Refurb EFM 700, After 2.5 Ton, Clogged With Fines Already?

Hi, I noticed a lot of black fines that seem to be accumulating all over the place, on and around the gear box of my worm ... but more so .. about 1.5 inches settling into the ledge of the round door (the veiwer or whatever you call it). I open the round door to look at the fire ... and I noticed a lot of fines accumulating there. My concern, are these going to eventually get to the smoke pipe coming out? I used to have a stoker that got clogged with fly ash after a short period of use .... I noticed the draft seemed a bit weaker than when we first got it running ... after only 2.5 ton of coal ... burning buck ... anthracite .. but it's from Trevorton .. told it is not as hard as some other coal. Anyway, I heat an apartment building with it ... 5 units ... I can't exactly shut it down in the middle of winter ... but is that something I should plan on doing halfway through the season? ... A mid season clean? .. Or are these excess fines normal? I do have an 11 inch stove pipe ... so it is not small .. but well... I'm at a loss. I love this furnace .. just want to make sure it is maintained properly.

I think you are seeing two different things. There might be some fines coming out of the transfer head on the stoker, but what you see in front of the fire door is probably fly ash. Pictures would help.

Do you have a cleanout tee on the stove pipe at the rear of the boiler? You should, but if not...get a good vacuum and some gloves and pull the pipe off the flue collar, vacuum as necessary. Might as well get a brush and sweep out the heat exchanger while you are back there. Should take about 20 minutes, the folks upstairs won't even notice because the thermal mass of the boiler will still provide some heat.

A mid-season cleaning is a good idea from a safety and efficiency perspective.

Run a bead of silicon under the flat plate that covers the transfer box to seal that up. The fines on the front door are usually flyash.

Scottscoaled wrote:Run a bead of silicon under the flat plate that covers the transfer box to seal that up. The fines on the front door are usually flyash.

x2. Also a bead of silicone where the bin auger pipe meets the "pipe support" (the pipe receiver with 2 big set screws adjacent to the transfer head) if anything seems to be coming out there.

Mike

Thanks fellas .... a clean out T .... hmmm