: **Oo-v-oO** On: Sat Mar 03, 2007 11:08 pm

Well, I finished up that barrel of coal and have moved on to the stuff I was burning before, and... no clinkers. This stuff burns nicely and leaves me no presents.