Axeman Oddity

Good day!

I fired my Axeman Anderson 130 five days ago & have been having a bit of an issue. It isn't keeping the belly of the beat full of coal. It's gotten so low that I've hand added coal several times in fear of losing the fire. My first instinct was that I had a bridge in the coal bin & it wasn't feeding enough coal, but upon inspection the auger seems to have the right amount of coal in each step.... 5 or 8 pieces & it "tinkles" correctly. Each revolution delivers a little handful as it should. Then I'm thinking it's ashing too much, yet the ash looks good, no hot ash, no red coals in it, and no unburned coal. Yesterday I pulled the anthrastat & tested it.... it's fine. I then proved the solenoid is working. The only change I've made since last season is new stove pipes. That got me thinking maybe the draft was too high & it's making the coal burn up while it's on idle? I got my manometer back on line ( added oil & calibrated it). The draft is OK, a bit low is anything. So, that leaves ashing. I've been running 2 clicks & once in a while it'll click 3. Last evening I hand fed some coal as it was so low, then I changed the asher to one click with sometimes 2. This morning it's OK, but still, I would expect it to be plumb full of coal, but it's only half full. There's a good 2 1/2 inches between the top of the pile and the delivery tube. The fire is beautiful, and perhaps at this point I need to do nothing, but it just plain odd that it's not full to the top with coal! If you have any suggestions, I'm listening!

Is coal pouring out the end of the feed tube at the top when running? If not, and the coal isn't filling the pot and feed tube completely, you more than likely have an issue in the auger. I had the same problem, turned out to be a few chunks of larger coal jammed in the flightling down near the feed end. As it turns, the jammed piece would just dump the coal back down the tube as it turned instead of feeding up the tube. I took a pice of conduit and sawcut the end and put a flat piece of steel in it like a little flag pole secured with a bolt. Screwed it down though the tube and pushed them out. It wasn't easy, those chunks did not give up without a fight. If you can get a light into the feed end and watch from the top with the plate off, you'll see the coal take a swan dive back down when the obstruction makes its upward turn. I have seen wooden sticks bridge the internal screw and even some trash like paper can be an issue. Good luck!

I wouldn't adjust the ashing clicks, if it's too much the anthrastat will do it's job and shut off. Does sound like a bridge, and a piece of conduit as said jammed down the auger will clear it.

I've also had some coal which liked to burn faster and it burned upwards. If it's real easy to light, it's fast coal. The opposite kind is a pain to light but burns hotter and longer. The stuff I got this year is like that, I get the lowest ash I've had in years.

Freddy, remove the inspection cover from the end of the auger and get a long piece of pipe or rebar to stick down the center of the auger. Give it a few good thumps to break up anything collected at the mouth of the auger.

Rob R. wrote:... get a long piece of pipe or rebar to stick down the center of the auger. Give it a few good thumps to break up anything collected at the mouth of the auger.

I forgot to mention that's the first thing I did, but I'll go out right now & look for obstructions & maybe make an auger auger to clean the flutes. The coal I have is still the deep mined Superior....some of the hardest, most dense coal ever. It burns hot & slow with beautiful blue ladies dancing.

Thanks for the advice. I'll be back!

Edit: <later the same day> I'm back... I don't see any evidence of an obstruction. Here's a picture of the top lights of the auger. They seem "full" to me. Also a pic of the inside.... It's not LOW since I changed toward one ash-click, but it's not full either. I haven't hand added any coal lately. Maybe I'll just let it go a few days & see what happens. It's just odd though. Am I losing my mind? Doesn't it almost always stay full?

I have a hopper on mine that is gravity fed so it may be quite different having never seen another AA in service. I have a constant column of coal in the firebox. My viewing door is right up to the edge with coal.

I don't see how your auger could get any more coal in it though without it falling back down the center.

Yes, the head should be full of coal, when you take the cap off a little may fall out. That isn't full.

Is the timer working?

Rob R. wrote:Is the timer working?

No timers needed on these.

If the boiler fires the auger turns...not hard to keep the transfer channel full...most of the time coal is just tumbling in the auger due to being backed up full.

It's all up to the Anthrastat and it's solenoid. And when the grate has moved ash then they're working okay...it's just no coal moved up auger.

McGiever wrote:No timers needed on these.

Then why does Axeman include one? I know the timer is not needed to keep the fire burning, but it seems like it would help keep the firetube full of coal.

If the transfer head is starved for coal, I misunderstood.

It takes a pretty good amount of time to have a half full fire pot, as there is a quite a lot of coal laying in the 6'-7' length of the 5" auger, what's stacked in the transfer and what's stacked not yet burning on top the fire column.

Several hours to say the least and the blower/auger running during all this.

When everything's working as it should the bottleneck in the operation is at getting ash off the moving grate.
Then it's ash trickles off bottom, as gravity replaces an equal proportion on top with raw coal.

I don't know anything about AA's,but is there a shear pin in the auger system that's broken ?

No shear pin that I am aware of. It's a hollow tube driven via transmission from the motor that runs the fan.

No shear pin.

Yes, it has a timer, one minute per hour. Certainly during cold weather it wouldn't need the timer, but on days with little call for heat it does insure that the fire keeps going.

It's still the same this morning.... it's doing the job of heating the house and making domestic hot water and it's keeping enough coal delivered so it will not go out....it's just odd that it's not full. On the plus side, I get to see a beautiful fire! Often times in the past all I got to see was a bunch of black coal with a tiny glow underneath.