Coal-Trol on EFM 520

The EFM needs to be adjusted twice a year, once in the fall when heating season starts and once in the spring when heating season ends.

Wood'nCoal wrote:The EFM needs to be adjusted twice a year, once in the fall when heating season starts and once in the spring when heating season ends.

It depends how your heating load compares to your DHW load. Obviously if you run the stoker flat out in the winter and only provide DHW for two people in the summer...an adjustment would make sense. Some of us tend to get carried away with fine-tuning, meanwhile the Van Wert and Gentleman Janitor guys make due with the fact that their stokers have a fixed rate of feed. They adjust the air for a nice burn and set the timer...simple.

@Mcgeiver...great info!! Certainly exciting to imagine what is in the works!!!

For the past month or so I was on 4 feed, and 5.5 air.timer 3 min/hr.(160/190). This worked well most days. Except a few days ago, my home got too hot; 75 degrees inside!

So, I dialed my boiler down to 140/170 (timer 1 min per hr) and 4 feed, 5 air..got scared after 8hrs and bumped the timer back up to 3 min. ...last night,,,it was cold (30+/-degrees)...the unit seemed to run quite a bit. My fire grew VERY large..so i dropped the feed to 3 teeth/4.5air. It ran overnight, checked it this morning, I had a large fire, with hardly any ash ring.

I think I gotta go back to my 160/190.

but...that 170 Upper limit kept the house @ 70degrees and provided DHW for 3 showers in the AM....now will that do the same when it is 10 and 20 degrees outside..I don't know. ...but i hate to burn it up to 190..when 170 is getting it done.

Are you burning buckwheat size anthracite?

You need to pick a feed rate and put enough of a load on the boiler to make the stoker run about 30 minutes or so...then judge the ash ring.

When I got up this morning at least one of my two zones was calling for heat(probably both) and 3 showers within 45min...I know the furnace ran for 30 thirty min this morning..as well as heavily throughout the night....3 teeth feed for the previous 8 -12 hours..and I had a large fire with hardly any ash ring.

It was weird because the fire was actually "tall". Much more robust than usual....

Burning RICE...very good coal, traditionally.

It is unusual that rice would require that much air for 3 teeth of feed. It is possible that your coal burns unusually slow, but I would shut the stoker down and inspect the grates for blocked air holes. Also make you you don't have any gaskets out of place causing air leaks.

But you know what...funny you mention that. Because as i unloaded it, I even commented that the "rice" looked like buckwheat and my dad agreed....so this batch may be a little larger...by eyeballing.

my air setting has always been on the high side to get a nice burn. I attributed it to dirty coal...?

I found it very unusual that 3 teeth would create such a large fire.

I don't mean any offense, but are you sure you are counting the teeth of feed correctly? An easy way to check is to shut the unit off, turn the gearbox input shaft by hand, and count the teeth that pass by the check pawl.

I count the teeth by counting the number to teeth that move on each stroke of the motor. Like this:

/ x x x /

the / is the tooth that is struck..and the x is the amount of teeth that pass...and the / is the next tooth struck....I consider that as a feed rate of 3. I believe that is the correct way?

I still need to go get my second coffee, but from your description it sounds like you have set on 4 teeth. Do what I suggest above and count how many times the check pawl "clicks". If you really do have it set on 4 teeth and are burning buck-size coal, you may have to bump the air up to 5.5 or so in order to get a good ash ring.

lOOKING at the example I gave you.../ x x x / ...your right...that would be 4 teeth. My mistake is that the "second" stroke of the pawl actually strikes the last x. So more like this:


x x X x x X x x X x x X With the (big X) being the tooth that is being pushed....this is what I am set at ...and this is what i call 3 teeth of feed.

I will try your suggestion. I'm definately gonna bump the air up too. But I can't see raising the temp above 170 if that's getting the job done.

Chimley

As Wood N coal said. I Literally make 2 adjustments a year.

Thats the truth. One for spring/summer and one for fall /winter. I increase my wilbert timer setting for spring/summer to prevent outfire.

I haven't adjusted it since Oct 9th and won't adjust it again until probably April maybe May depending. and off we go for another 6 months...

"""I'm sorry.....even if you are only burning in the winter, I find it hard to believe you make No adjustments.

Give me a break !""""

I won't take any offense to the coments! I'm a good guy! Honest.