New Here, New Home, and New to Coal. EFM 520. Struggling.

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Wed. Nov. 04, 2015 9:22 am

I forgot to ask you this earlier,

Do you or have you been moving the fines dumping
lever back and forth every day?

This little motion opens the plate that slides open under
the bottom of the burn pot to dump out the coal fines
that accumulate there.

That in itself may be why the cotter key broke and the shafts
became misaligned.

I look forward to seeing the photos if you have the time to
take them and post them.
Last edited by lzaharis on Thu. Nov. 05, 2015 8:21 am, edited 2 times in total.


 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Wed. Nov. 04, 2015 10:24 am

The fines cover actually rotates to open/close 5 holes,check in the E FM section for pics to get familiar with how it works.Just pull the lever & hold for 10 seconds & then release.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Wed. Nov. 04, 2015 11:16 am

cgrattan wrote:
StokerDon wrote:I don't know what kind of timer that is but it is similar to a Honeywell S400A. Right now it is set for 2 cycles of 2 minutes. Waldo is probably right, one cycle should be 1 hour. That would mean you are running 2 minutes every half hour. You shouldn't have any outfires running that much timer. Verify that the timer is actually running.

-Don
Dumb question... I know... But how to verify that it is working? I priced 2 different new ones, but I am not buying one until I know if/why this one isn't functioning. Should I hear it? Only when the power to it is on?
1. Verify that it turns when powered.
2. When the notch in the wheel allows the switch to close, test the wire going to the ZR terminal in the aquastat for power.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Wed. Nov. 04, 2015 12:43 pm

cgrattan wrote: My oil backup gives us almost no hot water, certainly not a 10 minute shower, and there are 7 of us! Its gives about a 2 minute burst and that's it. Lukewarm at best after that.
That is not correct. Either the aquastat on the oil boiler is set too low, the mixing valve on the coil is misadjusted/faulty, or the coil needs to be cleaned.

 
franco b
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Post by franco b » Wed. Nov. 04, 2015 11:11 pm

There also should be a restriction in the line to limit the volume so it does not exceed the limits of the coil.

 
cgrattan
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Post by cgrattan » Sat. Nov. 14, 2015 2:19 pm

Well, she has been running for a week now. Discovered the cause of the pins always breaking. Turns out the pipe going from my hopper to the boiler was rusted out and slightly angled, which held up the auger from time to time causing the pins to snap. I did take pictures of the whole system for you guys, because I still can't figure out why the oil keeps kicking on so often.. I will get back to this thread tonight! Thanks again for all of your knowledge!

 
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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Nov. 14, 2015 2:30 pm

cgrattan wrote:Well, she has been running for a week now. Discovered the cause of the pins always breaking. Turns out the pipe going from my hopper to the boiler was rusted out and slightly angled, which held up the auger from time to time causing the pins to snap. I did take pictures of the whole system for you guys, because I still can't figure out why the oil keeps kicking on so often.. I will get back to this thread tonight! Thanks again for all of your knowledge!
Did you replace the auger and pipe?

-Don


 
cgrattan
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Post by cgrattan » Sat. Nov. 14, 2015 3:42 pm

No, just the pipe. I do have spare augers, but this one was not damaged

 
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Post by cgrattan » Tue. Nov. 17, 2015 9:21 pm

lzaharis wrote:I forgot to ask you this earlier,

Do you or have you been moving the fines dumping
lever back and forth every day?

This little motion opens the plate that slides open under
the bottom of the burn pot to dump out the coal fines
that accumulate there.

That in itself may be why the cotter key broke and the shafts
became misaligned.

I look forward to seeing the photos if you have the time to
take them and post them.
Yep, I do the fines until I can't hear any falling almost daily...

Another update though... let me set the setting:

It's been about 50 all week... I have had a fire going for about 8 days...

I smelled something strong, and discovered that there was smoke coming out of the hopper (my 55gal drum). Shocked, I cranked up the coal feed to the maximum, because I think the fire actually spread down into the pipe! The pipe was blazing hot half way down... after the coal forced itself up and out, it cooled off after about 2 hours... since has been ok... the ash has been burnt nice, but has this happened to anyone else?

