Lighting a stoker

I called them on Friday and the lady I talked too said that there was a whole bunch of these made up to go out next week... etc etc, yeah well it would of been nice to say that in one of the two emails I sent you was my thoughts. unless these things are gold, I wouldn't do business with these folks again.. too bad cause they are in PA. Oh well... have my local stove shop set to notify me when they get more coal mice in.

Adamiscold wrote:I haven't heard anything back from them either. Since they have not charged my credit card I figured I would at some point try to pick some up locally and then if they fill my order I'll just have some in stock for later on.

They have yet to reply to any of my emails I sent to them. I liked the idea the guys were doing in that thread for the coal mouse. I might try that if the coal mice are not here on Nov 21st when I'm looking to fire her up for the first time.

As others have suggested I use match-lite charcoal, break them up with a hammer, put about a cup full on the burner & light. Let burn for 5 minutes without combustion fan on. Pour about a cup of coal on charcoal & start combustion fan, that's it. LL stoves come with a u-shaped metal ring to hold coal while lighting which is very helpful.

I tried the match-lite too and it is hit and miss. The other thing is that it's very messy breaking up the charcoal.

The other thing is that it's very messy breaking up the charcoal.

Try an plastic bag next time, keeps everything tiddy.

Match-lite's lighting ability may degrade over time. I have also broken up regular kingsford charcoal & soaked them in charcoal lighter fluid. Also works great but please use common sense.

The reason my new channing III was not starting the coal burning when using a mouse, charcoal or a few other things I tried was because my combustion blower was not working, (there was a wire borken on it). Now that I fixed it, it fired up fine with a mouse. Has been going good for the last five days.

I gots me a question too,

I noticed most of you guys have basement model stokers.

I have a hand fed living room model, and was wondering how to light it.

There are pictures of the unit in the thread "stokermaster" also known as FireTender in the Bitumous area.

thanx in advanced.

jeremy

They must have some new employees in the quality control dep. at the Alaska factory because my blower for the radient heat had a wire out of the wire-nut.

gorpot wrote:The reason my new channing III was not starting the coal burning when using a mouse, charcoal or a few other things I tried was because my combustion blower was not working, (there was a wire borken on it). Now that I fixed it, it fired up fine with a mouse. Has been going good for the last five days.

I expect to light my AA-130 this week. I'm new to using coal so have never done this before and am wondering what to expect. I expect that it will take a while for the water to come up to temperature and that during this time coal will continually be fed to the fire. Is there a risk, or is it possible, that too much coal will be fed and either get way too hot or suffocate the fire?

Ed...

They probably are hiring new people who are not paying attention to detail. I also noticed that most of their motors are not grounded. I was surprised by that. Now back on topic.

I use this method, and can have the boiler up & stable from dead cold in 2 - 3 hrs. I know there's many other methods used to light this type of boiler, some maybe quicker, but I like to make sure the entire firepot is burning, and to bring the temperatures up slowly to avoid expansion stresses in the steel and welds.

Materials: old ashes, lump charcoal, charcoal lighter fluid (or kerosene, or diesel), non-flamable cover to block the bottom of the coal hopper (I use a 1 gal paint lid), dry coal.

I believe this design boiler needs proper combustion air management to properly start a coal fire, meaning the combustion blower MUST draw exclusively from the bottom of the firepot, and not from other sources such as the bottom opening of the coal hopper.


First: pour in enough ashes to fill the firepot about 1/3 from the bottom. If you don't have any ashes, I suppose you could use fresh coal, and mix in some dry sand to simulate ash density.

Second: soak the lump charcoal in your prefered starter fluid. I use diesel fuel. You need enough soaked charcoal to fill anouther 2" in the firepot. The add more dry charcoal on top for another 1".

Third: block the bottom of the coal hopper (w/paint lid) to prevent air from being drawn when the blower starts. I put a rock on top to hold in place. Now light a piece of paper, and throw into the firepot through the combustion air port, with the flapper help open. When the charcoal begins to light, let it go for a minute, then turn on the boiler & combustion fan, LEAVE THE GRATE TURNED OFF. Keep the air flapper open for the next 3 - 4 minutes to allow the charcoal to get going, thus the fan is only drawing off smoke from the top. After the charcoal is burning well, let the air flapper close off the port, and the charcoal to burn by itself for another 10 - 15 minutes, checking to get all of the charcoal glowing red.

Finally: Turn up room thermostat(s) all the way, to make sure there's enough demand on the boiler to make the combustion blower stay on during the next process, and not be turned off by the aquastat. Add some coal to fire by pouring through the hopper, just enough to put about 1" over the charcoal, and replace the paint lid to block the air. Let this coal get going, and burning red, then add another 1" of fresh coal. I find about 10 minutes between additions. Continue this pricess until the entire firepot is full of burning coal. Then and ONLY then add coal to fill the hopper to your normal level.

Finishing up: Set your room thermostat(s) to nomal, let the boiler shut down against the aquastat setting, and then turn on the grate. As I said, there's lots of other ways to start up this boiler, but this method brings it up (rather) slowly, and has never resulted in gas explosions (bumps). And it ensures that the entire firepot is burning fully, not just a small area in the center.

Brian

I'd be very careful about using any combustable fluids, diesel, lighter fluid etc in the enclosed fire chamber in an AHS, AA or Eshland boiler.. the fumes can collect and when ignited by the first source of ignition [a burning piece of paper in the above suggestion], the fumes could create a healthy explosion.. blowing the door off the baro damper, blowing flame out the inspection port and up inside the coal hopper..

Just use a layer of crumpled up newspaper over the layer of ashes, followed by either Cowboy Coal, or kindling.. I use kindling and have zero problems with getting a roaring starter fire going.. then add the layers of anthracite to build a full diameter coal fire, as described above..

Flamable liquids are quite dangerous in an enclosed space.. Safety first..

Greg L.

As I've posted before I use an OX/ACCY torch to light the coal directly through the inspection port. Obviously this only ignites a portion of the firepot coal at the level of the inspection port door. To get the entire width and depth burning I've modified my boiler's ashing motor wiring by adding a switch that allows the ashing motor to run whenever it is on. This will lower the burning coal and in conjunction with the running combustion blower it spreads the burning coal to the entire firepot. Once I see hot coals on the grate I shut the grate motor bypass switch off. The switch needs a mechanical lockout so it's not accidentally turned on.

Yanche:
I have similarly modified my control wiring, except that I used a momentary toggle switch to run the ashing motor. This forces me to stand there and hold the switch, and NOT FORGET to turn it off. I have the thermal ash setup, and if I want to run the ash motor for a LONG time I can set the control target appropriately. Then again, I have been known to FORGET to change back. I also installed a blinking indicator lamp that flashes whenever I shut down the ashing mechanism. I always worry that the grate will start-up while I'm outside dumping ashes, and I will return to a mess. I have FORGOTTEN to turn the ashing switch back on after dumping ashes, to find the coal has begun to burn up the supply tube to the hopper. The flashing light helps a lot, I highly recommend it.