Why Am I Losing My Fire?

 
Clousseau
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Stoker Coal Boiler: KA-6
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Post by Clousseau » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 4:44 pm

For the past 24 hours my new K-6 boiler has been a nightmare! Came home from being in the the hospital for 2 days to find the fire out. My wife said it had been running well while I was away. It actually had been running great for the last 3 weeks. Started it again at 10:00 PM and the fire was going great. 2 hours later it was out. I asked my wife about the coal she had put in. She said it was wet. I let it go until this morning. The coal feed was not feeding coal to the fire. I took out the coal in the hopper to get to the throat, cleaned it out and made sure the feed was working. I do not think it was working correctly at that time. It took a few hours for the fire to get from 135 degrees to 175 degrees. I thought that to be odd. Now it ran most of the day while it was calling for heat. The fire looked great, coal seemed to be feeding good, fire had 1 1/2 inches of ash at the end. Heat call went off, boiler went to idle for hot water use only, and the fire died. What is going on? I have burned just 1 ton of coal since I started to operate this 6 weeks ago, I would not think anything would be dirty or clogged. How do I know the feed mechanism is working correctly? How much movement should there be on the slide bar through 1 cycle? I am frustrated & do not trust this system to stay on at night. Help!! Is there anyone who lives in the Chester, MA area on this forum that I can call & talk to or have them look at this?


 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 4:51 pm

Does that have an Idle Timer Box? to keep the fire going when not calling for heat? check your blowers, etc..
Usually they don't feed very much on a given stroke.

 
Clousseau
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Location: Southern Berkshires
Stoker Coal Boiler: KA-6
Coal Size/Type: Rice Coal

Post by Clousseau » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 5:27 pm

There is an idle timer box, it has not been touched since installation. It ran on idle for almost a complete week with no call for heat and then ran for 3 weeks with no problem until the other day. Why is the fire not burning like made with the blowers on, calling for heat? I just looked at it and it's burning, but the boiler is only at 140 degrees and the fire is not an inferno. Am I having draft problems? It is only 30 degrees outside the entire day today with a slight breeze.

 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 5:34 pm

was the draft / baro damper setup with a gauge? thats the only way to tell correct draft. If it's not keeping a fire when idling, maybe you need a bit more feed on the screw setting. or something is jammed in the stoker? just seems strange it's been working for 3 weeks like you said.

Maybe the aquastat or thermostat is not working properly, whats the setting on the aquastat and your thermostat. when you turn up the thermostat, does the blower(s) come on and it starts to feed more?

 
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Post by waldo lemieux » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 6:10 pm

Not familiar with your boiler but if its an inclined bed , Ive heard the boys say that there my be a build up of fines under the fire bed causing a restriction of the blower. Too, the holes could be pluged? Verify the timer is still working , then make sure the smoke pipe isnt full of ash, and then read the manual on how to clean out under the stoker. If one of the guys with direct experience with your boiler comes along , do what he says.....

 
Clousseau
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Post by Clousseau » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 6:37 pm

Just measured the pusher bar from the bottom of the bar to the bottom of the chute. It is about 2 inches when the bar is all the way down. The bar is traveling up & down about 1 3/4" on a full cycle with no load. Is that good? I am thinking that the stoker might not be broken. The fire is burning like crazy now with no coal in the chute to feed it. My phone number is 413-667-3245 if someone with one of these boilers, a Keystoker K-6, wants to give me a buzz.

 
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Post by WNY » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 7:11 pm

If the stoker is moving freely without any coal on it, thats a good thing. make sure your blowers are functioning properly and the inlets are not covered. make sure the idle timer is working correctly, you should be able to manually rotate it and it should click the stoker on when the pins hit the switch.
Maybe you need a bit more feed rate, 1 or 2 turns or more pins to run it longer.

post a pic of the stoker/blowers/setup,etc...

Whats your aquastat settings at? do you hear the stoker turn on and or anything happen when you turn up your thermostat? let's make sure things are functioning correctly.


 
Clousseau
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Post by Clousseau » Mon. Nov. 23, 2015 7:43 pm

Hyfire. Glad to hear from you! I lost the fire again while I have tinkering with this infernal machine! I put some coal in the hopper & have had it running with no fire for 40 mins with the feed running continuously. There is about 3 inches of unburnt coal coming in at the end from the hopper. I think the feed auger, under load may not be pushing enough coal, maybe something is broken. I would think the burn tray would be full and dumping unburnt coal into the ash bin by now. I guess I will be calling Keystoker in the AM. I heard Don no longer works there; is that true?

 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Tue. Nov. 24, 2015 7:45 am

The stoker plate doesn't move much on each stroke, maybe 1/8 =1/4" which can be adjusted with the adjustment screw. Not sure exactly how yours is setup, there may be a linkage or something, you might have to adjust it to get more feed.

