The Bairmatic - Van Wert Project

 
unhippy
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Post by unhippy » Sat. Jun. 04, 2016 7:12 am

that looks like the flames that my coal has.....you didn't have someone get rid of some bit by mixing it in with your hard coal did you?..... :D

just a thought....that lehigh coal hasn't been oiled has it?


 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sat. Jun. 04, 2016 7:40 am

Only time I saw flames that color was when I purposly mixed some bit in with my anthracite on a hand fired stove just to see what would happen. Other than an orange/yellow flame nothing untoward happened.

 
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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Jun. 04, 2016 9:52 am

When I first opened the fire door and saw these flames it struck me that this is what a Bit stoker looks like!

The coal that was in the bin is the same coal I've been burning for the past 5 months. The Lehigh bagged coal is the second half of the 12 bags that I bought when I was up at Lehigh, the other 6 bags were burned in the GJ/EFM with no problems.

-Don

 
Pacowy
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Post by Pacowy » Sat. Jun. 04, 2016 10:05 am

Don,

I'd suggest going back to the old aquastat settings. The lower operating temp may be interfering with your draft and going below 140 deg invites condensation (esp. during higher humidity conditions often prevailing in spring and summer).

Mike

 
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StokerDon
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Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Jun. 04, 2016 10:30 am

Pacowy wrote:Don,

I'd suggest going back to the old aquastat settings. The lower operating temp may be interfering with your draft and going below 140 deg invites condensation (esp. during higher humidity conditions often prevailing in spring and summer).

Mike
OK, I'll give it a try, but my over fire draft has been staying between -.01 and -.025.

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Jun. 04, 2016 11:15 am

Your lazy fire is due to fines in the coal. I have encountered that before when emptying the barrel all the way.

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sun. Jun. 05, 2016 6:35 am

Rob R. wrote:Your lazy fire is due to fines in the coal. I have encountered that before when emptying the barrel all the way.
Did your fire turn orange?


 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Jun. 05, 2016 6:52 am

One time it did...I had been burning Kimmels all winter and got some of the fines from the bottom of the barrel mixed in with the fresh coal. Some coal will produce orange flames, and when the air is restricted it is even more apparent.

 
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StokerDon
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
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Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Jun. 05, 2016 9:08 am

OK, thanks for that information. I guess bottom of the bin coal and fines burn differently. Since it does seem to be a fines issue, I changed the air setting from 5 to 8. This will put more air through the dense coal bed.

Yesterday, since I didn't know what the heck was going on in there, I pulled the access cover off, pulled the grates and brushed down the inside of the boiler.
BMtoVWcleaning 001.JPG
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A look at the pot before I pulled the grates. I didn't see anything wrong.
BMtoVWcleaning 002.JPG
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After removing the grates, nothing wrong either. A little fly ash and some fines but nothing that would cause a problem.
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BMtoVWcleaning 004.JPG
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BMtoVWcleaning 005.JPG
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All cleaned out and re assembled.
BMtoVWcleaning 007.JPG
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BMtoVWcleaning 011.JPG
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BMtoVWcleaning 009.JPG
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Fired it up. Flames are still all orange.
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I took videos of the disassembly, cleaning and reassembly. I'm having problems editing them together. Once I get that figured out I will post them to Youtube.

-Don

 
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StokerDon
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Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Jun. 05, 2016 10:49 am

This morning I caught it on a long DHW call. With the higher air setting, I noticed there are more blue flames. I played with the air some more. I ended up at 9.5 out of 11 for an air setting. We'll see how that goes.

I also up loaded the first part of the spring cleaning process.

-Don

 
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StokerDon
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Jun. 05, 2016 6:00 pm

Meter reading today, 2136.9 - 2125.0 = 11.9 hours x 12.5 = 148.75 pounds for the past 7 days, 21.25 pounds per day. Just heating DHW now.
BMtoVW 001.JPG
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BMtoVW 002.JPG
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It sure don't look like it used 148.75 pounds. That barrel looks like it might go close to 2 more weeks.
BMtoVW 007.JPG
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I set the aquastat back to HI 140, LO 120. I did increase the timer to 2 minutes every hour in an effort to keep this crappy coal moving along.
BMtoVW 009.JPG
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The fire is still on the orange side. There is a bit more blue in it with the higher air setting.
BMtoVW 003.JPG
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BMtoVW 005.JPG
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I did manage to get the first 3 of the 12 boiler/stoker cleaning videos uploaded. It took all day, the longest one is part 3, brushing out the ash. That seven minute video took 2 hours and 50 minutes to load!







-Don

 
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StokerDon
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Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Mon. Jun. 06, 2016 6:53 pm

So far I have 7 of the 12 BairMatic/Van Wert cleaning vidoes uploaded to Youtube. I put them in a playlist so they could be watched in series.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFU8SaWNbzx_LWi1cpY55HJbf6DlFKTh0

One of the highlights is bushing down the plates. I a few spots we got a lot more fly ash out than I expected.

-Don

 
Olllotj
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Post by Olllotj » Mon. Jun. 06, 2016 8:07 pm

Don thanks for sharing the videos! I'm enjoying them.

Ed

 
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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Tue. Jun. 07, 2016 7:46 am

Is this coal 'crappy' based soley on visual observation, or are there numbers that prove this out?

 
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nepacoal
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Post by nepacoal » Tue. Jun. 07, 2016 5:00 pm

Ditto on enjoying the videos! I plan to keep my new KAA-4 running all summer but am still having forum withdrawals. The videos help fill the coal talk void of spring...


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