Van Wert VA600 Rebuild

Sorry, I had it on 3, and was thinking of going to 4. I misread the slide scale, when I wrote the last post. I did read the manual and set it on 3 a few weeks back. All set now, thank you.

windyhill4.2 wrote:My understanding is that too little air causes the fire to burn lower in the pot..... which would mean MORE heat to the rings,not less , being a non-expert,i may be wrong.

Had my brain in reverse or neutral ,too much air would make the fire burn lower in the pot risking damage to the pot

Dont worry so much about ruining your rings, they are built to take it. I run mine about 4ish on the scale and I get a nice white gray tan granola ash with little to nun unburnt coal. I tried higher settings but it just made more fly ash accumulation it seemed. Its best to make slow moves and hunker down on a setting for a day or 2 to see full results. Your gonna see in the dead of winter that hole pot have a nice glowing fire so trust me those rings arent as fragile as you think. So I have finally seen first hand for the first time an EFM running. Im very glad I went with a VW. The 520 is a great machine too don't get me wrong but the VW is such a wonderful hands off simple machine that does the job. Alpine your gonna be very satisfied with the 600 you have, good luck! At the end of the season thier a few small things I did for clean up I will pass along when we get thier....

The ashes from burning with the air setting at 3. Overall looks very good, just a few black pieces here and there that did not get 100% burned, probably almost there but not 100%.
I moved the air to 4 just to see if there is any difference. These are the flame pics on 4 air setting, there is not any noticeable difference , compared to 3 air setting. The camera is not picking up the blue in the flame.
The flame is consistent in its density and width from its base to almost the top of the ceiling. Near the ceiling of the burn chamber the flame tapers inward slightly and a few of the remaining flames are touching the ceiling. I am guessing that it is burning quite a large percentage of the volatile gases. Reason being , I have not smelt anything outside yet, and it is overcast, 50 degrees and low barometric pressure. That being a day to smell something would have been today.
I kind of wish Doug was around to see this.
Oh, and if I have not thanked any one lately for the help/guidance/expertise/knowledge,... thank you all, much appreciated.
This is turning out to be a great item to play with.

Update: Fly ash #4 air setting pic shows ash build up after only a couple hrs, firing for 10 to 15 / hour. The ash is building up on the interior sidewalls as well. This was not there at all while operating on air setting #3. While on #4 setting there are noticeably bigger fused ash chunks hanging on the pot edge. So it probably is burning a bit hotter. But you may be losing that heat to a stronger draft up the chimney....higher air flow...? I am seeing how those little black pcs are making there get away. It appears that they planned this ahead of time. Look, I know we are all on fire , but we need to relax and think clearly. Lets get out as close to the edge as possible and when that fan shuts off, that's our chance. Because when it turns back on, it will not be hot enough to burn the rest of us, that are the closest to the edge, from there it is easy, just ride the wave and make a jump for it. I will see you in the ash bucket. good luck everyone.

alpineboard wrote: So it probably is burning a bit hotter. But you may be losing that heat to a stronger draft up the chimney....higher air flow...? I am seeing how those little black pcs are making there get away. It appears that they planned this ahead of time. Look, I know we are all on fire , but we need to relax and think clearly. Lets get out as close to the edge as possible and when that fan shuts off, that's our chance. Because when it turns back on, it will not be hot enough to burn the rest of us, that are the closest to the edge, from there it is easy, just ride the wave and make a jump for it. I will see you in the ash bucket. good luck everyone.

Rob pls check your co detector.

W, That is a good point , always check the co detector. Yes , Rich, I do not think you can totally eliminate those partial burned black pcs. , due to the on/off cycling of the thermostat/aquastat controls. I am guessing that those blk pcs will be reduced when it gets colder and the demand increases, so the unit will have a longer duration burn time. But , yes , when I break up those chunks/fused larger pcs, there is not a thing in there that is unburned. It is already back to 3 setting, I do not want to deal with that fly ash.

Every thing is good, but just re read the manual again, and I will post a pic soon of the air gate, its numbers and what exactly is position 3 on the gate. The thumb screw holds the air gate in place. So to clarify any potential errors, There is a thumbscrew setting (notch) on the gate that holds the gate in the closed position, I am calling this closed position ZERO. So the next notch is 1, the following notch is 2, ...etc. The reason I stating this is because when it is in the 3 position, the #3 is slightly covered in the top of the frame work piece.

alpineboard wrote:Every thing is good, but just re read the manual again, and I will post a pic soon of the air gate, its numbers and what exactly is position 3 on the gate. The thumb screw holds the air gate in place. So to clarify any potential errors, There is a thumbscrew setting (notch) on the gate that holds the gate in the closed position, I am calling this closed position ZERO. So the next notch is 1, the following notch is 2, ...etc. The reason I stating this is because when it is in the 3 position, the #3 is pretty much covered in the top of the frame work piece.

The other possibility is that the visible # is shown and the thumbscrew holds on the top of the land and not in the indent notch. Just would like an opinion about this, it is burning great, that is what counts. tx
I suppose the #'s are referencing the pointed bar lines, and the pointed bar lines are what is supposed to be lined up with the top of the frame, so who cares if the number can not be seen.

Rob R. wrote:The air should be adjusted based on the amount of ash on the stoker under full load, not the appearance of the ashes. Again, the manual discusses this in detail.

x2. The width of the ash ring, not the appearance of the ash, is what tells you whether or not you have an optimal fuel-air mix. Deviating from the ash ring spec to achieve a "more complete" burn is basically guaranteed to decrease overall efficiency.

Mike

Got it, So the outer ash ring , the completely burned ring , Not red any more, should be 1" to 2" in width in reference from the outside diameter of the big top ring, not counting anything that is overhanging from that point.

Yes. Basically, the coal won't be getting any more forced combustion air once it moves past that point, so that's where the burn should be complete if the max BTU's are to be extracted from the coal. If the burn is complete "before" that point (i.e., producing a wider ash ring), some of the combustion air will be blowing through dead ash, cooling the combustion chamber.

Mike