Pictures of ash and quality

I have just started burning my Keystoker Ka6 and was wondering if the pictures below of burned coal, ash are normal and what is your opinion based on how they look, of the coal quality, it that is possible. It is very chunky and appears to have quite a bit of unburned coal. I am still trying to dial it in and since it has been close to 70 here in upstate NY it is just idleing. My timer is set to run the stoker about 48 seconds every 15 minutes. The red nut is turned 8 turns from the boiler. Temperature has been running 170-200. The air shutter is open 1/2 way. The fire is about 5-6 inches from the feed, the fire is about 3-4 inches long. Also, the fire looks much hotter in the middle than on the sides. Is that normal. I really appreciate any advise. The pictures are high resolution and may take a while to load.
Thanks,
Jon

Do the black pieces crumble into powder or do they crack with shiny insides? If the latter, you may have a lot of unburned coal there.

Is your keystoker equiped with the full time combustion blower?? I believe the newer stokers come with the additional combustion blower, the for the older stokers this is a retrofit kit available from Keystoker..

If you DO have the full time combustion fan and it is running full time,, then in my opinion the coal is either not very good, or needs to burn a lot hotter than it is..

Is this ash from the stoker running 90% of the time just on the timer? How wide is the idling fire,, 1" or 2"? once the boiler is calling for heat, you may get a more complete burn..with the much longer firebed. But I really think you should not see as much unburnt and partially burnt coal

What breaker or coal supplier is this coal from??

Greg L

The black pieces won't crumble and are black inside. It does have the small blower and with it running the coal bed is 4 inches wide, the unburned coal is 5-6 inches and the rest of the grate is ash. It is not cold enough to bypass the timer so it is running only 45 seconds every 15 minutes. I understand it is supposed to be high quality coal. I purchased it from a broker, Cornwall Coal in Corwall NY. Here is a link to the site http://cornwallcoal.com/
Jon

What is your boiler temp and aquastat settings?

How far back is the feed nut from the hopper end of the boiler?

Hi Jon, I'd PM forum member gaw and ask him to post a photo of his ash from his Ka6.

With that large of an idle fire,, I suspect the coal is poor, contains a lot of 'bone' and/or refuse coal..

Can you get several bags of Blaschak coal and run it through the stoker and see what it burns like, or get a small quantity of known good coal??

Greg L

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I had the aquastat at 180/160 but lowered it to 160/140 today. The feed nut is 8 turns or about 3/4" back from the hopper where the coal enters the grates. I did have the feed nut out 13 turns Saturday night and the fire went out.

This is sort of a tough time of year to dial in a new stoker since it's cool enough in the evening to have a call for heat but warm enough in the day to not have any. If you make small air and feed adjustments you should be able to get a nicer looking ash and not loose a fire either. It'll take a week or so but you'll get it. Even with a lesser quality coal though you should have less black in the ash than what you have now.

Can someone post a picture of what "good" burning ash should look like produced by a stoker? Thank you!

if you do a search you'll find hundreds of posts with exactly what you're looking for.

steevesj wrote:The black pieces won't crumble and are black inside. It does have the small blower and with it running the coal bed is 4 inches wide, the unburned coal is 5-6 inches and the rest of the grate is ash. It is not cold enough to bypass the timer so it is running only 45 seconds every 15 minutes. I understand it is supposed to be high quality coal. I purchased it from a broker, Cornwall Coal in Corwall NY. Here is a link to the site http://cornwallcoal.com/
Jon

Do you keep the aux blower running all the time, or just with the timer ? That sould run constant . Dave

jrn8265 wrote:Can someone post a picture of what "good" burning ash should look like produced by a stoker? Thank you!

There's no specifics as to how it should look because different coal produces different colored ash and there's other variables such as how high or low you're burning. You won't get the same type ash during warmer weather... Also note that stoker ash is going to be "chunky" and hand fired ash will be burned up a lot more. I often refer to this very old placard from Van Wert, some black is to be expected but the pictures posted above are excessive. You need more air and/or less feed rate:

Flyer5 wrote:

steevesj wrote:The black pieces won't crumble and are black inside. It does have the small blower and with it running the coal bed is 4 inches wide, the unburned coal is 5-6 inches and the rest of the grate is ash. It is not cold enough to bypass the timer so it is running only 45 seconds every 15 minutes. I understand it is supposed to be high quality coal. I purchased it from a broker, Cornwall Coal in Corwall NY. Here is a link to the site http://cornwallcoal.com/
Jon

Do you keep the aux blower running all the time, or just with the timer ? That sould run constant . Dave

Dave, I do have an aux fan running constantly. I have opened up the air shutter completely and have turned the feed down one turn. We will see how it goes. I called Steve at Cornwall Coal today and he told me the same thing. He says that the coal he sells needs more air. Could it be because it is harder?
Jon

steevesj wrote:He says that the coal he sells needs more air. Could it be because it is harder?

Absolutely, someone else posted seeing their trucks at Jeddo which can have really hard coal. If it has a real glass like appearance then that is probably what you have. I ran into similar issues with customers when the breaker I did business with was getting a lot of coal from down that way. More air, less feed...

Richard,
The coal is very shiny. Would this be considered premium coal and will it burn better once the weather cools?
Thanks,
Jon