Suddenly Having Difficulty Maintaining a Fire in the S130

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 7:56 pm

Since my clean-out I've fired the boiler twice on a full load of Stockton, and lost the fire within 24 hours each time.

I cleaned it meticulously. The flapper door, though it is closing when the fan comes on, is not aggressively snapping closed. The boiler also seems very sluggish in heating, such as I've never experienced before. I've hit it with really good and sustained loads when firing it to get a good fire going. I'm noticing that after a heat call from a T-Stat it loses more internal temperature than I've ever seen it do in the past, and then it takes an unusually extended time to recover. Then it goes out if it sits for merely a few hours and then a new heat call (or something like a load of laundry) occurs.

I'm re-firing it for the third time right now. If I lose the fire again I believe I will empty out all of the Stockton pea and feed it a load of straight Blaschak pea to see if that changes anything. Any other suggestions?

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 8:03 pm

Are you building the new fire over 5 gallon of old ash in fire tube and on grate?
Are you leaving the ashing motor switch off for 24 hours?

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 8:05 pm

McGiever wrote:Are you building the new fire over 5 gallon of old ash in fire tube and on grate?
Are you leaving the ashing motor switch off for 24 hours?

The manual only says to load it up with straight fresh coal, and that's what I did. It also says to turn the ash grate switch on after 2-3 hours of load.

Post by **Rob R.** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 8:09 pm

lsayre wrote:
McGiever wrote:Are you building the new fire over 5 gallon of old ash in fire tube and on grate?
Are you leaving the ashing motor switch off for 24 hours?
The manual only says to load it up with straight fresh coal, and that's what I did. It also says to turn the ash grate switch on after 2-3 hours of load.

That seems like a sure-fire (pun intended) way to end up with a bunch of partially burned coal around the outside of the tube, or a non-uniform fire. It needs to be one or the other, if loading with pure coal the grate needs to stay off or a day or so...if you start with half a tube of ash, the grate can be turned on after a few hours.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 8:20 pm

I'll let it go overnight with the ash grate switch off this time. If it goes out again I will empty it completely and then start over again by first adding a bucket load of ash, followed by straight Blaschak. Then if it stays running I will only run it on Blaschak until winter comes, and then I will feed it a blend of 1 part Stockton and 1 part Blaschak during the winter (to get rid of the Stockton).

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 9:31 pm

lsayre wrote:
McGiever wrote:Are you building the new fire over 5 gallon of old ash in fire tube and on grate?
Are you leaving the ashing motor switch off for 24 hours?
The manual only says to load it up with straight fresh coal, and that's what I did. It also says to turn the ash grate switch on after 2-3 hours of load.

How long might it take to have added up to 2-3 hours of load?

lzaharis · Post by **lzaharis** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 9:53 pm

Larry,

A couple of things come to mind right away;

1. the fan hub could be loosening on you again.
a. The tombstone cover needs to be removed and the hinge
cleaned/sprayed with good brand of pather piss like PB blaster or
squirt some motor oil across the hinge and let soak in.

2. screwy as it is- I changed the speed settings to number one
(being the lowest flow rate on my three speed B+G balancing pump and
circulating pump and the heat stays in the boiler much much longer and
the boiler damper shuts down sooner on my coal/wood burner.

I have noticed that we have absolutely no wind/very little wind again
tonight and the Barometer is at 29.8 inches of mercury/1,000.67 millibars.

I am wondering if the new hurricane is affecting the barometers this far north???

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 10:03 pm

I adjusted the flapper cover a bit just minutes ago to get a more positive seal. Not springing open quite as far now when the fan turns off, but pulling in tighter when the fan turns on.

I will consider trying the 3 speed circulator on slow instead of medium speed.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Oct. 13, 2014 6:04 am

This morning the boiler is sitting at 205 degrees and the ash grate is at 197. We have turned on the ash grate switch. At this rate I'm guessing it will be quite some time before it actuates, as it is set to turn on at 110 degrees and off at 120 degrees.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Mon. Oct. 13, 2014 8:02 am

So , would you attribute your difficulties to maintaining the fire, in this case, to having switched on the grate motor too soon?

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Oct. 13, 2014 10:33 am

McGiever wrote:So , would you attribute your difficulties to maintaining the fire, in this case, to having switched on the grate motor too soon?

Too soon to tell. Only after a day or two go by will I be able to begin to piece together what might have happened (if it is other than the coal).

whistlenut · Post by **whistlenut** » Mon. Oct. 13, 2014 11:31 am

Larry, did you notice a bunch of un-burned coal in the ash? The ashing could have been taking place at an accelerated rate after the restart, especially with the low demands of this time of year.
I hesitate to even mention that if you had a run time meter on the ashing circuit you would know how long it ran, and if you wanted to go a step further, a time chart along with the meter. .....

However that is not the issue. Relax, throw away the spreadsheet, sit back and gently adjust the ashing ONLY after sufficient time has elapsed during the low burn cycle. I'd wager the unit is not running much now, anyway.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Oct. 13, 2014 12:11 pm

whistlenut wrote:Larry, did you notice a bunch of un-burned coal in the ash? The ashing could have been taking place at an accelerated rate after the restart, especially with the low demands of this time of year.
I hesitate to even mention that if you had a run time meter on the ashing circuit you would know how long it ran, and if you wanted to go a step further, a time chart along with the meter. .....

However that is not the issue. Relax, throw away the spreadsheet, sit back and gently adjust the ashing ONLY after sufficient time has elapsed during the low burn cycle. I'd wager the unit is not running much now, anyway.

I have been experiencing a lot of partially to nearly un-burned coal in the ash of late.

The bummer is that we are set to have a few consecutive days of warm weather, and I don't expect very many, if any T-Stat calls until about this coming weekend.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Mon. Oct. 13, 2014 12:32 pm

Larry, As *WN* mentioned above, wiring a 120 volt hour meter in parallel with the grate motor will get precise data as to what is happening.
Ash out = Coal In
And let you know how long did this thing run in this last time period?

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Oct. 13, 2014 5:45 pm

Got home from work, and the boiler is sitting at about 185 degrees, while the ash grate temperature is 167 degrees. Nothing in the ash tub, so it has not ashed at all since my latest re-start, and since the grate switch was turned on at about 6:00 this morning.