Is This Too Much Unburned Coal?

 
iou180
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Post by iou180 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 7:58 pm

I've had my Hyfire II running for a week now and I've emptied the ash pan a few times but I'm seeing what I would consider a lot of unburned coal. I am new to burning anthracite so I have nothing to compare this to. I've read on here that some is normal, but this seems to be excessive, my guesstimation would be about 30-40% unburned. Is this too much? What should be expected? How can I reduce this amount? Thanks for the help and sorry if this topic has been beaten to death as I'm new here and my searches didn't really answer my questions.

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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 8:01 pm

That is definitely excessive at this time of year. Either the coal is poor quality, or the stoker is not adjusted properly.

Have you adjusted the feed rate and air as LL recommends?

 
iou180
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Post by iou180 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 8:43 pm

I have adjusted the FR a bit. How do you adjust the air other than the restrictor plates on the blowers? I have moved them, but that doesn't seem to change much.

My location limits my options for rice coal. I tried some bagged and then bought some in bulk.

 
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Post by Flyer5 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 8:55 pm

My bet is the Max is too high and hot coals are falling off the end. You cannot adjust FR You only adjust the MAX when the FR is 99 or if it is a high number and hot coals are dropping off the end.

Here's the run down on FR, MIN and MAX:

FR is the feedrate and will be anything between 0 and 99 depending on demand for heat. It the percentage of range specified by the MIN and MAX settings.
MIN is the minimum feed setting. It is a value from 1 to 15 (default 6 for LL stoves).
MAX is the maximum feed setting. It is a value from MIN up to 99 (default 40 for LL stoves).

MIN and MAX are both indications of the number of seconds of "on" time the stoker motor will be run for every 100 seconds. So, MIN of 6 means when the control is at idle (FR = 0) the stoker motor will be on for 6 seconds out of every 120seconds. MAX of 40 means when maximum heat is being called for (FR = 99) the stoker will be on for 40 out of every 100 seconds.

If FR is something in between, say 37, then the stoker will be on for approx 37% of the on time range specified by MIN and MAX. Using default MIN and MAX, a FR of 37 would mean .37 x 40 =15 seconds of on time per 120 seconds

The newer V3 software is based on a 120 second time cycle

 
iou180
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Post by iou180 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 9:43 pm

I spoke with Matt at the beginning of the week and he suggested increasing the max due to me having 2" or more of burnt coal before the end of the grate. He also suggested other things to improve my efficiency, which I'm working on. I increased the max to the point at which the fire was within 1-1.5" of the end. That sure did increase the output. I didn't notice any difference in the unburned coal in the ash pan after I adjusted the max.

How thick is the bed of coal moving down the burner normally?

 
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Post by Flyer5 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 10:03 pm

iou180 wrote:I spoke with Matt at the beginning of the week and he suggested increasing the max due to me having 2" or more of burnt coal before the end of the grate. He also suggested other things to improve my efficiency, which I'm working on. I increased the max to the point at which the fire was within 1-1.5" of the end. That sure did increase the output. I didn't notice any difference in the unburned coal in the ash pan after I adjusted the max.

How thick is the bed of coal moving down the burner normally?
Did you make sure the FR was at 99 when you adjusted the Max?

 
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Post by iou180 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 10:15 pm

Did you make sure the FR was at 99 when you adjusted the Max?[/quote]

I believe so, but at this point I'm not 100% certain.


 
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Post by SMITTY » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 10:22 pm

What brand coal is that? I've got used to my stoker spitting out square blocks of granola (Blaschak) - I've never seen ash like yours all in perfectly shaped pieces before ...

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iou180
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Post by iou180 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 10:39 pm

The first 2 days I used bagged Kimmel's from Tractor Supply. The rest has been unknown bulk I got from a local coal company. Both types produced this popcorn looking ash with lots of unburned pieces.

 
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Post by Flyer5 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 10:58 pm

iou180 wrote:The first 2 days I used bagged Kimmel's from Tractor Supply. The rest has been unknown bulk I got from a local coal company. Both types produced this popcorn looking ash with lots of unburned pieces.
What is the Max set at ?

 
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Post by iou180 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 11:01 pm

Currently min is 8 and max is 48.

 
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Post by Flyer5 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 11:06 pm

iou180 wrote:Currently min is 8 and max is 48.
You need to set the Max when the FR is 99. My bet you are pushing hot coals off when it is full out. Typically the 90k feeders are around 36 MAX

 
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Post by iou180 » Sun. Jan. 24, 2016 11:20 pm

I will adjust the max at fr99 the next time it's calling for heat and report back. Thanks for the help so far.

 
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Post by iou180 » Mon. Jan. 25, 2016 9:23 pm

So this morning I set the TS2 into max setup mode and let it run for a half hour or forty minutes to "settle in" and then went to check on it. The current setting was still 48. This is a picture of how it was burning. The temp on the face of the stove was about 600*. It didn't seem like any burning coals were falling into the ash pan. It looked to have about 3/4" to the edge.

To be sure I was eliminating the hot coal issue I reduced the max back down to the factory setting of 40. The weather outside today is warmer and the call for heat has been reduced. I checked the FR occasionally and I never saw it above 30 or 40 today. This is probably not the best time to be testing any changes to the set up, but we'll see what happens. I also emptied the ash pan to have a fresh reference. What are my other options to reduce the unburned coal? This past week this thing produced as much ash as my old wood burner did in three weeks. I'd really like to stop wasting so much coal.

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Post by Flyer5 » Mon. Jan. 25, 2016 9:31 pm

iou180 wrote:So this morning I set the TS2 into max setup mode and let it run for a half hour or forty minutes to "settle in" and then went to check on it. The current setting was still 48. This is a picture of how it was burning. The temp on the face of the stove was about 600*. It didn't seem like any burning coals were falling into the ash pan. It looked to have about 3/4" to the edge.

To be sure I was eliminating the hot coal issue I reduced the max back down to the factory setting of 40. The weather outside today is warmer and the call for heat has been reduced. I checked the FR occasionally and I never saw it above 30 or 40 today. This is probably not the best time to be testing any changes to the set up, but we'll see what happens. I also emptied the ash pan to have a fresh reference. What are my other options to reduce the unburned coal? This past week this thing produced as much ash as my old wood burner did in three weeks. I'd really like to stop wasting so much coal.
Pretty close to the edge for a FR of 40. Your temps are higher because the convection fans are not running fast yet you have a lot of coal burning. Coal does not reduce much in size after it burns. Wood much of the solids goes up the chimney as smoke.


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