4 out fires today so far

Coldest day of year and the first out fires. The only thing that has changed is the blashack rice that was soaking wet finally got used up. I was blending it with the buck. Now it is straight buck. After the last out fire I turned the feed up. I don't think the auger could feed the large sized buck fast enough to keep the fire. It has been working for an hour now. I knew that the buck was to big the auger sounds like it is grinding rocks. I think I will stick with rice for a while I don't need practice in fire starting anymore.

When the fire does out...is all the coal in the pot burned up?

no the pot is full of fresh unburned coal.

Either your draft is really weak, or you pushed the fire right out of the pot. What is the feed and air setting?

The air is 4.5 the feed was between 5 and 6. Has been working good for a week and half. The air is still 4.5 but I turned the feed up to about 10. I am going to go check on it now. i don't trust it now.

Sounds like you need more air...or less coal.

buck requires more air. try 4.5 on the feed and 6 on the air

The bigger EFM's were designed to burn buck, so it should just be a matter of dialing in the right fuel-air mixture. Whenever you change coal size/supplier/etc. it's good to pay close attention to the way the fire changes. By doing that you often can see the need for adjustments in the fuel-air mixture before outfires occur.

All else equal, if you had a good EFM fire (1-2" ash ring; black circle in middle) using wet rice, I would expect that you'd need to increase the feed or decrease the air when you switched to buck (though 10 feed vs. 4.5 air sounds like way too much). You might also need to increase the duration or frequency of timer cycles.

Mike

I think I was pushing it out of the pot. I cut the feed back to 4 and air to 6. I hope this works I looked at the grates with a light they are not plugged. I took pipe cap off it is not plugged. I also brushed chimney it was not plugged. This is getting old fast.

Put a load on the boiler and make the stoker run for 30 minutes...the fire should be roughly the same size as the grates. If it is smaller, decrease the air slightly (0.5 or so) and do another test burn. If you observe burning coal on the burner ring (cast iron ring around the top of the grates), increase the air slightly and go from there.

As for "getting old fast", setting up a new stoker with an unknown coal source is trial and error.

x2. The objective is to keep the ash ring around 1-2" w/no hot coals going over the side. Bonus points awarded for a black circle in the middle of the fire.

Mike

Agree with the other guys... sounds like too much feed and pushing it right out of the pot.

I finally gave up and bought another skid of the blashack wet rice. It is burning good for 3 hours now. The only problem I have now is getting it to stay off the low limit. The heat load from a cold house and shop is eating it up. I increased the feed and air and it is helping. I really thought the 700 would be able to put out more. Thanks for the advise.

What temperature water are you sending to the radiant slab?

I have radiant slab heat and have no issues with the 520 putting out way more than I need. Although your slad may be larger than mine also. My house has mixed radiant and 1" baseboard fin.

I know that Hall's in Loysburg PA heat their shop with a Larger EFM boiler, You might find some posts on here. It is a large shop...