Unburnt Coal in Ash Bin W/ Reading Juniata Stove

I am new to burning coal so I was unsure of this at first. I have a Reading Juniata Stove. It also has the coal trol attached to it. I always thought that there was unburnt coal in my ash bin. Some of it was burning, but there was unburnt coal sneaking by and into my ash bucket. While taking my ashes out yesterday my neighbor came over to have a look. He confirmed to me that yes it looked as if I was wasting coal, and the coal was being push forward before it was fully burnt. My fire is at least 2" away from the end of the grate, so it's not falling off while it is still on fire, but rather being pushed forward to where the air is not blowing up from underneath to keep the fire at that point on the grate. But like I said I am very new to this burning coal thing. I had to see unburnt coal in ash bin.

Some amount of unburned coal goes into the ash bin even with an efficient fire. If there is a 2" band of ash after the unit has run hard for 30+ minutes, I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you think it might be excessive, it would be helpful if you could post pics so we can see it, too.

Mike

I'm pretty sure the Juaniata has the "triburner" mechanism. What is happening is very normal for it. It can be improved. The "problem" with the triburner is that the combustion fan only blows while the burner is stoking....that is... if you stop the bed the blower would stop. On these the bed usually doesn't stop, but, as you slow the stoking down (so you don't roast yourself out) the fan slows down with it. Less fan equals less air, less air equals a burn that isn't complete. You'll find on very cold days when you ask the stove to run flat out that you get much less unburned coal because the fan is running full speed.

The cure is to remove the squirrel cage blower from the tri-burner and add a fan that runs full speed 24 hours a day. Here's a good fan: http://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-PSC-Blower ... vc=IDPRRZ1

Attached is a picture of how one was added.

Also.... if you do a search on the forum for "reading upgrade" I think you'll find some posts showing this idea. Maybe someone has the posts saved and will post links to them?

I understand many people have done that but to me it doesn't seem productive. It adds equipment cost, electricity use and noise to incinerate a very small amount of coal at a time when the unit does not have a load to carry. As Freddy points out, the "problem" doesn't happen when the unit is working hard, and I would add that is when most of the coal gets used. I prefer the guidance regarding unburned coal at idle provided in some of the old-school manuals. To paraphrase: "Get over it."

Mike

The picture about is my coal ash. I don't believe mine has the tri burner. And I do have a seperate combustion fan hooked up. It's hooked up to my coal trol box I also have a fan to blow the hot air.

That's the picture of my ash I don't believe I have the tri burner model and I already have a seperate blower just for combustion with the coal trol conversion

That does looks like quite a bit of unburned coal, especially if you already have a separate combustion fan and are running with a Coal-Trol. I'll take back my earlier suggestion, and leave it to people experienced with this set-up to help you out.

Mike

Could be crappy coal, where is coal from and does it have allot of smaller pieces.

It was from harmony in my Carmel which was supposedly very good. This stuff is from reading coal. Both stuff burned much the same

..

Have you done a complete cleaning? What have you done on cleaning?

I recently vaccummed out the entire thing Cleaned grate and air holes in it as well as under it. Also replaced gaskets around grate/ fire box. Cleaned up fire brick as well

Thanks for all the input so far. I was wondering if there was some setting in coal trol I should be adjusting

check this thread....Reading Juniata Help!!