Gentleman Janitor GJ-51??? Project

i would think your problem is no insulation on that thing, that is a lot of coal for a stoker isnt it??!!! I burned 190 lbs or 27.14 lbs/day from last saturday 10/31/15 to yesterday 11/7/15 and its colder up here.. is there something where missing??

EDIT; 11/14/15.

CORRECTION: The reading 6 days ago was 1362.1 hours NOT 1368.1 hours.

The meter reading today is 1388.1 - 1362.9 = 25.2 hours over the past 6 days X 9 pounds per hour = 226.8 pounds divided by 6 days = 37.8 pounds per day. This still doesn't explain how 300 pounds dissapered out of the barrel over these 6 days? That would be 50 pounds per day.
I removed 52 pounds of ash. Seems to be staying right around 50 pounds of ash for 300 pounds burned. About 17%.

I am very impressed with how well this simple ash diverter works. I have not shoveled one spec of ash out of there yet! It all lands in the pan. This stoker has been running for almost 2 months now. I am going to put some kind of fines clean out door in my Van Wert. I think this is one of the downfalls of the Gentleman Janitor and Van Wert stokers. You have to remove the fines clean out cover that is bolted on to clean the fines out. I can't imagine that people would actually do that once a week. I guess that's why most of the Van Werts have broken lower rings.

EFM and Yellow Flame just made it too easy. You pull a lever for a few seconds every day or two or three and that's it! Filled out with about 300 more pounds. -Don

Something has to be wrong. If I just filled the barrel with 300 pounds of coal, that means I must have burned about 300 pounds of coal over the past 6 days. That would be 50 pounds per day. That's a lot!

-Don

300lb/19.9hrs=15lb/hr

well either way you cant argue with the facts, if it took 300 pounds to fill the hopper from "full" 6 days ago, thats 50 lbs per day..

After thinking about this for a while, you guys are right. There is no way to get around the fact that 300 pounds in 6 days = 50 pounds per day!

The only thing I can think of that would cause this discrepancy is the hour meter. For some reason it does not seem to be running the same amount as the stoker motor. It is wired directly in parallel with the stoker motor.

I guess it's time for a new hour meter. That's not good, this one is less than a year old. And it cost 50 bucks!

-Don

the feed rate could not have changed at all? I thought you put a different motor on this?

hotblast1357 wrote:the feed rate could not have changed at all? I thought you put a different motor on this?

Changing the motor will not change the feed rate.

I have only used 4 teeth and 5 teeth. I only tried 5 teeth for a week or so. Currently running 4 teeth. 4 teeth is theoretically 10 pounds per hour for rice coal according to EFM. I measured 9 pounds per hour on 4 teeth in my feed rate test. So I have been using 9 pounds per hour to calculate coal usage.

It's not very logical to think that the feed rate could somehow change itself from 9 to 15 pounds per hour. It is more likely a problem with the hour meter.

-Don

so you cant put a different size motor on it? only that one speed/size motor will fit on the EFM?

it very well could be the hour meter, they have them on amazon for under 20$

hotblast1357 wrote:so you cant put a different size motor on it? only that one speed/size motor will fit on the EFM?
$

It's a standard oil burner motor. It has nothing to do with it being an EFM. All standard 120, 1 phase, AC, electric motors are 1725 RPM. Once in a while I see 3450 RPM motors. The people that designed these stokers wanted to use standard replacement parts. That way, they could make a little more money on the mark up. If they used a non-standard, more expensive motor, they may loose money.

-Don

ok just checking lol the one you put on isn't a 3450 rpm? lol check your hour meter with something, a kitchen timer or something? power it on and see what it does. thatll tell you if its the meter or the stoker somehow.

a motor at 3450 rpms is double what you tested with, and your pushing possibly almost double the coal you think, say if you were actually feeding 8 pounds per hour before with a 1725 rpm motor, with a 3450 rpm motor wouldnt you be pushing 16 lbs per hour? its just to much of a coincidence, or am I just looking at all the the wrong way? Maybe the hour meter is just working that bad.

hotblast1357 wrote:a motor at 3450 rpms is double what you tested with, and your pushing possibly almost double the coal you think, say if you were actually feeding 8 pounds per hour before with a 1725 rpm motor, with a 3450 rpm motor wouldnt you be pushing 16 lbs per hour? its just to much of a coincidence, or am I just looking at all the the wrong way? Maybe the hour meter is just working that bad.

It's a 1725 RPM motor. That wouldn't explain how the feed rate would jump from 9 pounds per hour to 15 pounds per hour weeks after the motor was changed now would it?

I guess I will get another hour meter and hook it up. Then we can see if one reads more hours than the other.

-Don

good idea.

The meter reading today is 1420.5 -1388.1 = 32.4 hours over the past 7 days X 9 pounds per hour = 291.6 pounds divided by 7 days = 41.5 pounds per day. Not to bad, and pretty believable. If the run hours times 9 pound per hour come out near 300, it makes sense.
I cheated a little. I had my first outfire last night or early this morning. It's just getting cold enough now to relite it. I was my fault it went out, I didn't re-fill it last night like I should have. So, it ran out of coal.

I removed 58 pounds of ash.

Pushing on well with the BairMatic to Van Wert conversion. I'm getting ready to pressure test it now. I'll re-lite the GJ while I'm at it.
-Don