dumb newbie question on S-260

Hey guys, I have probably one of the dumbest questions for you.

I've got my S-260 in the building its going in but no plumber to install it yet. I was looking over the unit and looking inside it with a flashlight and I noticed that there is nothing stopping the coal in the hopper from falling into the fire. Am i right to assume that the hole burn area is full of coal and as it burns down and makes more room in the burn chamber that the coal falls in from the hopper? If this is the case then aren't you basically lighting a couple hundred pounds of coal on fire? Just seems strange but obviously im no genius.

Does anybody have a guess on how many pounds of coal the burn chamber holds and how much the hopper holds on an s-260? Just curious. Thanks everyone in advance

thanks isayre. I just got a minute to look at it today and had my brain boggled. Im sure once I get it hooked up I'll have a million more silly questions and I know that people like your self will be here to help me through it. This is a great site.

Thanks again

Im going to guess 40-60lb in chamber, 240 lb in hooper (new style).

You should also have a hopper sensor that shuts off the blower.

Thanks guys

Make sure you add some 5-10 gal ash at startup. Put in 40lbs pea, then I use about 5 charcoal briquettes the lighter fuels thru the viewport, hit it with the torch, when they are going good mix in the pea as to slightly bury them, in 15 min hit the fan, continue working those 5 into the middle every 10min. make sure youre grate is off at least until you get up to temp, add more pea slowly until the neck is filled let it get hot before filling the rest of the hopper. Make sure you have the sv set correctly, make sure the viewport plate seals when blower is on, leave viewport hole open, make sure you put hopper lid on, make sure youre draft is around .04 at idle .06 with blower. Make sure youre hi/low/dump is operating properly. Get some co detectors, make sure you have plenty of combustion air. keep some pool baking soda around for chooking fire in emergency. Good start. Next get some extra ash pans and build a cyclone for you're ash vac / shop vac. Dont add unburned or clinkers to hooper.

You may get bridging in the neck and thus outfire. If u feed it thru view port or wait till neck is empty that works, just keep an eye on it. Lowering sv may give you less unburned.

i mixed in my partially unburnt and unburnt coal with new coal and added to hopper, havent had any problems since doing that off and on for a week now, i made sure i didnt put a solid layer of partially burnt in the hopper