Does it continuously stroke when calling for heat via the aquastat and/or thermostat? Have you check all the connections, blowers, make sure the grate holes are clean and you have combustion blower running all the time under the grates to keept he fire going. Can you manually adjust the time box to call for the stoker to move? by turn the dial to where the pins are and see if the stoker unit turns on? You just have to check each component that either keeps the fire going or when calling for heat.

if the timer box and aquastat make the stoker move when calling for heat, then it might be a feed or air problem. etc... just have to eliminate each device and narrow down the problem. Once you figure them out and exactly how they work, they are not that hard to troubleshoot. only a few moving parts and a few electrical switches for idle or calling for heat.

 
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Post by McGiever » Tue. Nov. 24, 2015 8:40 am

Let's see...wet coal was added and now cannot get full fire or keep an idle fire...some of your grate holes are plugged up. Poke a proper size drill bit into each/every hole to clear them and then start over with a new fire. :)

 
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Post by WNY » Tue. Nov. 24, 2015 9:01 am

Ah ah. Missed the wet coal statement. like he said, some of the holes on the grate are clogged.
My wife did that once, I had a big chunk of frozen coal I put in a bucket and it all melted, and of course was water in the bottom and she dumped it in the stove, within an hour it was out and all gummed up. :(

 
Clousseau
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Post by Clousseau » Tue. Nov. 24, 2015 6:54 pm

I will try cleaning the holes the next time the fire dies. Right now I have had it burning for 3+ hours! I called Keystoker this AM & talked to Don. He told me to empty the hopper of coal, take the hopper off & look at the stoker & pusher bar. He then gave me some measurements to look at. The pusher bar had been pushed up from probably trying to push the wet coal. Then it did not fall back down. That is why I was not getting any coal fed to the fire. Have made the adjustments, will see how it goes. I thank all of you for helping me out, I am sure it will not be the last time either! I still will have to sleep with one eye opened; I cannot trust it yet. What should I have the low & high limits set at? Right now I have 135 as low and 180 as high. I think the low is too low, but let me know.

 
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Post by blrman07 » Tue. Nov. 24, 2015 9:11 pm

Clousseau wrote:I will try cleaning the holes the next time the fire dies. Right now I have had it burning for 3+ hours! I called Keystoker this AM & talked to Don. He told me to empty the hopper of coal, take the hopper off & look at the stoker & pusher bar. He then gave me some measurements to look at. The pusher bar had been pushed up from probably trying to push the wet coal. Then it did not fall back down. That is why I was not getting any coal fed to the fire. Have made the adjustments, will see how it goes. I thank all of you for helping me out, I am sure it will not be the last time either! I still will have to sleep with one eye opened; I cannot trust it yet. What should I have the low & high limits set at? Right now I have 135 as low and 180 as high. I think the low is too low, but let me know.
Yep the low is a little low. try 160 and 180 with a 10 differental.

 
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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Tue. Nov. 24, 2015 9:30 pm

Clousseau, you may find this to be beneficial.
Thanks go to member *Wiz*

Keystoker KA-6 Operation Guide.

 
Clousseau
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Stoker Coal Boiler: KA-6
Coal Size/Type: Rice Coal

Post by Clousseau » Tue. Nov. 24, 2015 10:31 pm

I just went through a 2 day ordeal with my new K-6 boiler with the coal feed not working properly after running almost a month non-stop with no issues. After talking to guys on the forum & calling Don at Keystoker, I finally think the feed problem is fixed. The pusher bar was riding up on the coal at the throat and not falling back down as it should. After some good cleaning it now works freely. I cleaned every hole in the burn plate to insure that none were clogged. I started a fire and it ran for about 3 hours but could not get the temp above 145 degrees with the main blower on calling for heat. When the main blower shut down, and only the small blower was running for hot water use only, the fire went out. This whole issue started because of wet coal, I believe. The present coal now in the hopper is dry coal. The timer is working, I have 3 pins at 0 and 3 pins at15 mins. These were settings from the factory and ran the boiler in domestic hot water mode for almost 2 weeks with no issues. There is plenty of unburnt coal at the top of the shelf, the fire was not starved because of lack of coal. I believe it is because of a lack of air or draft. When we installed it about 5 weeks ago, the mamometer treading was .2 as suggested in the manual. Could the exhaust pipe to the chimney pipe be clogged or the chimney itself? The barometric damper stays open when it runs, but should it? Fire is made by fuel & air, I have the fuel, I do not think I have enough air now, though I did a week ago for almost a month without incident. I am quite frustrated! Any things I should look at? The shutter on the litte blower motor is unchanged from the initial installation. Does that need to be adjusted?
Last edited by Clousseau on Sat. Apr. 01, 2017 10:48 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Posts and replies merged with existing topic, please don't start duplicate topics for same or related issues. Thanks


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