Keystoker KA6 Idel Time Settings

 
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jcw265
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Post by jcw265 » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 8:28 am

How long or what is the best idle time for KA6 , house has hit its temp along with water, boiler is on idle, fire keeps trying to go out ?? please help


 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 8:41 am

Jay, it is good to see you back on the forum. I remember the fiasco you went through when you first got this boiler. Anyhow...about 1 minute of run time every 15 minutes is a good starting point. Please tell us what you are using for settings right now. Aquastat low/high, timer, dump zone, feed rate, etc.

 
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jcw265
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Post by jcw265 » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 11:19 am

Thank you for the warm welcome, Yes I will always remeber the mess and the great help and advice to correct it, my settings on hydro 160 low 180 high and the rest I will have to get to the house and verify , how do u tell rate of feed ?? I just screw the red knob so many turns ?? but the coal bed is the length of the grate when burning , seems under a pull no issues only when it idles for several hours I start to loose the fire ??

 
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PRengert
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Post by PRengert » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 11:33 am

Is the secondary blower damper open?

What size coal are you using?

Is the stoker throat plate open the correct amount?

Just thinkin....

 
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jcw265
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Post by jcw265 » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 12:59 pm

secondary blower door ?? where is that

rice coal is size

throat plate ?? again what is this ??

timer is as followes 3 trippers on 0 3 trippers on 15 1 tripper on 7 1 tripper on 22

 
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sterling40man
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Post by sterling40man » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 2:35 pm

Jay,

As Rob said, nice to see you back on the forum!! :D Here is what my settings are at. Now remember that this is a series setup and my circulator between the 2 boilers only turns on when there is demand. I'll have different settings in mid December because my circulator will be running constantly.

2 pins at 0 min, 2 pins at 10 min and 2 pins at 20 min. The red nut on the stoker is at 15 turns down from the top. Aquastat setting is 155 low and 175 high. Burning Blaschak rice coal.

Here are some pics of my secondary fan (the small blower that runs constantly) and the throat plate. They are both half open.
GEDC1048.jpg

small secondary fan flap half open

.JPG | 15.1KB | GEDC1048.jpg
Here is a pic of the throat plate handle. The plate is underneath. Loosen the screw above the tip of the screwdriver. Then place your thumb and index finger on the small lip just below the tip of the screwdriver and turn it half way open. Place your hand underneath and you'll feel the flap.
GEDC0359.JPG
.JPG | 81.3KB | GEDC0359.JPG
I haven't had an out fire yet and been burning since September 17. When there was no demand my idle fire was about 1" wide. I've been burning for 33 days now and have used 760lbs of coal......23lbs per day. That comes out to $3.17 per day. :D Let us know how you make out. Take care. Bob

 
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jcw265
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Post by jcw265 » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 3:07 pm

do you think my timer setting are ok ?? or should I use yours ?? I will check the throat plate when I get home and set per your instructions !! thank you so very much for your prompt response :)


 
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Post by sterling40man » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 3:45 pm

No problem Jay. Maybe add a couple of more pins in the timer? I know last month my fire looked like it was about to die a few times, but it didn't. As long as you always have about 1" of coal burning, on idle, your fire should never go out.

 
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Post by jcw265 » Thu. Oct. 20, 2011 11:27 pm

Ok here is my current information

hydo low = 160 high = 180

rate of feed = 14 turns

timer = 3 pins at 0 2 pins at 10 1 pin at 15 2 pins at 20 1 pin at 25

throttle plate is half way open

buring blaschak rice coal

comments or suggestions please and Thank you for all your help and information, this is the best forum on the net !!

 
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PRengert
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Post by PRengert » Fri. Oct. 21, 2011 1:44 pm

I have a couple of suggestions. First, open the damper on the small blower all the way and see if that makes a difference. The throat adjustment I was talking about is the one that controls the thickness of the fire- the factory setting works fine but it could be causing problems if somebody changed it. The plate you are talking about is the primary air control- for that I would open it as much as possible without creating excessive clinkers.

My timer settings are 4 pins at 0 and 15 but I burn buck. In mild weather, I run 8 pins at 0 and 15 and cut the feed rate in half- that keeps the fire
more vigorous and cuts down on the amount of unburned coal when the unit is idling a lot.

 
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Post by sterling40man » Sat. Oct. 22, 2011 9:04 am

PRengert wrote:The throat adjustment I was talking about is the one that controls the thickness of the fire
OK, where is this at?
The plate you are talking about is the primary air control
I thought that was the throat plate. Sorry :oops:

 
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Post by PRengert » Sat. Oct. 22, 2011 1:20 pm

The throat plate (the plate just ahead of the pusher bar) is adjusted by loosening a bolt on either side of the stoker and moving it up or down in the slot (these are the slots that dribble out small pieces of coal onto the floor when it's running). The correct adjustment should have the coal almost up to the top of the side rails (the measurement is in the manual's troubleshooting section as I remember). Unless it looks pretty far off I wouldn't mess with it.

 
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Post by sterling40man » Sat. Oct. 22, 2011 8:13 pm

PRengert wrote:The correct adjustment should have the coal almost up to the top of the side rails
Mine must be set right then. The coal is just about flush with the top of the rails on the bed.

Jay, how are things coming?

 
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jcw265
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Post by jcw265 » Tue. Oct. 25, 2011 7:40 pm

Hi everyone , well I was wating a few days to report all was going great BUT when I got home fire was out, thank the Great Lord it just went out so I did not dump all the coal out of my hopper, must of went out around 5:00 pm today, there were several times I was worried when I checked on it and had only about an inch of glowing coal , but it did not go out until today, so here it what I have going on my house temp is 70 I have now set my t-stat to 68 the coal depth is as stated about with in the rails, throttle plate almost all the way open at least 2/3rd coal rate is 15 turns on the shaft , hydro 160 low 180 high boiler pressure 15psi my house has 11 foot ceilings and 2 storys so I have used 15psi versus 12 psi due to height , I have now set my time as follows 0 = 3 pins 5 = 1 pin 10 = 2 pins 15 = 3pins 20 = 2 pins 25 = 1 pin tommors outisde temp is to be 66 deg and then move into the 50s , thank you all for your advice and help but what amm I not doing right or is this just something I need to just deal with when temps are this high it was almost 73 deg today here in good ol Ohio !! thanks as always to all of you and this forum

Jay

PS yes I did get boiler relit about and hour ago water temp is almost back to 140 deg

 
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Post by sterling40man » Tue. Oct. 25, 2011 8:24 pm

Hey Jay! 66*! What a heat wave! :shock: I think your problems were that there weren't enough pins to keep the fire going. When the temps are that high you have almost no demand. Therefore you have to rely on the pins to keep the fire going. Try it the way you set it up and see what it does for the next few days. Try to keep a record of the daily temps and what you have for settings. That'll help you out next season. Is this a stand alone system? Member "gaw" has a stand alone system. He maybe able to tell you what he has for settings. Shoot him a PM if he doesn't chime in. Temps in Ohio are maybe the same as Penn right now? Good luck!


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