Losing Fire-All of a Sudden

Kungur · Post by **Kungur** » Mon. Jul. 23, 2012 4:27 pm

I ahve been running our KA-2 since the heating season ended for DHW with no problem. All of a sudden I am having the fire go out. I cleaned the flue out the other day and it was about 1/2 full. But this afternoon I noticed it went out again.
Any thoughts?
I have a masonry chimney probably 25-30 feet tall.
Thanks!

Flyer5 · Post by **Flyer5** » Mon. Jul. 23, 2012 5:06 pm

Kungur wrote:I ahve been running our KA-2 since the heating season ended for DHW with no problem. All of a sudden I am having the fire go out. I cleaned the flue out the other day and it was about 1/2 full. But this afternoon I noticed it went out again.
Any thoughts?
I have a masonry chimney probably 25-30 feet tall.
Thanks!

What is the draft at idle? Did you change brand of coal?

Kungur · Post by **Kungur** » Mon. Jul. 23, 2012 5:24 pm

The manometer has not been registering since the middle of winter. So I cannot answer this question. It just seems odd that all of a sudden things changed. BTW same coal.
I just thought maybe I need to pull the blower and vac under the stoker bed.

Post by **Rob R.** » Mon. Jul. 23, 2012 7:15 pm

Go head and do your maintenance, and try it again...if the fire goes out, extend the timer cycle a bit and try again. Report back.

Edit: I looked at the KAA-2 manual on the Keystoker website and it says 6 clips every 10 minutes in the timer.

Kungur · Post by **Kungur** » Fri. Jul. 27, 2012 8:12 am

I opened a window in the basement and added 1 pin every 10 minutes. That seems to have corrected the problem.
Thanks!

whistlenut · Post by **whistlenut** » Fri. Jul. 27, 2012 9:22 am

Did you by any chance remove the burn grate and clean out any fines that may have fallen into it? As you know, there is not much air required to keep the fire alive, but frequently in the inclined bed stokers some folks forget to gently remove the grate and clean it out. It's a great idea a couple times a season if you have lots of fines in your coal supply. If your open window policy works well, then perhaps you might install a permanent outdoor air supply tube for the stoker. Keep us posted, please. Obviously, the hot weather isn't enhancing the draft, so you have a few things to check out.

Kungur · Post by **Kungur** » Sat. Jul. 28, 2012 3:05 pm

I still need to vac out under the grate. I will do it next time I shut down. Right now everything is working fine!