Also, after monitoring the radiators closely, the closest to the boiler are warm, the others are ice cold. Getting no heat on the 3rd floor or in the other end of the house. They've been bled, but is there something else I could be missing? This shouldn't make sense... It should be the same water flowing through them all, right? And I di take the pictures. I will get to them either tonight or tomorrow! Nothing makes sense to me yet!

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Thu. Nov. 19, 2015 4:24 pm

cgrattan wrote:
lzaharis wrote:I forgot to ask you this earlier,

Do you or have you been moving the fines dumping
lever back and forth every day?

This little motion opens the plate that slides open under
the bottom of the burn pot to dump out the coal fines
that accumulate there.

That in itself may be why the cotter key broke and the shafts
became misaligned.

I look forward to seeing the photos if you have the time to
take them and post them.
======================================================================
Yep, I do the fines until I can't hear any falling almost daily...

Another update though... let me set the setting:

It's been about 50 all week... I have had a fire going for about 8 days...

I smelled something strong, and discovered that there was smoke coming out of the hopper (my 55gal drum). Shocked, I cranked up the coal feed to the maximum, because I think the fire actually spread down into the pipe! The pipe was blazing hot half way down... after the coal forced itself up and out, it cooled off after about 2 hours... since has been ok... the ash has been burnt nice, but has this happened to anyone else?

Also, after monitoring the radiators closely, the closest to the boiler are warm, the others are ice cold. Getting no heat on the 3rd floor or in the other end of the house. They've been bled, but is there something else I could be missing? This shouldn't make sense... It should be the same water flowing through them all, right? And I di take the pictures. I will get to them either tonight or tomorrow! Nothing makes sense to me yet!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOW!!!,
To quote Dan Holohan " If you don't get any air it aint an air problem. Stop the bleeding.

First things first:

Do you have a two pipe system or a one pipe system?
Do you have the Honeywell smart valves at the base of the radiators
with the piping going into the floor from the valves??

Dont worry about the fitting types right now though.

If you have the Honeywell smart valves they may be closed to the
radiators that are cold pushing the hot water back to the boiler.

Please add more details.

We need to see good pictures of piping from both of the boilers
and all the piping in the basement and the steel expansion tank
in greater detail.

AND don't forget good pictures of all your radiators at the connections
on both ends as we know its "not" an air problem.

You may just have closed Honeywell smart valves at the radiators in question on the third floor.

The radiators will have water in them but they are not going to be warm if the valves
for the specific radiators on the third floor are closed and bypassing them sending hot water back to the boiler..
Last edited by lzaharis on Thu. Nov. 19, 2015 7:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Thu. Nov. 19, 2015 5:31 pm

Smoke coming out of the hopper could indicate that you have the air set too high....do you have a 2" ash ring ? The ash ring is the most important detail for setting the feed vs air ratio.....if the air is too high for the amount of feed,the fire will creep DOWNWARD in the pot. Adjust for less air to maintain the 2" ash ring. The 3rd floor radiators not getting hot could just be that the system pressure is too low to raise the hot water to that level.

 
cgrattan
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Post by cgrattan » Fri. Nov. 20, 2015 6:47 am

some photos... the radiators are the old cast radiators. I will diagram them, and shoe you guys my problem areas... thanks so much! I know that what I have going now is so inefficient!

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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Nov. 20, 2015 8:51 am

You have multiple issues with different parts of the system. Calling a pro will be expensive initially, but is probably the only way to get everything sorted out.

The auger fire is serious. Did you ever verify that the timer is working? Sounds like it is not.

 
cgrattan
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Post by cgrattan » Fri. Nov. 20, 2015 8:59 am

Yes, the timer is working. Makes sense about what someone above said about too much air causing the auger fire. I don't think my feed/air ratio is quite on par with the suggested settings.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Nov. 20, 2015 9:17 am

That would do it.

Do you know how to adjust the feed rate?

5 teeth and 4.5 on the air is what I suggest.


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