Clinker Removal? Time to Go Fishing!

Today I noticed a hump in the middle of my coal bed after shaking it down. So, in an attempt not to stir the coals, I took my poker hook tool and pushed it to the bottom of the coal bed. With the hook pointed down and towards me, I dragged it along the bottom until it "hung up" on something. Next, I lifted the hook up and pulled out a huge clinker! Hooked me a biggun! I continued the same tactic and pulled out many more ... I'm sure this technique is old hat to the seasoned coal burner guy, but this is a new trick for me. Normally I would do a shut down and clean out to rid the coal bed of clinkers. But now, I have another plan ...

In the pic below is the clinkers and my poker/hook tool ...

your fishing hook looks very red, what are you burning, uae coal or superior ? just curious

You have brought clinkers to a new level You should be soo proud I did not know they could get that large without raising hell with your grates.

Anthracite Ed wrote:your fishing hook looks very red, what are you burning, uae coal or superior ? just curious

No idea where it comes from. My retailer doesn't know or won't tell me lol. It's red ash, which tends to fuse easy.

Looks like what I was finding most of this season after my grates got jammed open a billion times. Only whiter, and with rocks mixed in to boot.

Haven't had a problem in several weeks, since I've got to the point in my pile of bags where the coal has been stacked there for about 2 seasons.

2001Sierra wrote:You have brought clinkers to a new level You should be soo proud I did not know they could get that large without raising hell with your grates.

Thanks ... There is a ledge on each side of the grate frame where ash seems to nest, where it can sit there and fuse. The clickers also seem to form on top the grates somehow. I think the excessive fines have a hand in the clicker formation too, but maybe its just the red ash coal that's the culprit. Never seems to bother the grates. Since the clickers seem to stay suspended in the coal bed.

White ash coal and your problems will end. My new stoker could care less, I actually prefer red ash because I think it has less fly ash, which trashes the insides of my Keystoker. The old Buderus hand fed of 28 years loved white ash coal with it's European shaker grates. Quite frankly this forum was not around so I just figured things out for myself. I will admit I did not consider white ash vs red ash who would of thunk

As this link says, the heck with this lets just go FISHING!!!
Clinkers will come and go.

Lightning wrote:

2001Sierra wrote:You have brought clinkers to a new level You should be soo proud I did not know they could get that large without raising hell with your grates.

Thanks ... There is a ledge on each side of the grate frame where ash seems to nest, where it can sit there and fuse. The clickers also seem to form on top the grates somehow. I think the excessive fines have a hand in the clicker formation too, but maybe its just the red ash coal that's the culprit. Never seems to bother the grates. Since the clickers seem to stay suspended in the coal bed.

I have the same style firebox as you,take your "clinker fishing tool" with the angle and scrape/push/pull along the sides of the angled firebrick and push the acculimated ash down toward the ash pan,that works for me.
I have UAE nut coal and it's very easy to produce clinkers if burning hot.I have reduced the combustion air by 50% and the clinkers have stoped.I used to have clinkers 12" long and 5" thick sticking to the cement blocks that reduce the firebox.
The smaller clinkers get ground up with my triangler roller grates.

Dennis wrote:I have the same style firebox as you,take your "clinker fishing tool" with the angle and scrape/push/pull along the sides of the angled firebrick and push the acculimated ash down toward the ash pan,that works for me.

I kind of do that already by taking my rake tool and pushing the coal down the sides of the angled firebrick which should force the nesting ash underneath it thats resting on the grate frame to loosen and move over the grates so it will shake out. Of course its difficult to see whats going on at the bottom of the coal bed, my logic is that two things can't occupy the same space at the same time so it seems the ash would be forced laterally till its over the grates. If anything, I'm getting better heat transfer by keeping the firebricks clean (ash isn't insulating the firebricks) and it makes more room for fresh coal on top

dear lord those look like large mouth bass to me , whats the stove forming these clinkers (i mean clunkers) has to be a better solution then going fishing for these beasts... stove or coal...somethings going on here to form these better to try to solve the problem rather then to keep fighting it. I never like the sound of angled firebrick in a coal stove (it allows for a cooler coal bed above those angles or worst... dead spots), how hot are you burning the stove? you going in their and mixing the ash with the coal fire is kinda "sketchy" business for coal burning (this may make your problem worst), have you ever noticed in years past that you did not have this issue (would be a good tell tail toward coal quality maybe).

Too much combustion air will certainly produce some big clinkers. My old hand-fed boiler would occasionally make clinkers the size of a loaf of bread.

I only push down along the sides, carefully not to stir or mix. The furnace is a Clayton 1537. I've tweaked it to burn coal very efficiently thru much trial and error over the last two heating seasons. I'm sure the clicker formation is due to the red ash coal I burned for a majority of the time this year. Red ash has a tendency to fuse.

I recently bought a half ton of white ash and it burns to a fine powder without clicker. Next year I will opt to get white ash since it seems to require less fiddling

Lightning wrote:I only push down along the sides, carefully not to stir or mix. The furnace is a Clayton 1537. I've tweaked it to burn coal very efficiently thru much trial and error over the last two heating seasons. I'm sure the clicker formation is due to the red ash coal I burned for a majority of the time this year. Red ash has a tendency to fuse.

I recently bought a half ton of white ash and it burns to a fine powder without clicker. Next year I will opt to get white ash since it seems to require less fiddling

yea.... sometimes I wish I lived in PA just to be able control the coal I obtain , NY is better then MA certainly but im sure you run into the same trouble of dealers switching stuff up all the time

Mr. lightning, I can't believe no-one has commented on you running your stove too cold. I mean, isn't it obvious? Look at your 1st pic. Not only did you pull out the klinkers, but the 1 dollar bill is a dead give-away.( )

joeq wrote:Mr. lightning, I can't believe no-one has commented on you running your stove too cold. I mean, isn't it obvious? Look at your 1st pic. Not only did you pull out the klinkers, but the 1 dollar bill is a dead give-away.( )

I'm sorry partner sometimes I'm a bit hard headed I'm not quite following your line of thought I let the clinkers cool down before the photo shoot Should I have put a $20 there instead??? please advise hahahaha...