Clinker Question

 
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Wheelo
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Post by Wheelo » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 3:58 pm

I seldom get clinkers burning this coal. I might get maybe one or two small ones a week, so they really don't bother me too much. But looking at them after they've cooled I gotta ask..

What are they made up of?
How can they be prevented?
And after enough time in the fire, will they eventually burn up?
Thanks!
Wheelo


 
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2001Sierra
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Post by 2001Sierra » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 4:09 pm

Clinker facts:
They will never go away once formed
They typically are formed by hot fires
Red ash coal has a tendency to produce more of them when the fire is especially run hot and the iron in the ash tends to fuse together
White ash coal typically produces less of them

 
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Post by grumpy » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 4:19 pm


 
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Wheelo
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Post by Wheelo » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 4:27 pm

Thanks guys!!
The boss lady and I were setting by the stove examining a cooled klinker. Both of us clearly new to burning coal were looking at it like 2 scientists who had just discovered a new life form. For only being in our mid twenties I guess you could say that we are easily fascinated!! bahahaha
Wheelo

 
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Post by dlj » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 5:47 pm

Klinkers form from different things inside the coal. Silicon's, iron oxides, more. One of the things that is evaluated in a coal is the ash fusion temper. That's is basically the temperature where the ash forms into klinker as I understand it...

Running hot will tend to form more klinkers than running cooler. Type of impurities in the coal will affect how much the coal tends to form klinkers.

dj

 
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Post by 2001Sierra » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 5:56 pm

Clinkers are from the DEVIL :mad:

 
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Post by Vangellis » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 7:39 pm

Wheelo wrote:Thanks guys!!
The boss lady and I were setting by the stove examining a cooled klinker. Both of us clearly new to burning coal were looking at it like 2 scientists who had just discovered a new life form. For only being in our mid twenties I guess you could say that we are easily fascinated!! bahahaha
Wheelo
Thanks for the chuckle. Been there, done that. :lol:

Kevin


 
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Post by rustyrelics » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 7:46 pm

clinkers are usually a sign of low quality red ash coal. white ash coal burns nicer and throws more heat with zero clinkers. I never saw a clinker in my life until this year when our family as a whole, had 3 separate coal loads delivered to 3 separate homes by the same delivery service. all of a sudden clinkers in one stove that had the old style circular outer grate. relative who had it, had to shut it down twice to clear them. good white ash coal seems like its getting hard to find lately. I noticed they are starting to mix the coal with a lot of slate to reduce costs and add profit. coal quality is dropping.

 
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Post by dlj » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 9:00 pm

rustyrelics wrote:clinkers are usually a sign of low quality red ash coal. white ash coal burns nicer and throws more heat with zero clinkers. I never saw a clinker in my life until this year when our family as a whole, had 3 separate coal loads delivered to 3 separate homes by the same deliver by service. all of a sudden clinkers in one stove that had the old style circular outer grate. relative who had it, had to shut it down twice to clear them. good white ash coal seems like its getting hard to find lately. I noticed they are starting to mix the coal with a lot of slate to reduce costs and add profit. coal quality is dropping.
I've gotten klinkers from both red and white ash coal but for sure lots less with white ash coal... You don't have to shut down to get klinkers out but it does take some technique to get them out so if nobody ever showed you how shutting down is probably the only way...

dj

 
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Post by Wheelo » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 9:13 pm

White ash and red ash?? Never heard of such a thing! My ash looks like what I consider to be the average white, powdery fly ash looking stuff that I used to haul out of power plants back in the day with a tractor trailer/ dump bucket. Never knew there was difference! Feeling really "green behind the ears" right now

 
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Post by dcrane » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 9:17 pm

Wheelo wrote:White ash and red ash?? Never heard of such a thing! My ash looks like what I consider to be the average white, powdery fly ash looking stuff that I used to haul out of power plants back in the day with a tractor trailer/ dump bucket. Never knew there was difference! Feeling really "green behind the ears" right now
every person here was the same way back 20-30-40- or in Fred's case 70 years ago toothy , good to see new faces, questions and insights :punk:

 
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Post by Wheelo » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 9:27 pm

Well only being 23 years old, coming from a family of wood burners, I have a list of questions longer than a set of train tracks!!

 
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Post by anthony7812 » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 9:39 pm

Wheelo wrote:Thanks guys!!
The boss lady and I were setting by the stove examining a cooled klinker. Both of us clearly new to burning coal were looking at it like 2 scientists who had just discovered a new life form. For only being in our mid twenties I guess you could say that we are easily fascinated!! bahahaha
Wheelo
Wow that was me and mrs 3 years ago! I think I even saved that first clinker :D

 
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Post by rustyrelics » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 10:51 pm

dlj wrote:
rustyrelics wrote:clinkers are usually a sign of low quality red ash coal. white ash coal burns nicer and throws more heat with zero clinkers. I never saw a clinker in my life until this year when our family as a whole, had 3 separate coal loads delivered to 3 separate homes by the same deliver by service. all of a sudden clinkers in one stove that had the old style circular outer grate. relative who had it, had to shut it down twice to clear them. good white ash coal seems like its getting hard to find lately. I noticed they are starting to mix the coal with a lot of slate to reduce costs and add profit. coal quality is dropping.
I've gotten klinkers from both red and white ash coal but for sure lots less with white ash coal... You don't have to shut down to get klinkers out but it does take some technique to get them out so if nobody ever showed you how shutting down is probably the only way...

dj
it was the relative that couldn't get the clinker out, not me. to this day I never had a clinker in a stove I fired myself, so I never had to break one up. maybe its cuz I rake them briskly to begin with, or perhaps just got better coal. or most likely because I don't fire my stoves really high for long times as a general policy. or perhaps cuz I always had prism shaped grates in my stoves that I burned. (I have quite a few collector stoves I never fired yet) I did buy an old circulator a while back and when I took it off the truck and was cleaning it, I raked down the ash from its last fire left over inside from 45 years ago, and a HUGE clinker eventually fell out into the ash pan. they are one ugly looking thing like the Alien from that sci fi movie... :) if I did get one my first move would be dig the fire away from it, and bust it up with the poker.

 
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Post by dlj » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 11:27 pm

When they are hot klinkers are soft. They get hard when they cool. I can feel them at the bottom of the fire using a straight poker. I try to pull them out without breaking them up - easier to get them out rather than piece by piece.

With white ash coal probably its the fire temp why you don' t get them. I run hot when its cold. Lots hotter than most on here talk about.

dj


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