Kimmel's Problems

This year I bought me first skid of Kimmel's rather than Baschak. The Kimmel's is still better when it comes to moisture but I have found a lot of rocks this time. They range from about 1.5 inches across to 4 or 5 and an inch thick. Anyone else experiencing this problem?

We have burned 22.5 tons of Kimmel's without finding one rock. I don't see how rocks that large could get through the sizing process, perhaps the rocks were stuck in the loader bucket. Whatever the cause, I would alert your supplier.

-Rob

wlape-- you're talking bagged yes--1-- skid

If you have rice coal, last year Kimmel's had a problem with 1.5 & 2" stone getting mixed with the coal. When the bucket loader was reloading from the stock yard he scraped up stone from the yard and put it in the bagging plant. I had about a half a dozen bags that had 1 rock in them. Thankfully my customers caught it before it did any damage to their stokers. Is it possable that what you have was bagged last year and was left over? One of my customers put a piece of 1/2" hardware cloth over the hopper and poured the coal thru it. If you dealer is any good he will replace any bags that you want to send back. That's what I would do. You got to keep the customer happy!

i burned 4-5 tons of kimmels nut last year with no problems . very happy . i did just buy 6 bags of blashak nut this weekend just to try it . i have heard good things about it here . it seems kind of small to me . its about half the size of kimmels and what i'm burning now .

Blaschak coal is very good in bulk but has a problem in 40 lb bags. The bags keep any moisture locked up so you can end up with a very wet coal supply, especially if the vendor stores it outside. The stretch wrapping appears to not make any difference. The first year I bought Blaschak they too had a bad rock problem too but it was fixed and the last load I burned had no rocks that I could see. However, it is still too wet for my furnace. Most stokers don't seem to have a problem with the wet coal but sometimes it is so wet you can risk leaving black trails on the floor.

crazy4coal wrote:If you have rice coal, last year Kimmel's had a problem with 1.5 & 2" stone getting mixed with the coal. When the bucket loader was reloading from the stock yard he scraped up stone from the yard and put it in the bagging plant. I had about a half a dozen bags that had 1 rock in them. Thankfully my customers caught it before it did any damage to their stokers. Is it possable that what you have was bagged last year and was left over? One of my customers put a piece of 1/2" hardware cloth over the hopper and poured the coal thru it. If you dealer is any good he will replace any bags that you want to send back. That's what I would do. You got to keep the customer happy!

Where can I find hardware cloth? Is it like expanded steel?

Unfortunately, my auger died on the second or third rock this season. The gear box was stripped and I had to buy a new assembly for $130. So far, I've found about ten rocks in 1, 1.25 ton skid. Some were quite large and look like they came from a mine rather than from a parking lot/gravel cover. There were probably a lot more which were small enough to pass through the auger.

Yes, Fred, I'm talking bagged rice coal. Wish I had a barn to put my coal in then I would buy it in bulk. Maybe Santa will leave one under the Christmas tree this year?

I have not had a problem with rocks in Kimmel's Nut but last year and this year we have had lots of FINES.
This year the price dropped $.75@ bag....
The coal burns OK but we have to use a 1/4" screen to drop the fines out of the NUT.
With our hand feds the rocks may not be a problem...

Eddie

I had MASSIVE rocks in my bags of Kimmel's the first 2 seasons I burned it. The 3rd season it seemed cleaner, but from there on I switched to Blaschak. Boulders, mudballs, chunks of wood, wiring, plastic -- you name it, I've found it in Kimmel's bags. One boulder had to be 5 lbs! That mudball I also found was the size of a grapefruit, & weighed more than 5 lbs., I'd estimate. Part of the reason I switched ... but the main reason was the price increase of my supplier.

I found Blaschak to burn better for me. Less ash made for longer & hotter burns. Less trash, and cheaper too. Can't beat that. Been burning it for 2 seasons so far, & this is the biggest thing I've found in the bags. It's wood, so I don't mind that -- it's light (so I'm not getting ripped off too bad), and it burns.

markviii wrote: I don't see how rocks that large could get through the sizing process, perhaps the rocks were stuck in the loader bucket.

That's one way but it wouldn't be a lot of them. That's a bigger problem in the winter when stuff is freezing to the bucket. Could also be a truck that wasn't cleaned out before they loaded it.

If you get big pieces of coal (not rocks) the screens will occasionally develop holes in them and if they don't see it to fix it the bigger pieces make it into the smaller sizes.

wlape3 wrote:Where can I find hardware cloth? Is it like expanded steel?

Any screen will do as long as it's big enough. I'd look in the building supply store, possibly the home/garden section. They probably have something there meant to keep the critters out of stuff.


I've suggested this before to Jerry from LL, the coal getting frozen to the loader bucket alone means larger pieces are going to make it into the rice. The stokers should have a screen made of some higher gauge wire mounted about half way up the hopper. This way if you keep it filled above the screen you won't be making a lot of dust putting coal in the hopper. Just let it rop below the screen occasionally so you can make sure there isn't any obstructions.

Here's another idea:

The Hopper Hammock©

did you notice blashak is much smaller than kimmels ?

mason coal burner wrote:did you notice blashak is much smaller than kimmels ?

Yes...
I like the large size of Kimmels but the Blaschak is much more uniform in size.

They were both the same for me. By the time they got out here, they were both beat to hell. From nut to a mixture of buck, pea & rice.

The bags keep any moisture locked up so you can end up with a very wet coal supply, especially if the vendor stores it outside. The stretch wrapping appears to not make any difference.

Blaschak bagged is dry almost dry when it is bagged and palletized. A heavy plastic cover is placed over the top and then it's wrapped with plastic. The problem is some dealers store it outside, the pallet is unwrapped to remove a few bags, the cover is disturbed, it rains, and then you have water logged coal. The plastic bags are vented so they don't burst during the filling and stacking process. I bought Blaschak bags that were from an opened pallet, it was very wet. Once I got to start a new pallet, it was dry.