Keystoker KA-6 Feed

Skeeter41 wrote:Seems to be running great since I moved it out to 12 turns yesterday afternoon. The only thing is the clinkers. There are still lots of them. I break them apart and there isn't any unburnt coal in them. You said they come from burning the coal at high temps. Does it hurt to have them? Is the stove running less efficient if they are there?

Thanks again for your help and advice. It is pretty nice having a 72 degree home rather than a 66 degree home.

Skeeter,

Don't worry about the clinkers if the stoker is working good and the coal is sliding fine on the grates . For me, I'd rather have clikers. I have less unburned coal in the ash. It won't hurt the boiler at all and no....it won't be less efficient. Let us know how everything's working for you.

Everything seems to be working great. I still have clinkers, but seems as thought they aren't hurting anything, so I am going to leave them alone. I just checked this morning and in 3.5 days I burned 5.5 five gallon buckets of coal. Does this seem right?

The only issue I see so far is that the water pressure fluctuates with the water temp. The other day the water temp was up to 194 and I had around 22-23 pounds of pressure. Once the temp went down to 160 it was back down to 13-15 pounds. When the temp is 180 it is around 20 pounds.

I did not put on an expansion tank when I did the install - I left the one on the oil boiler. Will this need to be replaced with a bigger tank?

5 ½ buckets in 3 ½ days sounds good to me. Everyone’s requirements are different, I can go from ~14 pound a day in summer for domestic hot water use only to almost 3 five gallon buckets or 114 pounds a day on the coldest days of winter. I have been averaging ~83 pounds a day for December. A larger expansion tank will level off those fluctuations but there is always some especially when you are talking about a 34º temperature difference.

I totally agree with gaw. Your burning about 50-55lbs of coal per day. That sounds about right. It all depends where you live (weather)....how big of a house your heating....good insulation.....good windows...etc. I also have flucuations with the water pressure....but not a much as you do. I installed an expansion tank on my K6 and I have one on my oil boiler. If you'd install a bigger one on the oil boiler, you would notice a huge difference. I'm happy that you got it figured out! Enjoy the cheaper heat!

Skeeter41 wrote:The only issue I see so far is that the water pressure fluctuates with the water temp. The other day the water temp was up to 194 and I had around 22-23 pounds of pressure. Once the temp went down to 160 it was back down to 13-15 pounds. When the temp is 180 it is around 20 pounds.

I did not put on an expansion tank when I did the install - I left the one on the oil boiler. Will this need to be replaced with a bigger tank?

If your pressure safety valve (usually 30 psi) did not release at your highest boiler water temperature your expansion tank is properly sized or possibly larger than need. The changes in indicated pressure are due to the water expanding when its heated.

The worst case test condition would be (1) max boiler water temperature with no circulators on. Then (2) if your circulator is on the boiler's return side, it turns on raising the pressure in the boiler. If the pressure safety doesn't leak under these combination conditions the expansion tank is properly sized. If your circulator is on the supply side of the boiler when it turns on it will reduce the boiler pressure, increasing the margin on the pressure valve.

I am having the same problem coal mounding and spilling over the side of grate. I just got some coal Blashalk and I noticed it had a fair amount of fines in it. This could be the problem. Where did you get your coal? Does it have a lot of fines in it? My KA-6 has been in operation for 2 years and I haven't had this problem before.

I got my coal at a local feed mill. It came out of Scranton/Wilkes Barre area. I am headed to Lenigs in Shamokin tomorrow to get a couple ton. I can't say that there was much fines. After I wrote that I turned it back a turn and it ran great for 3.5 days. Now yesterday it started piling up again, so I turned it back another turn. I believe I am at 14 turns out now. It seems to be working great for the past day now.

It doesn't hurt my feelings that I keep turning it back and burning less coal I am extremely happy with this so far