Hayfire 2 not burnig complete

Cant figure out why i get a large amount of unburt coal in ash pan. Fire is not falling into ash pan. First year with a stoker. Love the stove but cant figure out why it is not burning all the coal.Have good draft, nice flame. Any and all help is apreciated. Kyle

Hi Kyle,
I would take a good look at the coal to make sure that it's not slate or mixed coal. If you take a good look at the fire, when burning at a high rate, it is about 4"to 6" inches long. A piece of coal takes about 30 minutes to travel from the back of the fire to the front. If this coal does not burn when it is bedded in the middle of the fire for that period of time, there is a good chance that it's not a good coal. Or it could be sized a little bigger then rice. Our stoves do not like to go much over 30% buck, just doesn't burn up properly. I think you will find no matter what coal you burn, you'll always get some black in the ash pan.
Good question,
Jerry LLS

I expect to find some unburt in the ash pan. Maybe what i am seing just seams like it is alot to me. This is a constant if it's burning on high or low. I thought maybe it was the bulk i had got,so instead of getting more bulk I started using bagged. Still with the same results. Maybe there is something that i think is ok but is not. What should the fire look like when it is burnig low.? Such as flame size. Thank again for the help.

Kyle,
Your settings on your thermostat, go into setup-Deg-F, min- 6, max40-45, tbrn-n, HLF -0, ign -n, fr is a variable. If your settings are like this, then your OK. When your burning on low, you will have very little flame.
Jerry

I had the same concern when I first started burning.
In fact I had the concern until I started weighing the coal in and the ashes out.

I've been weighing both now for over a month and I figure ash is about 18 to 19% by weight.

I don't know for sure what optimum is, but I think 14% would be achieved with a complete burn since there is a substantial amount of ash in all coal.

Further I didn't expect a stoker to burn as well as a regular coal stove.

But 18% I think is pretty good.

I wouldn't be surprised if as temperatures rise and the fire gets smaller that this efficiency worsens.

Like you I saw and still see some of what looks like unburned coal in the ashes. But it's probably stone.

I would suggest you weigh what you put in and what you take out.
I spent $30 or so on a fish weighing scale to do this.

Simple to use and works very well.

If you have a digital camera take a picture of the ashes and post it. Stokers never fully burn coal to powder, you can expect some "unburned" coal but it shouldn't be excessive. As I pointed out before in another thread burning buck in my stoker produces a chunky ash. The same exact coal burned in a hand fired stove burns to powder...

It could be the coal too...