Sudden uneven burn

All has been working well up until last night. When I went down to check on the EFM, I found that the fire was wrong. The back right side of the fire was not burning, and the front right was burning way too hot. The coal was also much more mounded than normal. The odd thing is the fire was normal Tuesday evening when I checked on it.

Tonight I check it out, and the fire is not burning on the back right side of the pot. There is a bunch of unburnt coal in the ash bin. So it appears I will be letting the fire got out this weekend and cleaning it out for an inspection. Any ideas on what would cause a sudden change like this?

Thanks,
Pete

If the worm flights get sharp edges at the bottom of the pot, it can cause that. But that wouldn't happen overnight, unless something broke. In that case, the unburned spot moves around from day to day. Could be that there is alot of caked up fines under the plates at that spot. Make sure the cover plate is fully closed and not broken. Look up through the holes in the plate and see if everything is cleaned out.

Any chance it swallowed a big chunk of damp fines? Let it go out and clean out the pot for a closer look.

Think I found the problem today...



Found that wrapped around the auger shaft. It is a stainless steel band. I do believe it does not belong there The fire is now back to normal.

Best I could tell, that band was pulverizing the coal and had built up a damn of fines to the back side of the burner, preventing air flow. Everything else looks fine inside the pot.

woweee

good thing you got that baby out of there.

Good work!

wow

Maybe that is causing my problem too!