How long does your coal gun ash for on average?

My S260 seems to only be ashing for 2-3 minutes at a time. The problem I'm having is that it seems like when the unit stops ashing the ash temp only goes upto around 150* so it has to ash again quite often. The unit seems to run all the time and its not keeping up with the demand. I had a chilly house this morning and I didn't seem to have any problems in colder weather last year. Any thoughts or opinions would be great. Thanks

chevymatt wrote:The unit seems to run all the time and its not keeping up with the demand.

Matt, did you shut the boiler down for the summer? If you did, and you didn't clean it after shutting down, it might have some fly-ash built up that is impeding heat transfer. I remember that happening to another coalgun owner a few years ago. Also, since you recently had that large clinker plug things up, the fire might not be burning in the correct pattern/height. I would shut the unit down and completely clean out the combustion area, and pull the fan off to make sure things look alright inside.

Edit: Found old thread: efficiency loss

Matt, I think Rob makes a good point. You need to remove the fan assembly, and clean the swirl chamber. Obviously, that is a better summer project, but you should have it apart( new gaskets) and back together in less that 1 hour.
Anti-seize ALL bolts, and don't get any clever ideas about removing the fan. Odds are 999 to 1, that won't happen without an emergency order for parts. Been there, done that.....
I've seen the swirl chamber so packed that we had to sand blast it loose, so just like any heat transfer surface, the fly ash can cause slow or little transfer, and low output costs you money in the additional fuel used.
Good luck, and try to keep most of the shin on your hands....

Thanks guys. I've got a call into AHS to order some new gaskets. Just waiting on a call back. Have you guys found a good brush for cleaning your coal guns? Mines pretty cheesy and would like to find out who makes a good one. Thanks again

Check in at any supply house, and you want wire, not plastic bristles. Shop vac and a piece of wood small enough to fit inside the spirals.
When you get done with this cleaning, you will see how easy it is, and perhaps you can get again at the end of February.
The coal quality has a lot to do with the build-up, as does years of no cleaning.

Around 15m every 2 to 3 hours my sv=125.

The ash grate temperature not exceeding 150 degrees seems OK by me. I'm rarely seeing my ash grate get up to more than 130 degrees. But then I have my SV set down to a very low 100 degrees (don't try this without a need to, and without authorization from AHS).

You should be taking out about 10% to 15% of your coal added as ashes. If you are taking about 10 to 15 lbs. of ashes out for every 100 lbs. of coal added, that would seem about right, and would imply that you are ashing sufficiently.

As Rob and whistlenut mentioned above, it seems you may have a heat transfer problem if your S260 is not keeping up.

Well like usual you guys were right about the unit needing to be cleaned. I had about 3" of fly ash through out the heat chamber not to mention the little funnel piece that goes down to the ash pan was clogged and half full. Plus the flue was half full on the horizontal.

I hope others learn from my stupidity and clean their boilers on a regular basis. A little bit of time will save you tons of time,coal, and money in the long run.

Well the boiler is heating back up now and will hopefully be as good as new.

Thanks again everybody

chevymatt wrote:Well like usual you guys were right about the unit needing to be cleaned. I had about 3" of fly ash through out the heat chamber not to mention the little funnel piece that goes down to the ash pan was clogged and half full. Plus the flue was half full on the horizontal.

I hope others learn from my stupidity and clean their boilers on a regular basis. A little bit of time will save you tons of time,coal, and money in the long run.

Well the boiler is heating back up now and will hopefully be as good as new.

Thanks again everybody

Do you remember when you last cleaned the boiler or how much coal was ran thru,just courious

I believe the last time was last march. I've probably ran 10-12 tons through it. I figured since it was a pretty mild winter last year it would have been fine through this year.

I was wrong. Very wrong